Meet Ajay and Sanjay Brahmandam

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ajay and Sanjay Brahmandam.

Ajay and Sanjay, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Sanjay (SanJ): Growing up as a shy and self-loathing kid, school was just a plain nightmare with no friends and those I called “friends” were often people who bullied me the least. As if the already existing routine wasn’t bad enough, middle school offered what I would refer to as “icing on a shit cake” in the form of “activity class.” Since that was the only activity class that sounded cool, I decided to join, “space club,” that never really let us look at the sky. Truly, they killed a future astronaut. But anyway, I think I am better off doing something more fitting and appropriate for me.

Ajay (AJ): It all started a little over a decade ago when Sanjay (SanJ) randomly chose to take up drums as an optional subject to get away from “space club” in his sixth grade.

Shortly after selecting drums, he was chosen to play drums at a half-marathon event in his hometown which is where I got to see his true potential and skill. After seeing all the support and love, he got for shedding a badass drum solo I instantly decided to take up a guitar and start singing – all thanks to James Hetfield (of Metallica). What started as just mere support for my brother turned into an undying passion, and I immediately found myself playing guitar for hours together jamming with the best drummer that I ever knew. We basically revered the first ever metal band that we came across in the form of Metallica.

All we ever wanted to do was to sound like Metallica and be like them which is exactly why, despite having a great four-year run as “Bhaira,” our metal band in Tokyo, Japan, we decided to take the next step to get closer to them, both literally and figuratively by moving to Los Angeles, California. As they say, “history repeats itself,” and I sure hope this is not the only part that repeats itself: we were considered “soft” for Heavy Metal fans and “too heavy” for the others, in Los Angeles – the same thing that happened to Metallica 38 years ago.

This, in turn, led us to view our capability of composing music from a different perspective. We decided to, since we were branded outlaws, go all out, bend and combine genres which essentially weren’t supposed to be together at all in the first place. This essentially gave birth to AJSanJ where it’s everything you know, yet nothing like you have heard of.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
AJ: Life is essentially easy. You want something; you go get it, or keep trying till you get it. Everything else that happens around you would definitely make good interview material. Having said that, nine out of ten times when you try to do something new which no one has done before you are bound to hit a bunch of walls of rejection, discouragement, condescension and so on and so forth.

This was true since the day we told our parents that we wanted to get into music. Now, coming from a family where everyone is either a banker or a software engineer, or simply put a cliché Indian family, this choice of ours was the cardinal sin. It took us seven long years to convince them to approve of this. Getting out of the family loop, we moved to LA. Things were going pretty smooth initially, and we got a big opportunity with a big label’s A&R for our “awesome sounds and out-of-this-world rhythms” too.

However, a slight misguidance and our lack of complete understanding of how things work have snatched the opportunity right from our hands. This is one of many near-miss opportunities that we faced. The take away from all this, however, was confident that our new direction isn’t just a mad science experiment but one that people can actually enjoy and dance to. And like a Saiyan (from Dragon Ball Z), with every near-miss event, we add a new set of skills to get stronger.

SanJ: Other than that, you know, it’s just the usual LA stuff where we’ve had a few months, where we walked eight miles twice a day to go to college, live off of gift cards and coupons for food and stuff – mind you, the year before we moved to LA, my birthday gift included a PlayStation 4 and expensive drum gear, which my brother, AJ, bought like it was a bag of chips, a GoPro from my parents, dinners at fancy restaurants all the while, going around town in a nice Mercedes-Benz with a chauffeur.

We’d love to hear more about what you do.
AJSanJ, for lack of a better word, is a multi-genre band based in Los Angeles, California. The group was formed by two brothers Ajay and Sanjay Brahmandam.

The duo is driven by the insatiable need to break musical barriers and defy expectations. The early influences of Stromae, Hans Zimmer, Metallica, and Slipknot, fuels them to maintain the mélange and extreme energy in songs and shows alike.

Their vision in creating music by crossing boundaries and unifying sounds, bringing people together sets this dynamic duo apart from every other artist. Not only that but also with the above-mentioned inspirations such as Hans Zimmer, the duo is also treading into composing music for film and video games.

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
SanJ: For the immediate future, we’ll be releasing our new single, EMD (Eat My D***) by the end of November.

However, long-term plans include releasing a single every month and trying to reach out to the audience directly rather than any record labels or middle-men.

We just want to give the people material fresh from our laptops to their phones, laptops, iPods, cassettes, disc-man, boombox, etc. – whatever the kids are using nowadays. Completely unfiltered. And finally –

AJ: – world domination.

Contact Info:

• Address: S218, 414 South Virgil Avenue, Los Angeles, California, 90020
• Phone: 2136159745
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ajsanjofficial/
• Other: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqv-T91oe0Va5I1X8TSL0BQ

Image Credit:
Ariadni Kidonis

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