It is amusing how music always seems to reach people before people can get hold of it themselves. Music manages to slip into the background of car rides, hiding behind one’s own parent’s hummed notes. And before people realize it, music becomes part of their lives without them ever naming it for themselves. For instance, Swapnomoy Chowdhury, a nineteen-year-old singer and guitarist studying for a Bachelors degree in Music in Mumbai, was already singing before he knew what words were.
A Childhood Shaped by Movement and Music
For Swapnomoy Chowdhury, being in constant transition was the only way to grow up. Born in Bengal, he lived in Patna, Guwahati, Kolkata, Nagpur and Gurgaon, before ending up in Mumbai. Where some children might feel like aliens in each place, Swapnomoy was learning to embrace them all with equal fervour, an ear for different sounds and cultures. He considers himself to have two homes, but his music is influenced by all of these cities.
He began discovering music at an early age, surrounded by a music-loving family. His mother was educated in the Bengali tradition at home and became the first one to teach him. His father listened to Mohammad Rafi, Kishore Kumar and Manna Dey while growing up; therefore, the walls of the family apartment were covered in songs. When Swapnomoy turned three or four years old, he started mimicking the movies without understanding any of their meaning, singing along to Bihu tunes on the walk from the bus stop to his classroom in Guwahati and writing songs in a language he didn’t know. This was the first indication to his parents that the child was bound for music lessons.
The Turning Point
A guitar and a video on YouTube became the trigger for a significant transformation. After mastering his first song, Neele Neele Ambar, on the guitar, he found himself feeling unstoppable for a few days. But then he saw an incredible performance by Ed Sheeran and John Mayer at the same venue and it was game-changing. Seeing Mayer improvising live and manipulating the guitar as if it were breathing, Swapnomoy had only one thought: What sorcery is this? The following two years saw him practising for five to six hours daily straight after the 10th standard exams. This kind of dedication appears to have never let him down.
Swapnomoy likes nothing better than listening to music. He listens to it all, the Indian classical, Western classical, jazz, blues, bluegrass, metal and underground rap. He is not selective about it. He simply sits down with his guitar and starts playing until something comes out. Music does not come into his life at intervals; it is always there, forming part of the background of his entire day. “At times, it doesn’t seem like a job,” he comments, “but more like a very intense obsession.”
The Journey So Far
From 2019, Swapnomoy has been releasing songs as covers online. At some point, his lack of consistency gave him an image of being an underground musician. Then the pandemic came along and it made him decide that he should post at least weekly. In doing so, he shifted his focus to Instagram and got the chance to perform before bigger audiences. A highlight in his journey thus far was working under Manan Bhardwaj, a music director for some Bollywood movies.
His one regret about his career journey thus far is that it took him longer than it should have to realise that he could become an indie musician. For most of his career, it was all Bollywood and Indian classical music. That was until a friend of his, Aditya Pahuja, exposed him to a Nagpur band called Baithak in which musicians played their own original music. Watching them perform, something dawned upon him: he could write his own songs.
On Vulnerability, Inspiration and Big Dreams
In Swapnomoy’s case, vulnerability is not a highly poetic concept; it’s a moment when you put your work out into the open that isn’t quite finished, something that still requires development and is nonetheless shared with the outside world. As the artist himself puts it, “That slightly scary moment is very much my vulnerability.” It’s clear that being vulnerable comes easily to him, considering the openness with which he speaks of things he has to learn himself.
His favourite artists include John Mayer because of his incredible magic with the guitar and Arijit Singh, who pours his soul into each melody he plays. Swapnomoy dreams of one day sharing a stage with such people and not being some insignificant addition but being an integral part of the performance. He would like to play with bluesmen, jazz players, Indian classical music artists and bluegrass bands.
Just Getting Started
He is nineteen and has yet to believe in creative block. If he feels tired, he takes some time out to read, play, surf the internet as any normal person would. Thoughts keep coming, he assures, regardless.
It is not so much as his ambition; Swapnomoy has plenty of that too. But rather it is the dedication with which he looks at music, the seriousness of one who realises that talent is just a beginning. One cannot have anything worth having without putting effort into it. It’s just the beginning, he says.
And it really is.
