This Indian DJ makes the world dance to his tunes

The massive popularity of electronic dance music (EDM) in India has paved the way for a bevy of music producers who are creating groovy, rhymthic and bass-laden tunes to win over fans. Delhi-based artiste Sarthak Sardana aka Sartek has singlehandedly ensured that Indian EDM is taken seriously and recognised across the world.

The young DJ has opened for international stalwarts like Martin Garrix and Paul Van Dyk at popular electronic music festivals. He has featured on the prestigious Beatport top 100 (electro house) multiple times with his tracks "Back to the future" (No. 51) , "Dopamine" (No. 73) and his last release, "Don't need love".

His chartbuster "Back to the future" was, in fact, premiered by French DJ, producer and remixer David Guetta -- one of the luminaries of EDM -- on his radio show.

Sartek, who has earned these laurels at the age of 27, had humble beginnings. He started off as a CA student whose passion for dance music compelled him to embark on the path of production.

"It all started for me after I attended a legendary trance DJ gig by Ferry Corsten in 2007, having no idea what dance music is all about. The gig changed the perspective of music for me as I never knew electronic music could make me so inspired seeing happy vibes all over. I joined an academy in Delhi in 2009 to pursue my passion and love for dance music while attending my CA classes," Sartek told IANS.

"It took me four years to learn the art of production and released my debut track on Tiesto's label Magik Muzik which marked the first official breakthrough," he added.

Now, Sartek has even launched his own podcast on online audio distribution platform Soundcloud, which is named after his hit song "Back to the future".

"When I started producing, I had a real hard time getting my music across people and making them aware about me as a producer. I really feel blessed that I am one of the few artists in India who broke through internationally. I see and feel that a lot of upcoming artistes are struggling to get their music heard. So, I decided to pick one track each month and feature it on my podcast," Sartek said.

According to him, the move will help the artistes "boost their career as I plan to take my show to online radio stations in a few weeks".

There's no denying that the scope of EDM is only going to expand in the coming years. According to Sartek, "the scene has grown at the fastest speed I have seen any music genre grow".

"I personally think it has just started and merely 8-10 per cent of our youth is exposed to EDM. Earlier I used to do shows only in big cities like Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, etc., but now I get more inquires from Tier-2 cities like Indore, Nagpur and Agra which indirectly implies that dance music has reached a lot of parts of India and is still growing to a bright future ahead. Also the perspective of being a DJ has been completely changed from playing at private parties to rocking the concerts," Sartek said.

"We are now called as rockstars," he added.

Sartek believes that the key to becoming a successful DJ is to learn the "art of engineering your track yourself".

Talking about his work with popular Dutch DJ Hardwell, who signed him to his label Revealed Recordings, Sartek said "it was indeed a dream come true moment to sign a track on the world's biggest dance music producer's record label".

"It has been an honour to work with him as he's a complete professional when it comes to picking music for his label, thus making me improve my quality every time I sit down to produce. Collaborating with Hardwell is the biggest dream I've ever had and it might become a reality soon," he added.