'Music is the sense of being alive'

This young musician dropped out of Sri Krishna Institute of Technology and turned his passion into profession. Mahesh Jude Pereira is a 25-year-old multi-instrumentalist, recording artist, vocalist, composer and arranger.

He is also a disc jockey and takes guitar, keyboard, electronic music production and western vocal lessons. He worked as a live sound engineer for gigs and events and though he has not studied sound engineering, he picked up the knowledge of sound and audio from industry professionals. He is grateful to his guru Kiran Bhat. “I was Kiran’s apprentice and worked under him for three years. I still learn from him,” says Jude.

He makes music of different genres but his forte is hard rock, classic rock, progressive rock and alternative rock. He has also composed orchestral music, electronic dance music, heavy metal, blues, jazz, hip hop and funk. He has even done the background scores of various short and feature films and composed the title track of the Kannada film Sadhakaru, which was directed by HN Somnath.

“Making music for the film was very difficult. It was about capturing various emotions, elements and themes. It was also a challenge to give justice to the visuals on screen with apt music.” While making music for the film, he also got to meet many people from the industry, which he says was a learning experience.

“Music for me is the sense of being alive and living life to the fullest. It has been with me during my toughest times and helped me bounce back sooner than any other therapy in the world. It also keeps me grounded in more ways than one. It’s a universal language that I like to use to communicate with people from all over the world,” feels Jude.

Jude has a four-member band called ‘Psyentists’ with Arjun Laxminarasu on drums, Akash Rai on bass and back-up vocals and Siddharth Vishwanath as a guest vocalist and guitarist. Jude is on the lead vocals, guitar and keyboard. The band has performed at various pubs, schools and colleges.

He has also worked with multiple artistes like Rajesh Krishnan, Shubham Roy, Sebastian, Kiran Bhat, Swami Suryapaada (‘Chayanna’) and the soft rock band ‘M13’ and metal band ‘D.E.A.F’. He terms his performance at the World Sanskrit Forum with Rajesh Krishnan and Ramya Vashist as the “highlight of my career”. “I was playing alongside my guru Kiran Bhat for over 40,000 people. This event was also broadcast live internationally,” he adds.

He also runs a studio called ‘Psylence Recording Studio’ and teaches music. “I always had the desire to present my songs to the world. So I designed the studio and even built it myself with the help of a few carpenters,” says Jude. “My musical journey was hard and painful. Some people told me that music can’t feed a person or give them a future. But I am lucky enough to have had the opportunity to prove them wrong,” exclaims Jude.