Prateek Bhaduri - I Was Nominated With Big Indian Singers Like Caralisa Montiero and Benny Daya (Singer, Songwriter from India)

Since 2015 I also broke into the commercial Corporate Concerts, R & R, and Wedding Events market and got featured in the Wow Awards Asia Convention 2017 among top Indian Singers and Performers. Since getting into the corporate and wedding gigs circuit I have traveled and toured around India and abroad doing exciting gigs and concerts. I have shared stage space with Bollywood celebrities like Ranveer Singh, R Madhavan, Arjun Rampal for different brands and corporate concerts.

1. Tell us about your background and journey.

So Prateek Bhaduri like my name suggests I am born and raised in Pune in a Bengali family and have lived here all my life. From an early age, I was always been driven towards music and sports. Unlike a typical Indian kid who would get inspired by Indian Bollywood singers like Kishore Kumar, Sonu Nigam or Shaan I was more driven and inspired by Rock Bands and singers like Chris Cornell Of Sound Garden and Audioslave, Chester Bennington of Linkin Park, James Hetfield Of Metallica, Edu Falaschi and Andre Matos of Angra, James Labrie of Dream Theater to name a few.

I remember listening to heavy metal and hard rock for hours together during my school days and trying to ape these artists and hoping that one day I would be able to sing powerfully and entertain large crowds with my music just like these Rock Gods. This thirst to form a band led me to form my first band and compete in the Independence Rock and Campus Rock Idol Competition's nationally in the early 2000s when I was in my 10th and 11th grade.

I remember being one of the youngest participants too. This experience was the beginning of the journey where I had etched in my head that I wanted to be a singer and entertainer all my life. Deciding this early on at the young age of 15 was something that gave me a strong drive to follow my passion with a one-track mind.

The only other thing I focused on apart from music was sports like football and basketball where I played club, state and national tournaments. Education was something I considered important along the way to back me up especially to develop my entrepreneur skills and life skills to support myself in my industry.

I did a Post Grad and majored in Marketing /Advertising and Event Management and worked with a lot of Entertainment companies and music festivals to gain first-hand experience of the functionality of my industry. In the meanwhile, I also continued learning and training in singing and improving my skill sets.

I had by now successfully won a bunch of college singing and band competitions across India in college festivals and also started working towards establishing my own entertainment start-up and picking up my singing contracts at local pubs, clubs and bars.

Between 2012 and 2014 I became really popular in the local club and pub circuit as a solo performer and my entertainment company Krazybucket Production also started getting known for its artist programming and management and gig and concert curation services.

Being a firm believer in original music, I turned away from Bollywood opportunities after my first taste with it in Nabh Kumar Raju's movie Nabbeyy as a playback singer in 2012/13. My playback experience was exciting, challenging, and fun but I realized how much I loved to stick to my roots of creating my own music that I firmly believed in and felt truly connected to. So here's when I started writing my first album.

By now I had sung for multiple popular Indian rock bands along the way like Infidels of Sanity and Livewire and this process led to the release of my first single Drift Deeper as Prateek Bhaduri. Thankfully, the song was extremely well received by the Indian Independent Music fraternity and I also won Best Pop Artist for the song at the Radio City Freedom Awards in 2015. I was nominated with Big Indian singers like Caralisa Montiero and Benny Dayal who have 100s of songs under their belt and winning this award with such names nominated was even more special and is still etched in my heart.

Since this award, there was no looking back for me as I focused on becoming a Multilingual Singer /Songwriter and composer and wrote Different Shades Of Me -An album in English, Hindi, and Bangla. My music since has featured on national and international radio across India and the globe. I have also featured in popular magazines like Rolling Stone, Just Urbane to mention a few.

I traveled all over playing concerts in college festivals, music festivals, and events to capacity crowds. I have also featured on Music TV shows such as Hungama Music Bus. My song Andekhi from this album went viral and hit over 1 million hits and was featured on TV Channels 9XM and Songdew TV. The music video and song were a part of multiple playlists and got me a Best Pop Artist Nomination once again in 2019 at the Radio City Freedom Awards.

I have also collaborated on concerts with different artists and singers like Bollywood Actor and Singer Suchitra Pillai, Manasi Scott and as an Indie artist played multiple indie music concerts and festivals and shared stage space with artists like the Indian Ocean, Agnee, Parikrama, Fire On Dawson, Hollywood Percussionist and music composer Greg Ellis, Pain of Salvation to mention a few.

Recently in 2020, I released a music video of my English -song Inner Love on VH1 and Songdew TV that was no.2 on the Indian Pop Charts on Apple Music. The song got a lot of love from music magazines Rolling Stone, Highonscore

I have also had the opportunity to help other artists through my entertainment company Krazybucket Production of which I am a proprietor.

I have worked with over 500 artists over the years and done concept music festivals and concerts like Oktoberfest, CRCC Radio Indie to mention a few. I have also invested and started a holistic music venture that provides end-to-end music production solutions and artist grooming services along with a music academy that provides digital and personal learning experiences.

2. Who is your favorite artist and why?

I can never name one single artist but Chris Cornell of Audioslave, Sound Garden, Chester Bennington Linkin Park, Craig David, John Legend, John Mayer, Myles Kennedy, Scott Stapp, Bruno Mars, Freddie Mercury, Bruno Mars, Angra - All these artists are special to me for their unique vocal abilities, work ethics, and vocal textures. From Indian artists, I love Kishore Kumar, KK, Shaan, Sonu Nigam, Arijit Singh, Benny Dayal, Papon, and Mohit Chauhan.

3. Can you throw some light on opportunities one gets as a singer?

Well in the world of technology and social media along with the content creation apps we live in there is so much opportunity for all sorts of singers and talent to do well and co-exist.

I guess it's all about seeking the opportunity and being consistent in putting out good material. I am a firm believer in being patient and putting out good-sounding content than just bombarding your feed with mediocre content every day or month.

Music streaming platforms and distribution services like Spotify, apple music, Youtube music have made accessing good singers from all over the country and the world a cakewalk. Also, Instagram has been a blessing for artists.

We also have loads of talent hunts and reality shows for those who wish to choose that route. Also, in the live music and concert space, you have clubs, concert venues all across India looking for artists and you also have Event Companies looking for great talent to cater to their entertainment needs.

4. Is format training required or can one train themselves purely on the basis of talent?

I feel it's a balance of both. Just formal training or just talent is not enough. You have honed your talent by continuing to earn, train as well as use your strengths and work and improve on your weaknesses to become a better singer and artist. The ones who have done this the best are killing it in the music industry today.

5. What piece of advice would you like to give to future and aspiring artists?

Believe in yourself, work on yourself and your art and stay humble cause in our industry the success hits you like a high but takes you down like a nosedive from a mountain cliff. Most importantly be patient and be consistent and also reinvent yourself with time.

6. Which is your favorite book and why?

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. I guess the name says it all. It's a life lesson and living up to those 7 habits needs discipline and is a challenge in this modern-day lifestyle that we live in.