"I'm still the same as a year ago, but more people hear me though
According to the Instagram and YouTube videos!"
YOU NEED ME MAN (MIC), I DON'T NEED YOU! Performed live at the University Of Kashmir - Ibn Khaldun Auditorium for the finale of SONZAL 2018
Last year in December 2017 I'd only wished to learn and eventually prowess the art of stage performance, improvisation on live sets and to do music that purely resonates with me, and then hopefully with the crowd as well, regardless of how outlandish it would be to do in front of a typical Kashmiri crowd.
I'd always wanted to make it something unique, something "classic Mehrab" and something that would stand out from everything else done there by anyone else before, and for a long time to come, hopefully. With this rendition of "You Need Me, I Don't Need You" by Ed Sheeran, I can proudly say that this is exactly what I had wanted and aimed for a year ago in terms of being a performer, of course never the perfect, considering with all the ultra low-grade set-up, the tacky microphone which slid down mid-performance and I tried to get it up with my nose as you see in this clip at 00:16 and then it pissed me off as you can tell from my facial expression at 00:21 which led to a minor-chord problem as well (pun intended), and my voice cracking within the first minute of the show.
AND THEN REGARDLESS, rising over all of that as I left the microphone altogether and walked to the stage front and roared ferociously to an auditorium packed with people without any amplification for my vocals (except my willpower) 00:28 and the crowd losing their shit as a response to that. This, alllll of this was wayy more than I had wished for a year ago; all fulfilled in the show.
The JUDGES HOWEVER (Indian Classical Musicians) rejected this and found my performance unworthy of ANY position at all 😂 (no the competitors were pretty basic, and compared to this literally nowhere close, infact there's LITERALLY no one else who could do this on stage I strongly reckon while being all humble, but aware) After the award ceremony was over, the next day, one of the judges had a chat with me and said "you were singing all soulfully and completely involved in the song BUT YOU WENT TOO DEEP and got LOST ON THE STAGE" Too DEEP?! I asked myself internally. "How can you EVER be too deeply involved in music?!! Isn't that the ultimate purpose of THE EXISTENCE OF MUSIC?! TO GET INVOLVED IN IT?! And this person is telling me I got REJECTED FOR THAT while doing an EXTREMELY COMPLEX TRACK in a LIVE SETTING with all the fucked up AUDIO SETUP?! WHAT?!!!" weird flex but ok... tbh with you, I didn't expect anything more than that. 😌 FFS the jury comprised of INDIAN CLASSICAL MUSICIANS judging a WESTERN MUSIC COMPETITION. All I really cared for from day 1 when I signed up for the competition there was to showcase my skills and abilities to the jampacked auditorium, WHICH I SURE AS HELL DID and did oh so well!! The chat with the judge ended with me asking about what he meant by "too deep" and he went on to cite the reason for my rejection to be "...breaking chord progressions, melody, lead parts, losing focus on stage..." which I believe he meant while I was rapping the "ACAPELLA parts of the RAP" (yes irony) at 01:21 , 02:52 and for every lyrical point I wanted to make in the rap and hence would stop the music (guitar) INTENTIONALLY AND WITH TOTAL CONTROL AS WE DO IN RAP MUSIC to make some essential lyrical points the centre of attention for the audience, but apparently not when you get Indian Classical Musicians to judge your RAP SONGS in the "Kashmir's Biggest Youth Festival"!
I literally would have considered MY VOICE CRACK at the beginning of the song to be more of an appropriate reason for my rejection, but then again, every single contestant had MULTIPLE singing out of key points in their vocals, basically 0 stage presence exhibited by 4 out of my 5 competitors, soooo I really don't understand what exactly got me rejected!
Perhaps this incident was the perfect illustration of: “People reject what they do not understand” :)
Anyway, new year goals are stupid, they're just an excuse to do stupid shit for the remaining part of the current year. Be realistic. Make a wish, keep it a secret and work on it every single day possible for 1 complete year. A year can literally transform you in ways, you wouldn't imagine in your wildest dreams, depending on how you work with your time.
Also, thanks for coming to my Ted Talk! 😂 😌 Kahwe and Shirmaal served in the guest lobby outside. 😂
