Abhijeet Sawant has been the face of independent pop music in India who first came to light by winning the Indian Idol. In those days, India as a society was always a culturally risk-averse society with parents often admonishing children to ‘find a job’ and ‘make a livelihood’. Making a living through a professional music career was virtually unthinkable and every risky plan would always bring calls for having a ‘backup career’.
Even the great Abhijeet Sawant was not immune to such pressures. Speaking at Jay-Ho! The Jay Kumar Show, Abhijeet opened up about making a conscious decision of music as a profession, how his fears and pressures of making a livelihood from music drove his constant efforts to perfect his craft, how he had to have a backup career, and benefitting from some form of family support.
Abhijeet sawant musical background?
Like many singers, Abhijeet also came from a musically inclined family; his father Shridhar Pandurang Sawant was a guitar player, who worked a ‘safe’ job with the municipal corporation in Bombay while his uncle Sanjay Sawant was a professional musician. Despite this, his father was skeptical about Abhijeet’s chances of success in the music field.
Thankfully, for music lovers everywhere, Abhijeet stood his ground and insisted that he would become a singer and would also get professional training under a school or teacher. This meant that he started learning late in life. However, thanks to the support of his uncle and mother, he got proper directions and he made his foray into the music industry.
The fear of career loss
Abhijeet mentioned how the fear that music will not give him a livelihood was the biggest fear he dealt with. Indeed, the fear was so influential that Abhijeet kept a backup career by learning software, IT, and sound engineering in Mumbai University, even as he pursued his music career. Even today, after achieving the success and fame he has, he said he still has the same fear and that a voice inside often tempts into having another backup source than music. However, Abhijeet being Abhijeet, he continues to be in the business and keeps giving it his 100 percent. In fact, he credits this fear in motivating him to constantly work on his craft.
Abhijeet signs off the interview with advice that is true for any art or life: Whatever you do, give it your 100 percent.
