DJ Ashwin Seegobin aka “Smash” shares how his musical hobby became a full-time career Sometimes what we enjoy as a hobby can transform into our main source of revenue and fulfillment; we then, suddenly, realize that we are ready to turn our pastime into a career. Ashwin Seegobin aka “Smash” had this revelation when he realized he wanted to create music as his full-time career, and he was ready to do whatever was needed to achieve his goal.
Seegobin shares that he has always had a deep love of music. He has been DJ-ing since he was a teenager, but he discovered that music production was the career that he wanted almost by happenstance. After graduating with his degree in animation, he began working in a shared studio space in Brixton, London. It was within that shared space that he found himself gravitating toward the soundboards and music production equipment. After a few months spent dabbling in the creation of music, Seegobin had the epiphany that his true career lay within the world of music production. Seegobin’s life is now filled with the art of music. As well as working full-time as a music producer and audio engineer, he also conducts lectures and mentors students in music production and audio engineering. Seegobin shares that, for him, transitioning from the animated arts to the musical arts was a smooth journey. He has always been creative and found personal joy in the creation of art that people can experience and enjoy. And so for Seegobin, going from creating art with images to musical beats felt natural to him. Elaborating on this, Seegobin says, “I always knew that I was destined to create within the arts, I just hadn’t realized that through my hobby of DJ-ing I was already cementing a career in the music production industry.”
Ashwin Seegobin indulged his love of music and its creation by experimenting and creating with it as a teenager. Though he shares that it was a formative part of his adolescence, he put it aside to gain a degree in animation. Seegobin has now found a way to combine his personal and professional joy by turning one of his greatest passions into his career. He says that he also gets great fulfillment from his position as a music lecturer and mentor at The Academy of Contemporary Music. Of his hopes for the future, Seegobin says, “For me, music is the future—teaching it, creating it, and performing it. I have some exciting upcoming music projects that I’m looking forward to releasing.”
Sometimes, what you love dedicating your free time to can be the very thing that you could base your career on; you just have to believe in it.
