sharmaji profile picture

sharmaji

download Sub Swara's "Coup d'Yah" at beatport.com!

About Me



Himachal Pradesh meets midwest USA::

Short, sweet, and hopefully accurate:
My name's Dave. When i produce, I call myself "Sharmaji" as it's both part of my last name and a good 'ol punk-rawk middle finger to the concept of caste; if a white-looking guy from NJ can call himself 'sharmaji,' everything's equal.

I make music. At times i've tried to get a real job but it just doesn't work that well. As a 'baterista' I play tabla, dhol, drumset, and lots of other thwacky-thwacky and boingy-boingy instruments. As a producer i build tunes for physical/mental/emotional motion, often of the dubstep persuasion, that have a lot of said thwacky/boingy elements. I've been lucky enough to play with lots of extremely talented artists, pushing boundaries forward and entertaining people from NYC, to SF, to Brazil, to Delhi.
I'm part of the Sub Swara crew here in NYC, and am the percussionist for Rekha's Basement Bhangra. I also run a record label, Low Motion Records, here in NYC with Secret Agent Gel. Lately I've been playing with Moby. Were i not involved with 'em, you'd find me at the shows anyway. The goal is motion and progress through music, on all fronts, all the time.
I've also been known to jump around like a spring-loaded toy behind turntables and drums. I mean.... wouldn't you?
drop me a msg or leave a comment and i'll be sure to get back to you. otherwise...
Via some lovely people (Guy Licata, I'm looking at you) I wound up playing in Mexico with Moby in mid-May, 2008. here's "porcelain," with me on drumset, from festival extremo in Guadalajara:
in June 2007, Tarun from Beats without Borders called me up and asked me if wanted to play a gig in Ottawa. It was bananas:
1 month later, Tarun and I in bare competition at Stern Grove, SF, with DJ Collage on the mic, alongside immy Love & Dholrhythms:


we were graced by the presence of Stereotyp and Mary Anne Hobbs for SubSwara 024 in december, 2007. At 4am, people were still goin' nuts. This is why we continue to make music:

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 12/20/2005
Band Website: davesharma.net
Band Members: uh... me? me and the parts of the creative process that think everything sucks, or everything's awesome? A very short list of folks i work with and have loved working with: Sub Swara (myself, Dhruva, Sunder, Haj, Juakali, Pictureman, Skip Intro), Rekha, Sunil Seghal, Moby, Cheap Trick, Greg Hoy & Twice as Bright, Jungli; Jim Abbott, Paul Bogaev, Deep Singh and AR Rahman from Bombay Dreams, Samita Sinha, and if you get on youtube and search for 'the skalars,' you'll likely find some entertainment for a good hour or so.
Influences: space vs. sound. cities. repetition as rhythm. rhythm as the source. bass. things worth experiencing.

elements, water, coffee, dhol di avaaz, comptortion, keharva, apache, amen, 20" kick drums missing a few lugs, cymbals taped to microphones..... real-time sonics. berimbau. vinyl.

and..........: studio one, trojan box sets, upsetter dubs, DnB on commerical suicide, burial, dmz/mystikz/loefah, planet Mu, TeeBee, Pendulum, LTJ Bukem, PMC, Tigerstyle, AC/DC, Fugazi, Asha and Lata, Mukesh, the clash, bad bains, BRAINSTORM.SHEEN, mere guruji, zakirji, overdriven preamps, Jeff Buckley, Sufiana, Gurdas Mann, shudhdh kalyan, rageshri, pilu, bhupali, really phenomenally over-the-top bollywood productions, 1/2" tape, tehai. music that describes life, which in turn inspires movement.
Sounds Like: riddim vs. motion vs. beauty vs. energy
Record Label: Low Motion Records
Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

new Sub Swara podcast!

Fam-- we just posted a new podcast, with myself selecting tunes that should give you a take on what 3:15am might sound like at Sub Swara, with the whole room ready for a ride. 20 tracks in just over ...
Posted by sharmaji on Sat, 31 May 2008 10:10:00 PST

incoming: COUP D’YAH, the debut LP from Sub Swara!

not gonna spill all the beans about this one just yet. But trust me-- it's a glitchy, dancehall-y, dubstep-y, energetic and meditative gem. MUCH more info to come, both here and at subswara.com. wa...
Posted by sharmaji on Mon, 19 May 2008 11:52:00 PST

"Koli Stance" b/w "Skank Ethics"--soon come on Low Motion Records

waiting on test pressings--"Koli" has been around, cut to numerous dubplates, and "skank ethics" has been a staple of my DJ sets for the past 6 months, as well as being featured on the DubWar001 podca...
Posted by sharmaji on Mon, 19 May 2008 11:44:00 PST

"Koli Stance" featured in DJ Spookys new book, "Sound Unbound"

Paul Miller, aka DJ Spooky, has included Dhruva's and my (mines? is that even a word?) track "Koli Stance"--which is also the 2nd release on Low Motion Records, as well as a featured tune on the Sub S...
Posted by sharmaji on Mon, 19 May 2008 11:42:00 PST

Mexico with Moby and Underworld

So i spent all of last week playing 70% percussion/30% drumset with Moby at 3 gigs in Mexico. Moby has been working on this live:remixed project, involving some (pretty fantastic) remixes of his tune...
Posted by sharmaji on Mon, 19 May 2008 11:37:00 PST

hunkered down in the bunker. apologies.

Fam-- so it's been a busy winter and spring here in the Sharmaji camp, which i'll brief you about in multiple blog posts so that my outrageously unorganized mind can appear to be organized here on mys...
Posted by sharmaji on Mon, 19 May 2008 11:20:00 PST

New Tune!

Radha Prepares. featuring the illustrious Samita Sinha on an endlessly inspiring vocal. A holiday pean to all that is beautiful in this world.Subswara was outSTANDING. Stereotyp continues to be so f...
Posted by sharmaji on Wed, 05 Dec 2007 05:07:00 PST

Assassins Creed is OUT, test pressings are IN, and SubSwara is ON, baby...

yyyyyyyyyyyyo massive! So lots of good pre-holiday season goodies here in sharmastan. First and foremost-- so much good stuff is going to happen in '08, if the spreadsheets, jpeg's, and mp3s that ar...
Posted by sharmaji on Sun, 18 Nov 2007 10:07:00 PST

Yo te quera infinito...

So much ado about much a-done. We're back. We're married. And as of this afternoon, Low Motion records really exists, with product being forged out of petro-products somewhere in london (big up tra...
Posted by sharmaji on Thu, 27 Sep 2007 10:47:00 PST

new tune in Dubwar Podcast 001

hope all is good, folks; coming off of a great weekend of gigs w/ rekha, first vs. James F'ing Freidman & the Subatomic Soundsystem (who were nasty!) at Governor's Island, and then vs. ALL OF BRAZIL, ...
Posted by sharmaji on Thu, 30 Aug 2007 06:34:00 PST