Known as the ‘True Old Skool Gentleman’, DJ and producer Aneesh Gera, has made his own path. Having shared space with some of the world’s best artistes, the veteran has consistently produced international chart-toppers and his latest Starchaser has put Goa on the world map, again!
When you first meet Aneesh Gera, a well-known international DJ and music producer, the first thing that strikes you is how unassuming and humble he is.
His repertoire consists of global chart toppers, his work boasts collaborations with the world’s best, and yet, people in Goa speak of him as their classmate or their mentor growing up. And therein lies his charm. In many ways, his music reflects his personality, identity and ingenuity.
A conversation with Aneesh immediately finds you immersed in his world, with great emphasis on ‘chasing the vibe, the emotion’ and building the momentum in his sets. Interestingly, he began his tryst with dance music at 17, at a time when DJs did not enjoy the kind of appreciation and recognition they do today. His contemporaries included the likes of Nikhil Chinappa and he was influenced by The Chemical Brothers, Faithless and Thomas Bangalter (now known as Daft Punk) among other artistes.
Since then, Aneesh – graduated as an audio engineer with honours from Australia’s SAE International Institute – has released 145 records, covering genres from deep house, chillout and ambient to underground, tech house, trance and progressive. After DJing in several countries, the young veteran has clocked an impressive list of events around the world and tours regularly within Europe and Asia. He performs at VH1’s Supersonic and Sunburn festivals, Wonderwall with Roger Sanchez; at the official Swedish House Mafia concert after party in the UK and has worked with brands including Ministry of Sound in London, Gatecrasher in Europe and international DJ magazine MixMag. Aneesh has shared the stage with superstar DJs such as Above & Beyond, Paul Van Dyk, Eric Prydz, Mackelmore, Afrojack, BT, Fedde Le Grand, Infected Mushroom, The Prodigy etc.
Still, he feels he is just 10 percent DJ and 90 percent producer and engineer. Aneesh points out that his knowledge as a DJ was invaluable in shaping his career as a music producer. There’s so much more to music production than you realise, he explains. “It begins with writing the song – including the composition of the melody, arrangement and structure, then writing the music for each instrument and playing each part, each instrument individually, all on software,” he says. “This moves into mixing, balancing and EQ. Next step and most important of all - the engineering ! There’s a mixdown of the whole project and finally mastering, before it is ready. Then, assuming it is up to international standards, it is sent to record labels, who sign it if they believe it is worth investing in.”
Along with world renowned DJ Paul Thomas, Aneesh owns the record label UltraViolet Music that holds an impressive roster of artists from Jerome Isma Ae ( Germany ), Carl Kennedy (USA ) Yuji Ono ( Japan ) Andre Sobota (Brazil) Frigid Armadillo ( South Africa) and Jimmy Kennedy (UK) . Their releases have made a habit of gaining support from industry heavyweights. Over 40 have hit the top 100 on the biggest and most reputed music store Beatport.
The icing on the cake is his single Flashback Rewind featuring the UK’s Lisa Williams which hit #24 on the US Billboard charts in 2015 alongside Madonna, Avicii, Ariana Grande, Beyonce and Calvin Harris. With that, Aneesh became India’s first dance music producer to scale the coveted charts. He recalls, “When Lisa first sent me the track, I saw the potential with the vocals but didn’t like the 1st draft of the record. So I scrapped the initial track and wrote Flashback Rewind. The response was and still is overwhelming.”
Another major highlight was an invitation by Grammy nominee Eddie Amador to remix his song Awake, following which the USA legend has officially remixed Aneesh’s originals twice, most recently about three months ago. This was not Aneesh’s first brush with the Grammys; he has also worked alongside award-winning superstar Ashanti.
Aneesh has also signed major record deals with several labels including Erick Morillo’s Subliminal and Tiesto’s first record label Avanti and Dutch heavy weights Black Hole. Avanti, now owned by Black Hole Recordings, has released his latest track Starchaser, a deep and atmospheric slice of melodic house music, – world debuted by trance music giants and founders of Future Sound of Egypt Aly & Fila, Starchaser is currently shooting up Beatport’s world Top 100 chart.
With all the hype and glamour that comes with the territory, Aneesh restricts its influence by keeping any sign of a superiority complex, a feeling of knowing it all, at bay. Given his vast experience, his perspective of the exploding EDM scene is to return it to its roots and bring back originality. The problem, he says, is not just with dance music, but pop culture in general where he feels the number of artistes producing quality original work are a mere handful, a far cry from the output 20 years ago. He also welcomes the change in the music scene where DJs play sets lasts at least a few hours, as opposed to cramming six to eight DJs in a four-hour space. Although he acknowledges the pros and cons of every era and agrees that one must move with the times, he laments the fading art of DJing which needs to evolve. “We need to bring back long sets - Roger Sanchez, Danny Tenaglia etc are known for their 8-10 hour sets, now that is something! “
Before he leaves, Aneesh drops an exclusive big reveal about his future plans - he has just produced a new record called DREAMER with Scottish producer David Bernardi featuring MC Stretch, the 11-year host of Tomorrowland, one of the world’s largest and most notable music festivals. Aneesh also takes great pride in sharing his knowledge through teaching music production / audio engineering and DJing and has been a judge and panellist for prestigious events, even sharing the dais at a UK music conference with producer-composer-tabla virtuoso Tavlin Singh, OBE, on the potential of India’s music industry for the UK market.
While in Goa, Aneesh spends time doing what he loves – surfing and “perfecting the art of being a beach bum”. Few know he is a water baby, a national-level swimmer and scuba diver who was forced to give up competitive dreams following a back injury at 15. Aneesh takes setbacks in his stride and finds a way to channel these and powers through them. He signs off: “We’re on this world for a tiny amount of time, there’s nothing better than doing what you love - and I love music.”
