Today we’d like to introduce you to Agney Mulay.
Hi Agney, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
My mother tells me that I started singing before I learnt how to speak. I would hum the tunes that I heard playing on the stereo; usually Bollywood music or traditional Indian bhajans in the legendary Lata Mangeshkar’s voice.
I was born in New Delhi, India in September 1990 but we moved around a lot. We lived in Moscow, Russia from 1991-94 and then in Tokyo, Japan from 1995-98 before moving back to New Delhi. My first memory of performing on stage was actually at the age of four in Tokyo, in front of a huge audience of the Indian diaspora there. I remember being extremely nervous, concentrating very hard on the lyric sheet to avoid the eyes of the crowd and rushing off stage as soon as I was done.
I didn’t have formal training in Indian classical music but I would pick up the nuances of various styles that I was exposed to, which spoke to me and stirred my soul. These included romantic Bollywood songs, Sufi music, Japanese anime/pop music and in my teenage years, I also started listening to rock and metal.
During my time at the Berklee College of Music, I was exposed to a plethora of new music I had never heard and I wanted to learn EVERYTHING. I grew a particular fascination for world music and the folk music traditions of different regions of the world including the Indian subcontinent, South America and the Balkans.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I picked up the guitar around the age of 16. I was living with my mom after my parent’s divorce and we couldn’t afford to buy an instrument or music lessons. So I borrowed a rusty little guitar from a school friend and I would have to go back to him for help each time it got out of tune. We didn’t have Internet at home so I would go to an Internet café and google things like “How to hold a C chord” because I had no understanding of music theory. I would write everything down in a notebook so that I could practice at home and picked up tips from guitarist friends. I wanted to learn how to self-accompany because I was primarily a singer and my guitarist friends would only want to play the “cool” songs; I hated having to nag them to learn the songs I wanted to sing.
My mom was the biggest supporter of my singing and musical ambitions. However, my announcement that I wanted to be a professional musician was not received well and I was expected to become an engineer like almost every other South Asian kid. One incomplete mechanical engineering degree and one complete journalism & mass communication degree later, I was still determined to be a musician. While working as a copywriter in an ad agency in Mumbai, I decided to apply to the Berklee College of Music in Boston. I didn’t get through and I was very disheartened but I kept pushing. I attended their five weeks summer program where I studied music theory for the first time and got to brush up on my performance skills as well under the incredible Melissa Ferrick. I re-auditioned during the program and again when they announced the results, I didn’t find my name anywhere. I left Boston and was visiting New York to do some sightseeing with family. We had plans to go to see the Niagara falls and I remember that was the morning I got a call from Berklee asking me if I’d like to join in the fall semester. I could not believe my ears and was trying not to scream with joy during the call.
Although I am eternally grateful for my experiences at Berklee, it came with its own share of challenges. I felt significantly behind everyone else in my understanding of music theory and constantly felt impostor syndrome (I still often do). The jazz idiom was very new and unfamiliar to me and it seemed to be the basis and context for a lot of the music taught there. I struggled a lot to understand references that seemed very obvious to a majority of the other students. In addition to this, the tuition was immense and I almost dropped out after my 5th semester. We ultimately had to take multiple loans which are still being paid off.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am a singer-songwriter and a session musician. I seek to write and compose songs that are a catalyst for social change and talk about actual issues affecting people. I sing in a predominantly semi-classical Indian style with influence from Bollywood and Sufi folk music from the Indian subcontinent.
I am also extremely inspired by folk traditions from around the world and have an affinity for languages. I have performed in about 22 languages so far including Hindi, Marathi, Japanese, Spanish, Zulu, Armenian, Bulgarian, Italian and Ladino. I am working towards learning and performing at least one song from every country in the world.
One of my proudest achievements is performing my original composition “Maajhi Re” with the Berklee Indian Ensemble under the mentorship of the phenomenal Annette Philip. It was the first time I performed a song I composed (my friend Naveen Kumar wrote the exquisite lyrics) with a full orchestra, conducted by none other than the incredible Grammy-winning cellist and conductor Eugene Friesen. It was truly a dream come true to be able to perform it live with such beautiful musicians who gave it the love and vulnerability it was crafted with. The Berklee Indian Ensemble and Annette Philip have been one of the biggest musical forces that have shaped me as a musician and taught me to give music the nurturing and care it needs to flourish.
I am also currently involved in three other professional ensembles. The Pletenitsa Balkan Choir is a folk acapella group that sings the music of the Balkans and neighboring regions. The Lotus Sound Project is a vocal group that experiments with the African art of circle singing in a diverse array of styles from around the world. The UNIVOZ Vocal Ensemble is a multicultural acapella group that uses musical performance for therapeutic impact beyond entertainment.
In my years with these groups, I have had the privilege to perform with several legendary Grammy Winners including Paul Winter and Zakir Hussain; Bollywood legends Shankar Mahadevan, Shreya Ghoshal and Vijay Prakash; and prodigious Armenian pianist Tigran Hamasyan. I have toured internationally in India, Russia and most recently Mexico with different ensembles. I have sung on multiple albums in various styles and languages, two of which were considered for the 2020 Grammy Nominations. I also performed as a member of UNIVOZ and won the TV acapella competition WGBH Sing That Thing Season 5 (Adult Category).
The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
COVID has taught me the true importance and impact of music more than ever. Music has always been the medium that speaks the language of the soul and in times of crisis, it is what helps keep us calm and together. As a musician, my responsibility to sing and create has become all the more necessary. Despite the majority of the industry shutting down at the beginning of the pandemic, we adapted quickly to the new scenario and continued recording and performing from our bedrooms and collaborating virtually across international borders. The technology and possibilities were always there but they gained a new scope and significance after people were forced to work from home.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/acousticagney/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AcousticAgney
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/AcousticAgney
- Other: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JdOs4cHNgc
Image Credits:
Esha Asser Anantha Srinivas Pawan Dommeti David Yuhico Matthew Muise Janani Sharma Sharayu Mahale Sunaina Pamudurthy Michelle Frehsee
