Vivek Mahajan grew up in a quaint little scenic Himachali town called Kullu. Music was something that reverberated strongly in his heart. Hence, he decided to drop out of his engineering course. Right from the folk tunes to the borrowed mixed tapes from his friends during his formative years, melodies and lyrics had taken over the world he knew. Packing his bags and aspirations he set out for Delhi to study western classical music at Delhi School of Music alongside journalism and advertising. The urge to write and also to keep the music alive took Vivek to the radio industry where he was creatively involved for more than 10 years. Consummating his call for music he soon started the Mountain Music Project – an effort to revive the old folk music of Himachal Pradesh. Vivek, being heavily involved with folk music, was also influenced by Country, Blues, Jazz, American folk, and Indie music genres, which clearly reflects in his latest album.
The album “Walking Backwards” released on 21st March 2021, is a journey of almost 10 years of songwriting and contemplating says Vivek. The album took 10 years to put together with just two mics, a soundcard, a midi keyboard, and a MacBook. It was never meant to be released as an album, but somehow the music just weaved itself together, he says. The album varies in genres to an extent, but the sonic core revolves around experiences and observations. The title track is about a person wishing to go on a journey backwards from where he stands. The 37-year-old also brought to light that it is A journey not backwards in space, but in time and by doing so trying to avoid all the mistakes that he made and eventually implode into the safe embrace of his mother’s womb.
The guitar lover strongly believes and states that ‘becoming a musician is an ongoing process, which in fact a musician becomes you,’ and considering the music he has made, “It starts whenever it comes to him, he won’t force it, in fact, one can’t force anything upon yourself, it just loses its charm”. He aspires to work with artists Amit Trivedi and Eddie Vedder and is influenced by Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, and Led Zeppelin. Vivek says that In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer. One could fathom from his album that it reflects on how relative our whole experience of living life is.
