Nikhil D'Souza

Nikhil D'Souza
Background information
Birth name	Nikhil D'Souza
Born	(1981-11-21) November 21, 1981
Origin	Mumbai, India
Genres	Filmi, Indie Pop, Alternative rock, Pop
Occupations	Singer, Song writer, Composer, Performer
Instruments	Vocals, Acoustic Guitar

Nikhil D'Souza is an Indian playback singer, song writer and guitarist.^[1] He was the South Asia Soloist Winner at SUTASI '09.^[2] He made his playback singing debut in Rajshree Ojha's Aisha.^[3][4]

Early life

Nikhil was born and brought up in Mumbai.^[5] He majored in Geology from St. Xavier's College, Mumbai. He is a guitarist/singer-songwriter from Mumbai. His genre might be loosely defined as pop/alternative with folk influences. The music has a full melodic quality to it mainly due to the use of alternative tunings, favored by such artists as Nick Drake and Jeff Buckley, on most of the tracks. His main influences have been Sting, Jeff Buckley, Radiohead, and Damien Rice besides several others. Early on, in college, he was part of a band called “Mr. John’s Banned” that went on to play at Independence Rock in 2000 and achieved a degree of success in the Mumbai circuit at the time.

During this period, and later, he was also guitarist, composer, and backup singer for Lima Yanger, an independent artist/singer. It was at this time that they, with a couple of other musicians, formed the band “Sleeping Buddha,” an original soul/R& B Band that released an album titled “Empty Screen” with Times Music in 2001. Nikhil first performed solo at the Prithvi Theatre, Mumbai, in early November 2007 during the Thespo festival. Mid 2008 saw him launch his solo act, Nik Frey, with a major emphasis on original compositions; the band debuted at Zenzi in late July and played at Kaleidoscope, Sophia College.

In late 2008, he met Adrian D’souza, a well known drummer in the Mumbai circuit, and together with Kenneth Rebello (bass) and Pozy Dhar (guitar), they formed the band “KNAP,” having playing several shows at Blue Frog, and venues in Bangalore and Pune. He was chosen as one of the few solo artists to represent India at the regional finals of Sutasi, a talent search for Asian music, which was featured in the November 2008 issue of Rolling Stones India. Winning the regional finals, he went on to the grand finals of the show, which was broadcast across most of Asia.

Rolling stones also favorably reviewed one of his songs in the January 2009 issue, and has featured him in the "Artists to watch" in the December 2009 issue, and a similar article in Verve in Jan 2010. He was also featured in “Faces of the Future” in India Today. The highlight of the year 2009 was his solo performances in Australia at the “One Movement for Music” festival in Perth in October and venues around Melbourne that were very well received. He’s one of the few musicians who has been successful in the “Indie-Mainstream crossover”; his voice is now one of the most instantly recognizable voices in the ad/film industry, having sung in films like Aisha, Anjaana Anjaani, Crook, Kuch luv Jaisa Although it is refreshing to see that his original music has and will always be his top priority.

In early September 2011, he won second place at the Crimea Music Fest in Ukraine, which featured contestants from all around the world. He performed an original, “Storm Without a Sky” and a cover of the CCR classic “Have You Ever Seen the Rain”. An album is currently in the works, and is being produced by Warren Mendonsa from Blackstrat Blues; Nikhil also performed at Nh7 2011 as part of Warren’s band, later followed by very well received performances at the Celebrate Bandra festival in Mumbai. A distinctive feature of his original music is the emphasis on strong vocal melodies and lyrics, backed up by skilled and unconventional guitar work and musical arrangements. Some earlier samples of the music, along with lyrics, are available for listening on Myspace.

Bollywood Songs

Nikhil D;Souza has sung many songs for Bollywood & Tollywood films, like "Mere Bina" in Crook, "Anjaana Anjaani" in Anjaana Anjaani, "Lamha Lamha" in Ye Stupid Pyar and "Jannatein Kahan" (Power Ballad) in Jannat 2.

References

• "Interview With Nikhil D’Souza, Singer/Song Writer, With Hits From 'Aisha' and 'Anjaana Anjaani'". March 3, 2011. 

External links

• Nikhil D'Souza at the Internet Movie Database