Piyush Soni: The Artist Who Disappeared to Find Music
Do you remember “Chokra”?
Released in 1995, the song introduced a young Piyush Soni to audiences through a music video featuring five boys dancing in Nepal. The song later became closely associated with the celebrations around Sri Lanka's historic 1996 Cricket World Cup victory and received considerable television exposure.
For many artists, that would have been the beginning of a commercial music career.
For Soni, it became the beginning of something else.
He disappeared from the music industry.
But he never stopped studying music.
He Left the Industry to Find Music
Around 2000, Soni stepped away from the commercial music circuit and began travelling across India.
He visited villages, temples, festivals and weddings, meeting folk musicians and Sufi performers along the way. He listened to traditional instruments, local melodies and music that existed far away from record labels and commercial charts.
The journey changed his understanding of music.
He began seeing Indian music not simply as entertainment, but as a part of culture, memory and everyday life.
At the same time, he taught himself modern recording and production techniques, including sound design, digital audio, DJ software, composition, arrangement, mixing and mastering.
What began as curiosity became years of study.
Goa Added Another Chapter
His musical exploration eventually took him to Goa, where he encountered performers from different parts of the world - DJs, jazz musicians, mantra artists, acoustic performers, ecstatic dance artists and experimental musicians.
Dany is a business journalist with Annuity Outlook Magazine, with over 16 years of experience across print, digital, and wires. He covers business, technology, policy, and corporate developments, with a focus on in-depth reporting and analysis. Over the years, he has worked across multiple editorial platforms. Skilled in content creation, editing, proofreading, and overseeing print layouts, his career spans multiple editorial platforms.
