Bengaluru musician Dominic D’Cruz recently released his first original instrumental guitar track ‘Tailspin’. In a candid interview with Metrolife, he talks about his musical journey, the shift in the live music industry, and more.
How did your musical journey begin?
My journey as a musician began 30 years ago, I have been a part of the industry since then. Back in the day, I started off with the regular bands that were playing at 5-star hotels. That’s the circuit I first started my journey with, and then as time passed, I branched off into different things that interested me. The rest is history. But, from the start, I was always interested in composing my own music.
Over the years, has the music scene in Bengaluru changed in any way?
The change here has come in two aspects. First, there is obviously the fact that as generations pass, people’s taste in music and the genres currently popular also changes. That was an expected change. The second change that I’ve noticed is that now the audience has a different approach to music. Before, people would head out with friends or partners to have fun and shake a leg to some music, but that is not the case anymore. Now people want the music just in the background as they have conversations.
How did ‘Tailspin’ come about?
There is a bit of a story behind this. I actually recorded this instrumental piece some time ago for a short film, but that didn’t work out. So, since I had already worked on the piece, I knew I’d do something with it someday. Recently when an organisation called ‘Song Dew’ posted online that they were looking for an instrumental with a bit of a rock-ish feel, ‘Tailspin’ worked perfectly. The instrumental is now available on all major streaming platforms.
You also teach music. How has that experience been during the pandemic?
It’s been a completely different experience. I can’t compare and say that one is more difficult or easier than the other. In the beginning, there was an increase in the number of people who were signing up for online music classes and the online platform does help reach a larger audience. But teaching online does have small setbacks like it’s not very easy to teach a beginner since I can’t tune his guitar for him, so here and there, there are small handicaps like this.
What are you working on next?
I am working on new music currently. I have two albums in the running, one should be out by the end of this year and the other early next year.
One is a more soft-rock album and the other one is something interesting I’m experimenting with.