March 11, 2025 • 19 mins
Meet Bobby Baskaran, Grammy Voting Member and Mentor
In this episode, we explore Bobby’s rollercoaster journey, his rise to fame as a musician in India, the whirlwind success of his band in just six months, and the dangers of the rock star lifestyle. For five years, he lived the dream, indulging in the highs (and lows) of fame. Then, everything changed.
Bobby moved to Australia to be with his now wife, only to find himself starting from scratch. Overnight he experienced being somebody with huge success to someone who had to start from scratch. For two years, he struggled, not liking his new reality, but out of that struggle came reinvention. Bobby found a new passion in marketing and graphic design, carving out a fresh identity in a world far removed from the stage.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Every day brings a new story. Life isn't perfect, but
it's perfectly ours, with raw conversations, inspiring stories and laugh
until you cry moments we hit him, I unpack it
all and figure it out together, one episode at a time.
This is Life as we know It, Unfiltered with Tony
Tanalia and Lisa Cameron.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Hello and welcome.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Hellok, We've got a guest.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Who's joining us for the next few episodes that well
may not be familiar to some of you, even though
he's got an Instagram following of over five hundred thousand people.
A man by the name of Bobby Baskerm. Bobby is
a musician, a music producer, marketing executive and is now
representing Australia as a member of the voting committee for
America's biggest awards.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
The Grammys.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
How cool is that?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Hey, We're going to hear all about that incoming episodes.
Episode that would like to introduce you to Bobby, a
man who grew up in India, was a part of
a band that was massive in India at the time
called mock Shot, and then left all that behind and
came to Australia.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Enjoy his life story.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
And you've been here for four years.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Oh no, I've been here for twenty four years. What
did you put on here?
Speaker 2 (01:18):
He moved to ha On, moved to Melbourne into.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
That must have been a mistake. That was me typing
on the phone at eleven thirty in the night. Okay,
so that's first to say two thousand and.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
One, right, two thousand and one.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Walked to Melbourne in two thousand.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
Ship, he's just built up this whole networking.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
That would have been I would have been locked in
my house.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
That wait, best friend, best friends with every storekeeper in
the five months five and Andrews. So I moved to
Melbourne in two thousand and one, but I was twenty
five or something.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
So what made you move in Melbourne?
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Well, my wife and her family had moved here about
six years or five years before that, but she wasn't
wasn't my wife and we were kind of going out
at the time. We don't even kind of going up
for about six or seven months, and then the whole
family immigrated to Australia, which was you know, a lot
of Indian families were doing it at the time, and
(02:22):
a lot of their family were here. So yeah, so
that was a proper long distance relationship, like proper this
is no Internet, no chatting, no Skype, no whatsappening, letters
writing letters. So this was like she does this whole
sack of them, and I would do these massive letters,
right like double side pages, ten pages. They would almost
be like today this morning, I did you know.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
That's almost like a dear diary.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Yeah, it was pretty much that, and I do like
ten And you have to be careful because the more
you wrote, the more expensive it was to post. Yes, yeah,
like what's the ratio of the thinnest paper is how
much you want to write? Yea and yeah. So I'd
send her these massive letters and she like you know,
she in her god bless, it's like three pages back
(03:10):
was missing whatever. And it was so expensive because even
phone like we'd have like one phone call every fortnight.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Yes, not because it was expensive.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
You had to buy the cards and you had to
do call some other number. And yes, So there was
all that thing happening. So she was here for about
you know, three or four years. Then we decided to
get married and she came came back down to India.
We get married, and then I moved in two thousand
and one to the you know, the grass is green
on the other side syndrome.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
Is it greener here? Do you think?
Speaker 3 (03:45):
Not at all?
Speaker 4 (03:45):
No?
Speaker 3 (03:47):
No, But you know I had to build that live.
I had to build it. I made the decision to move,
so I had to kind of embrace it and kind
of start from scratch. And because I was in the
middle of like a really intense career when I left,
Like I was recording engineer, audio kind of post production engineer.
I was working in film industry. I was working in
advertising and music production, and that Indian music industry was
(04:09):
kind of raging at the time, independent music. Every label
was in the country. All the international labels had come
in to kind of sign Indian artists and kind of
such a big market at that time, especially Yeah, you know,
so we were working on albums with Sony, really crazy
kind of environment. And then in parallel to that, I
was in this massive rock band called Mosha. I was
(04:30):
the bass player and we were we were the headlining
act and traveling all over the country. And you can
do anything you want, and you're twenty two, and you
know what could go wrong?
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Really, So you get married and you saint getting married for.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
About just in terms of just being arrogant, like, oh
I was dick because you were given everything you wanted.
You could ask for anything and you were given. You
were you know, on stage, and people were paying money
to come and see you, and all those trappings of
being in that world, you know, and yeah, and you
twenty one, twenty two, it's like, you know, twenty three,
(05:04):
you know, completely dickish. Everybody, all of us were. I
mean I was probably the most of it. I kind
of embraced my my whatever rock stardom. We were being
given to the fullest, you know, like hotel room tantrums
and you know all those Oh I was one of those. No, no, no,
(05:26):
I was that.
Speaker 4 (05:27):
Now we need to turn this into a therapy session.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
Yeah, I think we might, although I think I don't
think so. My wife tried, where did the tantrums come from?
Just from being able to just from being allowed to
have the tantrums?
Speaker 2 (05:41):
So okay, so you weren't a tantrum person, but the
fact that you couldn't get away with it is what
made you do it.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Yeah. India and the US I found a kind of
very similar that way. They like to elevate people into
that status. You can't do that here here, no one
cares like you catch it down. You've got to. Yeah, one,
you gotta go buy your own bread under Elton John
And even he couldn't really get away with a lot
if he came to Australia, you know what I mean, Like,
(06:07):
you still can't be too much of a diva here, yeah,
but in India you could and you still can, and
in the US you can, and you kind of there's
no tall poppy syndrome in India. Yeah, I mean, don't
get me wrong. Your fall from grace can be equally
as hard if you're in the US or in here.
But you were in that position, like you know, we
went in a big rock band. We were like in
(06:27):
our twenties, playing all these big concerts, you know, and
even off stage, I was with these really well known
music producers, film producers, you know, hanging out with some
of the biggest singers at the time. And even though
you're kind of an engineer, you're still in that world. Yeah,
and ye're young, and there's no one around to kind
(06:50):
of put any restraints around you, yeah, you know, and
you almost feel you have to be that way and
of be, you know, to live that persona I suppose yes,
and I think you know, and also because I wasn't
spending a lot of time at home and doing all
those things, there was no kind of yes, it's okay
(07:11):
to be this way when you're doing that thing, but
then when you come home you got to kind of
be Bobby. And there wasn't that you know, that cutoff
point you leave it at the gate and then you
come into the house. I was the same at home.
Oh wow, there wasn't a lot of interaction outside of
that world. Yeah, you know, I was working probably sixteen
(07:32):
to eighteen hours a day, so the only time I'd
come back home was to spend very minimal time and
to sleep. So you're, yeah, you're not having those normal
relationships relationships outset, so yeah, it's very bubble like.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
Do you think there needs to be more supporting that.
I went and I lived in London for a few
years and I did some of my backgrounds in coaching,
and I remember I coached a musician over there and
one of the issues was the you know, up on stage,
they're elevated, you know, they get to that really high status,
but then once they're off stage, integrating into daily life
(08:09):
was such a big challenge and then you know, when
I could see that in him, I could see it
in all artists and nothing. How do they actually do this?
And do they need more support to be able to
integrate in day to day life?
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Like see, at the time when you're in it, you
don't actually realize that. Yeah, you don't think that you
need that.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
First of all, you don't think there's an issue.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
No, you don't think there's an issue at all. Because
also it never stops. It's always there, So there's no
kind of you become it, Yeah, because there's little to reality. Yeah,
you know what I mean, there's no kind of Oh
so this is the normal world that never happened, Yeah,
because you never saw them. Like ninety five when I
started this band, and we you know, and very quickly,
(08:52):
I think at about six to it, we became quite big.
And that's dangerous in itself. Yes, yep, you almost haven't
earned that. Yeah, you haven't done the hard yet.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
You haven't done hard that, You haven't done the hard work.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Yeah, very quickly it became reasonably.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
I said the same in radio, Like I've worked with
people in radio that bang get elevated very quickly and
have these massive egos struggled, but then they come and
that they crash hard too when it's time for them
to crash hard.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
That happened when I came to Australia.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Right, yeah, because I was going to ask you, so
you you had just you know earlier, said that coming here,
the grass isn't greener on the other side, you like,
I don't want to say you're not happy here.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
At the time, it was that crash and everything comes
to a halt.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Up to all that life you've been living all stopped.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
Just yeah, it just stops. And then ye I'm move
into you know, a little units in laws.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
You've gone from being someoneans snobn's I grew up ins
but yeah, so you kind of yeah, and so one
morning I wake up and it's like nobody knows who
I am, No one cares who I am.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
I was like, oh, that's horrific, like you know, and yeah,
that was a massive crash from that all this world
that never stopped for five or six years.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
I get that because that happened to me when I
went to Ireland. Like in Australia, people knew who I was.
Worked in the industry, you know, you knew everybody and
I never had to apply for a job. Any job
I got in this industry, I was contacted, come and
work for me. That's that's how it went. But then
I went to Ireland and I was there for five years,
and again I went over because I got asked to
(10:46):
go over there, and then I ended up losing my
job and then I had to look for work and
it was the hardest thing because nobody knew who I was.
There was no yep, I can do this and this's like, yeah,
but who are you?
Speaker 3 (10:58):
You know? So I totally that that feeling, and that
was horrific. So i'd wake up, I think for but
a good part of two years, I would wake up
and go, oh, I want to go back. This is horrible. Yeah,
this is what normal is normal life. And she was,
you know, and she was kind of while she was
(11:18):
while I was still there and she was here, she
was just doing normal eighteen nineteen seventeen, eighteen year old
things or whatever. It was like she was a supermarket
checkout Franklins it was at the time. Yes, so you know,
So that was and then but she made the mistake
of actually it was probably good that she did this.
After we got married in India. She stayed there for
(11:38):
a year and she experienced a year of what life
was like for me.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Yeah, and did she wanted to divorce?
Speaker 3 (11:45):
No, No, she loved it crazy, She loved it. She
was like getting you know, going to all these places
and she'd be at the side stage and go.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Like yeah, kind of she was like a celebrity in
her own right.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
Yeah, she took it took a while for her to
go understand, oh my god, these like you know, there's
people grabbing his pant when he's on this I mean,
you know, like all that stupid stuff kind of at
all unless someone's falling and they're trying to get up
in the supermarket. But but she kind of saw that
(12:18):
from outside. So she was in that bubble with us
for about a good year. So I think she kind
of got it. And I think it's good that she was,
because when I moved here, she kind of understood to
an extent what I was going through, and she gave
me a lot of kind of leeway in terms of
you know, tantrums and mental issues. I would say, trying
(12:41):
to kind of now acclimatize to this whole different country,
and you can't be a dick and you can't be
you know, and no one cares that you were doing.
Because I thought, I'm going to come in here, I'm
going to walk straight into these studies and win a Grammy,
like you know, people are gonna begging me to work
in their studios. As I came with these credentials you
know that I had, yep, and none of that. So
that was and now I've got to like earn money.
(13:04):
I've never had to worry about the same thing. I've
never had to worry about how I was going to
make money because it was always being made. I was
making money with the band and the music and the
studio and had to turn work down because that's how
busy it was in India. But now here's like, oh wow,
now I've got to like, I'm suddenly now dependent on
my wife's job. She's like an administrative assistant to something.
(13:24):
But you know, living with my in law, so our
life was suddenly in that room in the unit was
suddenly our life that was horrific. I mean, you know,
but I think you kind of so I said, Okay,
now I've got to go back and do what I studied.
What am I going to do like, no one here.
And that was when home studios started to get really prolific,
so big studios went hiring anyone. No one was using
(13:46):
big studios like Sing Sing, and none of that was happening,
very rare. They were struggling to fill the rooms. So like,
no people come here, have their own engineer. It's like, wow, okay,
you know. So then yeah, I had to kind of well,
I'd studied marketing and advertising and stuff when I was
in UNI in the oldie days, so I've got to
do that. So yeah, I just started working as like
a graphic designer in an office and really yeah, just
(14:09):
data entry.
Speaker 4 (14:10):
Wow, what a contrast.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
But I'm telling you, you learned to kind of you know,
I had to learn to humble and you had to
and you know, of course there would be in times
when my attitude would on these and you know, in
an office situation, that is going to work.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
None of that is going one of those big computers.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
Yeah, yeah, I've actually got to found a photograph of myself.
But yeah, so then that was it. And then for
a long time it was just you know, while I
was kind of trying to do music on the side,
but there's nothing just such a little going on here.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Yeah, so the music side of things, because obviously you
said when you got here you had to switch and
you started doing marketing and graphic design stuff. Did you
over the period of time then did you get back
into the music.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
Like I never completely switched off, which is good. So,
you know, I again amazing how things happen. You know,
Like I was walking around Saint Albans. I'd gone to
like the supermarket something. Then I walked down one of
those streets and there was a little music shop.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
I was like, oh wow, yeah, music shop. Like it
wasn't bigger than a little bigger than this room to
have been, yet a few guitars and some strings, and
you know, like, oh that's wild. That's nice. And then
you had like a bulletin board that had some yeah,
you know, people's little ads and things. I'm doing singing
classes and and there's one ad that had oh I've
(15:38):
got there's a little recording studio, so if you need
something recorded, please come down. And you know, I'm like, oh, wow,
recording studio. I picked it up and that's just yeah. Yeah.
And I only realized it was how close it was
when I went back home. Like you had to look
at the mailways. Yeah, I remember, yeah, oh yeah, no GPS.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
I was going to ask you where about and omens
was it? Because I probably won't pass it time to.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
File Freda Streets somewhere, some one of those Erica Avenue
or something. Yeah, thirteen Erica. I remember the address. It's
like burnt into my brain and yeah. So then I went, oh,
it was actually quite close to that music shop. So
I said, I'm just gonna walk there. I just walked
up the house and knocked on the door. It was
like just a suburban house, and said, hey, I saw
your thing. You know, studio called John. He's had like
(16:21):
a little set up at the back. He converted his
garage into one of a little studio. And they're like, yeah,
so that guy. I didn't actually do a lot of
stuff with him. I was kind of in and out.
I'd go there and do something on an afternoon and
black I made fifty bucks.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Yeah, like wow, so you were producing stuff for yourself
or for other papers.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
No, it was just like mixing stuff people come and
do like little demos, and was like the engineer that's
oh yeah, yeah I was. I was creating music. Yeah, yeah,
just being the engineer. Yeah, but not a lot of
money and you know, just bits and pieces and things
and and yes. But but that guy John, he introduced
me to somebody else, and then that person is somebody else.
(17:00):
That person, you mean, somebody else and that person and
that kind of So if hadn't just one walked into that,
you know that studios in Albans like half half the
people half the people I know now when the musical
district actually came, I trace him back. They came from
this guy, you know. So yeah, so I think over
the years, I mean, I had to make money, so
(17:21):
I had to kind of focus on marketing, and I
realized that I could kind of make a living doing that.
So I kind of did that. And it was horrible
because every time I go back to India on holiday,
I'd stepped right back into that world and everybody's like,
why are you staying here?
Speaker 4 (17:35):
Like a.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
Forgotten this is you know, you go to the parties
and the thing. Because my family was still there, my
mom still lives there. Yes, it's like very tempting, but
at the time I was like, oh, I don't think
I could. I'd started to become a bit too westernized.
For my own good. So I was like, oh, I
can't go back to live in India. It's like I've
lived here in Australia now and it was too far
down with borderhiles and there was mortgage and all those
(18:01):
kind of things, Like I can't make those decisions anymore.
But yeah, so that's what it was. So then I
had to kind of but I kind of kept touch,
you know, with that music, and I was starting to
I always had some kind of home recording facility, yep.
But you don't have the time to do it, Like
if that's not the thing you're doing to make money, Yeah,
you can't really spend a lot of time.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
You haven't focus on that.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
No, you can't focus on it.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
So I think it becomes your hobby.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
But I think, really, I would say only in the
last seven or eight years, I started making some deliberate
decisions to start doing more music, and I think those
have led me to where I am now. It's crazy,
like it's twenty four years. It's like a long time. Yeah,
it's half. I think I've been here half my life now.
(18:48):
It's so cool.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
I know we're going to head towards music right now
because we're very keen to talk about a particular thing
that what something that's actually not a lot of people get.
Nobody that we know has had the chance to experience this,
and now that we know you have, we're going to
hammer you about it. You were at the Grammy Awards.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Yep, yep, that's right.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Bobby is a member of the voting committee for the
Grammy Awards. He was at this year's Grammy's and wait
till you hear the stories that he has to share
with us. You can hear them the next episode.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
You've been listening to Life as we Know It Unfiltered
with Tony Tanalia and Lisa Cameron. If you like this episode,
please leave us a review or drop a comment on
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(19:43):
us yet, catch up with you in our next episode.
Every day brings a new story. Life isn't perfect, but
it's perfectly ours, with raw conversations, inspiring stories and laugh
until you cry moments we hit him, I unpack it
all and figure it out together, one episode at a time.
This is Life as we know It, Unfiltered with Tony
Tanalia and Lisa Cameron.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Hello and welcome.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Hellok, We've got a guest.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Who's joining us for the next few episodes that well
may not be familiar to some of you, even though
he's got an Instagram following of over five hundred thousand people.
A man by the name of Bobby Baskerm. Bobby is
a musician, a music producer, marketing executive and is now
representing Australia as a member of the voting committee for
America's biggest awards.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
The Grammys.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
How cool is that?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Hey, We're going to hear all about that incoming episodes.
Episode that would like to introduce you to Bobby, a
man who grew up in India, was a part of
a band that was massive in India at the time
called mock Shot, and then left all that behind and
came to Australia.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Enjoy his life story.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
And you've been here for four years.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Oh no, I've been here for twenty four years. What
did you put on here?
Speaker 2 (01:18):
He moved to ha On, moved to Melbourne into.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
That must have been a mistake. That was me typing
on the phone at eleven thirty in the night. Okay,
so that's first to say two thousand and.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
One, right, two thousand and one.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Walked to Melbourne in two thousand.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
Ship, he's just built up this whole networking.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
That would have been I would have been locked in
my house.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
That wait, best friend, best friends with every storekeeper in
the five months five and Andrews. So I moved to
Melbourne in two thousand and one, but I was twenty
five or something.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
So what made you move in Melbourne?
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Well, my wife and her family had moved here about
six years or five years before that, but she wasn't
wasn't my wife and we were kind of going out
at the time. We don't even kind of going up
for about six or seven months, and then the whole
family immigrated to Australia, which was you know, a lot
of Indian families were doing it at the time, and
(02:22):
a lot of their family were here. So yeah, so
that was a proper long distance relationship, like proper this
is no Internet, no chatting, no Skype, no whatsappening, letters
writing letters. So this was like she does this whole
sack of them, and I would do these massive letters,
right like double side pages, ten pages. They would almost
be like today this morning, I did you know.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
That's almost like a dear diary.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Yeah, it was pretty much that, and I do like
ten And you have to be careful because the more
you wrote, the more expensive it was to post. Yes, yeah,
like what's the ratio of the thinnest paper is how
much you want to write? Yea and yeah. So I'd
send her these massive letters and she like you know,
she in her god bless, it's like three pages back
(03:10):
was missing whatever. And it was so expensive because even
phone like we'd have like one phone call every fortnight.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Yes, not because it was expensive.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
You had to buy the cards and you had to
do call some other number. And yes, So there was
all that thing happening. So she was here for about
you know, three or four years. Then we decided to
get married and she came came back down to India.
We get married, and then I moved in two thousand
and one to the you know, the grass is green
on the other side syndrome.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
Is it greener here? Do you think?
Speaker 3 (03:45):
Not at all?
Speaker 4 (03:45):
No?
Speaker 3 (03:47):
No, But you know I had to build that live.
I had to build it. I made the decision to move,
so I had to kind of embrace it and kind
of start from scratch. And because I was in the
middle of like a really intense career when I left,
Like I was recording engineer, audio kind of post production engineer.
I was working in film industry. I was working in
advertising and music production, and that Indian music industry was
(04:09):
kind of raging at the time, independent music. Every label
was in the country. All the international labels had come
in to kind of sign Indian artists and kind of
such a big market at that time, especially Yeah, you know,
so we were working on albums with Sony, really crazy
kind of environment. And then in parallel to that, I
was in this massive rock band called Mosha. I was
(04:30):
the bass player and we were we were the headlining
act and traveling all over the country. And you can
do anything you want, and you're twenty two, and you
know what could go wrong?
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Really, So you get married and you saint getting married for.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
About just in terms of just being arrogant, like, oh
I was dick because you were given everything you wanted.
You could ask for anything and you were given. You
were you know, on stage, and people were paying money
to come and see you, and all those trappings of
being in that world, you know, and yeah, and you
twenty one, twenty two, it's like, you know, twenty three,
(05:04):
you know, completely dickish. Everybody, all of us were. I
mean I was probably the most of it. I kind
of embraced my my whatever rock stardom. We were being
given to the fullest, you know, like hotel room tantrums
and you know all those Oh I was one of those. No, no, no,
(05:26):
I was that.
Speaker 4 (05:27):
Now we need to turn this into a therapy session.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
Yeah, I think we might, although I think I don't
think so. My wife tried, where did the tantrums come from?
Just from being able to just from being allowed to
have the tantrums?
Speaker 2 (05:41):
So okay, so you weren't a tantrum person, but the
fact that you couldn't get away with it is what
made you do it.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Yeah. India and the US I found a kind of
very similar that way. They like to elevate people into
that status. You can't do that here here, no one
cares like you catch it down. You've got to. Yeah, one,
you gotta go buy your own bread under Elton John
And even he couldn't really get away with a lot
if he came to Australia, you know what I mean, Like,
(06:07):
you still can't be too much of a diva here, yeah,
but in India you could and you still can, and
in the US you can, and you kind of there's
no tall poppy syndrome in India. Yeah, I mean, don't
get me wrong. Your fall from grace can be equally
as hard if you're in the US or in here.
But you were in that position, like you know, we
went in a big rock band. We were like in
(06:27):
our twenties, playing all these big concerts, you know, and
even off stage, I was with these really well known
music producers, film producers, you know, hanging out with some
of the biggest singers at the time. And even though
you're kind of an engineer, you're still in that world. Yeah,
and ye're young, and there's no one around to kind
(06:50):
of put any restraints around you, yeah, you know, and
you almost feel you have to be that way and
of be, you know, to live that persona I suppose yes,
and I think you know, and also because I wasn't
spending a lot of time at home and doing all
those things, there was no kind of yes, it's okay
(07:11):
to be this way when you're doing that thing, but
then when you come home you got to kind of
be Bobby. And there wasn't that you know, that cutoff
point you leave it at the gate and then you
come into the house. I was the same at home.
Oh wow, there wasn't a lot of interaction outside of
that world. Yeah, you know, I was working probably sixteen
(07:32):
to eighteen hours a day, so the only time I'd
come back home was to spend very minimal time and
to sleep. So you're, yeah, you're not having those normal
relationships relationships outset, so yeah, it's very bubble like.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
Do you think there needs to be more supporting that.
I went and I lived in London for a few
years and I did some of my backgrounds in coaching,
and I remember I coached a musician over there and
one of the issues was the you know, up on stage,
they're elevated, you know, they get to that really high status,
but then once they're off stage, integrating into daily life
(08:09):
was such a big challenge and then you know, when
I could see that in him, I could see it
in all artists and nothing. How do they actually do this?
And do they need more support to be able to
integrate in day to day life?
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Like see, at the time when you're in it, you
don't actually realize that. Yeah, you don't think that you
need that.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
First of all, you don't think there's an issue.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
No, you don't think there's an issue at all. Because
also it never stops. It's always there, So there's no
kind of you become it, Yeah, because there's little to reality. Yeah,
you know what I mean, there's no kind of Oh
so this is the normal world that never happened, Yeah,
because you never saw them. Like ninety five when I
started this band, and we you know, and very quickly,
(08:52):
I think at about six to it, we became quite big.
And that's dangerous in itself. Yes, yep, you almost haven't
earned that. Yeah, you haven't done the hard yet.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
You haven't done hard that, You haven't done the hard work.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Yeah, very quickly it became reasonably.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
I said the same in radio, Like I've worked with
people in radio that bang get elevated very quickly and
have these massive egos struggled, but then they come and
that they crash hard too when it's time for them
to crash hard.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
That happened when I came to Australia.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Right, yeah, because I was going to ask you, so
you you had just you know earlier, said that coming here,
the grass isn't greener on the other side, you like,
I don't want to say you're not happy here.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
At the time, it was that crash and everything comes
to a halt.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Up to all that life you've been living all stopped.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
Just yeah, it just stops. And then ye I'm move
into you know, a little units in laws.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
You've gone from being someoneans snobn's I grew up ins
but yeah, so you kind of yeah, and so one
morning I wake up and it's like nobody knows who
I am, No one cares who I am.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
I was like, oh, that's horrific, like you know, and yeah,
that was a massive crash from that all this world
that never stopped for five or six years.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
I get that because that happened to me when I
went to Ireland. Like in Australia, people knew who I was.
Worked in the industry, you know, you knew everybody and
I never had to apply for a job. Any job
I got in this industry, I was contacted, come and
work for me. That's that's how it went. But then
I went to Ireland and I was there for five years,
and again I went over because I got asked to
(10:46):
go over there, and then I ended up losing my
job and then I had to look for work and
it was the hardest thing because nobody knew who I was.
There was no yep, I can do this and this's like, yeah,
but who are you?
Speaker 3 (10:58):
You know? So I totally that that feeling, and that
was horrific. So i'd wake up, I think for but
a good part of two years, I would wake up
and go, oh, I want to go back. This is horrible. Yeah,
this is what normal is normal life. And she was,
you know, and she was kind of while she was
(11:18):
while I was still there and she was here, she
was just doing normal eighteen nineteen seventeen, eighteen year old
things or whatever. It was like she was a supermarket
checkout Franklins it was at the time. Yes, so you know,
So that was and then but she made the mistake
of actually it was probably good that she did this.
After we got married in India. She stayed there for
(11:38):
a year and she experienced a year of what life
was like for me.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Yeah, and did she wanted to divorce?
Speaker 3 (11:45):
No, No, she loved it crazy, She loved it. She
was like getting you know, going to all these places
and she'd be at the side stage and go.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Like yeah, kind of she was like a celebrity in
her own right.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
Yeah, she took it took a while for her to
go understand, oh my god, these like you know, there's
people grabbing his pant when he's on this I mean,
you know, like all that stupid stuff kind of at
all unless someone's falling and they're trying to get up
in the supermarket. But but she kind of saw that
(12:18):
from outside. So she was in that bubble with us
for about a good year. So I think she kind
of got it. And I think it's good that she was,
because when I moved here, she kind of understood to
an extent what I was going through, and she gave
me a lot of kind of leeway in terms of
you know, tantrums and mental issues. I would say, trying
(12:41):
to kind of now acclimatize to this whole different country,
and you can't be a dick and you can't be
you know, and no one cares that you were doing.
Because I thought, I'm going to come in here, I'm
going to walk straight into these studies and win a Grammy,
like you know, people are gonna begging me to work
in their studios. As I came with these credentials you
know that I had, yep, and none of that. So
that was and now I've got to like earn money.
(13:04):
I've never had to worry about the same thing. I've
never had to worry about how I was going to
make money because it was always being made. I was
making money with the band and the music and the
studio and had to turn work down because that's how
busy it was in India. But now here's like, oh wow,
now I've got to like, I'm suddenly now dependent on
my wife's job. She's like an administrative assistant to something.
(13:24):
But you know, living with my in law, so our
life was suddenly in that room in the unit was
suddenly our life that was horrific. I mean, you know,
but I think you kind of so I said, Okay,
now I've got to go back and do what I studied.
What am I going to do like, no one here.
And that was when home studios started to get really prolific,
so big studios went hiring anyone. No one was using
(13:46):
big studios like Sing Sing, and none of that was happening,
very rare. They were struggling to fill the rooms. So like,
no people come here, have their own engineer. It's like, wow, okay,
you know. So then yeah, I had to kind of well,
I'd studied marketing and advertising and stuff when I was
in UNI in the oldie days, so I've got to
do that. So yeah, I just started working as like
a graphic designer in an office and really yeah, just
(14:09):
data entry.
Speaker 4 (14:10):
Wow, what a contrast.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
But I'm telling you, you learned to kind of you know,
I had to learn to humble and you had to
and you know, of course there would be in times
when my attitude would on these and you know, in
an office situation, that is going to work.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
None of that is going one of those big computers.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
Yeah, yeah, I've actually got to found a photograph of myself.
But yeah, so then that was it. And then for
a long time it was just you know, while I
was kind of trying to do music on the side,
but there's nothing just such a little going on here.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Yeah, so the music side of things, because obviously you
said when you got here you had to switch and
you started doing marketing and graphic design stuff. Did you
over the period of time then did you get back
into the music.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
Like I never completely switched off, which is good. So,
you know, I again amazing how things happen. You know,
Like I was walking around Saint Albans. I'd gone to
like the supermarket something. Then I walked down one of
those streets and there was a little music shop.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
I was like, oh wow, yeah, music shop. Like it
wasn't bigger than a little bigger than this room to
have been, yet a few guitars and some strings, and
you know, like, oh that's wild. That's nice. And then
you had like a bulletin board that had some yeah,
you know, people's little ads and things. I'm doing singing
classes and and there's one ad that had oh I've
(15:38):
got there's a little recording studio, so if you need
something recorded, please come down. And you know, I'm like, oh, wow,
recording studio. I picked it up and that's just yeah. Yeah.
And I only realized it was how close it was
when I went back home. Like you had to look
at the mailways. Yeah, I remember, yeah, oh yeah, no GPS.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
I was going to ask you where about and omens
was it? Because I probably won't pass it time to.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
File Freda Streets somewhere, some one of those Erica Avenue
or something. Yeah, thirteen Erica. I remember the address. It's
like burnt into my brain and yeah. So then I went, oh,
it was actually quite close to that music shop. So
I said, I'm just gonna walk there. I just walked
up the house and knocked on the door. It was
like just a suburban house, and said, hey, I saw
your thing. You know, studio called John. He's had like
(16:21):
a little set up at the back. He converted his
garage into one of a little studio. And they're like, yeah,
so that guy. I didn't actually do a lot of
stuff with him. I was kind of in and out.
I'd go there and do something on an afternoon and
black I made fifty bucks.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Yeah, like wow, so you were producing stuff for yourself
or for other papers.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
No, it was just like mixing stuff people come and
do like little demos, and was like the engineer that's
oh yeah, yeah I was. I was creating music. Yeah, yeah,
just being the engineer. Yeah, but not a lot of
money and you know, just bits and pieces and things
and and yes. But but that guy John, he introduced
me to somebody else, and then that person is somebody else.
(17:00):
That person, you mean, somebody else and that person and
that kind of So if hadn't just one walked into that,
you know that studios in Albans like half half the
people half the people I know now when the musical
district actually came, I trace him back. They came from
this guy, you know. So yeah, so I think over
the years, I mean, I had to make money, so
(17:21):
I had to kind of focus on marketing, and I
realized that I could kind of make a living doing that.
So I kind of did that. And it was horrible
because every time I go back to India on holiday,
I'd stepped right back into that world and everybody's like,
why are you staying here?
Speaker 4 (17:35):
Like a.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
Forgotten this is you know, you go to the parties
and the thing. Because my family was still there, my
mom still lives there. Yes, it's like very tempting, but
at the time I was like, oh, I don't think
I could. I'd started to become a bit too westernized.
For my own good. So I was like, oh, I
can't go back to live in India. It's like I've
lived here in Australia now and it was too far
down with borderhiles and there was mortgage and all those
(18:01):
kind of things, Like I can't make those decisions anymore.
But yeah, so that's what it was. So then I
had to kind of but I kind of kept touch,
you know, with that music, and I was starting to
I always had some kind of home recording facility, yep.
But you don't have the time to do it, Like
if that's not the thing you're doing to make money, Yeah,
you can't really spend a lot of time.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
You haven't focus on that.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
No, you can't focus on it.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
So I think it becomes your hobby.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
But I think, really, I would say only in the
last seven or eight years, I started making some deliberate
decisions to start doing more music, and I think those
have led me to where I am now. It's crazy,
like it's twenty four years. It's like a long time. Yeah,
it's half. I think I've been here half my life now.
(18:48):
It's so cool.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
I know we're going to head towards music right now
because we're very keen to talk about a particular thing
that what something that's actually not a lot of people get.
Nobody that we know has had the chance to experience this,
and now that we know you have, we're going to
hammer you about it. You were at the Grammy Awards.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Yep, yep, that's right.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Bobby is a member of the voting committee for the
Grammy Awards. He was at this year's Grammy's and wait
till you hear the stories that he has to share
with us. You can hear them the next episode.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
You've been listening to Life as we Know It Unfiltered
with Tony Tanalia and Lisa Cameron. If you like this episode,
please leave us a review or drop a comment on
our socials. We love hearing from you. You can also
come hang out with us on Instagram at Life as
we Know It dot podcast and on Facebook at Life
as we Know It. Oh and please see that follow
button on your favorite podcast app if you're not following
(19:43):
us yet, catch up with you in our next episode.
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