Detangle with Raghav Sachar

He plays more instruments than I can count on my fingertips . There is so much I can say about him , but I don't think I can do justice . Let me just welcome him . Welcome , mr Raghav . I'm so glad you're on Detangled with me today .

So he was playing the harmonica and I he was playing the song called to my mother and I took it from him and I played it back to him . Oh wow , at that age .

And so harmonica is a very good instrument in case you , you know , ever want to kind of find out if there is anybody who's inclined towards music from pitch perspective , from rhythm perspective , because it's all in your mouth so you can't actually teach this instrument to anyone . It's a self-taught instrument , it has to be .

So this is a great instrument to kind of pick up or , you know , you hand over these instruments to kids and stuff to see whether they are inclined or not and they kind of try and make sense of the instrument . So I started like that .

And then at that time there was this program called Chitra Har that used to come , so I would hear any song that would play on Chitra Har , I would be able to play it back . So that basically got my parents really excited and they thought that you know , this is a very interesting talent . And then I tried my hands on various different instruments .

And as I tried my hands on different instruments , they also very naturally started playing and I didn't have to kind of make too much effort to understand an instrument or you know , before I could execute playing it . And it's still the same , whenever I travel internationally or anything , I just have a tendency of picking up instruments very quickly .

So that's , I think , have a tendency of picking up instruments very quickly . So that's , I think , definitely a God gift . And that's how it all began .

I'm very particular about my timing and I think that all has come because of the upbringing as well , because of army , because of that police kind of strict uh you know weightage towards valuing time and everybody's time . That has really really helped me and also it was reiterated when I did my bachelor's of music in australia .

Um , of course , internationally everybody takes time very , very seriously . In our industry , largely , time is kind of unfortunately not given too much value and that is something that is . That is something that you know kind of should change and I hope it changes . But I mean , I have been in the industry for a while .

People who want to be punctual are punctual . People who don't want to be punctual , they can kind of manage by not being punctual . Also , and it's kind of , you know , it's not frowned upon internationally . You can't get away without being punctual and being and value everybody's time equally , no matter what position you're at .

So I think discipline is the key aspect of what I do and that's the reason I'm able to do multiple things , because if I didn't have that discipline then I would be wasting my time on a lot of other . You know , basically just trying to get things in order .

So you know , this used to be a very conscious effort while I was studying , when I did my bachelor's in music , and when I was studying in school and stuff , I had a lot more time at hand and , of course , the only thing I had to do at that time was to practice and I would do hours and hours and hours and hours of practicing and I was very determined

and very dedicated towards that . Of course , as life passes and you know , you have other responsibilities that take over . You have kids , you have meetings , you have so many other things that are happening . Time gets limited . So you have so many other things that are happening . Time gets limited .

So your practicing of instruments , of like the way I used to , where I would sit down and practice scales , I would sit down and practice breathing techniques All of that , of course , has no room . Unfortunately , I don't have the time only to do that .

But the good thing is that because I've , you know , put myself so deeply into music and there is so much content that I have to keep creating , so you're practicing . So , basically , whether I'm taking out time to practice or whether I'm just executing .

I am playing the instrument very often , and all instruments very often , and this it's working kind of in a cyclic way for me , which is good , because I have to create content , to create content , I have to play and to play , and you know , so on and so forth .

So it , this is a like a good cycle that's being created , which is which is giving me the opportunity to keep playing my instruments far more than what I would usually right ?

So , um , this is a very , very clear-cut , uh fact of life that if you start , if you put in effort and time into one particular skill and you continuously keep doing that relentlessly , consistently , you are going to get better at it , and at a very good pace , because the learning curve keeps changing .

You might start off slow and then suddenly midway you might pick up uh , you know very well . Or it might be the other way around , that you know you've , I mean generally picked up very . Or it might be the other way around that you know you've , I mean generally picked up very quickly and it might slow down in the middle somewhere .

So it has a way of kind of balancing itself out . But any form of art , with discipline and consistency , if you're after it at it , you are going to excel in it , for sure .

At that time , of course , no social media existed . We were known because I was MTV Artist of the Month or Channel V or one of these things was going on . So at that time you know when we are any which ways catering to an urban audience here .

But if , like a , like a security guard , is able to recognize you a rickshaw knows what , who you are , then you would kind of see the feel that , okay , I am penetrating into the masses , which happened when I had initially come into the scene with all of these channels which were very generous at that time towards music and musicians , and we would get a lot

of weightage on these channels and that is how we would make our bread and butter , because that fame would give us concerts and so on and so forth . Of course , all all of that is long gone and social media came into the scene and I tried to make it on social media for the longest time and nothing happened .

Really , I've been I mean , of course , as everybody has been . I've been on social media since the inception of social media with Facebook and Instagram stuff . So I have been on Instagram since 2012 . And I actually started seeing some results in 2022 .

The maximum that I reached , before things started moving in a very quick progression , was 160,000 followers , which were also people who might have kind of followed me , you know , for years and stuff like that , and eventually landed themselves on social media and then found me , the diehard , diehard core fans that have been there for years .

And then , of course , I understood what exactly the audience wanted and they wanted and how to execute this and how to give it to them what they want .

So I generally function in such a manner that I personally do not like waiting for somebody else to do a job for me , and that has been that impatience , I would say has been a very key motivator for me to kind of go and pick up things on my own . So , to give you an idea , I was essentially only a musical person .

I would only play multiple instruments , so that was something that came very naturally to me , and instruments are like an extension of me . I can kind of feel them , I can breathe them . They work like an extension of me . So then , when I had to create music , when I did I had to compose music .

I had to wait for a composer to come and compose music , which I didn't like , so I started composing on my own .

So if you see my second album , my second album was called 24 Carat and that basically had all my singer friends to come and sing , like Kailash Kher , kunal Ganjawala , sunidhi Chauhan , so many of other friends that have been there to come on and sing .

Now I was like dude , I can't keep doing waiting for them and everybody else is so busy , I'll start singing myself . That's how I became a singer .

I even became a female vocalist in the middle where there was a film that I was doing called One , two , three , and at about three o'clock in the morning the director said we want a female part in this and we are shooting at six in the morning . So I went into falsetto and I made a female part and it kind of went through .

By the time we were done with the shoot I thought I'll call sunidhi to come and change the parts . But they said that they liked what they had heard and who the singer is , and I said it's me . And they said , oh , my god . So that's so . These are just a few things that I kind that started happening .

I didn't want to wait for people to come and shoot my music videos , so I got into camera . I got into flying the drones , I got into understanding how cameras work , understanding what aperture is , what cinematic everything is .

So I put myself and I , instead of investing into people , people getting investing into hiring people to do the job , I invested into the equipment and bought a lot of equipment and I so on and so forth . So I became a website designer , I became a , I started coding to create an app for myself .

So generally , I have a tendency of not waiting for anything which has really helped me , I feel , overall , and I think that's something that's the driving force within me .

I also see this basic raw IQ , which you have just harnessed and put to use . You know , once you can read , write , understand , understand , comprehend . You've just not kept any limits , no boundaries . You've jumped in , tried everything , aced it and moved on .

I'm the only team I have . Great .

But sometimes you have to deal with a low time , but you still have to put your best foot forward and perform for something that you've signed up .

I don't watch movies because I get very emotional and then I was like I don't want to keep crying and seeing , so I don't want to cry .

If I hear something has happened with somebody , I'll , again , I'm very , very easy to , kind of , you know , get into that situation where I start feeling very deeply , for anybody , for that matter , of course , people who are known to me , I feel far more goes without saying .

But having said that , compartmentalizing is very important because , if suppose there is a commitment that you've already taken and there is a situation that has happened which is not physically stopping you from , you know , completing that , what do you call it ?

Completing that job , whatever job has been taken , because that other person has his own life , has decided to have you perform for them , or done all the efforts , everything that you can think of , to make sure that that particular event for that particular person goes off flawlessly .

So that should be the only point of concern for an artist at that particular time , and this is , again , something that is easier said than done . But I feel that discipline is something that works very well in this form as well , because it you kind of shut off . You have to shut off yourself from everything else .

When you're on stage , when I'm performing , for example , when I'm doing these fashion shows and stuff , and I'm walking the ramp , I'm I'm interacting with the models , I'm playing the instruments , I'm singing , I have to be in pitch , I have to do so many things simultaneously that not a single thought besides what I'm doing at that time can enter my mind .

Because my mind , because the focus levels have to be at such great levels even for concerts , adrenaline kind of kind of helps you , uh , you know , achieve that by not letting anything else come come to mind .

So again , having uh an emotional situation at that time , of course it's a it's a very difficult task to uh control and you might , uh , you know , burst out by while singing a song , while listening you might , something like that might happen .

But uh , that does not mean that , for whatever has happened , it doesn't mean that you can uh , or should take the other person's life or , uh , generosity , or whatever that person has done for you . Can't put that on stake . So that is compartmentalizing . So you do your job , you finish it off , do what you have to do .

After that , feel how you have to do after that . It's easier said than done . As I mentioned earlier , it's not that easy .

Javed Sahab said that always have the deepest respect for your readers and for your audience , which is what you have If you are respecting your host , if you're respecting , like you said , punctuality is basically respecting somebody else's time , correct ? So this deep respect takes you a longer way than momentary .

you know interaction with your own emotions , so this is beautiful absolutely personally speaking , when I listen to something very sad especially tunes it may or may not have lyrics it can move me very deeply . Does it happen to you ? If you are playing something intensely sad , you feel that impact just as much as your audience .

Why would I choose that one particular instrument with that particular song ? That is where the sensibility , or the expression , like every instrument has a different expression completely and the beauty is that I have the control on how I want to express on every instrument . So how , for example , if I perform like a kalank track , it is such a beautiful melody .

But if I played that melody on a saxophone , it will have a different appeal altogether . As soon as I change that to a clarinet or a tenor recorder , it will totally have a different feel . Clarinet or a tenor recorder , it will totally have a different feel . So how to marry a melody with the instrument is another form of art . This is a song .

This will sound very good on a mandolin , for example . For example is played on the mandolin and I also did that reel on the mandolin . But if I actually play that on a flute , it will . The melody is not going to change , but just the vibe of the song will completely differ , and so so nothing against it .

But uh , you know , to choose the right instrument and to marry it with the song goes a long way toward to kind of emotionally , um , attach other people to that particular song . That's what happens .

So , and this is all happening very , on a very subconscious level , because I have chosen an instrument which I feel enhances the song more than what , uh , the song , the , you know , the , probably the vocals could , or more than more than what another instrument could , and that has subconsciously been done already .

And when you hear it , you like , and then you kind of get attached to it . Uh , more , you will get attached more to that song . To give you an idea , uh , now is such a beautiful song that I have performed it on various instruments .

Now , if I actually and in fact I should do that as I'm talking to you , this idea just struck me that , since I have done this song on some seven , eight different instruments , I should probably create a highlight of tu mele dil khile , highlight on different instruments and of course it's such an intense one , yeah , and it sounds completely different on a santur ,

different on a sax , different on a flute , different on a piccolo , different on a harmonica , and you can keep going on and on , and I have done this song over , I think , about seven , eight , ten instruments already .

So it just goes to show that how one same song sounds so different on different instruments so what we see as coming naturally to somebody is actually full of intent .

. From my social media perspective , I'm kind of trying to take care of each and every aspect that you know clothing as well as styling , as well as uh intros , outros , where to put-ins , where not to put , fade-outs , what kind of color correction should be there ? What kind of skin tone do we need to maintain ? Hair should be a particular way .

Accessories should be in such a way that it goes . For example , if I'm wearing I did a Kars tune on a Santur , kar's tune on a santur wearing a sleeveless ganji with a uh , you know , a skull kind of a necklace , so that that entire uh outlook with the santur has never been seen . Only , yeah , it's so .

And on top of that , if you're doing a theme which is so beautiful , which is a the kar's theme , but never been played on the santur before , because everybody just tries it on the guitar I've done it on the guitar multiple times , but just taking it into a different realm , because now you're not only . This is our TV .

You know , this is what MTV used to be . This is the MTV Channel V for us now . And the beauty is you don't have to wait for a programmer to come and slot you in .

You are the programmer , you slot yourself in , you decide what you want to perform , you decide how you want to look , you decide when you want it to be on air , and you do that and then let the magic happen . And in case you have a marketing team under you , you want to market it , you do that as well .

So you basically , in today's day and age , do not need anyone , uh , and then you cross-populate it , uh , on facebook , on on youtube shots and stuff . So this is all data analysis .

Largely , that is leading me to do things that I'm doing off late and then , of course , give audience more than what they had expected by getting phenomenal artists like Rekha Bharadwaj , ma'am Sunidhi , sukhvinderji Shahan all of them who've been iconic in their entire field and then change that and twist it with instrumentation .

So there is a lot of thought , as you might understand , that has gone into kind of sculpting this entire niche .

If you're a person who cannot take rejection , you're in the wrong field because you cannot . This is such a personal thing .

If you put 10 people together and you actually go into their playlist , you will be shocked to see what 10 people like and how deferred it is , no matter even if they are best friends 10 best friends but you go to the playlist and you will be shocked to see , but the rest of it is pretty different .

He likes something else , this guy likes something else , this girl likes something else . So , uh , it is a stupid effort to kind of think that it is never going to be the case . No matter what and how cool you are , how good you become , that is never going to be the case . So what you should try and aim for is majority .

How many ever people ki bhai chalo ? 60% ko pasand hai ? 80% ko pasand hai ? Wo mujhe apna strike rate high rakhna hai . That how many ever people can you know , appreciate and would appreciate something that I'm doing and keep trying and understanding ? The comments keep coming .

We keep learning from can't get deterred by these kind of negative things also that happen . So , uh , ups and downs are a very common feature in our profession . I came in with a bang .

When I came in within 2003 , I had a fabulous run , um , I got my first film , which was kabul express , which was with yashi uh , idea you , which is the biggest company that you could have dreamt of . But after that I've never , ever had the opportunity of working with them ever again , although it was a super hit track , music , everything .

But that's how life is , that is how it's kind of . Whenever you start thinking that I have arrived , it's never kind of . Life teaches you very beautifully that , calm down , you haven't and there is far more to go .

And so you know , with these things it's so easy to say now , but they take such a toll on you when you are younger , when you have entered the scene , when you have all this talent behind you , when you have the have entered the scene , when you have all this talent behind you , when you have the backing of the education that you have done and you are just

there to conquer everything that you can , and the pure energy at that time is very different than the energy now , because experience was not there and experience is something .

Live experience of actually physically going through all of these things yourself teaches you a lot more uh and just kind of tells you that you know if , if the , and you've seen the highs and the lows .

So if , when the highs were there , the lows came , the lows were there , the highs came , came back , so this up-down , up-down will keep happening for the rest of my life . So even where I am right now , highs , lows , will keep happening . So there's nothing that can be done about it .

It's just that you have to kind of detach yourself from excessive praise , detach yourself from excessive criticism and keep doing your job as a very numb uh thing and enjoy the . The good thing that I can say is that I have never worked a single day of my life .

That's the one thing I can tell you that I have never , ever worked in my life this is all enjoying it so much I'm loving it . I'm happiest being in the studio , creating music , entertaining people . I mean , imagine people have to get up in the morning . They are like you know , they are feeling sad that they have to leave home .

They are , they are like in there . Oh my god , I'm going to be stuck in traffic . Oh my god , I'm going to have to go and report to my bosses . I have to finish this spreadsheet . I have to do this excel . All of that . I never have to think about all of that . I'm my own boss .

I am very , very disciplined and I function like that , along with my entire office functioning this way . People above me I'm happy to go according to their time . People at my level and below me have to function according to me and my time . So it's a very clear cut . You know ecosystem that I have made for myself .

Now , how good it is , how bad it is , I don't know . I think I'm enjoying myself and I think that is what people are able to see online as well .

Lovely , so tell me , mr Aghav , you've been the cultural ambassador for India . You've been on so many celebrated shows . You've been on Karan Johar's show , you've been on Kapil Sharma's show Everywhere . I mean , I've seen you almost everywhere sometime or the other . Which has been your most memorable experience ?

You know going and being what do you call it ? Showcased as an Indian in a Western setting purely because I'm playing Western instruments . At the end of the day , I'm playing all the instruments that were all invented besides the santur and a dhol and some four , five other instruments .

Everything that you have seen me do is all different instruments of different parts , different people , different countries , and it's all world music . So for me , saxophones , flutes , handpan there are so like handpan I just picked up recently , which is a switzerland . I play the bagpipes , which is scottish . I play the didgeridoo , which is Australian .

So I personally love getting newer instruments which are world instruments . So I don't consider myself to just be doing Indian music Abhi hota gaya that you're performing . Your large base of audience is Indian . That's why you're seeing what I'm doing and of course , those songs are phenomenal .

But I'm also continuously doing international content which happens on Sunday mornings , if you've seen , which is called Saxy Sundays , which is another tag that we go by on Sundays . Every Sunday morning at 12 o'clock you will see me do international content . Oh lovely I should remember that .

Yeah , and every Friday in the afternoon at 12 o'clock you'll see me do retro content . Oh lovely , I should remember that . Yeah , and every Friday in the afternoon at 12 o'clock you'll see me do retro content . So we call that retro Fridays . Now , slowly , I'm even branching out into regional .

So because we have a lot of requests coming from so many people for regional content , so we might bifurcate and , you know , kind of diversify into regional content as well .

So , having said that , my main point is this entire thing is a wholesome experience and when you perform these Western instruments in front of an international audience but representing India , that I really feel very proud about India , that I really feel very proud about and I feel I love doing these , these kind of cultural ambassador shows .

I've done a lot of them I've done . I've represented India and Japan and Germany , in the UK , in Malaysia , in Australia , in a lot of places , and I really enjoy doing these because , again , as I mentioned , I love , love order and I love discipline and the , the way that these events are executed .

They are with top-notch protocol and I have lived my entire life in protocol . So I , I understand this like uh , very well , and people kind of get very hassled with protocols .

So if there is one thing , just one single thing , that you could change about the music industry or social media , what would you change ?

Now , no , two people are going to be the same , of course , and emotions of you know something that I might not feel bad about , you might feel bad about , but people at a higher position , level music labels , people sitting who are governing this , if that kind of , again , it boils everything , boils down to discipline , order , punctuality .

There is so much that kind of backtracks to all of this , all of this , that , as soon , as you have all of these things in order , respect time um how do you call it ? feeling for another person ? Empathy , kindness ? Yeah , empathy , kindness .

Everything is so connected to these two things , uh discipline and punctuality that you will not even realize how deep-rooted these issues are and how difficult it is for so many people to kind of get around it . I feel very sad actually for people who have so much talent and so much , so many opportunities , but unfortunately they are not able to .

You know , get get up , get up on time , get going , and and that is what uh , eventually will hold you back because it kind of uh , I see , either you're disciplined or you're not disciplined . It's as simple as that .

You can't be midway , so , and and it then has degrees of discipline , of course that how disciplined can you actually get with each and everything ? And time management .

If there is one thing I have to put maximum amount of weightage to in this conversation , or anybody's conversation , is is time management , because it teaches you way too many things and all of this that I , we just said that you know , be be conscious of somebody else , be kind , kind to the other person .

Empathy of all of this is connected to time management , because if you're not respecting that person's time only and making the person wait or or whatever the situation may be . People generally also like just to show my weight around . Yeah , fashionably late , fashionably late , so that is something that doesn't .

It doesn't exist only internationally , it just does not exist . So here I saw you waiting .

You are delayed and you know you're delayed . All you that you're going to reach , you are delayed and you know you're delayed . All you need to do is inform the other person or request the other person or all of this .

See , now this becomes kindness , it's courtesy it's kindness that kind of attitude is something that I personally don't , uh , I don't appreciate it .

Also , and whoever has met me , worked with me singers know this very well , people who kind of kind of know me very well , they know this very well that if I have called him for dinner , he'll be here five minutes early . So they , you know they now operate along around it because I can't be late . I just can't .

We all have a physical first aid box , right Some band-aids , painkillers for those little cuts and bruises when we need to take care of ourselves . But what if you were to have a mental first aid box , something you could just open after a bad emotional day and feel happy ? What would you put in your emotional first aid box ?

So , for me , for me , if there is something that is troubling me , luckily it all kind of settles as soon as I have an instrument in my hand . But there are a lot of times that I don't feel like doing that , also because this is work . This is actually at the end of the day . I'm doing this all day , all day long , right ?

So there might be placed times when I don't want to do that . So the other thing that immediately takes my attention away is any kind of sport activity . So I was very again growing up in the army and police kind of a situation . We've had access to a lot of sporting equipment and that is very highly encouraged . So I was . I love swimming .

Swimming is a phenomenal form of meditation for me , because it's absolute quiet and it's orderly and you're doing laps after lap after lap . While I'm doing that , I'm doing my Hanuman Chalisa or I'm doing my other pujas that I want to do that and that kind of calms me down While I am in . I like to be optimized .

That is how I would like to put it , that I like . I like my time to be optimized .

Instead of sitting and watching something or going on Instagram and , you know , watching reels or doing something , unless it is something that is for my education I would rather spend my time in finishing off chores while I'm in the car or probably again doing a little bit of puja , so swimming being one of them .

The other thing that I love , absolutely love doing is playing golf .

I'm an ardent golfer and I have a set of friends who I play with every now and then , um , so that that is therapeutic for me , because you're out in the nature , you're in green grass , you're playing , you're playing with friends , sitting after that having a couple of beers , you're chilling out .

So all of these things are very it's very important to have balance . Work-life balance is so important that if it is missed , then you know , then it can . Things can get very lopsided very quickly . If I just keep doing music , music , music , I don't go , don't pay attention to my kids , I don't play golf , I don't go for swimming , I don't go to the gym .

I will completely get saturated very quickly . So it is very important both way . So my in my schedule I have a 6 , 6 , 30 getting up time every day . No matter what happens , I have that , those one and a half , two hours of with my kids to drop them to the bus or whatever with my dog , so that is a very wholesome time .

I have that two hours of dedicated workout , whether it's swimming , one , one and a half hours , whether it's gym . Then I have my entire day at the office and again by around 6 , 6.30 , 7 latest , I'm back home , take the kids to bed , spend , spend time with my wife and you start with the same process all over again the next day .

Of course , within this then you have travel , then you have everything , so emotionally , so many things that keep happening . You know somebody has pissed you off at work , something has happened in a you know family setting , somebody has done something to your kid , your child is not well , there are so many other things .

So as soon as that stress hits me because of the routine being so strict and particular , I'm already playing an instrument for a reel about 10 minutes down the line with that stress . That has already calmed me down to whatever extent it could . I'm back into stressing for that one particular thing , then I've entered a meeting .

So if I have again idle mind is a devil's workshop and if I had not compartmentalized everything but perfectly , everything perfectly , then that would have you know , it would have taken me deeper into stressing deeply . Not that I don't stress .

One of the worst things that I can tell you about myself is that I'm an overthinker and I take stress about every damn thing that you can think about .

So imagine so much effort going into everything that if this didn't happen , then what to do ? It's like you're playing chess with every situation . If this move doesn't work , then what is my next move ? If this move doesn't work , then what is my next move ?

So that can consume a lot of your mental peace , but luckily , as I mentioned that I have to keep shifting things in my life , somebody else , but something else , will take my attention away and luckily , and thank god , it's an instrument or something creative , beautiful is there ?

But once they said , okay , we are going to do this and work hard at it , they all found success . And everybody has one thing to say that it did not come to them very easily . So nothing was served on a platter , nothing was inherent . But once they started working hard at it , it became their passion .

So they didn't discover their passion , they created it , which is one thing I find common to most guests which is so inspiring that we don't need to tell our children you know , look for your passion , find your passion . You can also create your passion .

Work hard towards something and see it bloom correct , which is wonderful oh , very well said , thank you well , mr raghav , I have never imagined or fathomed that I would have such a beautiful discussion with you , articulating every thought so intensely with me . My pleasure , so beautiful . I mean , your music is absolutely stunning . I would encourage my entire audience .

Please go to Mr Satcher's page . It is on Instagram at Raghav Satcher , correct ?

I can see your past , present , future all coming together so beautifully . Thank you so much . I know you've been so busy . You've been traveling , but you've taken the time out today being on my show . I'm just so honored .