Skillr Profile: Prithvi Prajosh

Prithvi Prajosh is a singer-songwriter on the SKILLR App. Get a peek into why he feels so strongly about the concept of pursuing your dreams, what a typical day as a songwriter is like and what he’s learning right now. 

Q: Can you tell me your name, your pronouns, and what you do on SKILLR?

A: My name's Prithvi Prajosh. My pronouns are he and him. And, on SKILLR, I'm a singer songwriter.

Q: Awesome. And how did you get into that field?

A: It's interesting because, in my family, I'm the first one to be pursuing music as a career option in general. It was ... I never got that influence from anyone else. I was just kind of heavily influenced by the music from the early 2000s. I used to listen to a lot of Coldplay, the Beatles, because my grandma introduced me to them at some point.

And I think music was ... I was always listening to music, and then I think it first really picked up for me when I was in school. And you either had to be in the choir, or you had to dance. And I was like, oh, I can't dance. I don't want to do this. I'm good. I joined the choir, and I started singing. That's when my singing started off for me. And then I wrote my first song after my first heartbreak because that's so original. I'm like, oh, I need to write down all these feelings that I have. I got to do it. I wrote my first song. It was called Heartbreak too. My originality back then was not very strong.

But I kind of ... I was close to music in that way. I would write. I would sing as much as I could. I used to attend a couple of open mics here and there. And this was back in Dubai where I did most of my schooling and college life. I would do gigs as much as I could. And in Dubai, the music scene was kind of fairly small at that point. It still is kind of small but a lot bigger than how it was earlier. They would have little events, little music communities here and there. You just go and perform, sing some songs. Mostly covers because I didn't really write too much.

But then I slowly picked up more writing by listening to, I think. I think one of the biggest things I've always learned ... If you want to write music, just listen to all sorts of music. You get inspiration from everywhere. You can take ideas, and it's always good practice to just listen to other stuff.

I kept writing, I kept trying to work on my material as much as I could. And then I kind of …I did a degree in engineering which was something I thought, oh, this is what I'm supposed to do. I should do engineering. I did it. I got my degree. I worked a couple years, but it was not fulfilling in any way. And I still ... Obviously, on the side, I would sing, and I would ... I was known as the guy ... Oh, you're the guy that sings, right? I was like, yeah, I guess. Even at was the place I used to work for a couple years. It was like a sales job in a cyber security firm. They're like, oh, you're the guy that sings. I'm like, yeah, but I also work here. But, yeah, sure. I'm the guy who sings too, I guess.

But it was ... Yeah. That was always interesting for me. And then, thankfully, because my parents supported me, I decided that I want to pursue music full-time. This is ... I really only want to be a songwriter. This is what I would've really wanted to be doing. And I ended up applying to Berkeley College Music in Boston, and it was one of those things where that was the only college I applied to. And I was like, I don't know. If I don't get it, I guess, maybe this ... I do something else. I don't know. 

I did get in. I got ... I majored in songwriting, did my degree. It was an amazing experience. And I've been writing songs for the past eight years now. It's been very fulfilling and satisfying on so many levels. I've learned so much, especially studying at Berkeley. It was the first time I was surrounded by so many musicians and just only musicians which was never something I had in my life before. Everyone in the same path, same goals. I connected with a lot of amazing songwriters, talented people, and that kind of pushed me to start putting out my own music.

I started releasing music for the first time on all streaming platforms back in January of 2020, and I haven't stopped since. I've been releasing a song almost every month, and they're doing fairly well and very happy with how it's going so far.

Q: That's amazing. It's always so cool to see people maybe in a field where they're not super passionate and then getting to actually pursue what they want.

A: Yeah. Honestly, it is. I'm so grateful for that and obviously, again, thanks to my parents supporting me and being like ... And they told me, no, we never told you to do engineering to begin with. Why did you do that? You could have been doing music from the start. I don't know. I just felt like everyone was doing engineering back in school. I guess. I thought I should do it. But so grateful for their support. Letting me do what I'm doing right now.

After graduating, I moved to LA, and now I've been writing for myself. The main thing that I really wanted to do was, apart from being a songwriter for myself, I wanted to write for other artists as well. I got to do a bit of that at Berkeley through some of my coursework where you had to collaborate with other people and everything which is super cool. Great learning experience.

But then I still wanted to do that as for a profession as a living. And I've been lucky enough to be able to do that right now, and it's fun.

Q: I have two questions. How old were you when you wrote Heartbreak? And do you have a recording of it somewhere that we could include in the blog?

A: You know what? Sure. We can include that. For sure. But I wrote that song when I was 14, and I actually had it recorded professionally and everything in the studio, thanks to my brother, as a birthday gift. He knew I wrote this song. He was like, "You want to get this recorded professionally? Let's do it." And he got me into the studio, and I recorded the song and everything. It sounded okay for back then. Now when I listen to it ... Oh, good Lord. I don't know what I wrote, but it's interesting because I really ... I mean, I didn't really release that song. I put it up on YouTube at some point. And then I'll be happy to share the link with you.

But when I was working on some new music of mine more recently, that was the first song I ever put out on some level. All my friends from back school, back at home and school ... They all knew me by that song. They're like, oh, dude, that song. We love that song. I'm like, that song is really bad when you look at it now. They're like, no, but that's the first song. You got to like ... Let's do ... Why don't you release it again? Maybe, update it on some level. And I was like, you know what? Maybe I could do that. I actually kind of redid the song a little bit and made it sound a lot better than it was. And I released it again a couple years ago. I'll be happy to show you both versions so you can have a side by side. Oh, look at the difference.

Q: Oh, that would be really cool. What's your favorite thing about writing and performing music? Or do you also teach people about ... Do you teach music at all? Or you're mostly a performer?

A: I'm mostly a performer. Most of my teaching right now has come through SKILLR, actually, which is super cool. But the thing I enjoy most about singing or performing ...Or was it the question? What singing and performing was ...

Q: Yeah. What's your favorite thing about writing, being a singer-songwriter?

A: The thing about what ... When it comes to writing, the thing that's super exciting for me is that I don't have to just box myself into one specific genre or one style. I can keep trying out different styles. I can be writing one day. I can write some pop stuff like top 40 hits stuff. One day I can write R and B, and then one day I can write EDM. And there's so many different emotions that you can get out of each kind of style of song. And then also taking into account how there are so many different stories you can share which …

Every song will kind of showcase or express a different shade of your personality in a way which is something that really excites me with songwriting in general. And, at the same time, obviously, I mean, as cliche as it may be, it sometimes can be very cathartic, especially because, for me, I remember a couple of songs that I've written as soon as I moved to Boston. That was the first time I was living in the US, and it was kind of overwhelming to be so far from home and just experiencing so many things. And I was kind of feeling a little lonely, and I wrote this song called I Want to Have Friends. And that was ... That's one song I'm looking forward to releasing in the near future. But it was so ... It was so satisfying for me to get that song out of my head and onto paper and get it fully produced and everything.

And the title of the song sounds really sad. I Want to Have Friends. But it's a very kind of uplifting song in a way. It's just like you got to be yourself no matter ... Don't try to fit in to the crowd all the time. Just express yourself as long as you're not harming someone in any way. That's one thing I really enjoy about writing.

When it comes to performing, I think, more than writing, I do enjoy performing also because I feel like there's little lesser work involved in performing because you have this song ready. Everything's done. You just got to sing it. Now you got to do it. And there's a lot that comes with it. A lot of challenges. But at the same time, singing in front of a group of people in front of an audience and having that interaction with them kind of ... It's kind of like you're letting them into your space in that moment. 15-minute sets. 30-minute set. However long it is. You're letting them into your kind of space. It's a very ... It's a vulnerable space, but it's ... Everyone's in it together. The song could make them smile, could make them cry, but we're all experiencing these feelings together.

And there's always someone who latches onto some specific song or specific lyric. And that's always super exciting because, if I perform a song and someone comes after the performance like, “Oh, I love that song, I love that line, that's amazing.” I could be singing in front of 50 to 60 people. But if one person says that, I'm like success. It's great. That's definitely something exciting about performing in general.

Q: I love that. Just going to concerts and having that connection with so many people in one room at the same time. There's nothing else like it.

A: Yeah, honestly. It's truly so nice. And I love interacting with the audience and trying to get them if I can get them involved in the song in any way like singing along a certain part or anything. I always love having interaction. I always try to tell a few jokes too because I like pretending that I could have been a stand-up comedian at some point. It never really works out, but sometimes I get a few laughs. I'm like, you know what? It's okay.

Q: What does a typical day look like for you in your profession?

A: Typical day. Right now, since I'm primarily a songwriter, there are a couple of artists that I'm working with. One of them is back in Boston. One of them is in Canada. One of them is in Nigeria. They're all over the place.

Kind of the biggest challenge right now is kind of time zones. Oh, I got to figure out this time. I can do this 2:00 PM, 1:00 PM, and it's all like everyone's in different areas.

Most of my days goes with maybe four to five hours. I'll be on calls writing with these artists. That's quite a lot of my time. And then I spend some time in SKILLR as well where I'm helping whoever is willing to join and join a session. Just try to get some support in. When it comes to SKILLR, it's mostly about ... I'm a singer-songwriter, but most of the questions that I usually get asked are, oh, what is one tip that you can share with songwriting? And so I try to spend a couple of hours on SKILLR every day.

I spend a few hours on my own, about two to three hours, on my own music as well because I'm currently working on an album of mine which is scheduled to be out in the fall which I'm super excited about. That kind of grew ... My day ... I feel like, ever since I moved to LA, days go by really, really fast. And by the time the day is done, I'm like, have I actually done something here? And I'm like yeah. I've done something. That's okay. I've worked on some stuff. That's kind of how my day is.

And then, obviously, I try to take some time for myself where I'm not thinking about music or not thinking about stressing about those kind of things. I end up just going for a walk, or I'll play some games. I like gaming a lot. I'll play my games on my console, and that's kind of how my days go usually.

Q: You mentioned you're working on an album. Is this going to be your first full-length album? Or where is it in-

A: It's actually ... When I say ... Actually, I shouldn't say album. It's more of an EP, but it's longer than an EP but shorter than an album. It's that middle space. Let's say mini album. But that's about ... It's about five songs, and I'm potentially including a sixth depending on how it goes, but this is going to be my second one, actually. The first one I released back in September 2020. And now it's been ... It's going to be two full years until ... My next one's going to be ... I'm aiming for September again. Super exciting. A bunch of songs. And I feel like I can obviously tell the growth of my music since the first song I released in January of 2020. And coming now just like, oh, it's nice to see that growth in a positive way. It's like, okay, I've become better in some aspects. I've learned more about producing and having your sound design and all of that stuff. It's been a great learning experience.

And that's another great thing about when you're a songwriter. When you're writing your own stuff, it's great to get that feedback. And I ... Because of Berkeley, I've connected with so many different songwriters. Now I get to have this network of people reach out and, hey, can you just give me some feedback with this? What are your thoughts? And that's ... It's really good. And that's something I didn't start off doing at first. I was like, I'm just going to write the song and put it out there which is awesome.

But sometimes you do need that feedback and that objective opinion on what thing is about. What's the song saying? And what these lines mean. If everything's ... If I'm making use of every line in the song and trying to make it as impactful as it can be.

These couple years with Berkeley and everything has been super useful in that way. Just getting that network and just having a good support system. Songwriting support system, if you wish. It's great.

Q: You'll have to let us know when it's out so we can share it across-

A: Yes, of course. Of course. Yeah, for sure.

Q: Okay. Complete the phrase. When I'm not writing or performing or teaching on SKILLR, I'm ...

A: I'll be at the movies. I love going to the movies. Every week, I'm probably at the theater watching something. That's kind what I do. If I'm not at the movies, I'm watching something at home. A movie at home. Or I'm gaming. Those are usually the things that I'm doing at any given time.

Q: Since SKILLR is a platform about learning and skill sharing, what's one thing that you're learning about or interested in learning about right now?

A: One thing I've been interested in learning about is personal guided meditation and just mental health exercises. And that's something I've come across a lot on SKILLR are life coaches and who dabble in that kind of space. And that's something I want to learn more about and just want to because I feel like I need to learn more about how to just de-stress myself in so many different ways because, as it is, being a songwriter and being a musician, as it is, to start off, it's a little challenging and difficult to actually get your break in some way, whatever that may be. Just finding ways to just ground myself and stay in the moment rather than focus on all the probables and whatnot.

Q: That's something I've been exploring recently too. Just-

A: Oh, that's amazing.

Q: Yeah. And it's so interesting to see the days that I meditate versus the days that I don't. I can feel the-

A: Right. Yeah. That makes sense. Yeah.

Q: Have that moment to calm yourself and ground yourself in the day. Wow.

A: That's interesting. Have you had the chance ... Have you maybe connected with Skillrs as well?

Q: I have, yeah.

A: Yeah? That's awesome.

Q: Yeah. It's really fun to do a live meditation with someone right there. It feels like there's that level of connectedness almost like you were talking about with music or just having that person live with you.

A: Yeah. Yeah. That's just ... I think that's something that would also encourage me to do more of that because, if you have someone else doing it with you, it's kind of like that accountability in some ways like doing this together. We got to do it, so let's do it. Yeah. That's a great idea. Sure.

Q: Okay. One more question. What would you say to people who want to learn more about music but are maybe nervous or confused about where to get started?

A: That's interesting. Tell them to just come talk to me. But apart from that, I think the one thing that helped me a lot was just YouTube. And now I think YouTube's so huge in its own way that you can find literally anything on there. That's kind of how I got my break when it came to learning how to play the piano or even trying to analyze music and just different ways of learning music, I guess. I would definitely recommend doing that. Just getting up on YouTube.

And then also, secondly, I think I know a lot of people who tell me, oh, I wish I could do what you're doing. I wish I was a musician. I wish I did this. And it's like it's all about taking that first step to what's making that happen no matter what it could be. Maybe you pick up an instrument. Maybe you just listen to more music and you kind of be more analytical about it because, when it comes to songs that you're listening to, there is a science behind them a majority of the time. Sometimes obviously there's just a very emotional song where it's just putting some words onto the paper or whatever. But most of the songs they listen to are structured in such a way that everything has its purpose. Every verse has a purpose. Every chorus has it. Everything has a meaning. And it's like there's syllables and specific lines that match with the next line syllables and everything. There's all these …

There's so much science behind it. I think, for people who want to get into music, no matter what way it is, just kind of start listening to music in a different light. Don't listen as a listener. Listen as if you're a critic, or listen as if you're trying to learn something out of it. Or if you want to listen to a song by, say, Ed Sheeran or Dua Lipa, whoever it is, look up their lyrics. Read the lyrics while listening to the song and see if you can identify what's happening, what's something common, and what's anything out of it. I would definitely recommend doing that.

And like I said, just come talk to me. I love encouraging people to chase their dreams no matter what it is. It doesn't have to be music-related. It could be anything, but that's something I'm very big on. I feel like everyone should always be doing what they really want to be doing. And if they really want to be doing something but it's hard for them to do it, you can do other things that have nothing to do with, but try finding ways to push yourself closer to your dream and your passion. That's something I'm very big on. I've been lucky enough to do it. I really ... Anytime I get the opportunity, I'm like, if you want to do it, just you got to ... You can make it happen. Just got to do it. You got to do ... Have to do a bunch of extra things you really don't want to be doing. But if it's ... Think for the bigger. The long run. If it's going to work out, it's going to be really useful for you in the long run anyway.

Find Prithvi on social media and streaming services:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/prithviisptree
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/prithviprajosh
Twitter: https://twitter.com/prithviprajosh
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2yUsvzjSZohLO6cw1sR6RW?si=-HpO09eBSw2fOI7FO6JqVA
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/prithvi-prajosh/1530739936
Website: https://www.prithviprajosh.com/

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