Better Late than Never: The Extraordinary Rise of Lady of the House SA Winner Sharm Pillay
Lady of the House SA Competition winner Sharm Pillay’s path in the world of professional music defies time and the conventions of age, fortifying the well-established sayings that dreams have no expiry date and that getting on in the years means nothing for those with enough will to reinvent themselves. Born in Durban but bred in Jozi, having established base in the City of Gold for three decades, Pillay is a late-blooming disc jockey and record producer who has the world in the palms of her hands with as much dexterity as she does when handling the decks.
“I come from an Indian family that is very musically-inclined, but I started DJing in 2014, very late into my life, and the journey has very much taken a life of its own. It’s something I didn’t expect because when I started doing this, my intention was to just make gym music for myself. Next thing I know, it evolved into my purpose,” says Sharm.
Sharm Pillay | SUPPLIED
Launching into the limelight with her single, “Soul to Soul” and clinching one of the prize berths of Lady of the House, Pillay reflects on transitioning from the comfort zone of the corporate environment to the creative landscape of making music.
“Making music has been one of the most profound experiences I’ve had in my entire life. It was surprising, magical, beautiful, heartbreaking, shocking—it’s been one of the most amazing experiences. I come from a corporate world and background, and music brought out my creative side, which was latent. I followed the feeling, which kept me going because there was a time where I thought I’d just do this for five years and call it time. But now I’ve reached that five years, and I’ve gotten to travel and play overseas. It’s over five years now and I’ve produced my first award-winning song,” says Pillay.
The producer also talks about the spiritual aspect of making music, touting herself a vessel to fulfill her purpose.
“On top of that, everything that’s been happening has aligned well with my soul journey since I’m a deeply spiritual person. I feel like music has been awakening to me on a soul level. The person I am today is certainly not the person I was ten years ago, clichéd as it may sound. Back then I was thinking about how much I was getting on in years in life. Now I’m at a place where I understand my purpose, that I am here to awaken people’s spiritual hearts through music. Because music is vibrations and energy, and as an artist I see myself as a conduit to be used to spread positive energies to listeners,” says the DJ.
Sharm Pillay | SUPPLIED
Sharm has neither regrets nor feelings of discontent about the timeline of her growth and blossoming this deep into her life. She believes that everybody’s growth curve is individual and unique, while also seeing negative past experiences as pluses that help her mature her music.
“I feel like I am exactly where I am supposed to be, and I don’t think there is a way I could’ve forced this journey. It’s been all about divine timing. On a deeper level, we are all at different phases in our lives, and whatever bad happened to me back then is serving me well right now. I experienced some things during my younger years which have only added wisdom and knowledge in getting to know myself better,” she says.
Still operating from the stronghold of healing the world with love, Pillay reveals that cooking serves not only as a love language for her but also an act that aligns with what she is meant to do.
“While my first passion has always been music, my second has always been cooking and food. Feeding the people I care for is actually my love language, and I’ve turned it into a side hustle. That also in itself aligns perfectly as with my DJing, in that with it I still get to spread the energy of love using food,” she says.
Sharm Pillay | SUPPLIED
Sharm considers past experiences—particularly adverse ones—to be of benefit not only to her music but her ability to relate to others in order to initiate healing.
“Being of service to humanity is part of my purpose. As my journey continues to unfold, I’m realising more and more that it’s becoming about also sharing my personal stories. I’ve got a really profound experience I’ll be sharing with the world, and hopefully, it will inspire women for generations to come. I had to experience what I had to experience when I was younger and I had to go through the healing, and now here I am at the perfect time to share that message of women standing in their power—and men as well—because every soul has the divine masculine and feminine balancing each other out,” she says.