MUMBAI: There is always a lot of buzz, when a non-Indian musician enters Indian music scene. So, when an Indian musician makes a mark outside India, let’s make some noise for that too.

Nikhil Suresh is an LA-based music producer- sound engineer- guitarist. Nikhil started his musical journey at the age of 14. Immediately inspired by Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana, the dream to play like Kurt Cobain one day instilled in Nikhil that got him to pursue music since then.

Sharing about his journey, “Well, the journey continues to be honest. So far, I’ve built the foundations towards it and in the upcoming years hope to build on it. Primarily though, it all comes down to relationships. If you have an open personality and are fun to work with people will always be inclined to working with you. After all, you have to sit with the producer, artist, band, director etc sometimes for 16-18 hours a day in the same room and that goes on for days, sometimes weeks at a time. Knowing how to be in situations such as this is going to either make or break your potential for future work.”

He owes his remarkable foundation in a guitar to his teacher/mentor Roy Zimmerman who inspired and encouraged Nikhil to pursue music and sound engineering.  Speaking of the music education system in India, Nikhil says, “Personally I feel a more hands-on approach would be the way forward. A lot of the education nowadays is based on theoretical knowledge rather than practical application. It’s good to have a solid foundation in theory, but to be honest, about 85 per cent of the theoretical things learned in an audio course is never actually applied in real-world situations. It’s essential to be able to compose record and mix good songs rather than knowing the theory behind it.”  

A graduate from SAE London in Audio Engineering, Nikhil has also studied Recording Arts at The Los Angeles Recording School. After this, he had the amazing opportunity of working with musicians from around the world, such as India, UK, and Japan. Nikhil has been a part of a few music festivals as a sound engineer in London and worked on a few shows. He was also a part of a Bangalore based heavy metal band Quarantine. Alongside this, Nikhil was also working at Cisco on their broadcast team for their webinars and also as a sound engineer for their live events as well. Nikhil has worked as the head sound Engineer at various festivals and shows in Bangalore. Nikhil has long been at the heart of the rock music scene. From his time with the Indian band Quarantine, he produced music that toured nationally across India. Working with well-known Roton Music Production in Europe, Suresh was commissioned to produce for acclaimed singer Larry Ghegoriou from Romania and has also produced international works for billboard artists. 

After having experienced world music, he sees music in a different aspect, “Indian music to me has a very rich history in melody. I can hear a lot of influence from it in a lot of world music, especially stuff from Arab nations, such as Moroccan music or Turkish music. Also, nowadays you hear a lot of rhythmic influence from older Indian music on European music, and funnily enough, Indian music seems to be turning a bit more western in the past couple of years. I guess it’s just the cycle of progression; the East influences the West and eventually, the East is influenced by the West, and the cycle keeps going on.”

He continues about the perception people have about India and Indian Music, “I’ve actually noticed a huge passion and love for Indian culture particularly movies and music abroad. When I was on a trip to Tanzania in a small village, one of the (Tanzanian) villagers I met started singing old songs, the song he sang was “Rote hue, aatey hain sab, hasta hua kaun jaayega.” I still have the video of him singing it! Similarly, when I was in Morocco as well, they seemed to love Indian movies and always sang songs from older movies such as Sholay or DDLJ. There have also been times when I met people in LA who showed me their appreciation for Hindi movies by singing some older Bollywood songs.”

To leave your homeland is never easy, “Apart from Chaat and food, what I miss is the Indian Music scene, especially Bollywood. Some of the melodies are very well crafted. You can sing them even without music.”

As every musician looks for an inspiration, Nikhil shares he seeks inspiration from multiple sources, “I don’t have role models as such, but I like to get inspired by people’s successes. Someone who I feel in the music industry and admire their path is Andy Wallace (mix engineer for records such as Nirvana’s Nevermind and Linkin Park’s Hybrid Theory and Chris Lord Alge, who’s mixed Green Day’s American Idiot amongst many others). But more than that I am inspired by Valentino Rossi (9 time MotoGP champion), Micheal Schumacher (who’s added 91 formula one race wins) and Arnold Schwarzenegger (seven time Mr. Olympia winner) as these guys even though having reached to the top of their sport still keep (kept) pushing for one more win every time. As the saying goes it’s hard to climb the mountain, but harder to stay up there. I also came across Akshay Kumar’s story to fame a while back, and since have admired his drive and commitment to being where he is currently within Bollywood. I massively respect these people's drive and commitment and am inspired by their stories all the time.”

He was most recently with Grammy nominated producer Costi Ionita and award-winning producer Adrian Sina on a new project to add towards his achievements. He shares some pro tips for Grammy aspirants, “Don’t burn bridges. Always be polite. Always build relationships. If there is one thing you can take away from this, make sure you give your 100 per cent effort to every project you work on. Don’t disregard projects or prioritize projects as important and unimportant. Give attention to everything, as you never know what is going to make it and who isn’t. Maybe that one song you mixed pro bono for the struggling artiste will be the one that makes it big, and when it does, you want to be able to stand behind your work.”