Music
Check out Nucleya’s live interview on The Mind Behind
The Indian electronic music producer participated in an interview live on Instagram as part of the series known as The Mind Behind.
Nucleya is one of India’s most popular independent music producers.
His 2015 albums Koocha Monster and Bass Rani, and 2016 release Raja Baja, brought him national fame and have been hailed as ground-breaking work that brought Indian independent electronic music to a wider audience. His most recent work – 2019’s Tota Myna – has also been well received.
Recently, he participated in an interview for The Mind Behind series – a set of interviews with athletes and artists on what inspires them and influences their thought process. Here is the full interview about Nucleya’s song writing process, dealing with creative block, and always striving for the best.
You've said previously that the moment you step on stage, Udyan Sagar ends and Nucleya begins. Is it the same with your creative process?
I simplify things for everyone to understand but it’s a bit more complicated than that. My creative process boils down to keeping my emotional state balanced. If I’m doing very well emotionally, then everything I touch turns to gold, or even if it doesn't turn to gold I can keep pushing because I have the patience. But when I’m not doing too well emotionally, then that patience tends to go for a toss.
Do you work better under pressure when a deadline is upon you?
I think at that time, you don't have an option so then you just do whatever you possibly can.
Where are you now? Are you in Goa?
I live here now. It’s a really amazing place and it was hard to move here. I knew that a lot of things could work against me in terms of my business or everyday life. But it’s closer to nature and it’s amazing. The other day a friend of mine was asking me how my life has changed and I said, "It’s all the same! Nothing has changed." I wake up in the morning and make music in my studio. That’s it.
2 min
Ride To The Roots with Nucleya
From his beginnings as an electronic musician, to selling out stadiums and releasing albums with a festival procession in Mumbai, the story of Nucleya is as inspiring as it is fascinating.
Do you have a place in your house where you feel most inspired?
No, not really. What I do is, before I sleep I try to think about what song I'm going to work on in the morning. I try to do as much work as I can in my head and make a mental note of it for the next day. But I get a lot of beating for it though. While I’m doing that, my son Guri might ask me, "Dad, have you seen that dinosaur?" And I’m just like, "Yeah. Sure." While I continue thinking about my music. And he goes, "Dad, do you know what I'm talking about?" I tend to space out mid conversation. This actually happens with me a lot though, at any time.
So you zone out whenever you are calculating your music. Do you like to think of your music as a math problem that you're trying to solve?
I like to think of everything as problem solving. If I were to think of all my life troubles as problems, then all I need are solutions. So if my song isn't happening, I just have to figure out a solution for it. Sitting around and saying, "This is the worst day of my life. This song isn't happening." That's not going to work. Because every problem has a solution.
What I love about your music is that you love to collaborate with different people. But do you find that to be a challenge if you can’t meet?
I am a very shy person in the studio to be honest. So all the song collaborations I've done till now have been done over the internet. In fact, I was talking to this friend of mine who's a rapper. We are making a song together and I asked him if he'd written anything. He said he had written something but hadn't recorded it; he was going to go to the studio and then send me the recording. I just told him record a voice note on WhatsApp and send it to me so I could get an idea. I sometimes feel like there's no need to go into a studio. I remember an article I was reading which said, “It’s better to have a really bad recording of something really incredible than an incredible recording of something really bad.”
Do you have a person who is your sounding board for when you are creating music?
I have a bunch of people and they're all totally honest with me. The honesty is good though because if I make shit, they will tell me it is shit. My wife Smriti is one of them. I bounce off a lot of ideas with Ritviz; he's very talented. I bounce ideas with Vishal Dadlani too; I remember I made a song and sent it to him and he told me, "Bro, this needs something. It’s like something is missing.” They're all honest and that's what I want because a lot of times when you reach the top as an artist, you are caught up in a bubble with people who just say nice things to you, even though the outside world is cruel. People will just say things like, "You're the best. No one is better than you." And that's when you need people who are honest and upfront with you.
What do you do when someone says they don't like your music?
You just have to learn to deal with it. Like I said, every problem has a solution. Not taking it to heart is the solution. If a song isn't working and someone says that, I accept it and ask them why? Just asking for their honest feedback helps me really understand how to move forward.
If a song doesn’t work and you’ve collaborated with someone for it, do they send you hate mail because you don’t release the track?
People are very kind to me and I'm very honest with them. I say, "I'm not saying no. I'm saying that this is not our best and we can explore our best. We are not in a hurry and we will figure it out."
Do you ever have moments when it’s not coming to you musically and you feel creatively blocked?
It happens quite a lot actually. Yesterday, I was talking to my manager Rahul [Sinha] and I was telling him how the last two days had been difficult because I was trying to crack a song that just wasn’t happening. It’s a song that's very close to my heart, so I asked him what to do. He said, "Don't work. Just don't. Who's in a hurry? Just chill." We tend to gauge happiness through the lens of success. We feel like to be relevant we have to constantly release music. My point is we could release one song in two years but release an incredible song. Make music from your heart – you feel it and your fans will feel it.
Is it difficult to take criticism because as an artist you put a little bit of your soul in everything you put out?
You're right, you know? Like I was saying, we look at happiness through the lens of success. But the right way to do it is to find happiness in what you love doing. I learned this from my wife Smriti. She paints very well but she doesn't do it to get published or get likes. It’s the process that makes her happy, and that's how it should be. It’s difficult but eventually that should be the target.
Have you ever been inspired to make music about any of your wife’s paintings?
No, I don't think I've reached that level of expertise. My wife has, though. I can create music, but she can visualise a song and an audio file. I can't do that yet [use paintings as inspiration for music]. I’m not even half way close to it.
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You obviously have an affinity for Indian sounds in your music. Is there an Indian instrument you really love?
I like a lot of instruments, and things that sound different and make people think. I look at music in terms of blocks, like there's an Indian-sounding block, an electronic block, a blues/jazz block. And I think if I put these blocks together, is there any way I can make sense out of it. So I try to figure out my process to make sense out it. These sounds should be really different from each other and should sound unique. That's something I look for in my sounds, rhythms, colours, food.
Any suggestions for young struggling bedroom producers out there?
A lot of it boils down to having some degree of musical education, and having knowledge of chords, scales and melodies, and how to stitch them all together. That helps in a huge way. Like I said, it’s better to have a bad recording of a good song than bad songs. If the song is bad, there's nothing anyone can do.
Can you share one of your craziest fan experiences?
So sometimes kids follow me for many kilometres just to talk to me and say hi, and I feel like I don't deserve it to be honest. But I also get scared. It’s like mom love; it feels so unconditional, like I'll never be able to repay it.
Would you please start a record label for bedroom artists?
No, it’s too much work. I don't specialise in it either so it’s not needed. I'm happy making music, not managing it. Let other qualified people do the managing.
Could you talk about your collaboration with Yellow Claw?
I always wanted to make music with them, and a bunch of other big DJs and producers. I used to reach out to them five-seven years ago and wait for them to get back to me, and that never happened. So my heart broke and I started focussing on making my own music. Things worked out and my inbox used to be flooded; I realised I would never be able to go through all the messages, so I stopped checking them. In those messages was Yellow Claw’s message, saying they wanted to work with me. When I didn’t respond, they reached out to someone they knew in Mumbai, who called me and said, "Yellow Claw is trying to get in touch with you." I was thinking, "Me? Why?" I later spoke with them and they told me they were trying to contact me for a long time. I couldn't gather the right words to say, "I never thought you'd want to get in touch with me so I never checked my inbox!"
It’s such an honour to be able to work with them. They are so cool. And now we're actually working on a song. It isn't finished yet. Hopefully it will be out soon. I have a lot of new music and collaborations coming. There's one with Ritviz and DIVINE, one with just Ritviz, one more with a new singer/songwriter. A lot of people are asking for my song ‘Marijuana’. I don't know when I'll put it out, but hopefully soon.
I wanted to ask you about all your videos being in slow-mo. Do you specifically ask for it?
No, I don't actually. I don't even know about it. It’s usually such a burden for me so I just tell my manager to take care of all this. Once the song is over, I'm out!
Who writes the lyrics to your songs?
I don't for sure, but people who I collaborate with do. 'Akkad Bakkad' was written by my wife Smriti and Raftaar wrote 'Marijuana'. In the new song with Ritviz, he wrote everything. I don't write. I'm terrible at it. My vocabulary is very limited. I was below average at school and I went to college just to show my face. My eight-year-old Guri has a much better vocabulary than I do. The other day I asked him if he would rap if I gave him a beat. He initially said no. But I gave him the beat and asked him to try, and he started rapping and came up with five lines. He's brilliant. I'm terrible at singing too. I tried to sing on one of my songs and I played it to Smriti. She didn't say anything. I asked her how she liked the song and she asked me, "Which one?" So I said the one I just played for you and she just said, "Terrible!" As an artist you just want to explore as many sides as you can. But I'm good at making other people sound good so that's okay!
What’s your most memorable live gig? Do you ever have a moment during a gig where you think, "This is awesome"?
I think the one I did at the Ganesh Festival for the Bass Rani launch was pretty good. Then we did my first indoor one with Raja Baja, and that was pretty good too. Thinking of how awesome the gig is never really happens during the gig. At that time it’s like I'm in slow-mo, life is moving fast and I don't know what is going on. Then later when I see it in retrospect, you think, "Oh, that was pretty cool!"