We recently connected with Suman Mangu and have shared our conversation below.
Suman, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you tell us about a time that your work has been misunderstood? Why do you think it happened and did any interesting insights emerge from the experience?
Being an artist of Indian origin, I have faced a lot of criticism and being mischaracterized. Any career that comes under self employment is hard to explain to people. The biggest misconception people have of me is that I don’t have much to do in a day and I’m always free and jobless. It was very difficult for me to first accept myself. I started doubting my abilities because I had more people around me that pointed out the flaws of artists rather than the positives. It took about 3 years to really understand how I wanted to put out music and how to tap into that creative flow more frequently. Once I learned my abilities I became much more confident in being an artist. I think being an Independent artist has a lot to do with self growth as a person and the artistry is a huge driving force of it. I still get misunderstood but now I know how to handle such situations.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Hi! Im Suman Mangu and I am an Indian Independent Artist. I have released 17 songs on streaming platforms along with a few music videos. I learnt Indian Classical Music (Carnatic Vocal) from the age of 6 to 18. I took part in High School Choir for two years as well. Later, I started learning how to mix music and taught myself how to edit on various music softwares. During college, I started a Production company called Full On Beats Media where I provided audio engineering services for events locally. After a few years I studied audio engineering as well. I worked under a famous music producer (Parthasarady Nemani) from India and traveled around the US and tracked over 60 songs for him. That experience really helped me become a strong technician. Eventually I got into producing my own tracks for fun. In the middle of all this I started working as a consultant for an IT company for a year. That experience quickly showed me I did not see myself doing a job I did not like for the rest of my life so I ended up leaving the job to purse music completely. In 2019, 2 months after quitting my job, Jai Ho Oscar Fame, Singer Vijay Prakash and I collaborated on my first official single and that is how my Independent artist life started. Im super grateful for the opportunity and the trust he had in my work to collaborate with me! I ended up flying to Mumbai, India to get the song recorded in his studio. I also got the opportunity to work with RRR Oscar Winner, lyricist Chandrabose. Ive been collaborating with many artists since then! What sets me apart from others in that I’m not here to compete because I know my work has a very unique place in this world and I’m not afraid to express myself. I’m most proud that I’ve dabbled in many of the crafts in this industry enough to be able to create high quality work starting from photography, editing and video editing to making album art, to acting and dancing on screen, all the way to the end to end process of music production. I have an amazing home recording studio and have amazing technicians that I work with from India! I would like to specially thank my mix engineer, Raam Gandikota and my keyboard programmer, Eswar Dathu for the great work they always put into making my songs sound great!
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
The most rewarding aspect for me is composing a song. It’s the journey of creating every layer and watching the vision in my head come to life. It feels so surreal every song.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.
I think just the basic idea that as a creative in the entertainment industry we are made to build our own path and strategy to succeed. I don’t think many people take that in to consideration and expect success very fast. We don’t have a structured schooling that has a “plan of action” laid out for us. I think this is a societal mindset block. Its not anyone’s fault but it is definitely helpful if people could look at it from this perspective to understand the unfair expectations on creatives.
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sumanmangu?igsh=MTBzdTRlcXhsejBtcQ%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@SumanManguOfficial?si=JlD-bVtLBm5St0ZL
- Other: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6mSouFsStObh9UIk9lPtsq?si=zvWyO_L0RNuJ8jUiUFQKXQ
Image Credits
picture 4: Lamont Desal (District Studios)