0:02

[Playing Steel Drums]

0:20

>>Devin: Hey this is Devin Ramoutar 
and you’re watching MAD.

0:24

[Transition Music]

0:29

I love teaching, I love working and
interacting with people and being able to  

0:33

leave like some sort of impact on their life 
right and

0:37

I love Bollywood orchestration.

0:39

The combination of those two things for me um

0:42

allowed me to be able to teach,

0:44

right, in my own way and form 
a mini orchestra.

0:48

Almost three years ago now,
I was actually…I went through some  

0:52

obstacles in my life that I was actually 
diagnosed with

0:55

depression, anxiety and OCD.

0:58

So three of those um I was diagnosed with
and for me it was a constant battle of like  

1:04

daily battles fighting your own thoughts.   

1:06

And it was so hard
because the potential that I knew I had

1:10

was just sucked out of me  
every single day. 

1:12

I really had to um 
force myself to come to terms with it

1:15

just for the sake of my own um my own 
health.

1:18

Once you’re able to view your brain in a 
different way

1:21

you realize that…that you…you’re the 
one in control really

1:24

it just doesn’t always seem like that.

1:25

My focus is now completely shifted   

1:28

from like my satisfaction coming from
music to like my satisfaction with like

1:31

like I said interacting with people
because   

1:34

I get my happiness now from knowing that
I can positively impact someone else’s life.

1:39

And not just from like positively 
impacting someone’s like…

1:43

um when they’re in
the audience somewhere.

1:45

While anyone can be a teacher

1:47

you really have to be genuine in certain 
aspects.

1:50

And I find that the way…why I interact  
with my students the way I do,

1:53

why we’re such a close family,
is because

1:56

whatever I tell them, what like advice outside of music and stuff as well,

2:00

they’re like my little brothers and sisters right,  

2:01

advice that I give them they see me apply.

2:03

What I want to do from every year up until
five years from now

2:07

is making sure that I chase the right 
things.

2:10

And not like –the right things for me, right.

2:12

And while that may not be the right thing
for you or someone else,

2:14

it’s like I’m in the process of 
finding what’s right for me right now

2:17

and then 

2:19

I just want to be chasing those things  
forever.

2:24

[Music]

3:26

>>Devin: I’m a Bollywood percussionist, I play 

3:28

pretty much any Bollywood instrument

3:30

there is in a song.

3:32

I will find a way
to either mimic it or play it.

3:34

Aside from Bollywood music, I am

3:36

a steel pannist,

3:37

so I do play the steel pan and it’s the
steel pan really that has taken me um

3:42

primarily around the world.

3:44

I’m classically trained in specific
instruments: tabla, dholak, the works.

3:47

But what I do is I now bridge that gap

3:51

between classical knowledge and practicality

3:53

–being able to play Bollywood songs,
being able to accompany singers.

3:56

Our culture is

3:57

really and truly of collaboration of
cultures, in Canada.

4:01

I have to say that it’s probably the um  

4:04

the cultural embrace, 
that we have here in Canada,

4:07

that has allowed me to branch off into 
the public speaking, into writing.

4:11

I don’t speak Hindi, but yet

4:13

prime…like majority of the artists
I work with are Indian.

4:17

In my building stages,

4:19

it was definitely a bit of a barrier
because that’s when

4:21

I needed the exposure, I needed the networking, 

4:24

but then the network I’m trying to  
get into

4:27

I couldn’t really relate to them
in in many aspects.

4:30

There’s so many things before pande– 
pre-pandemic that

4:33

I would have to go to gigs all the time, 
I’d have to do this,

4:36

I’d have to go there, do that.

4:37

Now I find I’m at a state where I can
easily zone in and out of what I want to  

4:42

because of the… 
the concentration I can now give.

4:45

I’m a musician, I am a teacher,  
I’m a writer

4:48

but above all else, and what I think is  
most important, is that I’m a…

4:52

I try to be a thinker  
and I try to be aware of

4:55

–because at the end of the 
day our thoughts are all we have.

4:57

No matter what we are, 
no matter what we do,

4:59

how we perceive what we do

5:01

is what adds quality to our life.

5:06

[Music]

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