MUMBAI: Akoustic Soul aka Amit Khadilkar is on cloud nine after winning the SKOUT VIMA Award for his song, Home. The singer expresses his happiness, while speaking about his upcoming projects, managing his job and music, and more.

How does it feel to have won silver at the SKOWT-VIMA Music Awards this year for Pop Song of the Year?

I feel ecstatic and overwhelmed. It has been a crazy three months since the nomination, and for it to culminate into an award victory recently is just an out of the world feeling. The award helps to serve as a vindication for your honest work. We all know the struggles of indie music, and the need of the hour is to have more positive examples and success stories across the independent landscape. In this context, I cannot thank VIMA and SKOWT enough for this honour!

If you had to describe your song, ‘Home,’ in one sentence to those who haven't heard it, how would you pitch it to them?

Home is where your heart is, and this song will take you to that place where your heart is.

Given the eclectic genres of music you dabble in across the assorted projects you are a part of, did you really feel ‘Home’ was a pop song?

The wonderful aspect of music is that it is always open for interpretation. With AKoustic Soul, I am attempting to keep that ambiguity so my ideas are not restricted by specific boundaries or rules of what can and cannot be included. Home, according to me, does not fit into a particular genre, and I had clarified the same while submitting the entry. I am happy the panel found it worthy of nomination and included it in the genre it comes closest to based on the sound and feel, which also happened to be one of the major award categories.

What are some of your favorite nominated songs from this year's VIMAs?

I would like to congratulate all of the nominees, once again, and while I couldn’t listen to all the nominated songs, the winning songs in all the categories are brilliant. Given the music I am inclined towards, my personal favourite is Easy Wanderlings from India. I would also like to give a shout out to a few artists, who did not receive an award, but loved I their work – Paperplane Pursuit (Malaysia), Anna Speller (Netherlands), Tash (UK) and Antariksh (India).

What are your upcoming projects?

In the immediate term, the next single for AKoustic Soul is in the works. It is titled Reflections and carries on from the first single, Home.  It revolves around the theme that reflection is where your reality is. This will be followed by another single, which is in pre-production right now, too. Apart from this I continue gigging with Desi Quarter - there might be a debut single in the pipeline for this project, too, quite soon. Hourglass Inversion continues to be on a break at the moment.

Any plans to cross over into film composition/playback in either Marathi or Hindi?

Music in India is majorly driven by Bollywood and film music, in general, so if the right opportunity comes along, it would be great to work on some challenging and enriching projects there. However, at the present moment, I am focussing on releasing new music independently and working on the live act for all my projects with which I hope to tap newer markets soon.

How difficult was it to handle an office job while creating music side-by-side?

Nothing is difficult as long as you believe it isn’t. For the best part of the last decade, I enjoyed both the aspects of my life i.e. my job and pursuing music in parallel. It was challenging to be on my toes constantly and switch from one role to another at the drop of the hat. But, there was a never dull moment. Music always helped keep the energy high and thankfully my managers and team members at office were very supportive. Work-life balance was given equal importance. Of course, working and pursuing music together might not be sustainable in the long run, and given some developments on the personal front in 2018, I have been on a break from work since the middle of 2018. So, something is bound to give way soon.

Any advice for budding musicians trying to enter the music industry?

Just be clear on the music you want to pursue individually or as a group, and stick to your guns no matter what. If you are consistent enough, it is only a matter of time before you will get the success you have envisioned. Never get de-motivated by a dry patch - keep working on your skills as an individual musician and as a group. Also, one should try and get into the industry in a planned manner to the extent possible and not on the basis of a whimsical thought or an emotional decision. Music is an art, but in the end, it is also a business, hence you need to have your head straight in terms of what you wish to do and how you are going to make it count. Work on building a good network, and position yourselves correctly in the market so you can tap into the right opportunities.