Metro Plus
Chennai
Hyderabad
Spin-doctor
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A doctor by profession, Monica takes to the turntable with an equal proficiency.
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Music is the best medicine for Monica. — Photo: Mohd Yousuf
MEDICINE IS her line of work and music her hobby. A practising gynaecologist, (a gold medallist who has studied in France), Monica is a disc jockeyby night. "I wake up to a different personality and do not carry my music to my workplace," says this hatke doc who is attached to Breach Candy and St. Elizabeth Hospitals in Mumbai. "Now even my colleagues invite me over to deejay at their parties," she says.
"You can change your profession whenever you want. If you haven't learnt driving or swimming while you were young you can always learn them at a later stage.Abroad, people work as drivers in the day and as drummers by night. And they are respected just the same," she adds.
The turntable calling is recent, she says. "I saw an advertisement about a mixing music course by DJ Suketu. I registered for the workshop and ended up doing the three-month course in fifteen days," says Monica.
Today, ten months later she has played at Mikanos, Karma and Nosh in Mumbai and the recent weekend show at Bottles & Chimney was her first outstation do - stacked retro remixes followed by a soul train. Hyderabad has more rock lovers than Mumbai, she observes. "I got requests for The Doors and Eagles," she says.
And a techno trance version of Stairway to Heaven and AC/DC tracks rocked the place, alongside the ubiquitous commercial music. "Hindi music rules! No one is creating music these days. Everyone is mixing or adding beats. Computers have made remix easy today," she says.
On the international front, "it is the return of retro remixes such as Madonna's Like a Prayer. Disco music will come back. This season is going to see a lot of hip-hop. Eminem is the artist to look out for, 50 Cents will go better and Enrique Iglesias is here to stay," she says.
A globetrotter, she travels to get her music and equipment. Monica has visited the famous Zouk club in Singapore and Ministry of Sound, London to compare notes with international DJs. "One, you can contrast their music with the kind played here. Second, you get a lot of foreigners at our clubs and when you play popular numbers from their country, they are pleased. A good DJ must know what to play where," she says.
Point taken. Monica plans to rock Goa and Dubai in the year-end, and intends to participate in the next war of DJs. Way to go.
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