FoB started out as a documentary photo project to talk to people, places and their stories around Bangalore city back in 2016. Their focus is to create content that can help us look at life in a different way, a more humane way. Recently ANSWER Music got featured on FoB & here's our story!
Nishanth Naidu (One half of ANSWER)
“I started Dj’ing when I was 16 though I was inspired much earlier as in I always loved music because my dad used to build speakers and I feel that’s where I kind of got that from him. I initially wanted to become a musician but I didn’t know how to play an instrument but then I saw a DJ perform in my school for a fest and I told myself this was what I want to be doing in the next five years.”
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“Right after my tenth grade, I rented out a turntable to test it out for a couple of days and that’s where it all began. Like any typical south Indian family would tell you to go get a degree and I had no choice and I thought to myself, okay let me do it and I joined SJCC. You know just going to that college, my life changed. The kind of people I was hanging out with, the friends that I had, the faculty there, everyone was so supportive of what I did. That’s when it really hit that I could actually make this a career.”
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“I remember shuffling between college and clubs during those days and my friends from college used to come to clubs where I performed, every single time and dance even if the clubs were empty even if it was for an hour or three hours, there were there till the end.”
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“The first time I told my mum that I want to become a DJ, she was like ‘what is a DJ?’. It took a little bit of convincing but then as when years passed by and social media developed, she started seeing pictures and videos on social media she realised its something sustainable.”
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“On hindsight, maybe the only thing I would change if I could back be doing an audio engineering degree rather than a commerce degree. Back then, I was funding my own education and a commerce degree was what I could afford, so yeah maybe that one thing. I am Nishanth Naidu.”
Arjun Nair (One half of ANSWER)
“I was born in Kerala and moved to Kuwait and I lived there for a few years and then, moved to Chennai for my schooling and college. While I was in college, I was actively involved with a startup that was into training and innovation. I started out as an intern and moved to the senior leadership group there.”
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Origin of DJing
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“I moved to Bangalore in 2010 but since childhood only, Music was something that kept me going. I remember collecting cassettes and play them repeatedly to by-heart all those songs I listened to. Cassettes became CDs and I would go to a friend’s house, burn CDs with music and distribute new music to all my friends. But I feel one experience changed me and the perception of music. I had a couple of DJ friends back in the days in Chennai, and with luck even though I was underage, I visited their gig, just to observe them perform and I was in awe of what they could do to the audience. That was when I decided to be a DJ & started Bedroom DJ’ing, playing for friend’s house parties and learning the art.”
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Answer to all my questions
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“When I had moved to Bangalore, I had seen a huge difference of how the clubbing scene was here than back in Chennai. I used to club quite frequently and started meeting people. I first spoke to Nishanth on Facebook. We kept in touch and decided to do a gig together. At our first show not knowing who would play first or later, we did a back to back set, and to our pleasant surprise the crowd absolutely loved it - we found an instant rhythm. This was early 2012 if I’m not wrong and there was hardly any DJ Duo's back then. That was when 'Answer' was born.”
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“Being a DJ in the industry for all these years, I’ve realised its survival of the fittest & you need to have your best interests in mind if you want to stay on top. The biggest curse for artists is receiving our payments on time. There have been times when we were extremely successful and extremely broke and I’m just glad these experiences and roadblocks have made me who I am today. I am Arjun Nair”
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#AnswerMusic #ArtistSupport #ArtistsOnInstagram #IndependentArtist #IgersBangalore #DJLife #ArjunNair #NishanthNaidu #NammaBengaluru #Storyteller #Instagram #FacesOfBengaluru #Bangalore #HumansOfBangalore