We recently connected with Jasmeet Nanda and have shared our conversation below.

Jasmeet, appreciate you joining us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

From my early childhood, I can remember music always being a huge part of my life. Listening to music, creating music and being around music is what has always brought me happiness. I was born in India and moved to the USA at a very early age. My parents come from a well educated background; a good education and a solid career that follows has always been a strong emphasis in our family. The reason for my parents to move from India to the USA was mainly for me and my brother to have a solid education and a solid corporate career that follows. I remember the first time when I attended a party in high school in Atlanta, GA; and the very first time I saw a DJ spin live. I was absolutely mesmerized with the crowd control this one person had over so many people; and how he was making them dance to his tunes. That is when I decided that I want to pursue DJ’ing as a hobby. I never intended DJ’ing to become my full time career but I am so blessed and grateful that it happened. The next day I told my dad that I want to pursue this and if he could help me purchase my first set of equipment. Coming from an educational/corporate background, this was hard for my dad to comprehend and he told me that he does not want me to pursue this. Instead he needs me to pursue my education and a corporate career subsequently. And I very clearly remember him telling me that if I focus on this, this would take away my focus from my education and he would never approve of that. It took me almost 2 years of convincing my dad to finally agree to buy me my first set of DJ equipment; and in return, I promised him that I would fulfill his dream of me going to college and pursuing a career. And so I did. I graduated from Georgia State University with a degree in Computer Information Systems. And I accepted a job offer from a Fortune 500 company with a prestigious corporate career that followed. I worked at this company for almost 13 years with my last position being of a Senior Business Analyst. Simultaneously, I continued my passion for music and DJ’ing throughout my high school, college and corporate career with doing gigs on a part time basis. Over the course of my corporate career, I always felt this void of not truly following my passion and just moving along as any other person. My highlight of the week would always be the weekends where I would get to go DJ at my gigs, meet and interact with new people and see cool places. For the longest, I wanted to quit my corporate job to pursue my career in music but something or someone would always hold me back. I finally took the leap of faith in 2011 when I quit my job to become a full time musician. My social circle, family, my boss at the corporate job; all tried to convince to me rethink my decision and everyone thought that I was making a huge mistake. However my biggest strength and support in this decision was my wife who supported me throughout the decision process over the years and told me to follow my heart (and my newborn daughter of 4 months). That is when I decided to do so and I parted ways with my corporate career and went full time as a DJ and a music producer. Thankfully I have never looked back ever since; all thanks to the love and support from the almighty, my wife and my family and friends (who are now proud of me for stepping out of my comfort zone and making my passion into a full time successful career).

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?

Running a small business and being an entrepreneur is never easy. However one thing that I learned early on in my life is that whatever you do in life (whether it is personally or professionally), always do it with honesty, ethics and always be professional. I started working at 14 years of age and have had several jobs over the years; that taught me a lot of good and bad things to learn from and grow from. Having a strong educational and professional foundation (from my corporate years of experience), I have been able to apply the same level of integrity and professionalism into my DJ and music production business. I believe in always doing the right thing, learn from your mistakes and grow from them. All my business is through word of mouth and the reason my clients choose to work with me is due to my professionalism, responsiveness and communication, commitment to my clients, the experience that I provide and the promise that I keep to always deliver. Several of my clients have flown me internationally over the years to perform at their special events and all my business is through repeat clients and word of mouth; where they fully put their trust in me to fully deliver.

As a DJ, I run a full event production company that offers complete DJ and lighting services, special effects, custom dance floors, audio visual packages and more.

As a music producer, I offer services such as music production and composition, custom beats, music mixing and mastering, custom made music for any video projects, music for advertisements and jingles, and more.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect for me as an artist is letting my creativity and ideas flow and see how it turns out and how the audience responds to it. I am extremely thankful for being able to set my own schedule, my own discipline, and being able to share my art and skillset with the world. Every-time I produce a new piece of music, I cannot wait to share it with my audience and hear their feedback. Also being able to cater to hundreds of people at a time as a DJ and seeing happy, smiling faces on the dance floor is extremely gratifying.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I constantly want to keep on learning and growing; as an artist and personally. Personal and professional development are both huge factors for me and I strive to learn from my peers and other experienced folks within and outside of the music industry. I like to learn and develop new skills utilizing the latest and the greatest technology.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.djjaz.net
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/djjaz_atl/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/djjazatlofficial
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dj-jaz-atl-629b351
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/djjazatl
• Other: https://linktr.ee/djjazatl

Image Credits
Professional images by Chromalogue Studios