It was last year in July when Nikhil Gangavane made a comeback in music with his song BACK TO YOU. The world was coping with the new norms of lockdowns and most importantly many were devastated with the loss of their loved ones. During these times, Nikhil floored us with a song which was a perfect blend of music, lyrics and situation, which made strong emotional connections with many of his audience. It is a dirge… a requiem or simply putting… it a remembrance song.
We had a had an interesting talk with the singer recently.
Q: It has been a year and its 13 songs already! How does it feel?
A: Initially, I had planned one song every month but sometimes I released two songs with a gap of 20 days but it didn’t matter. After the release of my Hindi song Anjaane Mein, I took a break of almost 4 months, now here I am with a 13th song after a year but also a 4-month vacation in between.
Q: You recently released some cover-versions of Disney songs on YouTube. They were really impressive. How did you suddenly jump on those?
A: Disney songs were always my love. Singing cliché songs is no fun. It becomes mechanical over time. Singing Disney songs adds to excitement, fun and challenges. You might have observed in my Disney songs that I am singing the entire song in one go. There are no retakes, there are no punch-ins. I am singing for all characters in different voices, I am singing in one go. That was not even done by the original singing artist. As a matter of fact, they had multiple singers for multiple characters. My Disney attempts may not be perfect but I am doing them for my satisfaction and for those who might be liking my experiment. I got many good feedbacks even from celebrities on my Disney songs.
Q: You have released one Hindi song and eleven English. Despite of being an Indian artist why such a weird ratio? You have mentioned in earlier interviews that you have many songs in both languages in your music vault!
A: The international market is a larger audience which is more open to new voices and not sticking to current trends. I got a great feedback for my English songs, especially from USA and Europe, but other criticized the same for pronunciations & music when they don’t even listen to English songs regularly. Since the English-speaking audience didn’t complain of my pronunciations and accepted me, I realized that I needed to concentrate on a broadminded audience instead of narrow-minded one which is a slave to hit charts. If my English songs were so blindly criticized imagine how they must have ripped my Hindi song. This doesn’t mean that Indian audience only criticizes my work, there are people who love my songs too. I guess it is just a mentality and also the fact that when people know you, they have some grudges about you… and then they judge your work based on their personal bias. Look at what happens on social media these days, even the greats get trolled and advised by people who are absolute failures in life! Internet, especially social media has given a frustration outlet for people who have failed for whatever reasons and they have a lot of time to waste.
Q: Anjaane Mein has a lot of views on all platforms then how can you say that the Hindi songs audience has not accepted you?
A: Today’s music industry works on digital apps, algorithms and most importantly digital marketing. Anjaane Mein has more views because of algorithms that detect me as an Indian artist, the song language and the fact that most my first and direct audience is Indian. The platforms then suggest my songs to a similar audience. When I make a Hindi number, I don’t know why but people have huge expectations from the music video which is an added pressure. As an Indie-artist, I cannot afford to put my money in there unless I was sure of the financial returns! I will need a celebrity collaboration to get this problem solved which I don’t choose to. I am ok with slow success instead of a quick success based on some obligation. That won’t last for long. Unfortunately, the audience follow the charts that trend or songs that pop up in paid promotions. They are totally oblivious to other songs or lazy to explore them by themselves.
Q: But you could always use some finance for digital marketing of your songs online to reach a wider audience!
A: For an independent artist like me, marketing is out of question. Indie-artists can’t afford that. We have to concentrate our finance on our production and copyrighting cost. In today’s world, big music labels are pumping a lot of money on views of a music video and working on small profits per view but huge profits when it comes to bulk. In all this process the music label and platform (Spotify, YouTube, etc) earn a lot, but the artists earn their money and respect for a short-term only. Also, a lot of Indian music artists are dependent on their associations with Cinema when it comes to publicity. I am a digital-marketeer for years and I know how illusionary are the number of views against the income you generate from a song especially when its promoted.
Q: But isn’t there an upside of increasing subscriber base and hence having a new audience for your music?
A: That perk surely exists, but then again it boils down to the finance outcome. Also, when you make digital promotions, you generally select a song or songs that you feel are the best. People seeing that advertisement might subscribe to you on that platform for the time being and then unsubscribe again when they find that not all of your music is of their liking. But when an organic follower reaches your channel or profile, they make an effort to listen to your other music and there are more chances that an artist retains that kind of follower. Editorial playlists like Spotify also matter a lot, they really have these experts combing through songs and putting the right ones in their playlists. That is something really authentic and useful.
Q: True, making to editorial playlists is an artist’s dream but it’s quite tough. Now let us talk about your new song “You’ll always live in Memories”. Was the Covid situation and the mess it created an inspiration for the song?
A: Not really. Like all other songs, this one is from my vault as well. I had the entire tune and arrangement in my mind since 2009. It came up to me when Michael Jackson died, I was shocked, losing my idol wasn’t easy. I even wrote the first six lines of the song back then, recorded the scratch and kept it. It was supposed to be my tribute song for Michael Jackson. Recently I lost my best friend which left me devastated. It was then that this song started haunting me. It suddenly became a priority. I wrote the remaining lyrics and recorded the song. The feelings expressed in this song have come up due to a collective loss of all the important people I have lost in life. I was aware that many people would relate to the song because Covid has put us through a lot of mental stress due to lockdown, isolation and loss of loved ones.
Q: What songs can your fans expect in the coming times? Are they going to be mostly Love Songs as always?
A: Love songs will always make half a chunk of my song releases but they are not all. I have some raps and dance tracks coming up too. There are songs that address various issues. I can’t think and write a song. It is good to keep it natural. If I tamper with the arrangement or the lyrics of a song that come to me, I might end up messing up the channel in between me and the nature or creator who is sending these songs to me. I prefer to keep it authentic but you can surely expect a lot of variety coming up!