We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sid Srinivasan. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sid below.

Sid, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

There wasn’t a defining moment when I knew I wanted to take an artistic/creative path. All along, I knew what I felt drawn to, I knew what made the hours go by without me noticing and, I knew that I was good at playing the guitar, making music, writing songs, and performing live. I also had the awareness that I was growing in my capacity as a musician. There was a phase where I was waiting for reality to kick in, thinking that I would eventually find myself working a “job job” as I call it. But it just didn’t happen. So here I am, still on this amazing ride!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

For anyone reading this wondering who I am and what I do; Hi, my name is Siddharth but all my friends call me Sid or Sidu. I was born and raised in Chennai, India, and am currently based in LA.

I’ve been a professional musician for close to 2 decades. I started out as a guitarist in rock bands, playing the local circuit in my hometown, and then toured regionally, nationally, and then went international. Along the way, I picked up a bunch of skills, friends, experiences, and gray hairs.

Being a musician in India was such a fun and rewarding experience. Looking back on it, those are and will always be my roots. I learned to be a working musician playing dance parties, corporate gigs, and hotel/bar gigs. I was hungry to just be part of the scene and I got a first-class ticket. I also learned to work with other musicians, their egos, their addictions and personalities, and everything that being in a band brings with it.

But after a number of years, I felt like I’d hit a glass ceiling. I knew it was time to grow. Now I was faced with growing into a ‘Bollywood’ musician/producer or swing solo into the jungle of bonkers with no idea what was to come and see what happens. There was also the alternative of joining the workforce and getting a 9 to 5. But I figured I’d take my chances with a little adventure. So I packed up, moved to the UK, and spent some time there. This was the first time I was truly out of my comfort zone and boy did I learn the meaning of cold, wet, and hungry. I was there pursuing a Masters in Music Business.

At the end of my time in the UK, I knew I needed to be
1. Closer to the action.
2. Some place sunny and warm.

I chose to move to LA and have been here ever since. Being a musician in LA has been an eye-opening experience, to say the least. To bring you up to speed on my time in LA, I moved here to pursue a degree in music performance with a focus on guitar. I graduated and started working at music schools, and music studios and playing live to support myself. The last decade has been about establishing myself in this city, growing a network, and running with the big dogs.

Currently, I do a lot of freelance work where I make content for music brands. I also work as a music gear expert which I thoroughly enjoy because I get to spend all day doing the thing I love. And on the personal projects front, I make educational content that I share on my social media channels. This will tie in with a book that I am releasing later this year.

On the music side, I’ve spent the last 7 years working with agencies and playing as a session musician. Moving forward though, I’m being more picky about the kind of session work that I do. I’m at a place in life right now where being in the habit of creating music and nurturing my own artistic needs seems exponentially more important than trying to throw myself onto social platforms in the capacity of an artist in order to feel recognized and validated.

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

I think the reward is in the act of being able to create itself. Painters use a canvas and musicians use silence. My view on this is everything in nature is creating and growing. You can see tiny blades of grass creeping out of a crack in the sidewalk. I think life and creativity are essentially one. Everything around us is constantly creating and being created. Things are literally fighting tooth and nail to be alive. This is essentially what creativity does. It brings things to life.

From an artistic standpoint, the joy of writing a song and knowing that it’s a good one is unlike any other I have felt. Creating also is a habit, much like fitness. It can be cathartic, and revealing, sometimes I’m not entirely sure where or how it’s all coming together. But that’s also part of the reward. The act of creating itself is the reward. It involves making your body and mind available to receiving, capturing or harnessing ideas, feelings, and thoughts and laying them out in the format/discipline that one is trained in. The amazing thing is that a musician, painter, and dancer can all interpret the same piece of music. All equally beautiful and unique.

Everybody is an artist and is constantly creating whether they know it or not. A great conversation, a delicious sandwich, or rearranging the furniture in your house can count as creative acts. I think listening to Rick Rubin has, after all, rubbed off on me.

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

Right now, my goal is to stay as true and sincere as possible to originality. And that means playing music that I love with the people that I love and for the people that really dig it. I’m also creating for the love of it because fortunately, I am not in a situation where I have to create music in order to pay my bills.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.saintsid.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theofficialsaintsid/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@theofficialsaintsid/videos
• Other: tiktok – @theofficialsaintsid