Check Out Mayukh Chatterji’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Mayukh Chatterji.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I was born to a Bengali family in the city of Kolkata in, India. Even though my native tongue isn’t English, I studied at one of the best Catholic schools in the city- Don Bosco School, started by Italian Salesian priest John Bosco. 13 years of studying sharpened my skills in speaking and writing English and allowed exposure to the Western world through cinema, music and literature. I started my writing journey with a personal blog back in 2006, where I’d pen thoughts, memoirs, and life’s adventures and shenanigans. I was an introvert and didn’t have a lot of friends or presence through my early years in school. My tryst with music started when I started playing a lap guitar in the 8th grade and eventually moved to an acoustic guitar in the 11th grade. When I fell in love for the first time in my life in the tenth grade, I wrote my first poem. Coupled with learning the guitar, it paved the way for writing my first song. I sang Iris by the Googoo Dolls for the first time at the school talent contest with a friend and won third place. 

I never gave up on sitting down with myself and my guitar and creating and playing music. I was also briefly part of a band, Euphony, in which I played the guitar and bass in the city of Pune in India, where I worked for a few years before I moved to the USA. 

In the USA, I worked in Georgia before moving to North Carolina in 2018. Even though I kept up composing music and writing songs in Georgia, it wasn’t till I moved to Cary (where I didn’t know a soul) that I stepped out of my comfort zone in front of people at the Tongue & Groove Open Mic in downtown Raleigh. I started attending multiple open mics in the area and guitar and singing meetups. Putting myself out there along with my own music and consistently applying to forums like AGT, The Voice, Sofar Sounds, Tiny Desk Concerts for years finally bore fruit in my Sofar Sounds application getting accepted finally after 5 years, and I got to perform on such a huge global platform on 14th July 2023. 

I thoroughly enjoy creating things from scratch and have taught myself songwriting, guitar, ukulele, keys, drums, music production and software, graphic design over the years. I have maintained multiple blogs, self-published two poetry books – Overlap and Tomato Sun, released a self-produced EP – Out of Words, designed my own website, and designed all the artwork for my books and music logos. I put a piece of myself into all of my creative work. 

Having said that, I actually work as a Business Analyst at a global bank in Cary and have been in this industry for over 10 years now. It is a completely different field of work, but I always make time for my creative outlet even though I have grown older and experienced tumultuous changes in my life and moved cities, countries, continents. 

We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The road to maintaining an alternative life as a musician is definitely full of struggles. Having grown up in India, even though I was exposed to Westernization, I was never fully a Westerner. Since I have come to the USA, my identity has become somewhat of a juxtaposition of the two cultures, and I struggle to understand who I am anymore. My writing and music have always been in English, but at the same time, I didn’t grow up in America and hence, wasn’t exposed to the small details and nitty gritties of its pop culture. We had a slice of that pizza in India but not the whole thing. 

I often find myself in social situations where I am missing references which everyone else knows because I am not an inherent or innate part of the culture. 

And there is the stereotype of an Indian person in American society, which does not help either. On top of that, my life in the States is bound by a visa as an immigrant, which would never allow me to life a musician life here fully or freely. 

It is definitely a wild mix of these things that are constant obstacles in my life as a musician. 

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I actually work at a bank in the Fintech sector as a Business Analyst. I have been in tech for over 10 years, and after getting an MBA done last year, I have moved into the BA role, which is kind of a liaison between the core tech folks and the clients who are not familiar with technology in detail. 

Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
For me, my family has been my biggest mentor. Both my sisters are musically talented, and though my parents are not, they have always paved the way for me to keep exploring and pursuing my hobbies in writing or music and enabled me to get to the point I now am at. I also draw a lot of inspiration from talented friends and keep in touch with almost everyone in my life. 

When I find someone who inspires me, I let them know upfront that they are an inspiration to me and what they inspire me to do. It is a kind way to make someone else feel good as well about themselves and boosts their morale as well, and the depth of their talent and how much they want to contribute to my life and inspire me increases automatically. 

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.mayukhchatterji.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/indigo_train/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mayukh.chatterji/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mayukhchatterji/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/indigotrain

Image Credits
https://www.instagram.com/teresatomasphotography/