We were lucky to catch up with Leoanrd Nongthombam recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Leoanrd thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you take us back in time to the first dollar you earned as a creative – how did it happen? What’s the story?

The first dollar I earned was from mixing and mastering for this artist called “KAJI”, he was a friend of a friend who was super into music and experimenting, he hit me up asking to mix and master this freestyle boom bam type sound, and I was so exited to do it because at the time I had just got out of a production house called HeartsAtWork which me and my friend co created and he was moving to Australia and this was 2018 and online/remote wasn’t really a thing. So the entire 2018 I was in sort of a limbo and getting that mix and master project was so exciting because it was the first time I would get paid for my work.

Leoanrd, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Hello, my name is Leonard form Manipur, India. I got into the music/entertainment industry from 2013. I was into music my whole like because my family had very different taste of music my dad loved old Manipuri, Bollywood song while was brother was into Rock, Heavy Metal, Pop Punk and Hiphop, my sisters was into pop, rock, hiphop as well songs by Nongmaithem Pahari, Tapta, Jagjit Singh, Metallica, Iron Maiden, Blink 182, Green Day, Sum 41, P.O.D, Limp Bizkit, Eminem, 50 Cent, Britney Spears, J.Lo, Christina Aguilera,Michelle Branch,Savage Garden,Sixpence None The Richer, Nelly Furtado a lot more that I can’t remember at the moment. Back when I was in 11th and 12th grade I met my best friend who was super into pop punk like Blink 182. Sum 41 and I was into Greenday, Simple plan, Avril and of course Blink 182 but I wasn’t really a hardcore fan of Blink. So in 11th grade I was that kid who came in a month late and this was a residential school which means no day student, just the kids in the hostel and they were all well adjusted because it was already a month in. I on the other hand was feeling very homesick and just not good. So one day after Dinner time this dude called me and asked me if I could play the guitar and I said yes, we went to his room and he asked what I was into I said Green day, Simple plan and he said if I knew Blink 182 and I was said yes and he asked me if I knew the song “ALL THE SMALL THINGS” by Blink 182 and I said yeah because my brother would play this song on a daily and I knew the harmony for it so he played and I did the backing vocals and harmony and the rest is history. Fast forward 2013 I was in business school and my friend hand come back to the city which is in Bangalore, India, for this physiotherapy degree course and we made this song together called Spacebound in a BAD MEETS EVIL beat I think we wrote the hook I sang the hook so basically, after that I had to learn how to mix and master a song, how to produce a song, who to shoot a music video and edit them, how to make artwork for the song because of all those skills I acquired those days I am where I am today and I am super thankful for that. My clients get a very personalized take for their music because, I would provide mixing and mastering services/video edits/artwork so I am. very thankful for that.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

All I wanted was to be a singer haha. But because I had to be the one in charge for video edits, artwork making which also includes on site photoshoots, mixing and mastering and music production for my previous production house, I sort of swerve away from my main goal. I want to make a living while making music and singing and I also want to make a OST for an anime opening that’s been one of my long time dreams for sure.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect as an artist is creating, nothing is gonna top that. The feeling you get when you know something is good, I have done so many things in my life and nothing will every top creating music/art

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leoshootsportraits/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@leonardluwang
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/leonardluwang
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0i93iceBmR5pJmO5HQDUtB?si=dSkrbe0CR4yBw62yseb3kQ

Image Credits

not applicable