To Make Good Sound, You Have to Get Up Early in the Morning!

By Jawahar Malhotra

HOUSTON: When there is a huge show to produce, he likes to get there early in the morning and start the speaker layouts, spreading the monster cables and making sure there are plenty of mics and other backup equipment. But when there is lighting and backdrops involved, it makes him get going even earlier.

“For this past weekend’s Janamashtami show, I got to the George Brown Convention Center at 5am,” said Darshak Thacker two days later, having completed another marathon weekend. His Krishna Sounds (which he runs with his wife Mona, who is usually by his side) has its own sound and lighting equipment in his warehouses. Come Saturday morning, September 10, he, Mona and 6 other helpers loaded up and then set up at the GRB. “After the event, we didn’t get back to the house till 3am the next morning!” he added with his characteristic grin.

Houston’s celebrity sound engineer Darshak Thacker is also a high-powered drummer – nicknamed Killer D by this reporter – and watching him play is a treat by itself. For Janamashtami, Darshak provided very high quality, crystal clear Live Sound. “We used very bright stage lights to make sure the stage looked clear and added color par lighting to make the backdrop look 3D so that it seemed like the giant Baby Krishna was popping out of the screen.” This year, he also set two remote screens with live feed on both by cameraman Paresh Shah.

After the cultural and religious events, Darshak and his live band of Kamal Haji (on keyboards) and singers Kashmira Nayak and Hardik Jani played devotional songs in praise of Lord Krishna’s. Darshak’s high energy drumbeats made everybody dance the raas garba till way past midnight … and as he jumped along, he looked even more energized!