Abhijeet Shetty is a multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter and music producer from Mumbai, India. Linkin Park, Green Day, and Bollywood had a huge influence on him growing up which inspired him to start writing songs at the age of ten. Despite always being interested in making music, coming from a modest family he decided to pursue computer engineering for practical purposes. Life took a pleasant twist when he was exposed to the theatre culture during his undergraduate studies at COEP, Pune. It was here that he got the chance to explore music, delving deep into genres like Indian classical, blues, funk and even tribal music from all over the world. He made the most of the wealth of experiences his peers had to offer, bagging prizes for bass performance, sound design and background scoring in Firodiya Karandak, a reputed intercollegiate theatre competition.
This experience opened up a world of possibilities. He went on to perform professionally as a part time singer-guitarist, while working for Citi as a software developer for three years, before finally deciding to formally pursue a diploma in music production from The Audio Guys Institute in Mumbai. Landing an internship here as an assistant studio and recording engineer was a highlight as he derived valuable insights from the music industry, getting to work for prominent artists such as Rakesh Chaurasia and Purbayan Chatterjee. He also took this time to add to his instrumental repertoire, learning to play the guitar, keys and drums briefly under Mayukh Sarkar, Shirley Manuel and Kunal Athreya respectively.
Abhijeet sees music as a universal language, be it Indian classical, Western, Latin, Arabic or African.
“It's fascinating that there can be such similarities in the arrangement of notes all around the world, for musicians to be able to communicate with each other”.
His background as a computer engineer has strongly influenced his perception of music. He says music is ultimately a study of time and he loves learning and teaching different kinds of music.
His strong sense of musical awareness led him to found the Timekeepers’ Academy, his own music institute, focused on understanding the Music language, so that students can explore and come up with their own compositions to express themselves. He believes that playing any kind of music has a therapeutic effect and everyone can and should learn how to play at least one instrument.
“I hope I can spread this message through my work”.
He has gone on to release his own musical works independently and in collaboration with other artists. He has performed across various cities in India and in Singapore. He also works as a Voiceover artist, and loves studying and experimenting with accents, vocal textures, impressions and speech tonality.
Apart from his musical endeavours, he enjoys playing sports (especially football) and has been a Manchester United fan since the age of eight, having even played professionally for a brief period at a local club. He also loves playing chess and dabbling in video games such as Valorant, FIFA, F1 and the Unchartered series to name a few favourites. He is an Advanced Open Water certified scuba diver with over ten recorded dives and loves travelling, trekking and exploring food.
Feel free to hit him up for a conversation!
