I owe so much of my musical growth to my exploration and performance of Carnatic music.
My earliest memories about music are connected with going to church and listening to organ music. I am not from a musical family, actually, and I remember my first musical fascination to be for organ music. I wanted to become an organist and not a pianist.
I don't just come from a musical family, but from a musical community.
I think I was just lucky to be brought up in a very musical family. My two older brothers were, and still are, very musical and very creative, and music was a big part of my life from a very young age, so it is quite natural for me to become involved in music in the way that I did.
I didn't have musical upbringing. I never listened to music growing up, thinking "I want to make my own music". I just listened to music for pleasure.
One of the major aspects of film composing is that it's not so much a musical thing as it is communicating your ideas with the director, who often does not come from a musical background.
If you go to any fight, whether MMA or boxing, there's a whole musical soundscape to these events. There's pre-event pump up/psych-up music, there's fighter introductions, there's between rounds, so my musical needs are really diverse.
My grandmother was a classical pianist, so I grew up with Schubert, Mozart, Beethoven. I studied piano as a kid. My musical background and upbringing was very much a mix.
Whether it's animated, whether it's live-action, whether it's Broadway, whether it's television, a musical is a musical is a musical. So, pretty much you approach the songs in pretty much the same way. The difference might be that in a film you have a close up. On stage you don't. So there are more songs on the stage because the songs are kind of the close up.
I come from a musical family. My dad was in a group in the 70s, The Hudson Brothers. Now he's a songwriter and producer. So, I just kind of grew up with music and it was something I always knew I wanted to do.
I started producing in 1992 at the age of 15, when I found out music could be made with the help of a computer. I come from a musical family, but was always the family member not as good as the others. So once I found out I could release the music that was stuck inside my head through a computer, I knew I found what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.
Most people might think that I've come from a musical background, but nobody in my family was in any kind of band or played anything. I just picked up music from breakdancing really, that's what got me to listen to music, and in general I was just a creative guy.
Music was in the air when I was growing up. My siblings Katy, Dave and Phil were musical; my dad worked in inner-city New York where a musical revolution was taking place - folk music, rock n' roll, gospel music. My sister taught me to sing. My brothers taught me to play.
I'm from a musical family. My father, Pashupati Bhattacharjee, was a great classical singer. My mother, sister, everybody was in music, and I grew up in music.
Whether it's animated, whether it's live-action, whether it's Broadway, whether it's television, a musical is a musical is a musical. So, pretty much, you approach the songs in pretty much the same way.
When I'm writing instrumental music, I try to find musical and non-musical inspirations.