All for music

There are Sunday Jams,workshops,guest lectures and performances. And there is a wall of icons,featuring acrylic faces of 100 music greats who have inspired generations of musicians and music lovers. “The wall is like instant inspiration,” chuckles Hardik Vaghela,founder member of Muziclub,and as close as anyone would be to being called the ‘CEO’ of the establishment.

Vaghela’s story is like the standard tale of this firm. The electrical engineer from Baroda took a detour from his degree and landed an IT job in Pune. Being always musically inclined,he helped form the Hindi rock band,Highway 61. But he was dealing with a dual problem. “It is so difficult to survive as a musician here,and at the same time I was desperate to get out of my job,” he recalls. A short entrepreneurship course in Mumbai gave him the push and the contacts to finally form Muziclub. “We all shared the same idea of building a music club cum jamming place cum recording studio kind of a set-up.”

Yogesh Rathod,Vinay Peshwa and Devendra Chahal became the three main investors in Muziclub,while Vaghela was the de facto working partner. For the initial three months,Vaghela juggled both jobs,before taking a plunge into Muziclub full-time. Muziclub conducts classes in drums,guitars,keyboard,violin and tabla. Plans are in place to introduce flute classes soon. The main ‘staff’ of the establishment consist of Vaghela,Mohammed Muneem,who is also the vocalist and song-writer for Highway 61,and Sumana,who handles all the admininistration work. “The experience of working here has been really good and I have been mainly dealing with the customer relations side of it,” says Sumana,who wants to set up her own apparel business in the future.

But more important than the courses that Muziclub conducts is the idea of music that it spreads. The Sunday Jam sessions are free for all jamborees where anyone can participate. “The idea is not to have a great show,but to have a great feel. We encourage everyone to play,make mistakes,learn in the process. Just like in a jam,” says Vaghela.

Their IT sector backgrounds ensure that behind the musical bonhomie are flow charts and reports that keep things in order. Muziclub also has a corporate programme under which its teachers go to five companies in eight locations across the city and teach music to over 300 professionals. And the surprising part of all this is – Muziclub has never advertised! “We distributed some flyers on the day we opened. But beyond that,it’s just been word-of-mouth,” says Vaghela.