Musically Yours: Clinton Cerejo : Bollywood News

What do you call a guy who not only composes music but also does the vocal arrangements, playback vocals, backing vocals, music arrangements and completely produces and packages the music score? Well there can be no other word to describe Clinton Cerejo other than VERSATILE. Currently, in the limelight for his superb rendition of the Kya Karoon track from Wake Up Sid, Clinton is someone who has indeed come a long way from working on jingles to singing playback songs. Bollywood Hungama profiles Clinton Cerejo in this special edition of Musically Yours.

My Background

I come from a family that is very much into academics and has no musical background at all. My mum is a professor teaching French, my dad is an engineer, my sister edits medical journals and my brother is a computer engineer in Zurich. I on the other hand, somehow managed a first class graduation in Commerce from R.A. Podar College, Mumbai. So, initially it was difficult for my family to accept the fact that I was going to be a musician.

Early days of struggle

While I was in college, I started doing backing vocals for a lot of commercials and worked with people like Ranjit Barot, Leslie Lewis, Louis Banks, Ehsaan and Loy. I tried to make a mark as a singer in commercials but somehow at that point my voice didnt have that distinctive feel which is so important for singing jingles. Moreover, even I was interested in more of producing and composing music rather than singing. Back then I knew that I wanted to be a music arranger and producer. I invested money in some equipment and learnt the nuances of music programming and arranging. Initially, I was not getting much work as a programmer and it was my singing assignments that helped me manage the month somehow.