Hemanth Jois on the transformation of a software engineer to a renowned musician

A happy-go-lucky chap from Koppa, Chikkamagaluru, Hemanth Jois sure is living the life he always dreamt of by making music every day. But all wasn’t easy as he had to give up the comfort of a cushy corporate job and plunge into the unknown world of the arts. “Being good at computers and coming from a small town where engineering is a highly respected field, becoming a software engineer was my plan,” says the young musician who is climbing up the popularity charts slowly but steadily. After completing his studies, he landed the job of a marketing analyst. "But I wasn't happy and changed four to five jobs in a year. I also fell sick because I was working during the day and practising music at night," he recalls. The youngster then decided to go back to his roots, Koppa. After introspecting a lot, he came to Bengaluru to train further in music under the tutelage of Sanjeev Thomas, the guitarist of AR Rahman. One thing led to another and soon he came up with the soulful melody ‘Tunturu’ along with singer Chethan Naik which got over a hundred thousand views on YouTube. Soon he set up ‘The Jois Project’, a collaborative effort to produce original songs which transforms into ‘Naik & The Jois Project’ whenever he and Chethan perform live on stage together. Today, Hemanth has not only performed at many exciting places including the United States, but he is also getting a range of offers to compose music and background scores for Kannada movies. After receiving praises for films like ‘Aranya Kanda’ and ‘Statement 8/11’, he is working on more movies like ‘Single’ and ‘Naku Tanti’. He even went to Mumbai recently for a recording with the well-known Bollywood singer Neeti Mohan. “She came and told me that the session was just brilliant,” he says ecstatically. Ask him on how he prepares for a movie score and he says, “Firstly, the director explains the concept to us and we have to understand his or her vision. Some filmmakers are very particular about what they require, even the kind of instruments that we need to use while some give us a track to refer to so that makes things easy. Luckily most of my tracks have been accepted by the directors. If at all there is a reject, which is a rarity, I tend to use it for my future projects.” While he is buried under numerous movie projects, he also takes time to focus on what he first started out with – independent songs. “I am working on a single that is all about the current trend of being friend zoned!” he laughs. “I am sure many boys have experienced girls talking nicely to them but calling them ‘bro’ in the end!” Of course, working on a single has its own advantages. “I am my own boss but when I work for movies, I am guided by a boss.” Hemanth is also focussing his energies on organizing a Kannada ‘rockotsav’ in Bangalore in early 2019. “Although everyone thinks that Kannada live music doesn’t sell, we did sell out shows in venues like Humming Tree and Fandom last year. So we hope to do a big Kannada rock festival in Sarjapur in 2019 if all the licenses and other formalities fall in place.” His dream is to not only scale up in the Kannada film industry but also be a top-notch independent musician like Bombay Vikings or Alisha Chinai of the 90s. “As kids, we grew up listening to Indipop songs like 'Made In India', and still love them. I hope many of my independent songs become as popular so that the kids of today can enjoy them as adults many years from now.” To know such amazing musicians, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Download our magazine Spunky Indian to read exclusive stories.