Today we’d like to introduce you to Nikhil Korula.
Nikhil, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Music has always been a part of my life as long as I can remember. I started singing at the age of five at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, California and that led me to being one of the youngest founding members of the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus in 1987. During that experience, I realized how amazing it was to build something from the ground on up.
We used to perform local concerts that quickly turned into opportunities to perform all over the world and collaborate with some of the biggest names in music like world-renowned cellist, Yo Yo Ma, conductors for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Esa Pekka Salonen & Andre Previn and share the stage with operatic giants like Placido Domingo. During my time with the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus, I performed at Carnegie Hall at the age of 10, sang at the 32nd Annual Grammy Awards in 1990 at the age of 11 with Mike & The Mechanics and ended up also singing in 6 operas at the LA Opera that included Puccini’s TOSCA, Bizet’s CARMEN and Verdi’s OTHELLO, to name a few. I also sang for Rod Stewart’s wedding to Rachel Hunter and recorded vocals for one of Danny Elfman’s first musical scores for the film, NIGHT BREED, and sang back up for Luther Vandross for the movie, HERO. My love of classical music was super intense which pushed me to pursue a deeper understanding of what it is to be a musician when I was accepted to study Vocal Arts for my Bachelor of Music at the USC Thornton School Of Music (class of 2001).
Studying music at USC was an incredibly enriching experience and by chance, I happened to live with all music majors (two of my roommates were jazz studies majors and one was a recording arts major) which wasn’t normal. On any given day, I would be singing opera arias and come home to an eight-piece funk band jamming in my living room. It was so inspiring to be around so many talented singers and musicians, but it also pushed me to learn how to play the guitar and also hone in on my piano skills. Everything made perfect sense to me, though, once I walked into my first songwriting class with Pat Caddick. When I first heard Pat talk about music and how it all connected with songwriting, I knew right then and there who and what I wanted to be. I started writing songs on both piano and guitar but knew I still had to focus on my junior and senior recitals and graduate before I could truly focus on starting a band.
While I was still in school, my family took an amazing trip to South Africa and Kenya and I completely fell in love with world music in that moment. I had always loved Paul Simon’s Graceland and the music of Sting and Dave Matthews Band, but when I discovered soukous, western and South African guitar lines and the beauty of the arrangements and instrumentation within those genres, I wanted to capture that sound and make it one of the most important ingredients to build a music vibration on. Once I graduated from USC after having one of the most highly attended senior recitals in school history, I knew it was time to finally start my band and make albums.
I’ve always been a huge music fan so I attended numerous jazz gigs around town and handpicked all the jazz musicians I wanted to start my band with. While we rehearsed for a year, I started playing acoustic duo sets to introduce my music to people and start building a fan base. My first acoustic gig was at the Crooked Bar at the Coconut Teaser in Hollywood in front of 40+ people. This was an incredible time to learn what it would take to promote every show and make it count. As we kept ascending from smaller rooms to bigger rooms like Genghis Cohen, the Nikhil Korula Band was finally ready to take the stage as a full band at the Knitting Factory on July 25, 2002. We sold out the Knitting Factory Alterknit Lounge, the smallest room at the club, with over 100+ people and I guess you could say we were off to a good start. The best part about those early years is we were so new on the scene and we just kept bringing more and more people to each show and selling them all out. For our first few shows, we had 100-150 people and by our 4th show, we were bringing 260+ people. We went from the Knitting Factory Main Room to The Mint to The Viper Room until we were asked to headline the House of Blues for our 10th show on April 28, 2003 in front of over 750+ people. I knew then we were really onto something.
After headlining the House of Blues, we used those shows to get into more clubs outside of Los Angeles and Santa Barbara was the first city I remember playing in. I have so much love for that city because that was the first time we played for audiences that didn’t know us and seeing how they embraced us gave us so much confidence to keep going. The Nikhil Korula Band also started recording our first EP (THE FREEDOM EP) in 2003 while road testing the songs we would choose for our album(s) which we still do to this day. In 2004, we decided to record our first full-length album, THE WAY THINGS WORK, at Ocean Way Studios in Hollywood. We used to play three sets of music until the wee hours of the morning at any venue that would have us and building our crowds from each club up and down the coast and it all inspired me to keep on writing, rehearsing the band and create new arrangements for shows. Eventually, we used these shows as leverage to start playing music festivals.
The very first major music festival that booked us was Summerfest in Milwaukee, WI, back in 2007. This is another city I have so much love for because they were the first music festival that embraced us and it was the first time we were on a major bill with national acts like Roger Waters, Steely Dan and more. I am happy to say that up until the pandemic, NK Band has been asked back to perform at Summerfest every year since 2007 (13 years in a row). Over the years, we were also asked to play Bonnaroo (twice), Arroyo Seco and the Playboy Jazz Festival Warner Concert, among many other amazing music festivals and concert experiences. One of our most fun achievements was when we were asked to open for The Dave Matthews Band at Verizon Wireless in Irvine, CA and Chula Vista, CA in 2007. Dave Matthews Band has always been a huge influence on me so being asked to open for them by the band was one of the most incredible feelings on the planet. We may have only been playing the side stage, but for me, it was everything. Since then, we have been lucky enough to open for Ben Harper (in front of over 10,000+), Gary Clark Jr, Sublime with Rome, O.A.R, Rusted Root, The Roots, Thievery Corporation, Eric Hutchinson, John Mayer, Jason Mraz, Ziggy Marley, The Fray, Robert Randolph and countless others. The crowds have become bigger, but the music and the band stay rooted in how much we love to create together and we have done all of this with no record label, manager or booking agent.
After we recorded our first full-length album, THE WAY THINGS WORK, in 2004, the NK Band would release several albums over the next decade: ACOUSTIC B-SIDES & RARITIES (2007), LIVE VIBES (2010), MUSIC OF THE NEW DAY (2012), SOLO SESSIONS (which I recorded with Dave Matthews Band members, Butch Taylor and Jeff Coffin in 2013), and A DECADE IN THE SUN (2014), a solo acoustic album I recorded at the famous Sun Studio in Memphis, TN, where Elvis Presley, B.B. King and Johnny Cash once recorded in.
Unfortunately, with every rise, there is a fall and in 2015, while the band was coming home from a trip to play at the Sundance Film Festival, we heard the most devastating news that our saxophonist, Zane Musa, had committed suicide while coming home from a jazz cruise he was booked to play on. I sit here even now, shocked to write those words. Zane was one of the most talented musicians I have ever worked with. His playing and soloing was just something that was out of this world. For those who saw us play shows with Zane or got the chance to work with Zane, I know you are in agreement. I never heard him play a bad note. That is rare for any musician, but it is the truth. We all had some incredible musical moments together and always had a blast recording music, playing music and rehearsing music, but we also laughed quite a bit. Zane always left an impression on me and this will forever leave a hole in my heart. Honestly, something changed in me when that happened. I felt like my front door had been kicked in by the mental health factor of a person. I always told Zane he was a genius musician and if his mind ever weighed heavy on him to call me, but he always just shrugged it off and kept smiling and powering through. To make matters worse, three years later, our 2nd saxophonist, Mike Eyia, died of a drug overdose that also floored all of us. Mike had one of the best ears around and his playing was infectious as his personality. I will forever miss those two brilliant musicians. The band soldiered on through it all with festival appearances here and there that we kept playing, but it made me want to take some time off recording albums for a bit.
I decided to switch gears and start a songwriting and production team with Dimitri Cerny (songwriter/producer from Switzerland) and Brian Vibberts (engineer on Michael Jackson’s, HISTORY) called The Element in 2014. I knew I wanted to work with more musicians and songwriters and create songs in a new atmosphere while also still working with members of the NK Band, but the biggest thing was I wanted to write songs and not be the one to have to drive the songs on the journey they would need to go on so writing for other artists became exciting. One of the first artists we were able to write for was Ziggy Marley. Along with my team, I wrote the opening track, “Start It Up,” for Ziggy Marley’s Grammy-winning album (Best Reggae Album) in 2016. This was an unbelievable experience because it was the first time I had ever written a song and was able to experience it from the outside and I loved it. I was able to watch Ziggy open his tour with the song and feel the reaction in real-time in front of crowds of over 10,000 and more. It was exhilarating to feel that and still gives me goosebumps as I type this. I watched Ziggy perform that song numerous times on his tour all the way to watching him perform at the Grammys. When they announced his name as the winner for Best Reggae Album, I was sitting with my parents (who had driven me to every music lesson and concert as a kid so of course, they had to be there) and one of my writing partners and I wept, not because I was sad, but because of all the years and gigs and rehearsals and late nights of practicing and writing that still keeps me going. It was the first time I received a Grammy certificate for songwriting and although I don’t care too much about awards, I knew it was a symbol that I had ascended as an artist and songwriter to a new level.
I still work on music with The Element to this day, but while producing new artists and teaching songwriting to new students wanting to be artists, I got the itch to make another album with my band again. I knew we had to make another album, if anything, to pay tribute to the two saxophonists we lost. So in 2019, I texted the band that I wanted to start rehearsing for a new album and had some piano songs I wanted to bring in. I know this startled my bandmates a little because we had never played piano songs as a band before, but as I kept writing more and more on piano, it made me wonder why I had never worked on these songs with the band. For months, we practiced and when we first worked on a song called “Give & Forgive,” I knew we had something. I had known for five years the name of the new album would be REVOLUTIONS, after a song I wrote years ago about the turmoil going on in the world around us. Little did I know how much that song would be relevant in today’s 2020 times. It took us about six months of rehearsals and eliminating songs to know we had 13 songs that comprised of the new album so on January 13, 2020, the NK Band walked into one of our favorite studios, hard drive analog & digital in North Hollywood, and worked on our new album with engineer, Doug Messenger. We had previously worked with Doug on the every album from 2012’s MUSIC OF THE NEW DAY so I knew we would come back to work with him again for this album. From the time we started recording, this album has been something special. Not only did all of my band members “bring it,” but I decided we needed to fill out our album with all the wonderfully talented musicians who knew Zane and Mike to pay tribute to them in the best way we know how: by making music in their honor and all to analog tape with no computers or automation so every note on the album breathes with life and emotion that is as real as the musicians who played on it.
REVOLUTIONS is truly one of the best albums and experiences I have ever been a part of. It features performances by Marty Rifkin (pedal steel guitarist for Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen), John J.T. Thomas (keyboardist for Bruce Hornsby), David Ryan Harris (guitarist and vocalist for John Mayer), Maiya Sykes (vocalist Aloe Blacc), Will Herrington (keyboardist for Lukas Graham), an incredible horn section comprised of Ludo Ludovic (Trumpet player for Lenny Kravitz), Leon Silva (saxophonist for Justin Timberlake), Sean Erick (trumpet player for Justin Timberlake), Lasim Richards (trombonist for Jay Z and Dave Matthews Band), Nate Ketner (one of LA’s best jazz musicians) and Wes Smith (baritone saxophonist for Booker T) as well as numerous other super talented musicians like DJ Batttleship on the turntables, Quartet 405 (a string quartet that includes Eliza James, Danica Pinner, Jayna Chou and Rebecca Schlappich Charles), Greg Leon and Travis Stephenson on electric slide guitar, Sean Gaskell on kora, Josh Feinberg on sitar, David Jenson on didgeridoo and my acapella group from my days at USC, ALLRIGHT (Mike Landau, George Artope and Phillip Brandon). We wanted to pay tribute to our saxophonists we lost (as well as my cousin, Karan Joseph, another brilliant keyboardist who had studied at Berklee College of Music) and I know we did so by making this album. 2020 has been a crazy year for everyone, but I also know we made something beautiful come out of this year and I hope you all will embrace this album as much as I know it deserves to be appreciated. So yeah, this is my story in music and the rest is still unwritten, but for now, the next chapter in this journey will have to start with some REVOLUTIONS…
Has it been a smooth road?
I think a smooth road is boring and my road has been anything but smooth, but if I were to sum up the road so far, the word would be exhilarating. I’ve met some of my most amazing musical heroes like Paul McCartney, Prince, Stevie Wonder, Dave Matthews, Derek Trucks and countless others, but it hasn’t been all downhill. I have a sign in my music room that reads: If you are on the right path, it will always be uphill. Those words ring true to me on so many levels. The biggest struggle I think any musician faces on their journey is acceptance. Once you accept you are good enough to make music and write songs and you prove that to yourself, then who else do you really need to prove it to?! It took me gracing the stage at the Apollo Theater or playing a major festival in front of an audience that shouldn’t have liked us but did to realize this. The hardest of any one of my struggles has been losing musicians I love to work with. When someone passes on, they always leave an impression. When you make music with someone that you connect with on deeper levels when they leave, it leaves a hole in your heart, but it also gives you the power and strength to also keep pushing forward in their honor. The show must go on as they say and there is a reason for that. The struggle is real, but the power of music keeps us thriving and feeling alive on this bumpy, exhilarating journey.
Can you give our readers some background on your music?
I make music. I have a band called the Nikhil Korula Band, a songwriting team called The Element, my very own radio show called Wake Up Hollywood on LA Talk Radio, but I also have my own record label, management company, publishing company and more. I specialize in making music from the heart, from my heart to yours. I think I’m known for always putting all that I am into music, no matter what the project calls for. I am most proud of the Grammy certificate for writing the opening track of Ziggy Marley’s Grammy-winning album. I am also equally proud of every song and album I create because after my time is over, this is what I will leave the world with. What sets me apart from others is I’m classically trained and have performed with some of the world’s best musicians in some of the greatest music venues and have done it all on my own with no major record deal, management company or booking agent.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
I think the industry has become super saturated with talent, but I think it is a good thing to see so many different ways anyone can be inspired with music. I think obviously, the biggest thing to change over the last 20 years is to notice how people experience music. Streaming has taken over, but I also think the idea of following an artist that makes great work or albums will never really go out of style. To quote two great influential songwriters, “these times are a changing (Bob Dylan),” but “things change basically to stay the same (Dave Matthews).” The only thing I ever care about is that music never stops reaching people, changing trends, moving nations and impacting the world while documenting the sign of the times. I think music will always move the needle when it comes to society’s need to be defined with culture.
Pricing:
- $20 for any NK BAND vinyl or live album (REVOLUTIONS & LIVE VIBES), $15 for any NK BAND CD (MUSIC OF THE NEW DAY), $10 for NK BAND’S FIRST LP & SUN STUDIO ALBUM (THE WAY THINGS WORK & A DECADE IN THE SUN), $5 for any NK BAND EP (THE FREEDOM EP, ACOUSTIC B-SIDES & RARITIES, SOLO SESSIONS, ETC)
Contact Info:
- Website: www.nkband.com
- Phone: 2134455542
- Email: [email protected]
Image Credit:
Zach Weinberg, Braden Call, Steve Rose, Michael Carman, Coy Koehler, Bonnie Helms, Logan Metz, Garrett Baquet
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