Music truly runs in Prunal Prasheel Chand’s family and he believes this gift is a blessing.
The 27-year-old, who released an album titled Small world, big dreams in 2019, says his love for music developed from childhood.
The logistics manager at Thuderstruck Pte Ltd from Waituri, Nausori, said he was motivated whenever he saw his parents sing at events.
He said he grew up with music. “My mum Usha Anjali is a lokgeet singer,” Chand said. (Lokgeet is a traditional Hindu song sung at weddings and during birth rituals).
“My dad Pradeep Chand also sings, and all my cousins are singers and play instruments as well.
“During my childhood, I used to accompany my parents to various events where I saw them singing. And that interest kept growing.”
He said when he became a teenager, his elder sister Prinesh Chand gave him mikes, a laptop and other equipment to assist him in producing music. With everyone’s support, Chand released his first album.
He said the album consisted of nine English tracks with Western and electronic music.
“My specialty is basically rapping. I actually started with rapping. I am a music producer and I love to produce beats.
“I mostly produce electronic, classical, Bollywood beats and try to merge them in one to create a new genre of music.
“And then, I look for talented artists all around Fiji so that I could collaborate with them.
“Some artists are very good in Fiji but they are not recognised. So I try to look for them on social media platforms.
“So basically, all our tracks are made in my bedroom. They are all original – from the beats to the lyrics.”
Chand said he started producing music when he was in high school.
“I started when I was in high school. One of my cousins gave me the software and helped me in doing my little studio.
“Instruments were given by my sister. I actually started with making a remix.
“I come from a musical background where we sing and play musical instruments like harmonium and dholak, but when I hit my teens, I got attracted to Western music.
“I thought of combining our traditional and classical music with Western and it worked well. A new genre of music was created which we all loved.
“So my interest kept building.” Chand produced two Hindi tracks which were nominated for the 2023 FPRA Music Awards.
“The two tracks that were nominated for the 2023 FPRA Music Awards, I sang in one of them. I also did the rap and one of my featured artists did the chorus.
“Our song was nominated for the ‘Best Hindi Song Category’.
“Though we didn’t win, but it was a great opportunity for us as it was the first time for us to go to FPRA awards. “We were nominated and that was a good side of it.
“Last year, actually we created three songs – two were Bollywood Hindi songs and the other one was an English song. “Out of these three, two Hindi songs were nominated for the ‘Best Hindi Song Category’.”
His aim is to produce unique music.
“My plans are to keep producing unique music. The good thing about it is, when we lost in FPRA, we were motivated to produce more good songs.
“It gave us positive vibes to keep producing good music.
“I am trying to create a fusion with Hindi, English and iTaukei beats in one song. This is my future plan.
“Apart from this, my Bollywood songs are also coming out this year with some great talented artists. We have a lot of plans and we are working on it.”
He said sometimes stays up late to work on his music.
“It’s kind of difficult with work but then I try to take out time for music.
“When I hear any unique sound, I record it and most of the time I am on my laptop where post-production work continues.”
