Owner of Proximity Music Management / MetalJesus Magazine Closes Both Entities

This was a hard read…we have always been about supporting anyone out there who has been supporting, promoting, encouraging our Asian bands and family. Both MetalJesus Magazine and Proximity Music Management out of India most definitely have been doing that for 6 years straight.

Today the owner Harsha Vardhan released an emotional post about his tough decision to close both entities for good. Please read below. We wish you the best of luck and thank you for all the years of supporting the Asian community and scene!

“I guess all good things come to an end. I have waited to make this announcement for quite a long time. After having spent 6 odd years of my work with Proximity Music Management and Metaljesus Magazine; it’s time for me to close them both for good. I have had a good run. I have been in the scene for close to 8-9 years and that is not even as much as a lot of them here but I started at a young age though. Today, I do not have the same energy and enthusiasm to do things. I have seen a lot of highs and lows in this journey but rather a struggling one. There is only so much that I can do by own handling both of these. It has been a huge challenge to balance this part of me alongside my personal life and my professional life. I never did this full time but I treated it as such. I gave it a lot of time, energy and money and above all dedication.

It just boggles my mind now that I just sit down and recall how far they have both come and sustained. Proximity Music Management was the only dedicated Heavy Metal Agency in India with several top bands from the country and many from overseas as well. I did several tours, lots of PR, I did a fair job with managing bands too I think. I have earned a fair amount of money, I have also invested and I have also lost. I cannot continue in this cycle over and over again. It was a thought that kept running at the back of my mind for several months and obviously I didn’t want to just abandon my work here all of a sudden, I wanted to first finish all the pending work. I did this merely because I loved the music and wanted to give something back. And I am glad that over time, I learnt to draw a strong line between passion and business.

I have made lifelong friends from the scene and also people who stand on the other side. I have made mistakes and I have learnt many things. This decision comes after thinking through clearly; it’s about time that I step out and open a new chapter. I remember sending an email to the bands and some of my friends in the scene about this decision earlier this year and it was indeed one of the hardest emails I had to send. I wouldn’t post my personal things here, so I hope you all respect this decision. I will continue to support bands/ buy music/ attend gigs whenever I can, except that I won’t be the one organizing it and I also won’t be the one interviewing your favorite bands anymore.

With Metaljesus Magazine, I had the privilege to feature some of the most talented, upcoming bands to some of the biggest names in the world. It was a dream to have spoken to and interviewed all of them, tons of Albums that I got to listen to and so on. I had a really small team at MJM though. My best regards to them. It was all good while it lasted but right now I feel the need to close this. I may sound a little selfish but I need to sacrifice this for my own reasons and trust me, this has been one of the hardest decisions that I had to make and it needed a strong mindset.

With the recent turn of events, we hope that we wouldn’t be in an extremely tough spot. The outbreak of the Covid-19 has indeed caused serious worldwide issues: Loss of lives, economic disaster, cancellation of thousands of events, gatherings, schools and colleges being shut down, employment issues and a horde of other things. I can only hope that as ordinary citizens, we take responsibility and do the best that we can for the safety of our people and the lives around us.

Now it’s about time I did this and focus on new ventures. Thank you for your support over the last several years! A big thank you to the venues, the promoters, the sound guys, all the media partners, labels, fellow agencies etc., It hasn’t been easy to do this in India. Thank you on behalf of all the bands that I have worked with and most of all to everyone who came out to my shows and supported the artists and read my interviews, checked out the albums I posted about and so on. We did what we could.

All the best at whatever you do.

Signing off,
Harsha Vardhan”