For youngster Neil Fernandes, only the sky is the limit. This multi talented young musician first began learning the drums at the age of six. But not satisfied with just mastering one instruement, Fernandes soon moved on to the keys, guitar and the violin.
“My maternal grand dad Vincent Fernandes specialized in violin repairs and piano tuning and he urged me to learn the violin. While I had picked up the other instruments from a few people who played them as a hobby, for violin, I enrolled for classes at Kala Academy and studied it for six years,” states Fernandes, adding that this was one of the most important decisions he took in his life. “ Learning the violin helped in training my ear to music and also helped in building my dexterity. While playing the violin, the accuracy of the fingers developed a lot and this helped immensely in my guitar playing.”
From there on, he passionately pursued music, focusing on his guitar and singing, and performed at numerous events around Goa, played for a couple of bands and won a few competitions. “ I love playing classic rock as it has a very soulful feel to it. It has this feel as it emerged from the revolutionary 60's which changed the world forever,” he says.
Encouraged by the positive response to his music, Fernandes, who is the grandson of tiatrist Antonio Fernandes (Tony Sax) then decided to record his own album. “ However as there were no studios available, I decided to learn music production so I could record the album myself,” he states. His first album 'Reality' was released in September 2014. Having just completed his studies in music production from the True School of Music in Mumbai, Fernandes has also produced scores for a few short films and done ad jingles for products like Kinderjoy.
“ Producing scores for films is a very exciting thing to do as you can enhance the film with great music. But it's also very challenging to capture the exact mood of a scene with music,” he explains. “For ads it is very crucilal to capture the essense of the brand through music and to make it catchy.”
Apart from this, Fernandes also performs live with his band Survival Instinct which was formed in Mumbai in July 2015. In fact, they recently performed at Blue Frog, Mumbai with the legendary Indian film composer, producer and jazz musician Louis Banks.
“We play anything retro and already have a couple of original tracks. Right now we are working on an EP i.e. Extended Play which is a short version of an album. It's going to have about five or so songs. The music is going to be totally different for this day and age. We are trying to capture the sound of the yester years with a modern touch,” says Fernandes, adding that the project should be done and out in a few months.
And because he loves exploring more and more avenues, Fernandes who is the son of Mick and Daisy Fernandes, who run the dance academy Simply Ballroom, hasn't ruled out getting into dance choreography in the near future too.
