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Jasmeet Singh AKA Dubtician is a unique and passionate artist. Zee TV interviews him and he expresses his love for music. 

"I grew up on soul, bhangra, hip-hop, jungle, garage and a mix of rock. Dub came in my life a lot later. I was first exposed to Dub-Reggae in about 2006 consciously though I was listening to Bob Marley as a child.

Today I'm making music and also performing; I'm making whilst performing. I'm not playing from a backing CD. Every time you hear me live, what you hear will be new to that moment, it is created on the spot in the moment. 

[Dubtician gives a demonstration of his music being modified whilst being played.]

I did a few bookings for clubs and I was good at it. And I was a dhol player and I was good at it and then I went into music production. What made me move into the spiritual area? I would say in a non-cliche way: the grace of Guru Nanak. The kirpa, the grace of Guru Nanak was bestowed upon me to save me in this dark age, and take my passion for music and the skills that I was blessed with to do some good with it. To do something conscious and positive.  

My parents were supportive. I was going to do sound engineering as a degree and they supported me in that. I was very lucky that they were very supportive, not all Asian families are.   

Why did I become spiritual? Who says that I am spiritual? It's interesting because people can play on that but who knows what I do behind closed doors and who I really am, you know what I mean? I was blessed with Amrit in 2008. It wasn't that I decided to take it, it was that I couldn't really go on in life anymore as I was. On the outside I seemed successful, I made some great music with my cousin Ranj and we were about to get a lot of radio play. I was running a successful studio. On the inside though, the light was was just dwindling, the candle was going out. It was at that point that Guru Nanak Dev ji Maharaj, Guru Gobind Singh ji Maharaj just came through, through his Sikhs sent me gatka and discourse in English and the kirpa of Guru Granth Sahib ji. I started listening to these talks in English, and started to listen to kirtan. There were two shabds: 'Ja tu mera val hai to kia muhchhanda' 'When you are with me what do I have to worry about?' And the other one, 'sajanra mera sajanra nikat khiloa mera sajanra' 'With me is my beloved'. Listening to those and listening to the katha it melted away and the kirpa of Guru Nanak got me and at that point Guru Nanak grabbed hold of me. From that moment on I've held on to the hem of the robe of my Guru. This wasn't conscious. I didn't choose to be spiritual...

...

...Dub-Simran I hope for everyone to eventually to Dub-Simran. This is two-fold, let's talk about Dub-Simran, then let's talk about music in general. With Dub-Simran we've got a lot of young Sikhs that are gifted with kirtan and I think the same can apply to the Hindu community, to the Buddhist community, to the Sufis I have some good Muslim friends as well. I hope to spread Dub-Simran and say 'Look, you can get your conscious music, you can do your kirtan, you can do your bhajans, you can play sarangi, tabla, harmonium, sing, you can use this technology and carry on doing that. It's not that you have to go and learn from a tabla teacher or harmonium teacher or learn from the giani and be like, 'Mum, do I have to go again?!' You know, make it your own, make it fun and use these technologies. Because say youngsters start to want to do music. Sometimes they'll start doing say rap music, there's nothing wrong with rap but my message is 'keep it conscious, keep it positive' Because music has a message, and those of us who are blessed to create music must have responsibility. "

 

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