By Mehek Rohira:
Dhruv Visvanath, aged 22, a multi instrumentalist, composer, singer — songwriter, and producer started his musical journey at the age of 7, with the majestic albeit small instrument, the piano. His mother told him that women fawn over pianists, and once he gave it a go, he realized he wanted to work with music for the rest of his life. He started playing the guitar on 21st December, 2004, a date worth remembering to him. “This was the kind of field that makes dreams come”, says Dhruv, on what attracted him to this art in the first place.
Dhruv has ushered a new genre of music with his percussive style of playing into the Indian music scene. His efforts have recently been recognised by the prestigious Acoustic Guitar Magazine, where he has been mentioned in the ‘30 Great Guitarists under 30′Â , alongside names like Ed Sheeran, Laura Marling and Newton Faulkner, who is a personal favourite of Dhruv. While Indian artists take years to get recognised on the world stage, this magazine themselves approached this guitar prodigy. Dhruv did feel a wee bit patriotic on being the only Indian on the list, and the prospect of being bestowed with this honour felt surreal.
Dhruv is inspired by human emotions, and writes about how people feel and interact with each other, which brings in a new dynamic to his writing style. From being a solo performer and writing by himself, and for himself, he graduated to writing for more than one person and started creating ideas for which his hands couldn’t catch up. This led him to form Dhruv Visvanath and Trio (DVT) which has some of the most talented musicians this side of the planet, accompanying him are Amar Pandey (Bass), Ishaan Gandhi (Drums) and Ashwin Nayar (Electric Guitar).
This Jack of all trades, Guitar Spanker, and One man Band musical prodigy is still waiting for the ‘Master of One’ title. His greatest inspiration, his mother, taught him never to take anything for granted, and he owes his progress in this field to the support of his family. All Dhruv wants is to grow as a musician, make people happy with his music and make music in as many ways as possible. He doesn’t have any set goals, but would very much like to tour the country, and possibly south and south East Asia.
He is glad that his fellow guitarists are following suit and are venturing into the percussive style of playing. He truly believes that everyone has inspirations, but it’s also important to work towards being an inspiration to others. The musical journey is not an easy one, but as Dhruv says “it’s important to believe in your hands, because they can make you feel like more than just one person on stage!”