“In 1993, I went to Rayagada along with the orchestra for a performance. The lead singer had taken ill and we needed a replacement immediately and I volunteered to sing and also play the drums as usual.” That was the birth of him as a singer says the 45-year-old singer, David who has since gone on to sing for three decades! He is well known for recreating the era of Kishore Kumar, Mohammed Rafi, Madan Mohan and RD Burman, all legends.
It has been a melodious journey for a small town boy who began by performing in the city’s hotels to someone who has sung on stages across the country and the world.
“When I started off as a musician in the early 90s, I was known for my drumming skills. Though singing was always in the back of my mind, drumming overshadowed it. I started my career with an orchestra,” he says. In the initial years, David earned a name for himself by performing at weddings and parties. Also, the festival season was the busiest for the orchestra as almost every colony hosted events.
A singer is born
The overwhelming response that David received when he first sang encouraged him to perform at hotels and restaurants in the city such as Green Park and Dolphin. Then he had another stroke of luck when on an evening he was singing at Green Park, one of the guests who heard him was a promoter of a Mumbai-based band. “The band members contacted me and before I knew it I was joining them for a 30-concert tour in South Africa,” he says.
A walk to fame
One tour led to another andDavid continued to grow in popularity as he serenaded HIndi movie fans across the globe.
But he rues that his own city does not have as many fans of his kind of music. “I have performed abroad where more than 5,000 people have turned up to attend my show. But here, apart from the people at the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant and the Indian Navy who show enthusiasm ; the locals are not much interested.” Till date, David has hosted over 11 concerts in the city, the recent one being Kal Aaj Aur Kal, held last week that brought to stage songs from the past 100 years of Bollywood. “Not much has changed over the years. At the recent show, in an auditorium that can accommodate 2,700 people, hardly 1,000 showed up. This is not very encouraging as a musician as we had put over two months in the preparation of this concert,” he says.
Apart from a preference for Telugu music, David also feels that the live music scene in the city is now being dominated by DJs. “Back then people enjoyed soft music but these days it is more of EDM and techno. Not many people are enthusiastic about listening to old melodies,” he says.
David also performs for corporate parties and family events. In the past, he has performed for companies like Intel and Hewlett Packard. With teaching music on his to-do list, David hopes to rejuvenate the love for old Hindi classics among the younger generation.
