Rock, metal and jazz in his veins

"He wakes up singing. And he sings till he goes to school," says Geeta Iyengar, mother of 14-year-old music prodigy Kashyap Iyengar. When he gets back from school, he listens to music for a minimum of three hours and then plays music until he goes to sleep.

Born in Mumbai and based in Delhi for three years, Kashyap was five when he first got into music. All he needed to do was listen to a song once and he could figure out the notes and chords. "I started playing tunes that I heard, mostly Bollywood, on my dad's Samsung mobile. It was in the pre touch-screen days, where the phones had keypads and each number had a different tone," he says.

Kashyap's parents thought that he had a natural interest in music, so they bought him a small keyboard, which he used for about a year until they bought him a bigger one. Did they ever think their baby was a music genius? "We never thought we would have a child prodigy, although many people told us that he was one. We only thought it could be true when we heard it from musicians. We found it cute at first, then we were surprised and then taken aback," shares Geeta.

By the time he was seven, Kashyap had already started sharing online tutorials for Bollywood songs. At nine, he started learning Western classical music and got his first digital piano, a Clavinova. "He completed his grade 7 Trinity exams two years ago, but didn't find it challenging enough to do level 8," shares his mum. Soon he moved towards other genres, including progressive metal and jazz. Because of their South Indian background, people suggested that he learn Carnatic, "but he didn't have an ear for it," says Geeta. Kashyap even did six 6-week online courses through Berklee College of Music, in Boston. He quickly moved to learning the guitar, bass and drums by himself.

While his maternal grandmother was a Carnatic singer and his brother used to play the tabla, the family has no other musical connection. Kashyap's favourite jazz artists include Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Snarky Puppy (a fusion band) and Louiz Banks and is also inspired by progressive keyboardists including Jordan Rudess, Keith Emerson and Dream Theater.

Kashyap, who performed at blueFROG's International Jazz Day last week, got into jazz around four years ago. He was spotted by the Godfather of Jazz in India, Louiz Banks, when he played at the inauguration of Furtados School of Music, in Bandra. "When I first heard Kashyap, I was impressed by his effortless piano skills. I asked him his age and he said 10. He is gifted and he works hard at his technique. He is showing great interest in learning jazz, so I have taken up the task of guiding and showing him the ropes. I threw him the challenge to play two of my compositions for Jazz Day, and he has come up aces," shares Banks.

He has no achievements or awards and has never been on reality TV shows, but "things are happening beautifully; the way he wants it. We didn't want to rob him of his childhood. When he was around 7, he would lie down next to me and talk about music. He would tell me like a wise, grown-up, old man 'I don't want premature, short-lived fame'. Things are happening at the right time in the right way. There are many ardent followers waiting to see what he will become," shares his mother.

Kashyap has an online band 'Split-screen Theater', where he collaborates with musicians from all over the world. Apart from doing music arrangements, plans of starting a band are in the pipeline. He wants "to be the richest musician," Geeta teases him. But he also wants to create a new genre and that's what he keeps in mind when he composes music. "Being different is what clicks. Following a typical trend doesn't work any more. That's how some of these famous bands got famous; because they were different," says Kashyap, who already has his dream piano, a Kurzweil PC3K8.

With over 7,000 subscribers on YouTube and 30,000 likes on his Facebook page, you might find it hard to believe that when his mum started recording him at age seven, he would not play once the camera was switched on. "He would say 'my hands are paining, I'm tired'. I didn't want to push him to do something he was not comfortable with, so I would leave the camera on and walk away. Now he does that himself. He leaves the camera on while he plays and later watches his performance," volunteers Geeta.

Ask Kashyap how he balances school work and music, and he and his mum burst into laughter. "I don't. I'm not really inclined towards academics, says the young musician, who 'manages' to score a decent 85-90%. But he plans to study Science at the junior college level (because of Physics, which includes the study of sound) and later wants to go off to Berklee College of Music.