my story
1979
Born on 1 Feb, I grew up listening to my older brother Sandeep playing the classical guitar. I'd say, he introduced me to music.
1987
Watched a live concert for the first time, the band from Kirori Mal College, with my brother, KK and Subir Malik among others as members.
Sandeep, aka Bobby Bhaiya is trained in classical guitar.
1992
By the time I was in Class 9, I became part of the school band and started competing, playing guitar and singing for the school band.
1994
Electric guitars weren't easily available & I had to play for an important competition. My school teacher lent me his guitar on the day of the competition and just as I was to start playing my solo, the guitar went off! The experience left me angry and embarassed. I realised the importance of owning an instrument and after much persuasion, convinced my parents to buy me one.
The only way to get a guitar was if someone was coming from abroad or a second-hand could be sourced. Since my brother was well acquainted with the music fraternity, he knew that Saibal Basu's much-sought-after Ibanez was up for sale. That went on to become my first guitar (I regret selling it off, but to think, another aspiring guitarist was just as happy to own it.)
1996
Out of school, so took the school band out too! Formed Canzona with Lokesh (same batch) and 3 others still in school (Raghav Sachar -Class 9, Tom-Class 9, and Hanu-Class 11). Canzona competed at the coveted IIT Rendezvous, winning the 1st Runner up award and me bagging the Best Guitarist accolade. Amit Kilam was judging the competition and asked me to meet Palash since Euphoria was looking for a lead guitarist.
Lead guitarist for Euphoria & sharing stage with my mentor Gussy Rikh.
I was just 17 & OVER THE MOON!!!
1998
A landmark year in my career, for this is when I recorded guitars for Euphoria's debut album Dhoom which released in Oct. As soon as the album is released we started getting offers to perform all across the country and even abroad.
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2001
Euphoria performs with Junoon at the UN General Assembly Peace Concert, New York.
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2003
I built my own recording studio and equipped it to be able to record for my first project as music producer, Geek Rhythms. Previously known as Rikki's Workstation, I now call it Aria The Studio.
2005
In May, I started Aria The Music School with Payal, the first school in West Delhi to offer formal music education. The school has now opened for online classes post-Covid & has students from across the world.
2009
Euphoria releases Redhoom.
19 January, my bundle of joy, Advy comes into my life.
2012
Eka released 2 singles, Satyamev Jayate & Christmas Feel It In The Air, going on to win the Artist Aloud Award for the Best Band 2 years in a row and becomes one of the most sought after bands in the live music industry.
2020
I started staging Balcony Concerts with Arriv and Advy during Covid19 Lockdown, which got worldwide media attention. Also, I got to partner with Connect Courses for an online video course in guitar.
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The highlight of 2020 was my debut solo release Vande India- a guitar instrumental. I readied to release more originals over the next year (Gal Sunn Zara, Break Ke Baad….and many more)
HRM is born.
2021
Gal Sunn Zara wins 3 awards in the rock category: Best Music Composer, Best Music Producer, Best Solo Performance in a Music Video!
Break Ke Baad wins the award for Best Song Video Director! Kudos to Payal Madan, Nitin & Loveleen Chawla for that quirky & brilliant work.
My first accolade as a solo artist.
2022
Aao Naa gets 2 awards:
Music Composer of the year
Rock- Best Artist
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A&A were exhilerated and made a whirlwind 24-hour trip to Mumbai to receive their first-ever award.
Vishesh is very dear to us.
2023
Life comes full circle, my teenage sons go pro with this release. It's a feeling hard to explain: joy, pride, nostalgia, anxiousness.
Payal & I have done our bit, they have to take it from here. I've got their backs, of course. Onward & upward, Arriv & Advy!
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Yet another stunner from Vishesh Verma, this music video is the favourite for most people.
The boys come of age.
2024
We now need a name. We have an acronym of our individual names, but what sense does it make? So let's put a "b" in the end, but say it is "silent".
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We call our band AAHRMb - to mean "begin/beginning".
1983
Joined Mount St. Mary's School as a 4 year old and was quickly noticed to have had music in me! It started with singing in the class to becoming part of the choir. Big bro Sandeep & KK were already in the school band, and MSM was leading in music among the Delhi schools. Loy Mendonsa was our music teacher then, another huge influence on budding musicians in the school.
1990
Learnt to play the acoustic guitar on my brother's nylon string. I was 11 and very driven, learning guitar parts of songs by ear. I found myself drawn towards classic rock, covering bands like Pink Floyd, Santana, Eagles , Guns N' Roses etc.
1993
Have never known to have a get-together with school friends & without my guitar!
My brother advised me to start classes with Gussy Rikh, one of the most versatile and accomplished guitarists in Delhi back then. I'd travel with guitar & amp in buses to reach his residence. Gussy sir helped me clear a lot of my doubts and in the 9-10 lessons, my basics, approach towards learning and developing, transcribing by ear was established.
1995
While in Class 12, I was looking for other avenues to perform beyond the MSM school band. I joined a band called Schizophrenia which was formed by a group of contemporary musicians from another school. Through these guys I met Amit Kilam, the drummer for Euphoria & Indian Ocean, who was quite appreciative of my playing. Schizophrenia went on to open for Euphoria and played for the Coke Roadshows that year. I even did a gig with them in the middle of my Class 12 Board exams!
1997
For the next 3 years, I performed with both Euphoria and Canzona, sometimes at the same event where Canzona was opening for the former. I continued competing at college fests and won the Best Guitarist title in most.
2000
Euphoria gets invited to The Beale Street Music Festival! We were going to the heartland of blues and rock n roll music! It was the same year that Euphoria released the second album, Phir Dhoom.
Bought my first brand new guitar from Memphis:
Ibanez JS 1000, the beauty endorsed by my childhood idol Joe Satriani!
2002
Bought a keyboard & started producing jingles. Euphoria recorded the third album Gully and besides guitars, I also contributed towards programming some of the songs.
2004
Euphoria started recording songs at my studio that would eventually become a part of Mehfuz - The 4th album released in 2006.
Payal & I get hitched....after a decade of being the closest friends!
2007
My first full blown album of 8 songs and original background score for the musical "Mnjini" staged by Aria and written/directed by Payal.
Aria The Music School won the Jack Daniels award for the best music school.
My Mini-Me, Arriv is born on Nov 15.
2010
I parted ways with Euphoria and went on to form Eka, with Ex-Euphoria Benny Benjamine Pinto and ex-Canzona Lokesh Madan. http://ekamusic.in/
2013
Eka composed and produced music for Times Earth Care Award for the second consecutive year. Also composed and produced the theme track for EEMA 's annual event Eemagine.
2021
Released Break Ke Baad in January & Gal Sunn Zara in February.
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Vishesh Verma directs the dream music video for Gal Sunn Zara, beginning an association that brings to life many more crazy dreams in time to come...
2021
See what happened when we got locked down for 3 weeks with Vishesh Verma in April 2021!
A song idea I'd toyed with for years translated into this experimental venture which has been hugely and widely loved.
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Released Aao Naa in October.
2023
Here's a first, just me & my guitar...and Vishesh pushed me to do it! It all went beautifully with the black & white video he envisaged. The shoot was such fun, I laid out a table for a date in the middle of a road here!
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Released on 1 Feb, a memorable birthday indeed.
2023
We unveil the music video of Tu Bataa at The Clef Music Awards to an esteemed audience of stalwarts of the music industry...
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...AND Advy, Arriv & I get invited to perform at the awards too! Such an honour this was.
Vishesh in the front row, always by our side!