#KetchupTalks: Manj Musik talks about making music and exploring new artists

We had a chat with the incredible artist and music producer, Manj Musik his music label, the music he creates and a lot more.

If you say that you listen to a Punjabi song and don't break into dance right away, we'd say you're lying. There is nothing better than people connecting over music and enjoying the same no matter which language the song is in. Punjabi music has its own special place in everyone's hearts, it has the ability to light up a room forcing everyone to shake a leg. One of the most famous Punjabi music artists who has left a lot of legs tapping with his songs is Manjeet Singh Ral aka Manj Musik.

A British-Indian music producer, Manj Musik is one of the composers of the popular and crowd favorite bhangra music group, RDB. He formed the group with his brothers, Surjeet Singh (SurjRDB) and Kuldeep Ral in 2000 and has created some amazing, funky music that makes it to every party ever since. In 2014, his first solo creation 'Swag Mera Desi' along with singer-rapper, Raftar won a Brit Asia TV Music Award. After creating and producing many successful albums, Manj went on to create music for Bollywood and stars like Shah Ruk Khan and Akshay Kumar. He's exploring music from around the world and hopes to bring out new talent and introduce his listeners to new global music. His collaborative label ‘Muzik One Global’ along with businessman, Ashwin Sancheti was launched to fulfill the same. He created and released the first single titled 'Kangna' under the label and it's been well-received by his listeners. The song has crossed 5 million views on YouTube and continues to grow. We had the chance to have a chat with the artist himself to know more about everything music.

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A post shared by Lead singer Manj Musik RDB (@manjmusik)

Here's what he had to share!

How did your musical journey begin?

“In short, it began from making music in a bedroom just playing with simple instruments when I got the opportunity to DJ in a club. And from there, we used to do kirtan in the Gurudwara when we were small, so music is in our blood. Also, my Mumma was a band member, she was the lead singer of the band. So we got a lot of experience and just a hype from her to decide to pursue music full time. We became producers and from there on we sang our first song as a ‘joke’ which became a super-duper hit.”

How would you describe your music genre?

“Our music genre is RDB. I mean RDB had its own style and genre of music, literally. I would say mine is kind of a mixture of global music in an urban way. I love using global ideas and beat rhythms from different genre of music and mixing it into desi music.”

Can you talk about your collaboration label ‘Muzik One Global’? How did it come into being and what was the motive?

“This label was launched a while back as just a label to promote hip-hop and for launching some of my songs. But from there on, I kind of moved it into becoming a global one to start promoting and pushing global music and not just Punjabi music. So we're also taking songs from Afro or UK-based artists. So it originated from an Indian label to being a global one now.”

You've already created a number of songs for Akshay Kumar. Which other actor would you like to create music for?

“I will definitely be making something for Ranveer Singh. He's a big hip-hop head. He follows me on Instagram and we get to talk here and there on WhatsApp. So I think that definitely will be something in the pipeline.”

Which Indian and international artists inspire your music?

"Inspiration comes from back in the day when I used to listen to Michael Jackson. I still listen to a lot of the songs since I'm a big Michael Jackson fan. There's no bigger inspiration than him because he was 50 years ahead of his time. That’s what I want to do, be ahead of my time. But now it's just finding inspiration from global music. Listening to music from everywhere. I'm recently listening to music from Russia and Poland. So inspiration just comes in general from listening to music."

What does your playlist look like? Can you share your top five songs?

"Travis Scott, Weeknd. You won’t believe that I'm hardly listening to any Punjabi music but I'm listening to B Praak and Diljit Dosanjh, that’s pretty much my top list."

Check out his latest song Kagna here:

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