Dedicated to his music

Near the age of 16, Ramesh Shotum teamed with his brother and picked up a guitar with the aspiration of becoming a star musician. As an adult, Ramesh has not only realised his dream by becoming a professional crossover global musician, but he has built a stellar performance resume as well.
Ramesh, a percussionist for over 25 years now, has worked with many top artists across the globe and performed worldwide. He shares his experiences with Cityplus.
Born in Chennai, he recalls, “I grew up in Bangalore and while in the 9th or 10th standard, we were influenced by the Beetles so we picked up the guitar.”
Ramesh and his brother formed a band called Human Bondage which was pretty popular in India in the 70’s. Quoting a recent post on his Facebook wall he said, “Today because FB makes everything so accessible everyone is posting photo’s from those years. It’s fun to see it all.”
It was only in the mid- 70’s that he realised, playing rock and Jazz was cool but he would have to take it further. He went back to his roots; Indian music particularly south Indian classical music. 
“Our parents like any other, wanted us brothers to study as well,” said Ramesh. Talking further, he mentioned “I have a degree Zoology from Loyola College. But I never really had to use the degree because I was really into music and this is what I wanted to do.”
He believes his moving to Europe was a huge step in his career, “Ever since I went to Europe, I have been playing with the best in the world and that’s good fortune.” He went to Germany started practicing further and settled there and now, is quite a name over there. He keeps travelling a lot for concerts, and thinks, ‘life on the road is pretty tuff.’ He has been playing a hybrid drum kit. “Its usual stuff along with base drums. It can be anything as my set of changes from time to time”. A musician who loves fusion music and thinks it’s the best you can do with music. A successful musician now, he still believes in simple and down to earth living.
Speaking about young musicians and meting a word of advice to them, he said, “It’s the same story; I experienced the same although my friends did support me and my brother. We used to sit and play in the living room. Sure it is a tough life and you have to keep working hard at your music, but that is not enough you have to be in the right place at the right time. To get the break, you have to be diplomatic, a good human being I guess, because lot of musicians careers are cut shot because either they are very hard to get along with, arrogant or they have problems with drugs and alcohol”.
As the end note for young musicians, he said that if youngsters really want to pursue music as their career then they should avoid thinking of making it commercially big. Which according to him is cool, “But for a creative musician you cannot only think on the money aspect then you might as well do pop music and try your best it’s like playing lottery. Getting a hit is just as hard. As a creative musician you have more chances to work steadily.”
A musician who is best at what he does, retains his humility, has always been an Indian at heart, Ramesh Shotum that is.

On life
 A successful musician now, he still believes in simple and down to earth living. Life on the road is not easy. To keep you balance focus on the music but you also need hobbies like reading, sports, yoga etc.

--Danish Manzoor