Inderpal Singh Sagu ( Punjabi: ਇੰਡਰਪਾਲ ਸਿੰਘ ਸਗੂ, born 25 July 1980), better known by his stage name Indy Sagu, is a

British Sikh British Sikhs number over 520,000 people and account for 0.88% of England and Wales's population as of 2021, forming the United Kingdom's fourth-largest religious group. According to the 2021 United Kingdom census, Sikhs in England & Wales nu ...

record producer, singer and DJ. Sagu has made a global name for himself as a leading Asian pioneer of fusion genre, his urbanized record production infuses the sounds and incorporates the elements, musical instruments, and hook lines of traditional bhangra with

urban Urban means "related to a city". In that sense, the term may refer to: * Urban area, geographical area distinct from rural areas * Urban culture, the culture of towns and cities Urban may also refer to: General * Urban (name), a list of people ...

western sounds, primarily with a special emphasis on American hip hop.

Life and musical career

Indy Sagu was born and raised in

Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...

, UK and began his professional musical career in his hometown in 1996. Sagu's musical talents were essentially inherited from his family's musical background. From an early age his father taught him how to play various Indian instruments such as the

harmonium The pump organ is a type of free-reed organ that generates sound as air flows past a vibrating piece of thin metal in a frame. The piece of metal is called a reed. Specific types of pump organ include the reed organ, harmonium, and melodeon. T ...

dholki The ''dholak'' is a two-headed hand drum, a folk percussion instrument. The instrument is about 45 cm in length and 27 cm in breadth and is widely used in ''qawwali'', '' kirtan'', '' lavani'' and '' bhangra''. The drum has two differ ...

tumbi The tumbi or toombi ( pa, ਤੂੰਬੀ, pronunciation: ''tūmbī''), also called a tumba or toomba, is a traditional musical instrument from the Punjab region of the northern Indian subcontinent. The high-pitched, single- string plucking ins ...

, and

tabla A tabla, bn, তবলা, prs, طبلا, gu, તબલા, hi, तबला, kn, ತಬಲಾ, ml, തബല, mr, तबला, ne, तबला, or, ତବଲା, ps, طبله, pa, ਤਬਲਾ, ta, தபலா, te, తబల� ...

and Indy then taught himself to play the keyboards and drums. Having purchased his first set of turntables at age 16 he quickly made his debut in the

Asian underground Asian underground is a term associated with various British Asian and South Asian Canadian musicians (mostly Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Sri Lankan) who blend elements of Western underground dance music and the traditional Asian music of th ...

scene and became known throughout the UK as the pioneering DJ who infused traditional bhangra sounds into an urbanized street sound that was simply fun and unique. Indy spent the proceeding four years in the DJ circuit and while DJing at major Asian events he began focussing on his record production and keyboard skills. His musical record production talents lead to him being signed with Untouchables Records in 2000 and he then focussed on music production for other artists and began featuring on various compilation albums alongside American labels

Warner Bros. Records Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...

Virgin Records Virgin Records is a record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman. It grew to be a worldwid ...

Sony BMG Sony BMG Music Entertainment was an American record company owned as a 50–50 joint venture between Sony Corporation of America and Bertelsmann. The venture's successor, the revived Sony Music, is wholly owned by Sony, following their buyout o ...

, and

EMI Records EMI Records (formerly EMI Records Ltd.) is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British flagship label by the music company of the same name in 1972, and launched in January 1973 as the succ ...

. The release of these urban compilation albums firmly established Indy as a pioneering record producer. Indy established a reputation as the Asian sensation hailing for the Untouchables Record label and was featured in The Face Magazine gaining the label "The Asian So Solid Crew." In 2001, Indy's breakthrough album ''The Debut'' launched his career in spectacular form by topping the UK Asian music

billboards A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

with hit releases ''"Bari Khol Khe,"'' ''"Come to me Beautiful-Aja Soneeay,"'' and ''"Let's Laugh & Dance-Haseeai Nacheeay."'' He won the UK Best Newcomer Award for his solo album ''The Debut''. ''The Debut'' was critically acclaimed and was one of the most successful albums on the UK Album charts. It was the release of this album which helped popularize him as an artist and record producer worldwide particularly among the

South Asian South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geography, geographical and culture, ethno-cultural terms. The region consists of the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, ...

community. In 2004, Indy released his second album entitled ''Indystructable'' which fulfilled the sudden demand surging from Britain for a genre combination of Bhangra and Hip Hop sounds. The album was significantly influenced by both sounds and the resulting sound was praised to be a genre that was inexplicable and distinctive to the record producer Indy himself. Hit releases were ''"Son of a Sadar-Putt Saradaran Dhe,"'' and ''"Let's Dance-Dovey Nachiey."'' This success helped further establish Indy as a major recognized

Sikh Sikhs ( or ; pa, ਸਿੱਖ, ' ) are people who adhere to Sikhism, Sikhism (Sikhi), a Monotheism, monotheistic religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Gu ...

artist and record producer across the Asian and mainstream community. Shortly after Sagu featured on the Asian Beat Bazaar compilation alongside

Virgin Virginity is the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. The term ''virgin'' originally only referred to sexually inexperienced women, but has evolved to encompass a range of definitions, as found in traditional, modern ...

and

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British Transnational corporation, transnational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in March 1 ...

and featured on The Rough Guide to Bhangra Album alongside the World Music Network. This album brought together legendary Asian artists onto one album and was accredited as playing a major role within the Bhangra music scene especially within the Asian Diaspora community, this further helped extend Sagu's international fan-base. Sagu parted from Untouchables Records in 2004 and established himself as an entrepreneur, he founded his own

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

label Lioncore Records and owns his own publishing company. Under his formed label he launched his third album ''Reincarnated'' in 2008 which served to re-affirm his artistic musical recording production talents. This album as the name suggests was the rebirth of Sagu both personally and as an artist in many ways. Empowering releases with strong meaningful lyrical content were ''"Gabru Top Dha,"'' ''"Punjabi Gabru,"'' and ''"Gideh Vich."''. During the launch of this album Sagu assumed the role of being the record producer and

record executive A music executive or record executive is a person within a record label who works in senior management and makes executive decisions over the label's artists. Their role varies greatly but in essence, they can oversee one, or many, aspects of a re ...

Indy is set to release his highly anticipated exclusive 2010

bootleg Bootleg or bootlegging most often refers to: * Bootleg recording, an audio or video recording released unofficially * Rum-running, the illegal business of transporting and trading in alcoholic beverages, hence: ** Moonshine, or illicitly made ...

''IndyNation.'' The album features legendary hip hop artists and the overall project serves to pave the way to a new generation of music. From the samples released he has received praise for his creative, original, and innovative fusion record production abilities of British bhangra and hip hop and is being referred to as the urban producer who is producing

hit Hit means to strike someone or something. Hit or HIT may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional entities * Hit, a fictional character from '' Dragon Ball Super'' * Homicide International Trust, or HIT, a fictional organization ...

releases which represent what today's generation musical wants to hear. The entire album alongside all his other solo and compilation albums have been musically composed, arranged, produced, and mastered completely by Indy himself. Over the years Indy has toured internationally entertaining and performing in front of energized crowds and has

collaborated Collaboration (from Latin ''com-'' "with" + ''laborare'' "to labor", "to work") is the process of two or more people, entities or organizations working together to complete a task or achieve a goal. Collaboration is similar to cooperation. Most ...

with renowned Indian Artists

Surinder Shinda Surinder Pal Dhammi, better known as Surinder Shinda is an Indian singer of Punjabi music who is considered a "grandfather of moc", and has been described as "legendary". He has had numerous hit songs including "Jatt Jeona Morh", "Putt Jattan D ...

Kuldeep Manak Kuldeep Manak, also spelled as Kuldip Manak (born Latif Mohammed Khan; 15 November 1951 – 30 November 2011), was an Indian singer best known for singing a rare genre of Punjabi music, ''kali'', also known by its plural form ''kalian'' or kali ...

Bally Sagoo Baljit Singh "Bally" Sagoo ( Punjabi: ਬਲਜੀਤ ਸਿੰਘ ਸੱਗੂ, born 19 May 1964) is a British-Indian record producer and DJ. Born in Delhi, India, Sagoo was raised in Birmingham, England. He entered the recording and enterta ...

and performed alongside

So Solid Crew So Solid Crew are a British UK garage and hip hop collective originating from the area on and surrounding the Winstanley and York Road Estates in Battersea, London which achieved wide success in the early 2000s. The group consisted of many m ...

Jay Sean Kamaljit Singh Jhooti (born 26 March 1981), better known by the stage name Jay Sean, is a British singer and songwriter. He debuted in the UK's Asian Underground scene as a member of the Rishi Rich Project with "Dance with You", which reached ...

and legendary Hip Hop artists

Public Enemy "Public enemy" is a term which was first widely used in the United States in the 1930s to describe individuals whose activities were seen as criminal and extremely damaging to society, though the phrase had been used for centuries to describe p ...

Pras Prakazrel Samuel Michel (; born October 19, 1972) is a Haitian-American rapper, producer, songwriter and actor. He is best known as a member of the hip hop group Fugees, alongside Wyclef Jean and Lauryn Hill. After the Fugees, he earned two ...

from the

Fugees Fugees (; sometimes The Fugees) is an American hip hop group formed in the early 1990s. Deriving its name from a shortening of the word "refugees", the group consists of Wyclef Jean, Pras Michel, and Lauryn Hill. The group rose to fame with i ...

Craig David Craig Ashley David (born 5 May 1981) is a British singer and songwriter who rose to fame in 1999, featuring on the single "Re-Rewind (The Crowd Say Bo Selecta), Re-Rewind" by Artful Dodger (UK band), Artful Dodger. David's debut studio album, ' ...

, and

Sean Paul Sean Paul Ryan Francis Henriques OD (born 9 January 1973) is a Jamaican rapper and singer who is regarded as one of dancehall's most prolific artists. Paul's singles "Get Busy" and "Temperature" topped the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart in the ...

. His international fan-base serves to demonstrate that his music has no boundaries as it attracts diverse crowds of all ages, cultures, and backgrounds.

Musical sound and inspiration

Sagu has found much success in record producing across many

genres Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...

of music, particularly in his speciality of bhangra, hip hop,

house A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condi ...

UK garage UK garage, abbreviated as UKG, is a genre of electronic dance music which originated in England in the early to mid-1990s. The genre was most clearly inspired by garage house, but also incorporates elements from dance-pop, R&B, and jungle. It ...

, and rock. Sagu spends ample time exploring and experimenting with a variety of sounds from various genres of music. Drawing on this wide array of genre inspiration he concentrates on the production of music, specifically infusing traditional Punjabi music with sounds from around the world. Sagu spends much time learning percussion with the goals to introduce new vibrant beats, well structured rhythms, funky riffs, sync fuelled anthems, and captivating melodies along with meaningful lyrical content, all of which results in a refinement of a uniquely fused urbanized East-West street sound. His sound is also strongly influenced by his personal life experiences and his

heritage Heritage may refer to: History and society * A heritage asset is a preexisting thing of value today ** Cultural heritage is created by humans ** Natural heritage is not * Heritage language Biology * Heredity, biological inheritance of physical c ...

. He encompasses these inspirational influences and incorporates them into the production of his music. Sagu is recognized as a leader who has redefined the music industry by focusing on creating a defying musical

niche Niche may refer to: Science *Developmental niche, a concept for understanding the cultural context of child development *Ecological niche, a term describing the relational position of an organism's species *Niche differentiation, in ecology, the ...

of fusion British bhangra that is distinct to him. As a record producer, musician, and artist Sagu is the head director who assumes the main

leadership Leadership, both as a research area and as a practical skill, encompasses the ability of an individual, group or organization to "lead", influence or guide other individuals, teams, or entire organizations. The word "leadership" often gets view ...

role of inspiring consistent ingenuity and motivation to continuously exceed his artistic musical capabilities. Sagu's signature is to musically

compose Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature *Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography *Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include v ...

arrange Arrange is a mythological figure from the Australian aboriginal creation myth of the Alyawarre people for Karlu Karlu. In the myth, the figure Arrange, who is also referred to as the devil man, comes from Ayleparrarntenhe. Arrange was making a ...

, produce and

master Master or masters may refer to: Ranks or titles * Ascended master, a term used in the Theosophical religious tradition to refer to spiritually enlightened beings who in past incarnations were ordinary humans *Grandmaster (chess), National Master ...

all musical tracks with live multi-layered instruments, with string

arrangements In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchestr ...

, and piano loops. He is a multi-talented musician who prefers to personally play in live instruments of the

, drums, and keyboards into his work.

Charity supporter

Sagu in 2008 formed an alliance with the UK Beat Bullying Organization. Sagu has become an official representative of the renowned two time award-winning UK Beat Bullying charitable organization. His mission is to support and promote this charity by educating and entertaining people through his music. He strongly believes music is a powerful tool in influencing and expanding people's social consciousness and uses his music to unleash his suppression and to reach out to others. Sagu has taken a personal interest in helping people who have and who continue to be a victim of bullying and has therefore devised a campaign entitled ''"Don't Be A Victim"'' in support of the BeatBullying charity. Through this campaign he plans to bring global awareness that bullying exists and there are support systems for anyone who is being bullied. The campaign focuses significantly on empowering others to help reduce and whenever possible deter the increasing incidents of bullying amongst young adults as well as encouraging young adults to begin adapting a lifestyle that is ''"Bully-Free."'' Sagu formed an affiliation in 2009 with UK Desi Donors Organization and stands proud to say ''"I’m a Desi Donor, are you?"'' Sagu is an official supporter of the Desi Donors Organization. Desi Donors aim is to promote and raise awareness for Bone Marrow and Blood Donation's within the

Asian Asian may refer to: * Items from or related to the continent of Asia: ** Asian people, people in or descending from Asia ** Asian culture, the culture of the people from Asia ** Asian cuisine, food based on the style of food of the people from Asi ...

and

ethnic An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...

communities A community is a Level of analysis, social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place (geography), place, Norm (social), norms, religion, values, Convention (norm), customs, or Identity (social science), identity. Communiti ...

. Their aim is to get more people on ''The Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow Trust's'' register of potential donors as there is currently an urgent need to increase the representation of Asians and minority ethnic communities on the register. In being an official representative of Desi Donors, Sagu will support the organization by using the power of his music to raise awareness and expand people's societal consciousness of the importance of being a donor. He will use the power of his music to educate and reach out to the Asian and ethnic communities.

Discography

Albums

*''TBA – Indy Sagu's Fourth Studio Album'' (2011) Lioncore Records *''IndyNation'' (2010) Lioncore Records *''Reincarnated'' (2008) Lioncore Records *''Indystructable'' (2004) Untouchables Records *''The Debut'' (2002) Untouchables Records

Compilation albums

*''Bhangra Dance'' (2006) World Music Network *''Urban Explosion'' (2004)

*''Asian Beat Bazaar'' (2004)

*''Danger 3'' (2004) Untouchables Records *''Bombay Mix'' (2003)

*''Urban Flavas 2'' (2003) Untouchables Records *''Heavy'' (2003) Untouchables Records *''Danger 2'' (2002) Untouchables Records *''Urban Flavas'' (2002) Untouchables Records *''Sounds of the North'' (2002) Untouchables Records *''Danger'' (2001) Untouchables Records

Collaborations

, "Metz & Trix" (2001) *Metz & Trix, "Danger" (2001) *Gubi Sandhu, "Dil Karda" (2003) *

Lehmber Hussainpuri Lehmber Hussainpuri (pronounced ; born 17 July 1977) is an Indian Bhangra singer. Life Lehmber Hussainpuri was born on 17 July 1977 in his village Hussainpur. He now resides in Deol Nagar Jalandhar City. On May 31, 2021, Lehmber was accused ...

, "Indystructable" (2004) *Manak-E, "Indystructable" (2004) *RDB, "Reincarnated" (2008) *Ranjit Mani, "Danger 2" (2002)

References

External links

Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sagu, Indy 1980 births Living people British record producers Virgin Records UK garage musicians Musicians from London English hip hop musicians English record producers American music industry executives Bhangra (music) musicians English people of Indian descent English Sikhs Bhangra (music) Punjabi people Indian Sikhs Performers of Sikh music Businesspeople from New York (state) Brit Award winners Desi musical groups English people of Punjabi descent