TRUST ME I KNOW WHAT I'm DOING

I’ve been thinking a lot recently of how for some of the art and expression that I really enjoy, there a construct that starts with a beginning, has a middle, maybe even a conflict to resolve, and definitely an ending. Sometimes the ending leads to more questions and leaves me both longing to continue the search and equally at peace. But I figure it’s this meandering journey that we love, whether we’re experiencing it on our own or as a group. For musician, singer, and artist Sameer Gadhia, this journey has taken on many formats, leading to a fair amount of personal and artistic discovery, and especially for listeners and fans, a journey that many are enjoying. Sameer is the lead singer for Young the Giant, and grew up as an Indian American in Michigan and then in Southern California with several of his bandmates who were also children of immigrants. Like many of us, he was surrounded with Indian culture and music and stories and found himself going to Stanford before launching with full energy to answer that internal yearning for art and music. As the frontman and lead singer for Young the Giant for almost 20 years, Sameer’s journey has been one that’s evolved through many successful hits and studio albums, an independent label, and a series in partnership with Sirius XM, which you should please check out called POINT OF ORIGIN, which spotlights emerging artists of color in an effort to disrupt and challenge the homogeneity of Western alternative and Indie Rock music. More recently, at the core of these expressions has been the exploration of identity, with the band finding themselves in more nuanced ways on each album, and Sameer’s brainchild project for Young the Giant to harmonize his own story as inspired by the Mahabharat with last years release of the album, American Bollywood. Most recently, he’s been on tour, performing both in the US and Europe, and so we caught up to talk about everything from parenthood and performing, to that notion of feeling at “home”and even about collaboration and teamwork. But we started by talking especially about what it’s meant to be on tour and whether he feels that there’s almost an anatomy to each of his performances…