Does music make you lose control? Most people feel that they can connect to the different types of music and songs that are produced. Some people wake up in the morning and the first thing they do is turn on their radio or MP3 players, while some others find music irritating early in the morning. For Shivankur Sharma music helps him feel elated and takes him back in time into his childhood days. His passion and love for music has turned into a full time job as a DJ.

Completing his International Business and Marketing degree at Schulich School of business, Shivankur never lost his passion for music. Being born and brought up in East Africa, he was exposed to different types of music and cultures since his dad works for the UN, “I was lucky as a child since I got the feel of different cultural sounds and beats and I was always listening to different types of music and I would enjoy it which gave me a different feeling”. Coming to Canada in 1998, Shivankur was in grade 6 and at that time he had done grade 6 in three different countries. “Everyone was listening to different music and I always had my own preferences and it was hard to see other youth eye to eye but I still continued to listen to my own music”. But even though he lost out on his friends that he had made over the past years, Shivankur is happy with his parents choosing Toronto to settle down in. “Coming to Toronto was a good idea since it allowed me to see how everyone from different ethnicities were all living together in one big city, which I never really experienced before”.

Being a young child and having to move every two years to a different country can be very difficult and Shivankur was no exception, “It was hard to have to move around every year, but one thing that kept me stable was listening to my music. It would take me back into time and it kept things grounded for me which is one of the reasons that I wanted to become a DJ”. All South Asian parents want their children to become doctors, or lawyers, or engineers but it was different in the case for Shivankur. “My family is always about choosing something that you like and do that, even though every South Asian parent wants their children to be a doctor or lawyer but my parents were more flexible. They told me to choose what I enjoyed doing and make sure it is a safe career since they wanted me to stick to it completely with being 100% satisfied”.

After completing his degree from Schulich, he then realized that business was not for him and being a DJ is. “I have used a lot of my knowledge that I learned in marketing and business towards my profession today”. After going for an exchange to Mexico during his university life, it is there he realized that disk jockey was his career. “The first time I disk jockeyed I felt amazing; I knew after that this was what I wanted to continue doing”.  There are many youth that take the disk jockey career as a hobby, but in order to persue it as a career “you need to be serious about it and put yourself out there”. What about his parents, were they satisfied with his decision? “Initially my parents laughed at me and thought I was just joking around but when they realized how serious and passionate I was towards this profession they realized that this was what I wanted to do, but it took a lot of convincing but I am thankful that they were very understanding and helpful towards my decision”.

Learning from a professional DJ studio, Shivankur learned with hip-hop beats but for him “electronic” music is his style. After realizing that he wanted to pursue this career, Shivankur had set his DJ name; XiXXLE. “When I was in second year university I was always writing this word everywhere, I had no idea what it meant or where it came from I even tried to google the answer but nothing showed up. I then decided that whatever I do in life I am going to use this as my brand, for me it means free and liberating”. Being unique and original that is one of Shivankur’s motives. “Right now especially in Toronto disk jockeying is such a competitive industry and everyone that has turn tables spinning in their basements or at their friends parties think that’s what it takes to become a DJ, but it goes beyond that it is about being original and the focus strategy that you go in with”.

XiXXLE gave some last inspiring words for the South Asian youth, “Make sure you believe in anything you are doing and you have to be 100% confident of what you are doing and do not let anything bring you down”.