Loyola Greyhound

Issue date: 4/29/08 Section: Arts & Society

Media Credit: www.myxertones.com [Click to enlarge]

G. Sharma might seem like your ordinary student, but he truly isn't. With three potential majors at Johns Hopkins and a music career on top of that, Sharma's definitely going places.

On April 20 of this year, 20-year-old Sharma released his CD, entitled "21." I asked him why he picked the number 21 for the album name. "That I can't really tell you," he said. "Cause I honestly don't know. I feel like I'm gonna be 21 when this album finally makes some noise."

Sharma first started getting into music around age seven, when his father would play him music. "My father was a big Stevie Wonder fan, and he would play music every night in our living room growing up," said Sharma.

"I started getting into making music around 11," he said. "That's when I started playing guitar." Sharma also plays piano and sings.

During the process of learning the guitar, Sharma also began writing songs. "I.. started writing songs in this old black notebook I actually still own. I go back to it to get inspiration on songs every now and then. I also got the dates I wrote the songs on 'em and it's really fun looking back."

Sharma's songs date back to 1999 and 2000. "It's crazy though, because when I go through those songs it's like going back in time." He felt that when he was "experiencing emotions like happiness and pain for the first time really captured the purest form of those emotions." Most of what he wrote back then were lyrics, but some had simple instrumentals to them. "Since I was so young," he explained.

Sharma graduated from high school in 2005, and he attended Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa. But halfway through that school year, Sharma's father died. "After that, I basically lived in the piano practice rooms. I would stay in there all days of the week, singing and playing until sometimes four a.m. every night."

Sharma finished out his freshman year at Lehigh, but soon transferred to Johns Hopkins University. That's when he knew he had to pursue music.

Sharma's been working on his album for about a year now, doing all the technical things himself. He produced it, recorded it, composed it and sang on it. How did he do all this? "All the instruments I played on a keyboard, and vocals I recorded in the walk-in closet of my apartment," he said. "I'm learning a lot about sound engineering as school. I've learned that studios are really only useful for recording instruments, 'cause with the right insulation you could make a vocal booth in your closet if you wanted to. So that's what I did."

Currently, Sharma is majoring in sound engineering and computer music, making him a double-degree student. Once he finishes his computer music degree next year he will work on an electrical engineering major as well. Although, according to Sharma, this is not all set in stone. If he does complete all of this, Sharma will graduate in 2011, instead of next year.

With those degrees, he's planning on getting a job in A&R--otherwise known as Artists & Repertoire. "It's a job finding artists, developing them, then producing them. You gotta have a knowledge of everything, so that's why I picked those degrees."

Sharma's bringing a lot of new ideas to the table, and I expect we'll hear a lot from him in the future.

Check out his website at http://gsharmamusic.com, buy his music on iTunes or Amazon.com, or download ringtones for your cell phone at http://www.myxertones.com/artist/7287921/.

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