Sameer Gadhia of Young The Giant didn’t first dream of being a lead singer.
“Initially, I’d wanted to go in as a guitarist, because I kind of detested lead singers,” Gadhia said of his audition to join the band in 2004.
Originally called The Jakes, Young The Giant formed while Gadhia was attending high school in Irving, California.
“I went in and they were like, ‘We already have two guitarists, and we’ve heard that you can sing. We’d like for you to try it.’ The second I stepped into that role, it was like a second skin for me. It just immediately felt natural.”
Twenty years later, Gadhia is now the lead singer of a multi-platinum selling band. Though most of Young The Giant’s founding members have moved on, Gadhia has maintained a sense of comfort with his team on both sides of the curtain.
“We have created a home for ourselves,” Gadhia said. “Obviously within the structure of the band, we are brothers, and the touring crew that we have around us, and our fans, and when we play these shows, I do feel like I belong, I feel like I’m at home.”
And perhaps that’s because music has always been home for Gadhia.
“My dad was really passionate about music, and he still does have this really huge appetite for music discovery. The evening was my dad putting on records, with a mixture of popular British and American music. Michael Jackson was huge in the house. Queen was really big. The Beatles. But then there was a lot of Bollywood film music, not so much Indian classical, but popular films that my parents were watching.”
Even with meaningful relationships and global fandom, Gadhia ebbs into periods of isolation as a first generation American.
“I still find myself kind of in-between, but home is what you make of it,” Gadhia said. “I feel like I’ve created that, to a certain degree, with my family and with this touring family as well… But at the same time, I just don’t fully fit into the normal mold of America, and even within the Indian American population.”
This loneliness has been probed further by the conditions of living on the road as an artist.
“There’s a misconception about touring on the road and emotional health,” Gadhia said. “I think, for our fans and for people, we’ve always been a beacon of positivity. But that also can take its toll for us as musicians. We’re still normal people, struggling and going through life, and figuring things out at the same time.”
Gadhia has had to learn how to take care of himself and his wellness while performing in front of thousands of people every night.
“For me, there were some years where I didn’t really love it. I didn’t really love the touring part. But it feels good to be back to a place of really enjoying what I do. Us, as a band right now, are in a very good emotional place.”
Artistically, Young The Giant have also reached a point where they can authentically articulate the music they want to make.
“That’s been a huge shift,” Gadhia. “We finally feel like the thing that we want ourselves to sound like in our head is what we have the tools and the ability to do, even just by ourselves. That’s been a big growth thing.”
Despite just now feeling like they’re reaching their musical potential, Young The Giant’s first hit, “Cough Syrup,” exploded when Gadhia was a freshman studying human biology at Stanford University
“As I got into school and was there my freshman, sophomore year, I’d fly back to LA every other weekend and play shows and get a manager. I left halfway through, so I don’t have my college degree… but human biology is a very interdisciplinary major. There’s psychology and sociology and linguistics, and those are the things that were exciting to me.”
Gadhia’s interest in science remains a part of his songwriting.
“I am just fascinated by physics. That has found itself into some of our songs, and some of our themes, particularly Superposition, which is really a love song but under the veil of quantum physics.”
Gadhia’s education at Stanford also consisted of a creative writing minor, which he has threaded through his career beyond music. He’s currently working on a television show, as well as floating around ideas for a book.
But for now, Gadhia has his hands full with Young The Giant and his radio show Point of Origin, which helps expand the music industry into diverse faces. Having felt faceless in a historically whitewashed alternative music scene himself, Gadhia uses his radio show to promote artists of color in indie music.
While entertainment still has a long way to go to represent the faces behind those who make it, Gadhia believes that if artists keep writing what they know, the rest will follow.
“It has to start from a place of a desire and need to create. If you put intention into those things, the rest will fall into place,” Gadhia said. “You’ll build fans and you’ll build people who understand, and those are the people that you’ll start having a relationship with and writing for.”
Young the Giant
Van Andel Arena
130 W. Fulton St., Grand Rapids
Aug. 16
vanandelarena.com
