Ricky Kej

At 42 years old, Ricky Kej physical status not available right now. We will update Ricky Kej's height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, and measurements.

Kej started off his career as the keyboardist of Bengaluru-based progressive rock band Angel Dust. Two years into the band, he moved on to become a full-time composer and set up his own studio, Raveolution, in 2003. He eventually went on to create music for over 3,000 ad jingles and Kannada films. Though Kej's work is an amalgamation of multiple genres, he has maintained that the essence of his work retains the aesthetic of his Indian roots, largely based on Hindustani classical music and a bit of carnatic music. He has cited Pakistani qawwal Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and British vocalist Peter Gabriel as inspirations to constantly challenge and push his own musical boundaries. Kej is a self-taught musician but studied classical music at around the age of 24 to overcome what he observed as a handicap at the time.

Kej has released 17 studio albums, most of which were physically released in the US but not in his home country of India. He has noted that this was on account of the poor music-buying culture in India and the dominant presence of the Hindi film music industry in the country. Kej's 13th studio album, Shanti Orchestra, was released on 9 July 2013. The album peaked at No. 3 in November 2013 on the ZMR Top 100 Radio Airplay Chart, and was ranked No. 37 on the ZMR Top 100 Airplay Chart for 2013. The album was nominated for a 2013 ZMR Music Award and the track "Forever" from the album was also nominated for a Hollywood Music in Media (HMMA) Award in the same year.

Kej produced a benefit album, 2 Unite All, with Peter Gabriel aimed at urgent humanitarian aid to the Palestinians in Gaza. The album also features Stewart Copeland, drummer from the English rock band the Police, drummer Rick Allen of English rock band Def Leppard, American rock band System of a Down frontman Serj Tankian, and Grammy Award-winning opera singer Sasha Cooke.

On 30 November 2015, his album Shanti Samsara – World Music for Environmental Consciousness was launched at COP 21, the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The prime minister personally presented French president François Hollande with a copy of the CD. A video featuring music from the album was also played for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the gathering of world leaders. The album was one of several projects discussed during a meeting Prime Minister Modi had with Kej following his Grammy win. Kej found inspiration in Modi's concern for the environment and set out to specifically develop a project to express a message of environmental consciousness. When completed, more than 300 actors, artists and musicians from around the world had contributed to the making of the album's 24 tracks and four music videos. These include:

On 23 December 2015, Kej was invited to perform a song from Shanti Samsara in a special arrangement featuring flutist Wouter Kellerman and over a hundred students from the Bishop Cotton Boys' School in a special performance for India's President Pranab Mukherjee. Also in attendance were many state and national officials and an audience of nearly 13,000 people. In 2016 "Samsara" from Shanti Samsara received the December 2015 Global Music Awards Gold Medal for World Music – India, and the International Acoustic Music Awards for Best Open/Acoustic Open Genre and on 1 March 2016, he was named as a finalist in the 2015 in the World Music category of the John Lennon Songwriting Contest.

Kej has expressed an interest in working with Pharrell Williams and Hans Zimmer in the future. He has noted Pharrell as being a very versatile artist, which would make it very interesting to work with him, and he would also like to infuse Indian elements into Hans Zimmer's movie compositions. He has also acknowledged a lack of interest in working with Indian film music scoring in the future, though he is open to the use of his existing music catalog in Bollywood movies, and also composing for a Bollywood movie only if the script moves him emotionally. Kaj has also expressed a strong interest in working with Kannada filmmaker Girish Kasaravalli if the opportunity arises. Ricky also cites the dominance of Bollywood and film music for the lack of Grammy winners in the country.

In 2018, Kej released My Earth Songs, music for children on the environment and sustainability. This is a set of 27 songs, with each song based on a United Nations Sustainable Development Goal aimed to create awareness and inspire the younger generation to make a tangible positive impact in their lives and lives of people around them. Notably, Kej has released these songs in the public domain for completely non-commercial purposes. Kej has teamed up with Macmillan Publishers to feature these songs in English language school textbooks from 2019. He has also partnered with UNICEF to spread these songs to children across the world and is working on translating them to several different Indian and global languages. My Earth Songs was honoured at the UN SDG Action Awards in Bonn, Germany on 2 May 2019 for its outreach and impact. The UN SDG Action Awards recognize outstanding achievements and innovative efforts to promote action on the Sustainable Development Goals.

Kej has been an advocate for stronger anti-piracy laws in India. He has stated that there is very little done towards the protection of intellectual property right and with the rampant illegal downloading of music and films, there is a strong need to better project artists.

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