And, one fine day, when she was ready, she gave us an absolutely sensational ‘Game of Thrones' cover!Īnd then she took us by storm with her music video ‘Dubstruck'-Archy's version of AC DC's ‘Thunderstruck'. She took the road no one had travelled, yet, and she was treading it one note at a time. I knew I had to do it every day, unfailingly, to be able to at least have my notes sound like a tune! When I realised the depth of work involved in learning and mastering the instrument, I decided to quit my job so I could focus and practice my bagpipes more and get better at it sooner.”įor Archy, the struggle was as real as it gets. “For someone like me, 3 hours a week wasn't enough. Then came hours, days and months of frustration, tears and persistence, and a trip to Scotland. Twenty-year-old Archy Jay quit her role as vice-president to a firm two years ago, where she was managing procurement and business development for a US-based company and decided, instead to pursue a passion that had been ignited within her. But when I came across how a Swiss folk metal band, called Eluveitie had used the bagpipes in such a different dimension, incorporating it into a completely new set up that I had never heard before, that was my ‘gotta wanna' moment and I knew this is what I wanted to do, to be.” “True, it's a very unlikely instrument here, in India.

One look at Archy swooning to the music of her bagpipes, in her red tartan skirt and you're hooked! Today, she is a charmer, quite literally. She was a regular at gigs and a natural crowd-puller, even then. I heard her rendition of Adele's then cult song, ‘Someone Like You', and thought to myself how intimidating, yet beautiful she sounded. She was one of the three female performing artists for the evening. I saw Archy for the first time, back in 2012 at an up-and-coming café in Gurgaon. But whatever I learnt back there is what you see in my videos and in my live acts.” “I went to Scotland for 10 days, five days out of which was heavy tutoring so as to make the most of my time there. “I knew it would be worth it something in me was always positive that this was going to work,” she says. Her instrument of choice-Bagpipes! “I have never wanted anything as bad as wanting to learn the bagpipes,” she confesses.Īrchy who was earlier the lead vocalist for Rogue Saints, a rock/metal band based out of the capital, left the band, then quit her well-paying job to travel all the way to Scotland to learn the instrument. Hailing from Delhi, The Snake Charmer-that's her stage name-has a way with music. But then, again, Archy J is not your average musician.

It's not every day that you come across a bagpiper who blows your mind with the cover of the ‘ Game of Thrones' soundtrack especially if it's a girl.

Archy jay biography