Singer Nikhil D’Souza is making waves in the UK with his English songs “Beautiful mind” and “Silver and gold”. But winning awards is not his priority right now. He says he just wants to make good music that can affect people.
The “Shaam” hitmaker was signed with Warner Music UK in 2016. He also got to work with Grammy-winning producer Martin Terefe.
Asked about Grammy dreams, Nikhil told IANS over phone from Mumbai: “It is not about awards at this point. Sometimes, even things like Grammy… it’s not like the best music gets to win the award all the time. For me, it’s about putting out music that can affect people.”
He is getting a lot of love and appreciation from people in the UK.
“It has been amazing. People have been quite kind. Whether it is about me playing live there or getting feedback from radio, they have really nice things to say. They said ‘We have not heard something like this on the radio in a long time’,” he said.
On coming out with singles in English, he said: “I have been spending a lot of time there (in the UK). Also, I have always been writing songs in English. Bollywood happened along with that. I have been keeping a balance between Bollywood and my original work.”
Surely he is. Ever since he made his Bollywood debut in 2010, he has been giving Bollywood hits like “Anjaana anjaani ki kahani”, “Gubbare gubbare” and “Mere bina”.
Going back to his latest English single titled “Silver and gold”, he said: “The whole theme of the song is how relationships these days break easily. While writing the song, we talked about the reasons why our parents’ generation could stay together… even if love diminished with time, it would evolve into something else.
“Our generation doesn’t see it that way. It’s a matter of convenience. We just get together and then break-up. It’s about finding those reasons to stay together for a long time.
“Silver and gold also refers to the colour of hair which changes with time like from black to white which is more like silver. It also refers to the 25 years that you spend together. It is silver anniversary. So the title is most appropriate.”
He has more singles lined up and hopes to release his album by August.
What about the US market’
“The US market is quite pop and hip-hop focussed. My music…it might take some time to get over there. Right now I am focussed on the UK market and now of course, India as well,” said Nikhil.
Many associate his voice with romantic songs.
“That’s my forte. That’s what I do best but I have done other stuff like for ‘Queen’ (he sang a dance number titled ‘O gujariya’),” he said.
He has also sung recreated songs, which is trending in Bollywood.
“If a song is recreated or remade, it needs to have a new feeling associated with it…like a new emotion.
“Sometimes, songs are just thrown together and a remake is made just for the sake of it. I think ‘Har kisi ko’, the remake that I sang, was a good remake,” said the artiste, who also sang “Aate jaate hanste gaate”, a recreation of the song by the same name from the 1989 film “Maine Pyar Kiya”.
