Meet Nikhil Korula of Los Angeles

Today we’d like to introduce you to Nikhil Korula.

Hi Nikhil, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’ve been singing since I was 5. I started as a boy soprano singing at All Saints Episcopal Church. Another local choir director and my choir director decided to start a professional children’s chorus called the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus and I was one of the youngest founding members at the age of 7. (Billie Eilish is one of the famous alumni from this chorus). We were performing at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and major venues like Carnegie Hall which I sang in at 10 and the Grammy Awards which I sang for at the age of 11 and also performed in numerous operas with Placido Domingo at the L.A. Opera. I thought all of this was normal, but now I know it is far from it.

Through those experiences, I was encouraged to study voice privately and so all my life, I’ve been working on singing. I sang on one of Danny Elfman’s early film scores and performed with the LA Philharmonic under conductors, Andre Previn and Esa Pekka Salonen and also performed with Yo Yo Ma.

After my voice changed, it seemed like my only paths to music were through my high school showchoir. This influenced me greatly because I finally got to sing music in other styles which I loved.

I soon auditioned for the USC Thornton School of Music with a major in Vocal Arts, but when I got to school as a freshman, USC paired me with all music majors, most of whom were jazz studies majors. I learned how to sing blues and jazz hanging with my roommates and one of them told me to start learning to play guitar. That changed everything for me.

I took a songwriting class as a junior with Pat Caddick and little did he know just how much of a major impact on my life he would have. I graduated with the most highly attended senior recital in school history, packing Newman Auditorium, but once that pinnacle was reached, I knew I was leaving classical music for good to start on a new path.

For years, I played acoustic sets all over Los Angeles and formed my band, the Nikhil Korula Band, with local jazz and blues musicians. We started selling out every venue we played like the Knitting Factory, The Mint, Viper Room and more until we got the chance to headline the House of Blues in Hollywood. We packed that venue with over 750+ people the first time we played it and ended up headlining the House of Blues another 25+ times which eventually helped us to play festivals like Summerfest, Bonnaroo, Summerfest, Arroyo Seco and more.

I also started a songwriting team called The Element with one of Michael Jackson’s engineers who I had worked with for several of my band albums and also asked one of my songwriting students to join and together, we learned to write songs for DJs, pop stars and even got the chance to write for reggae legend, Ziggy Marley, which helped me earn my first Grammy win.

The last few years, I decided to start a blues trio called the Nikhil Korula Power Trio and one of the Rolling Stones, Chuck Leavell (pianist for the Allman Brothers Band, Eric Clapton and more) played on our album, CROSSROADS. Most recently, after recording an EP called SOLO SESSIONS with Butch Taylor and Jeff Coffin, members of the Dave Matthews Band, I ended up meeting bassist, Tony Levin (Peter Gabriel, Paul Simon, David Bowie, John Lennon) and we decided to make a sequel to that album called SOLO SESSIONS VOLUME 2 which I just released in October. I guess you can say all of this has been a dream come true, but after recording 11 albums and touring the world, I still want more out of music because music is all I think and dream about.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
No path to success ever has a smooth ride. If it does, you aren’t living. Life is about struggling and learning to pivot to make leaps and bounds to reach your dreams. I think every part of my journey has always had obstacles, but those obstacles have helped me become stronger as an artist, musician and businessman. Whether it was when I first had to start my own record label, publishing company and management company to learning how to promote for shows to being a band leader/tour manager to also learning how to produce in the studio, both for analog and digital, to learning how to write songs and make albums, it all has been a joyful struggle. I wrote a song called “Power Through The Pain” and the chorus says it all, “you won’t power through the pain if you can’t dance in the rain.”

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I live for music. Whether I am performing songs for my band, playing guitar/bass for other artists, producing new artists, writing songs for DJs and pop stars or teaching songwriting/production, music is what I will always hold closest to my heart. I think people who know me best know that music is my legacy in every capacity. I’m most proud of the impact I can make with music in any direction. I brought my parents to the Grammys when we won for the song I wrote with my songwriting team and it meant so much that I wept, not for the joy of winning, but for all those lessons they drove me to, all those times, I had to stay strong and keep pushing forward when it was all up to me to keep doing so. This journey has been a fruitful one, but the industry makes it difficult for artists, but now I’m in a league of my own where I can write the songs, play the songs, sing the songs, produce the songs, play guitar and piano solos, promote the songs and book a tour of festival performances and also run a tight ship as a tour manager for my band when we are on the road and also manage the books. How many artists can say that?! This journey has shaped me to be a music jedi in a number of ways.

Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
Music is all about the risk. You take an unconventional path when you choose this road to travel on and nothing is guaranteed. You live life on the edge and no one understands it unless they take these chances themselces. You abandon security to reach dreams and when you do, the high is something greater than any words can express. I’ve had the chance to meet artists like Prince and Paul McCartney, play festival bills with B.B. King and Eric Clapton, open for artists like Dave Matthews Band, ZZ Top, John Mayer, Jason Mraz, Ziggy Marley, Ben Harper and countless others and those are the rewards for taking the risks of not choosing to live an ordinary life. Everything about being an artist is a risk and to be honest, the only thing that matters is to an artist is if they believe in the very art that they create. None of the fanfare is needed, but it helps. 😉

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.nkband.com
• Instagram: @thenikhilkorulaband
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/nikhilkorulaband
• Youtube: @sightandsoundshow
• Soundcloud: https://www.soundcloud.com/NKBand

Image Credits
Photographers:

Braden Call
Steve Rose
Kaitlin Horner
Coy Koehler
Logan Metz
Will Cook