Of life’s Symphonies and Rhythms with the One Man Band – Gladson Peter

A moving orchestra to some and a one man band to others, Gladson Peter has mastered over 45 musical instruments and invented a set-up that allows him to play 13 of them at once. This incredible feat, however, didn’t come easy to him as he had to battle a severe lung disease impacting his ability to strike a chord with even a single instrument.

Tune in as we go through the highs and lows of his instrumental journey and understand how he came up with the idea of one man band.

Transcript

Go-Beyond Podcast – Gladson Peter Transcript

Speakers:

Akshay Kapur

Gladson Peter

Akshay Kapur

Welcome to the Sony Pictures Networks’ Go-Beyond Podcast where we share symphonies of inspiration from the lives of extraordinary individuals. I'm your host Akshay Kapur, today's guest is a man whose musical prowess is perhaps matched only by his physical coordination. He started learning music when he was just three, By Class Ten, he could already play 30 instruments and over the years he's mastered 47 different instruments which I would wager is more instruments than most of us can name. He's a performer, a songwriter and a singer who overcame a severe lung illness to become India's first one-man band. Today he travels the world performing and sharing his music with audiences of all ages and cultures. It's a pleasure to welcome Gladson Peter to the Go-Beyond podcast. Gladson, welcome to the show and how are you doing today?

Gladson

Thank you so much Akshay, that was a beautiful introduction. I'm doing very well, how are you doing?

Akshay Kapur

I'm doing well. I have to say that it is hard to overlook the amazing physical feat that you pull off every time you perform. We're talking about 13-instruments weighing roughly twenty-five kilograms being carried by you for sometimes for 30 minutes, sometimes 45 minutes continuously. And all this while you control instruments with your feet while walking around. So I think the obvious question at the get go is what is Gladson Peter's workout routine? (Laughs)

Gladson

I should say that this is probably the first time someone's asking me before we start off with any other question. There is absolutely no particular workout routine to be honest. My workout routine probably is my show and my practice routines, apart from that since I do have a little bit of a health issue I try to keep myself on the go, a little bit of exercise every morning, stretching, but that’s literally it!

Akshay Kapur

Which brings us to an interesting point which is, as a one-man band your rehearsals must be pretty unique. I was wondering what are those rehearsals like and how much of your performance hinges on your ability of musical improvisation?

Gladson

I would say for the longest time I have never really practiced before I have gone for a show. Let's say the last four years or five years have gone by just improvising on stage, because I think I'm the kind of performer who goofs up only after practicing a lot.

Akshay Kapur

(Laughs)

Gladson

I get super conscious on stage. So, I have left it all into improvisation. I would say the way music leads me on stage, the vibe of the crowd, the vibe of the audience is probably what takes my show on but now that I have my own little studio in my house, I have started to make a little practice routine, every now and then we try to record some music.

I'm really hoping to do a practice session every single day, but it is humanly impossible not just for me, but the logistics of the entire one-man band setting up the sound, is still a long way for me to go and as days go by, me and my brother, and my team we’re trying to slowly figure it out.

Akshay Kapur

Fantastic! And when you record your tracks do you record as a one-man band, or do you record it individually with you playing each instrument and putting it together?

Gladson

Ah, so there have been tracks where I have individually placed or corrected them. But most times I've tried to record it as a one-man band because I kind of feel like ah every musician has a knack to correct themselves, when they do single or an individual track.

Ah but what is the point of it if it isn't real? Um, so I thought to myself that no matter how difficult it seems, it should be a little more raw and little more real. 

My entire act is based on skills because every single limb that moves or every single breath that I take, is all based on um how my body reacts to what my brain tells me to musically.

Akshay Kapur

That makes sense. We're going to talk more about the one-man band and the setup in a little bit. But taking a step back over here you first started learning music at the age of three. What is your earliest memory of playing an instrument? Which instrument was the first that you picked up and was it then subsequently easy for you to transition to learn new instruments or did that take time?

Gladson

I think that's a great question. The only point here would be I did not learn music for learning music. I did it out of curiosity and interest. My dad taught me how to play the keyboard and at that time when I was three or four, someone gifted me a toy keyboard, but it could exactly make the sounds of a keyboard and I thought I was a rockstar back then.

Akshay Kapur

(Laughs)

Gladson

So, for me, it was more like feeding my curiosity every now and then because my dad would teach me a tune or two and then I would be like okay let me try something else now. Eventually I started taking spoons and forks and started banging on the refrigerator, on the bed…

Akshay Kapur

(Laughs)

Gladson

I would make my own drum kit with the help of utensils. 

So for me, it was not really learning a new musical instrument, just literally nothing but feeding my own curiosity as to how does this work, can I do it? That's pretty much it! 

Akshay Kapur

Since you had this curiosity for music, growing up did you always want to pursue a career in music or is that something that came about as a happy coincidence?

Gladson

Definitely not a happy coincidence! I think once I figured that music actually can be a career path itself, I did all I can to make sure that I land into this field.

I think my earliest memory of decision would be probably in my eighth or ninth standard and all through my college life I ah really worked a lot and now when I look back I would probably pat myself two times on the back, to tell the younger Gladson good job, you probably strived enough in college to have a small tiny little college fan base so when I actually started doing shows after my TY, I could easily soothe into shows.

Akshay Kapur

Right, what was it like um in your earlier days of your musical career after your TY when you started performing? At that time, were you a one-man band, or did you stumble on the concept much later and how did your music transform over the years?

Gladson

So I did college a little longer than everyone else did, because I did my 12th thrice. So, the first time was something I don't wish to speak about, but the second and the third time was a problem that kind of led me to who I am today. I kind of fell into an illness. It was called ‘pleural effusion’, and once I got back to my senior college, to my degree college I started putting more effort into the music scene. So, I picked up this ukulele in my FY or my SY.  

Umm I played the guitar and the harmonica, and I used to take a compass box and a baby toy tambourine. I used to just hold it with both my legs and so I had 4 instruments on me. And that kind of became a popular act. I was not a one-man band back then. I used to just do this thing because I found it very different. But when I finished my TY, I was with this wonderful organization called NSPA.  It is called Natural Streets for Performing Arts. So basically, the whole thing was that musicians could perform at public places like metro stations, railway stations parks and malls. So that allowed me to actually keep performing at least a minimum of 10 to 12 shows at different public spaces. And alongside I started getting a few other shows like weddings, birthday parties, corporate events, small events, because I used to just have one or two instruments. A year later after my TY, I think 2016 is when I actually became a one-man band, but till then there was no one man band I did not know the concept of a one-man band. I was just introduced to this by a dream. And, when I did my research, I was like wow this is possible!

Akshay Kapur

Right! I have to ask you since you brought up ‘pleural effusion’ I thought I could quote a couple of famous musicians over here. Billy Joel is quoted as saying “I think music in itself is healing”. Bob Marley is quoted as saying “One thing good about music is that when it hits you, you feel no pain”. Can you tell us about your struggle with pleural effusion and ah what it meant for your music and how music helped you overcome it?

Gladson

Absolutely for me right now I don't speak to you just as a musician, but I speak to you as someone who has gone through life and is using music to kind of spread more joy. So, for me music is a tool to actually share love in a way that I can. Pleural effusion I would say it killed each and every dream of mine. I wanted to be a pastor like my dad, I wanted to also be a cool biker. So I used to dream of these Hayabusa’s and all of that when I was young. And I wanted to be a drummer. These are the three dreams that I had. 

Akshay Kapur

I'm sorry I'm going to interrupt you here. But if you could just also quickly explain to us what pleural fusion is?

Gladson

Absolutely. So, we went to the doctor, and they asked me if I'm a heavy smoker or if I'm an alcoholic? And I was really shocked and disturbed by the way it came to me and I was like oh I've never really touched a cigarette, or I don't even consume alcohol so why is this coming to me and that's when they introduced plural effusion to me saying that this is actually a liquid which gets formed in your lungs. It's like a precursor to Tuberculosis. I was affected by this because of passive smoking or my immunity being low.

The phase was so horrible because I used to breathe once in probably six or seven seconds and if I ate one morsel of rice, I would puke three times more and the worst was that I had a chronic back ache and that was so severe that I had to lie down for more than four hours, if I had to sit for like 30 minutes.

And this was my routine for almost a year. It just kept getting worse day by day. Life was absolutely difficult. I wrote a lot of songs back then. I was not much of a musician, but I thought to myself if any day I don’t wake up, I should have something left behind and I also recorded a couple of songs. It's just that all my hopes and dreams of becoming what I wanted to be when I was older came crushing down. Life changed.

Akshay Kapur

How did music help you work through that and overcome that?

Gladson

I think music was just partially with me. For me It was more about my faith in God that I kind of always believe that no matter what you go through in life there's always a reason.

I did not understand back then where this was all heading. But now years later I see that I went through something in my life which I did not ask for. Now how can one relate to this is in our everyday life we go through ups and downs, and we only remember God when it all fails. 

So, in all of this music supported me in my faith, in my thoughts. I did not have a way to pen these down or express it, that is where music supported me. I used to pen it down in a song and I could also express it in tunes and melodies and beats. So that's how I actually started getting into song writing primarily.

Akshay Kapur

And was that the turning point in your life when through that process of healing from pleural effusion, the idea of a one-man band came to you, and you sort of decided this is what I'm going to do? Could you tell us about that?

Gladson

Yes, sure I lost all my friends in the year 2013-14-15 when I was trying to recover from this illness. And 2015, It was December, Christmas was just coming closer and as much as I think it was an opportunity that everybody used to invite me to play any musical instrument on stage. They'd be like Gladson this guy did not come, can you come and play this instrument, so I actually learned a lot of instruments on stage in the last minute without having any knowledge about it. I don't know how that worked even now. 

Akshay 

(Laughs)

Gladson

As much as that was good in a certain perspective for me. It was like come on I want to be a drummer; I don't have a drum kit what is happening? And second thing was that now I'm really struggling to breathe is there a purpose in my life? To be honest I was so lost!

What exactly changed is when I was praying to God. “God, I want to do something new in 2016 and the only thing that kept coming back to me is if I don't do anything new there is no point of me living on this earth. I do not want to go through this struggle I don't want my family or anyone else to go through all of this. 

And that is exactly when one morning I woke up with this dream. So, I'll take you back to a time when I was going from my 8th standard to my 9th standard. When I went for a children's camp. The person who was leading the entire session asked us to draw the picture of someone you wanted to be like when you grow up and I knew that I wanted to be in music. So, I drew an imaginary person and I imagined that the person should be able to play a lot of musical instruments. It's a picture of someone who has a guitar, a piano, drums on the side of saxophone, flute every instrument that I imagined, and he told us that after you draw the picture just forget about it and just commit it into God’s hand, and maybe just maybe, you know, there's a possibility you might actually become who you drew.

And I had completely forgotten about it. But 2015 December as I was waking up this morning super tormented and just did not know what to do in life. God reminded me in a dream about that picture. I woke up and I shared it with my brother I was like “I don't think it's just a random dream I think something was spoken to me and this is something we should do. Let's so do a little research about it”, and then when I shared it with my family, my mom was very concerned she was like “hey Glad you still don't have the energy or your lungs don't have the capacity you've lost 60% of it. 40% is left. You need to take care of yourself so how can you carry all these instruments and then play them together?”

I was like no mom I think this is what I'm supposed to do in life. Just a few days after that we started working on this idea and the more, we researched about it the more clueless we were as to how this entire thing is actually going to work.

But I think when you put your whole heart into what you love and you bring the God factor in, it not only actually takes its own existence, but it also becomes absolutely magnanimous.

So, I'm really thankful for my entire journey. 

Akshay Kapur

No absolutely I think seeing you perform and seeing you share that talent with the world, we're all thankful that you're able to do this. But your one-man band set up by the looks of it is not a one-man task, right?

Gladson

Yeah, absolutely.

Akshay Kapur

Any interesting or amusing learnings that came out of the evolving setup from when you first started out to what it is today?

Gladson

Absolutely! There's a lot of learning even now as we speak. All of these off days when we don't do shows is nothing but days of experimentation. So, me and my brothers are heavily into how we can evolve this entire one-man band kit which I have. My brother who's a very key part of this entire setup you know, he's younger by 5-years, but without him it's impossible for me to actually go for a show. We've learned exactly how to use power tools. We know how to check computers and all of that! I can't put it into words but there's so much going on. 

You know when we're in the middle of fixing up things or doing something new, I just tell myself or tell the guys around me I thought I signed up to play drums. But what have we got into? Wow! This is so amazing!

Akshay Kapur

You know, they say that music has the ability to bridge all boundaries, and your music has literally allowed you to travel across borders, what has been the most exciting place that your music has taken you to and why?

Gladson

I landed a country which was not on my list of places to go to - that was China. I lived there for about a year and a half almost and I performed at this park and sometimes in a couple of other cities and every single day was a beautiful experience. Every single day we had a footfall of about 80,000 people and there was one day where this little girl came with her mom and dad. She saw how I was sweating, and I was performing and as much as everybody just clapped their hands and applauded at this entire set, this little girl came, and she was like “hello Uncle can I get you some water you seem to be sweating” and she actually got me some juice.  She took a picture with me, and she gave me a really tight hug. So that's something I really remember from a place I thought I would never go to, but yeah, every experience of that allows me to explore a new place is something I really look forward to every single time.

Akshay Kapur

WOW! That's such a heart-warming story and obviously one thing about music that stands out through this example is the fact that music actually can help people engage on a human level. When we talk about your music, musically and personally who have been your biggest influences and inspirations?

Gladson

First up is my dad. He taught me how to play music, my mom also is a beautiful singer. So, my family is pretty musical that way. But my first and biggest inspiration is my dad not just because of the way he taught me music, but because of the way he lived his life. You know that kind of motivates me to become a better person, every single day but musically speaking, there's this person named Jake Shimabukuro and it's because of him that I learned a lot more. 

So, he's from Hawaii. He said that the Ukulele is such a beautiful instrument. The limitation of it is having a very small space to work on allows him to kind of dive deeper into the entire spectrum. And that tells me that it's not about me doing absolutely crazy moves on my instrument but it's just the fact that everything you play you got to play with all your heart and till date I really do not play anything crazy with a single instrument but whenever I do, I played like it's my last time and I put my whole soul into it. 

Akshay Kapur

That's fantastic! And I think that brings me right into my next question we've talked a lot about the ups and downs that you faced during your journey and in your life. How is your perspective on life changed on account of these ups and downs and how has that changed the way you approach music and what takeaways from this would you like to share with our listeners?

Gladson

What I have learned is that each of us has a vice and also a tool to battle that entire situation. It really depends how we use it. In my case, its music, I can use music to cause destruction, I can use music to spread hatred, I could use music to, do probably nothing with it and just let it all go. Or I could use it to make something positive out of it. So, what I believe is that this tool which each one of us has it may be music, it may be art, it may be as simple as um, hospitality. or just taking care or being a good listener. All these are talents that we are blessed with, and I truly believe that the way we use it is all that matters. 

But secondly whatever you love you know you never want to give up on it. For me it has been music and I will never give up on music and I would really encourage everyone who is listening to this, just never give up on what you love to do that's literally it! We're in a day and age where everything is possible just probably from your phones itself you can use social media. You can do anything to give out the best that you can, and I think it's a great time to use these tools to make the world just a better place to live in.

Akshay Kapur

I think that's a fantastic takeaway and with that Gladson I just want to thank you so much for taking the time to join us on the Go-Beyond Podcast. I'm sure our listeners will really love hearing your story and I’m sure it'll inspire a lot of people to pursue their passions in life.

Gladson

Thank you so much Akshay, it's been a pleasure speaking with you. Thank you once again! 

~ ENDS ~