Daijiworld Media Network – Udupi
Udupi, Sept 3: Anirudh Sean Gonsalves, a young sound engineer from Barkur, Karnataka, has charted an extraordinary course from his hometown to the global stage of the Grammy Awards.
Currently based in Orlando, Florida, Sean is a Mastering Engineer at Hacienda Mastering. He played a pivotal behind-the-scenes role in the Grammy-nominated album Solid Rock Revival, a star-studded collaboration featuring rock legend Alice Cooper, guitar icon Slash, and hip-hop pioneer Darryl “DMC” McDaniels of RUN DMC.
Released in late 2024, the album earned a GRAMMY® nomination under the Best Children’s Music Album category at the 67th Annual Grammy Awards hosted by The Recording Academy.
The record was spearheaded by the Norelli Family Foundation (Florida), a philanthropic organisation founded in 2013 with a mission to uplift children and young adults in need. Known for its work with institutions such as St Jude Children’s Hospital, New Hope for Kids, the St Cecilia Foundation, and Sunshine State Kids, the foundation launched this project under the name Rock For Children—and turned up the volume.
Under this initiative, Alice Cooper led a powerful collaboration joined by Slash and DMC, integrating a chorus of teenagers from the foundation’s youth centres to sing alongside these musical legends.
Behind the album’s sonic polish stood audio giants Howie Weinberg, who prepared the digital masters, and the Hacienda Mastering team, including Sean Gonsalves and his mentor Matt Davis. Sean handled the vinyl pre-mastering, a specialised process crucial to delivering pristine audio quality for vinyl listeners. His contribution directly impacts the record’s fundraising success, with vinyl sales supporting the foundation's charitable work.
Sean and Davis’s engineering partnership extends well beyond the studio. In the spring of 2025, the duo hit the road as front-of-house (FOH) engineers for bass music heavyweight Detox Unit, operating sound at some of the United States’ most iconic venues, including Red Rocks Amphitheatre (Colorado), Bonnaroo Festival (Tennessee), and Suwannee Music Park (Florida).
During the tour, they successfully debuted their prototype dynamic console system, capable of delivering mastering-grade corrections in real-time—an innovation that could reshape the live sound industry.
This follows their 2024 “Reference Sessions” held over three nights in Denver, Colorado, where they deployed a staggering 153,000-watt sub-bass system—the largest indoor setup of its kind. A veteran sound engineer who previously worked with Pink Floyd was in attendance and called it: “The best bass I have ever heard in my life.”
Sean’s audio career is not limited to the music world. In June this year, he led the sound design and Dolby ATMOS engineering for Fading Stars, a National Geographic Society documentary directed by wildlife photographer Aishwarya Nair. The film earned a Wildscreen Panda Award nomination—also known as the “Green Oscars”—and will be screened at the prestigious Wildscreen Festival in Bristol, UK, later this year.
The documentary traces the illegal wildlife trade of the world’s most trafficked reptile, the Indian star tortoise, travelling from forests in India to underground markets in Bangkok. It further showcases Sean’s growing profile in the conservation film space.
Previously, Sean worked on Dhivarah, a documentary directed by Udupi’s Giridhar Nayak, focusing on the Malpe fishing community. It was screened at the Cannes Film Festival and earned accolades including a Suncoast Regional EMMY, the Telly Awards, and a nod from BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts).
He has now reunited with Nayak and UK-based filmmaker Chandra Mouli for a new conservation project titled Mandala, which explores the snake species of India’s Western Ghats. The film has already won the GreenStories Pitch Award in Goa and received recognition at the Jackson Wild Festival in Wyoming, USA.
Sean’s journey began early. A self-taught music producer, he began experimenting with electronic music at age 13 under the alias Noizbleed. By 17, he had already composed the score for the Manipal-based short film Fiction, featuring Kannada actor Raj B Shetty.
In 2020, he composed the original score for the psychological thriller Ondhu Shikariya Kathe, directed by Sachin Shetty and starring Pramod Shetty. The film earned acclaim at the Bangalore International Film Festival (BIFFES) and later topped Amazon Prime Kannada’s charts.
The same year, Sean graduated as Valedictorian from Full Sail University, Florida, with a Bachelor’s degree in Recording Arts & Sciences. He later pursued studies in Computer Science at the University of Central Florida, blending his expertise in audio engineering with tech innovation.
In a major milestone for Indian electronic music, Sean collaborated in 2024 with Delhi-based producer Utkarsh Singh to produce an official remix for Dutch electronic legends Noisia. Released as part of Noisia’s Resonance album series on their acclaimed label VISION Recordings, this made Sean and Utkarsh among the first Indian artists to achieve such recognition.
For Sean and Utkarsh, both aged 25, this was not just a personal triumph, but a signal to the global scene. Noisia, known for shaping the bass music genre and inspiring artists like Skrillex, IMANU, and Shades, have passed the torch. Sean hopes to do the same for the next generation in India. “Our dream is to do for India what Noisia did for the world—to build a creative, collaborative, and fearless community of artists,” Sean says.
From Barkur to the Grammys, via iconic soundboards, conservation documentaries, and a global electronic music scene—Anirudh Sean Gonsalves stands as one of India’s most exciting and versatile sonic visionaries.
https://www.grammy.com/artists/rock-for-children/58235