Today we’d like to introduce you to Shrey Sanghavi.
Hi Shrey, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Playing drums was my first love. I started in 6th grade at Olle Middle School when I began private lessons from a teacher named Tom Phares. He was a jazz drummer who had played with Dizzy Gilespie. He saw something uniquely special in me and surprised me on Christmas Day that year with a brand new drum set! I would play all the time, practicing jazz, funk, and hip hop. Since I was born with a medical condition called cerebral palsy, drums were my means of exercise as well as musical expression. They were a part of my body, mind, and soul! Eventually, I formed a band in high school. We were your typical garage band called PROLEFEED that played originals as well as covers. We played house parties, school musicals, and occasionally at big events. During this time, I was always writing poetry in my spare time. I always had wanted to add my poetry to beats but I wasn’t an emcee at that time. I would just dabble on my own with stuff that I made.
After I graduated from Elsik high school, I earned a Regent Scholarship to attend UC Berkeley in California for college. I packed up my belongings and traveled across the country to begin a new adventure! My roommate was also from Elsik so we had each other to relate within this new locale. We were blessed to befriend The Mystik Journeymen and Living Legends and Sunspot Jonz would come by from time to time and give us all the new music tapes for free, lol. We saw them open for Busta Rhymes in San Francisco and went backstage before the show!
Now I was minoring in music at the time and met more people interested in jamming. We formed a new band in Berkeley entitled CHAKRA. Alongside the guitar, bass, and drums were other instrumentalists such as tenor sax, trumpet, and keyboard! We even had freestyle vocalists from a local hip-hop group from Oakland! The local hip-hop group was called The Slumplords. They were on Stray Records, a subsidiary of Dog Day Records, who housed a roster of Brotha Lynch Hung and The Coup. This was all back around 1997-2001. At our pinnacle, we played Blake’s a few times. Blake’s was where Third Eye Blind started and Blackalicious used to play. Members of The Slumplords would always come to the house and freestyle with me. It was at that time that I began sharpening my own skills as an emcee. I began transforming more of my poetry into recorded songs and performing at local events on campus and out in Oakland and San Francisco! It was super exciting and a fun time to be playing music! An unparalleled foundation for my future musical endeavors!
After college in 2001, I decided to return home to Houston because I missed my family. I was deeply interested in rapping and making music so I attended an NYC F.A.M.E meeting. That is New York City Federation of Actors, Models, and Entertainers. I was directed to a producer named Gage at Fastrax Productions. He helped me release my first album years later in 2005. I was called Slo Gun and the album’s name was Indian X.
One day I went to Brazil Cafe on Westheimer with a trunk full of CDs of my new album. I ran into Chaz by chance. He was a local jewelry salesman. He said there are some people I need to meet ASAP. Craig BBC Long, Joe B, and Karina Nistal. I found those people and gave them my music! They single-handedly helped me get on track to meet my goals! I began performing at various venues around the city, including the Los Magnificos Custom Car Show!
Fast forward ten years to 2015. I left my corporate job in 2009, went to school yet again for nuclear medicine and graduated in 2013. I started working in 2014 and my music never left my side! I began making more songs that were dear to my heart and soul and needed a new name. Enter in Shrey Day, aka Press Play! The new moniker had a new personality and new production from the likes of JBliss BBM, Lee Lawson, DJ Jaycee, and Sudden Heroes. I even had some old beats from my vault that I began to write to and record! I started rocking shows with Rainflowa and the Underground Merger. So many emcees would perform and freestyle together… it was great! Rainflowa was instrumental in getting me performance opportunities and I am truly grateful for her efforts! I was given a chance to perform and interview on Alternative Scream TV here in Houston and it was broadcast on local TV! The new songs were getting noticed! I kept performing at as many places as I could and also started featuring with bands! I began working with groups like Free Radicals, Los Skarnales, Metanoia, Demonic Hen, and Help I’m Alive. I have even performed a couple of times with The Exposure Experiment and Dem!
I also was blessed to get on board with Pancakes and Booze, an Art Show based out of Los Angeles. I have been performing on the Houston show since 2016 whenever they come to town at Warehouse Live. Shoutout to Tom!!
Since the pandemic hit I have been working on new music. I recorded a mixtape style album entitled ‘Power 2 The People’ which released in Fall 2020. There are several other new singles in the works and I am very excited to get them out to the public and perform! I am hoping to impress the right people around the world to give me the opportunity to connect with them and showcase all this new music! Cheers to 2021 and the future!
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
The road has been pretty smooth. I was fortunate to be working alongside my musical endeavors so that I had some money to funnel into my passion! The main struggle has been my medical condition hampering my freedom of movement. I mean it’s hard for me to be everywhere all the time but I am doing my best. If I get an opportunity to perform, I always give it 100% my best effort.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am a Nuclear Medicine Technologist specializing in Interventional Cardiology. I conduct nuclear stress test studies for different cardiologists around the greater Houston Area. I am known for being great with patients and having a painless hand when starting IVs! Many people compliment me on my skills, saying I am the best they have ever had lol. It makes me feel good to know that I am making a positive difference in their life! It also keeps me on my toes to continue to be as good as I can at what I do. I think what sets me apart from others is my ability to connect with the patients I see. Since I myself have a medical condition, we can relate because we are all going through our own hardships… Positive vibes are always emanating from deep within my soul. I care deeply for the patients I see at work!
So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
My family matters most to me. The love and care they have given me is godly. I try to be as good to them as they are to me. I also treat my friends and people I meet like family. That creates a great bond!
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: www.shreyday.rocks
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shreyday808/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShreyDayakaPressPlay
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/shrey808
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGDLQ55hoWfJrFq-wkHUfYQ
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/shrey-day/sets/yea
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3pkSGKy7Ne6l6pdT8YHNx8
Image Credits
Ed Villegas, The Other 9 to 5 Photography, REDPUB
