Ritviz: Mumbai city has a strong personality

Indie artiste Ritviz, who performed in Mumbai earlier this year, has a lot to say about the city. This is where the Pune-based musician had his first-ever concert in 2015. “The energy of Mumbai is undefeated,” says Ritviz. “Mumbai is so full of life and this is one city in the country that has a very strong personality. I grew up in Pune and for many of us there, Mumbai was always a city that we aspired to come to and present ourselves.”
The 26-year-old singer-songwriter, known for Udd Gaye, Aaj Na and other songs, has a distinctive soundscape, which he attributes to his initial training in North Indian classical vocal.Talking about it, he says, “As a toddler I’d do riyaaz with my mom at 6 am. I learnt khayal from my mother and dhrupad under Pandit Uday Bhawalkar in Pune. Later I learnt to play the tabla. When I became older, I was introduced to western pop and Youtube became my guru where I picked up different types of music productions. The fact that music runs in my family, but I was never pushed into it, helped my relationship with music become special, helped me evolve as an artiste.”
Talking about performing in Mumbai the artiste says, “The energy of Mumbai is undefeated, every single time. This city is so full of life and is the one city in our entire country that has the strongest personality. I grew up in Pune and Mumbai is a city that we all aspire to come to and present ourselves.”
Ritviz feels that his struggles as a musician was different from the others and his parents were always encouraging and supportive. “My struggles were never about proving myself at home. My only struggle was – will people listen to my music; will they care about what I am doing. Initially I spent 10 years just emailing people. But all that time with ‘no one is replying’ I was able to go back to my parents. And now, after all these years, I do know that people can identify a Ritviz song and they know my style."
The fact that he is from a typical middle-class family is something that he is proud of and he feels that it is special that he had the unconditional support from his family. “I belong to a middle-class family, and I feel that people only talk about rags to riches stories but very few talk about the struggles of middle-class families when a majority of us in this country are middle-class. The thing about being middle-class is the fact that you are compressed between rich and poor, and you are neither here nor there. Aspirationally such families do not dream that big. But my folks were different. From day one they supported me – Ritviz is doing music and that’s what he wants to pursue. It was never a major discussion. There was unconditional support. My family are the real heroes for whatever is happening to me today."