Playing for Priyanka

For Bombay-based musician Yohan Marshall, the most significant moment of performing at the wedding of Bollywood actor Priyanka Chopra and American singer and song writer Nick Jonas was the groom’s brothers Kevin, Joe and Frankie coming on stage to dance and sing. "When they performed Love Bug, that was the highlight of the evening for me,” Marshall told Parsiana over the phone on December 7. He played the drums for singer Manasi Scott and the Hot Shots band at Hotel Umaid Bhavan Palace in Jodhpur on December 1. Love Bug was among the first releases of the Jonas Brothers’ band (comprising Kevin, Joe and Nick) in 2008.

"Manasi got Nick to come on stage and perform two of his numbers, Jealous (2014) and Remember I told you (2017),” Marshall said. Scott then rendered Whitney Houston’s I will always love you which was in the play list at Chopra’s request. Twenty-eight-year-old Marshall has been drumming for Scott’s band for the last three years.
An alumnus of St Xavier’s Loyola Hall School and the Mahatma Gandhi International School in Ahmedabad, Marshall studied music formally at the A. R. Rahman founded K. M. Music Conservatory in Madras. After a stint of special training in drumming at the Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music, also in Madras, the youth founded the Bombay-based band Marshall and the Mischief. Drumming for Scott’s Hot Shots in addition to playing in his own band, Marshall also teaches potential drummers. Since 2016, he has assisted the nongovernmental organization Salaam Baalak Trust with their annual music show.
Father Rustom is a senior advocate in the Gujarat High Court, while mother Nishmin, who studied and practiced law, now runs a suicide prevention helpline Saath in Ahmedabad. Sister Rhia, also a lawyer, is a partner in an economic laws practice in Bombay. Yohan’s grandfather was the late Dr Ratan Marshall, special officer of the Surat Parsi Panchayat. "I come from a very liberal family. I am not very religious, but I like the Zoroastrian philosophy that good and evil co-exists in all of us,” said the musician. "What the religion has taught the world is very beautiful,” he concluded.
Scott’s other band members include back up vocalist Crystal Sequeira, guitarists Reuel Benedict, Yohann Coutinho and Shannon Pereira, and synthesizer Joel Crasto.