He has gone from singer/songwriter to guitarist to arranger to composer and is currently one of the emerging producers in the country. Delhi based Nikhil Kaul of Frame/ Frame talks to Radioandmusic.com, sharing his journey with music, inspiration and his view on the independent music industry in India.
Tell us about your journey as an independent artist?
I started playing music at an early age. But it was only in college that I started taking it seriously. It was during this time took my talents to the clubs and bars in Delhi as a singer/songwriter. Being required to hold forth with just a guitar and your voice is among the most challenging things I’ve done and I feel that it played a defining role in the kind of music I make now. During the next few years, I formed a trip-hop band with some friends called ‘Constellation Project’. This was when I was first introduced to production. The idea was to write strong, hooky music with an undercurrent of electronic elements. Sadly, the producer of the band (also the drummer) moved city and the band scattered soon after only a handful of shows. But by now the production bug had bit me hard and I quit my job in advertising to pursue it full time. Almost as a natural next step, I found myself scoring jingles, simultaneously picking up mixing and arrangement skills. I didn’t know it then, but the need for making my own music without the pressure of deadlines and briefs started creeping in. I eventually realised that the only way to do that is to do just one thing. I holed myself up in my home studio – I think most of Frame/Frame’s first set got written in the span of a month. It’s been over a year since I took the project live and I’m loving every bit of it.
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‘Swimmers’ was a well received EP. How does that make you feel?
I’m extremely overwhelmed with the way the EP has been received. That feeling you get when people come out to listen to your music and they know the songs and the words is irreplaceable.
What inspires your music?
I’m fascinated with juxtaposing contrasting elements and for inspiration I look to all kinds of music – anything from ambient electronica to straight up dance music, from progressive metal to folk and pop. I’ve always tried to listen to music without biases based on genre or style and that’s one of the reasons why I think different people tend to hear different things when they listen to Frame/Frame – I like that. I’m also a big sucker for “organic” sounds fitting into an otherwise “electronic” space. That’s one of the reasons I sampled so many sounds – frying pans, toilets, branches, water; all found their way into the EP’s sound. Lately, I’ve been thrown back into the singer/songwriter space and a lot of the new tunes have a lot more guitar, electric bass and vocal performances.
What will your set for your debut festival performance at Magnetic Fields include?
Magnetic Fields is the first festival I will be playing with a live three piece band – Hemant Chona on bass, Anshul Lall on drums and myself. I have been working on a lot of new material specifically for this performance and we will also be playing a lot of Frame/Frame tunes which sometimes don’t make it to solo live or DJ sets that I play.
What are your other upcoming projects?
Aside from concentrating on the Frame/Frame Band, I’ve been working on a few remixes for select artists, some bootlegs of songs that I’ve always loved and some official remixes of local Indian artists. These will come to light and be released soon. Other than that, there’s another remix EP of ‘Swimmers’, with remixes by Sandunes, _RHL (of Sulk Station), Unbound (B.R.E.E.D. & Tara Humphries) and upcoming New Delhi act Curtain Blue. We are aiming for an early 2014 release for this. Also, work on the next EP/Album has begun. I don’t know what it will become but a couple of tunes are shaping up nicely.
What is your opinion on the scenario of the independent music industry in India?
The Indian independent music industry feels like it is on the cusp of something huge. With a new crop of talented and forward thinking artists and bands that are not afraid to experiment, I think the potential of our music “scene” is only just being realised. This is due in no small part to the Internet. The fact that artists find it a lot easier to reach an interested and dedicated audience without having to be reliant on just what big television networks or radio stations are airing is great. Soundcloud, YouTube, Spotify etc. are fantastic platforms for discovering new music. So if you’re going to a gig in the evening, you can listen to the artist’s tracks in the morning and see whether it’s something you’d like to scope out. This educated, informed audience in India is only expanding with no ceiling in sight. They’re filling up bars and clubs and cafes and restaurants and cheering and hooting for their favourites. This has resulted in more music festivals, venues, booking agencies, artist management companies, music magazines, blogs, e-zines and a general sense of healthy professionalism in the industry. The fact that the foreign artists and bands that are coming to the country are only getting bigger and bigger only goes to show that they’ve realised that India has incredible potential and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a whole lot of acts looking to India as a definite touring opportunity for them in the near future.
