Su Real, aka Suhrid Manchanda, and singer Rashmeet Kaur won the reality music show The Remix on Amazon Prime, beating other popular contenders including Sreeram-Candice and Thomson-NSG. Following his victory, Su Real announced his 12-city tour #Winning that started in Delhi on May 18. He recently performed in Bengaluru at Kitty Ko. In a telephonic interview, Su Real spoke about his style of music, how the music scene is changing in India, and his performance in the city. “I played at Kitty Ko for the first time. I enjoyed performing on the rooftop in this lovely Bangalore monsoon weather.” He adds that Bangaloreans are always open to new sounds. “I find that I don’t have to hold myself back when I perform for a Bangalore audience.”
The three tracks, ‘Ranjha Ranjha’, ‘UP Bihar Lootne’, and ‘Dhak Dhak’ were the winning tracks for Su Real and Rashmeet. “We weren’t doing too well on the show until the fourth round. For that round we played ‘Ranjha Ranjha’ where everything came together for us. In round five we played ‘UP Bihar Lootne’. For that round, we had to go a particular location and capture the ambient sounds and use it in our music. This was something I had done plenty of times. Both Rashmeet and I thought that even if we are eliminated we will create music that will be remembered. The last track we played ‘Dhak Dhak’ was a song I grew up listening to. I told Rashmeet, let’s do this! The track had a trap, global and desi base.”
Su Real plays dancehall, Latin, house, hip-hop, bass, EDM, mooombahton, folk pop, baile funk and retro. He says that music boundaries are blurring in India. “Earlier there used to be a distinction between Hollywood and Bollywood music, but that’s no longer the case. I play a mix of different kinds of music, including hip-hop, trance, Bollywood, Latin music, Jamaican music, among many others. I was the first person in Delhi to have played moombathon, which has a specific rhythm, which you can hear in songs such as ‘One Dance’ by Drake and ‘Sorry’ by Justin Bieber. Both songs have a basic drum pattern.” Su Real says that the sheer diversity of music in India, “can be seen on our dance floors,” says Su Real, who is working on his solo album.
He started playing music when he was four-years-old. “I began by learning Western Classical piano,” says the musician, adding that he did not initially want to pursue music as a career. “I didn’t want to make my passion a profession. But the universe has a way of leading you to your chosen path. After college, I worked on the business side of music by managing bands and doing publicity for them. I returned to Delhi in 2008 after a stint abroad, and I worked as an events and management partner. After a few years, I quit my job and decided to commit to DJing full time, I am lucky to be a musician at a time when the music scene is so good in India,” he signs off.
