To Terence D’souza’s mother, her son seemed to be on his way to college to attend classes like any other kid. Back then in the early 2000s, what his folks didn’t know was that their kid was also part of a rock band, going college to college, gigs to gigs, sometimes even leaving home in typical classes-kid outfit and changing en-route into on-stage attire.
But there came a day when he could hide it no more, because his band was in the movies. Spotted by someone from Excel Entertainment at a college gig, the band ‘Radio’ was asked to perform ‘Musafir’ in the movie ‘Rock On’ and even featured in it. It was too late to hide. And D’souza had found his calling.
The Chief Creative Officer at Hotstuff Medialabs dons many hats today. He is also a filmmaker, writer and musician. After RADIO, he took a break from music for four years only to regroup with his old bandmate in 2017 to form his new ambient, indie, chill-out band called ‘Kehkasha’.
Creative calling
For D’souza, the creative calling came in more than one form. A student of Narsee Monjee College, Mumbai, he later pursued Chartered Accountancy, coming from a family of finance professionals.
Says D’souza, “It all began in 2007 during the second year of CA when I started working as a Copywriter for Purple Image Studios in Mumbai. Working in a creative studio that specialised in creation of all formats of media helped me gain proper execution knowledge. I later had the chance to work at Brand Harvest before I quit to pursue my studies. I got back to advertising post my CA Finals, joining Hotstuff Advertising in 2012 as a Copywriter.”
It was here that he explored several aspects of the creative world – music included. “Since music was a strong weapon, I used it in my films. I directed music videos, ventured into big budget campaigns, films, and content creation of every kind,” he explains.
Early on in his career, he had written a couple of songs and a friend who was a musician suggested that they start jamming.
D’souza says, “I knew the basics of playing guitar and that’s when we formed a band called ‘Radio’. So all three things were happening simultaneously. I had my exams, work and music.”
That’s when ‘Rock on’ happened. The song ‘Musafir’ had been written by D’souza back in college. The band revisited it and played it in a gig, where they were spotted by the movie producers.
This kickstarted the musical journey. In 2012, he switched from a career in finance to media by joining at hotstuff.
He is rather particular about the music in his films and campaigns and has even composed a number of jingles and scores for his clients including ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund, SBI General, Tata AIA Life, and Edelweiss MF to name a few.
“I feel that while you can come up with strategic campaign or do something on branding which mostly people do, there is something about music and song that convey messages very differently. There are different ways in which you can use songs and over the years I have experimented using music a lot,” he observes.
A new genre
‘Radio’ gave way to ‘Kehkasha’ in 2017. The latter’s first album ‘Shunya’ was released in 2019. The band has been working on its second album for two and a half years. It is expected to be released next year.
“‘Kehkasha’ is an ambient-indie-shoegazy sort of band. Way different than what I ever did in the past. The four of us connect at a very spritual level and take our time with our songs, sometimes months even. We are very particular about our style and sound and lyrics, always,” elaborates the advertising professional.
The band of four includes him, Sharad Shah (Guitars, Vocals), Arjit Johri (Bass, Vocals) and Aniket Karekar (Drums).
The musician also lets us in on his ‘different’ way of composing: “I first compose the entire music of the song. I have the song entirely ready and then I put my words into it. This is an inverse approach to song writing but it works for me. I often record the entire song with instrumentation, timing and everything and then when I actually feel the vibe of the song that’s when I automatically put in the lyrics. It’s a very offbeat way of making music. Because of this technique the words blend in like another instrument, it gives me space to build the song very well.”
In the ads he composes for, there is scope to try different genres of music.
“It all has a signature style based on the brand language. So the only difference is, in ‘Kehkasha’ I get to retain a particular genre because it is my brand of music. In advertising I have to use music to get the brand’s voice,” he explains.
The journey continues
Coming from a family that heavily stressed on academics D’souza didn’t initially find it easy to attend music classes or learn it as a kid. That’s when a lot of YouTube and watching others play really helped. Appreciation came from his folks when his talent was recognised by the world and today they are his big fans.
His wife Reena is one of his oldest fans, he says – right from his first band day, she has been there through his musical journey. She is a writer and also in media, working for 4am Worldwide.
On future plans, D’souza says, “‘Kehkasha’ continues but I am planning to go solo with my own YouTube channel next year: singer-songwriter acoustic ambient-based songs. Working on that, and a lot of originals. I have four or five songs not recorded yet; will be recording in February once they are completely done.”
The musical journey continues.
