We didn’t think about the money, we just wanted to make original music: The Yellow Diary

Back in 2015, this group of guys chucked their 9-to-5 jobs to pursue a career in music. They called themselves The Yellow Diary. Ask them if there was any fear about opting out of the ‘regular salary and secure future’ that came with their jobs, and the band, comprising, Stuart DaCosta, Harshvardhan Gadhvi, Sahil Shah, Rajan Batra, and Himonshu Parikh, tells us, “Fear of the unknown will always be there. But we wanted to create music and that gave us a rush of joy. It helped override the fear.” But was that enough to pay the bills? Not always, says Stuart, and adds, “It took a lot of gumption to hold our ground, especially when financial pressure was piling up. It is easy to bite the low-hanging fruit. But ultimately, we wanted to make original music and that’s what we did.”
‘We didn’t want to be a cover band’“There was a lot of pressure to be a cover band during our early days, but we only wanted to make original music,” says Stuart. “It’s not that doing covers are ‘bad’, but the songs you cover already have an inherent value attached to them, so it is easier to please the audience with them. Original music creates its own value. It really just boils down to what you seek as an artiste. Originals allow you to send out your own art, your own message and connect with the audience,” says Rajan.

‘Autotune is your best friend until you have to sing live’ “If you’re going to just be a recording artist, autotune is going to be your best friend. But if you go live and need to perform looking into the audience’s eyes, that’s when it gets tricky” says Stuart. Rajan adds, “I feel music in its most beautiful sense is when it’s played without any production. Quality comes from the perspective of what you can afford, so it’s important to have the skill to write something that touches hearts whether you’re backed by extensive equipment and studios or not.”
‘Now, there’s a listener for every kind of artist’ “There is way more freedom for art and music to exist in today’s day and age,” says Harshvardhan Gadhvi. “People are going to more concerts and exploring more genres; so, there’s a listener for every kind of artiste. Even in movies, nowadays, there are multiple artistes on a single playlist.”
‘The audience is more receptive to us, but I don’t think we have made it yet’“We still have a lot of untapped potential - I don’t think that we have made it. Roz-Roz for us was the song when we noticed a huge shift in the way the audience reacted to us. The way people sing it along at concerts, the streaming numbers, that song has been huge for us,” says Sahil.