Nikhil D’Souza pauses and laughs when asked what his first step into the world of music was. “It was actually Tom and Jerry!” he exclaims over the phone. While most four-year-olds laugh at the antics of the two beloved cartoon characters, D’Souza would listen, enraptured by the precision with which the background music accompanied the character’s actions. “I would memorise the music used in each episode,” he says. Fast-forward three decades and the 36-year old geologist-turned singer has released his third single with the label East West Records, owned by Warner Bros UK, ‘Silver and Gold’, following the success of last year’s, ‘Beautiful Mind’. The single will be a part of his debut album slated to release by August this year.
Like most of his songs, ‘Silver and Gold’ is based on finding a soulmate. D’Souza is candid about his inspiration. “My songs have a touch of realness to them. Like, ‘Still in Love’ was written for a girl I met after a gap of two years and realised that I never moved on from her,” he reveals. His latest has been co-written with the American songwriter Jeff Cohen with whom he worked in Nashville after winning the South Asian talent contest SUTASI, his first big break. “Professional songwriters like Cohen understand what a singer wants out of the song. They understand when you tell them that this is not your vision of the song. At the same time, you should be open-minded enough to let your partner share his interpretation of the song,” he expands on the art of co-writing songs.
What comes first, the words or the tune? “That's a million dollar question,” he laughs. “Mostly, I like to have a general idea of the melody,” he says. He first thinks of what he describes as ‘pre-chorus tune’. “There's a riff that echoes in my mind and I then find the words that best fit the tune.”
Silver and Gold talks about the kind of love that withstands the test of time. It's apt then that the video of the song is filmed in an old fort right outside Mumbai, against the grey of the overcast sky and the yellow of the palace walls. “The director (Toby Warren) pitched it to us as being symbolic of a relationship that should be ideally crumbling down, but still stands. It sounded a little out-there but once we saw the pictures of the location, we were sold.”
D’Souza, who has also sung for many Bollywood movies, says he considers himself more of an independent musician than a playback singer as the latter is more mechanical. “The difference lies between being a performer and an artiste. There's hardly space for singers to offer their own take.” That said, he claims to have enjoyed working with Amit Trivedi on the indie-darling ‘Sham’ from Aisha . “Amit wanted a raw feel for this song: men jamming away beside a bonfire. We finished recording the song in two takes,” he says. Apart from ‘Sham’, ‘O Gujariya’ from Queen and ‘Mere Bina’ from Crook also went on to be huge hits.
Citing Bryan Adams, Joe Satriani, Eric Clapton and Jeff Buckley as his influences, D’Souza confesses it took him time to find a voice of his own. Making use of a good voice texture, D’Souza's employs falsetto as the star of many of his songs. “I can't get too comfortable with falsetto. It's an easy way to introduce softness and emotion to a song but it shouldn't be over-exploited,” he warns.
Having made a mark in both the Hindi film and indie music scene, D’Souza, given a chance, looks forward to working with the South Indian music industry as well. “Of course, singing for AR Rahman is the dream. I'd also like collaborating with The F16s. They are making some good music.”
