Mumbai based rocker Nitish Pires talks about his latest releases!
Hello Nitish Pires, thanks for taking time to answer a few questions for Distrolution. Could you please present yourself to our readers? For those who have never heard your songs before, how would you describe your sound overall? Hello Valentine, first of all it’s an honor that Distrolution had posted my release news and now featuring my interview. Thank you so much for everything to you and the Team Distrolution. So, I am a singer/songwriter from India. Have had three albums before this latest album Am I Evil. My first album was with my band Nakshatra in 2003. And then I went solo and released by later two album “ Sarhadein & Chauraha” subsequently in 2007 & 2010. I have had couple of singles too and some great videos which the readers will enjoy. Until 2013, I was releasing songs in my national language, Hindi. My songs that I wrote where in the Hindi rock Genre. I am always confused about the sub genres for my music, since I don’t stick to any rules. The only rule in my book is Rock! In 2013 I took a break out of my music in search for new experiences. I went travelling and buskin out of my country and now, I'm back with a new side of me that I want to share with my latest album “Am I Evil”. The songs in Am I Evil according to me has the rock as a base and keeps moving across the sub-genres of Post, heavy, Alternative, Classic etc... Didn’t do anything intentionally to make it sound like that. I just kept writing and the song and the melody asked for the treatment. For the listeners, I can only say that this album just like my earlier albums, is my honest effort put in together. And I am sure the listeners will at-least connect to one of my song if not all! I don't think I've ever had the chance to feature an artist from India before, so this is really cool! How would you describe the alternative music scene, here in India? Valentine, the most honest answer would be, I really don’t know about the scene anywhere in the world and also India. I just keep doing my thing. Once I am done with one thing I start doing an another one. But if it will make sense I will tell you what I have noticed which may not be the real thing. When I started in 1998, in India we had a big cover scene. Very few rock bands as per my knowledge were doing original music. The music scene those days were dominated by Bands covering Classic rock bands like Deep Purple etc. There were very fewer bands doing original music those days. But gradually, thanks to the big indie bands, who made the young musicians believe that cover is not a thing. And the movement of original music started in around, if I am not mistaken, in 2004, where all the rock competition started demanding the band to have at least one original song. From then, we have many Indian bands who have amazing original music. They have fans, the fans buy their album, there are concerts etc.… It took a while but post 2010, I have seen some big event companies doing big rock concerts around India with Indian bands as head liners. In India we have two primary classification of Rock bands. The ones who write in English and the ones in regional or national language. The good news is as if 2018 the big gap between this two lobbies of bands have come together. They are performing under one roof at big festivals and our audience is very open minded to these bands. I think we have more than 5000 music/cultural festivals across India where bands play, making India a hot spot for live bands. You've recently released a music video for your single 'It's My Way'. Can we talk about the shooting experience? How was it like? If you have seen the music video of ‘It’s My Way’, I am sure you noticed the Bow & Arrow, the surreal back drop, the motor bike, the jungle and those fancy effects. For many that they have told me they said it looked like a big production behind the video. Actually, its quite opposite to what it looks like. Let’s not speak about the monies spent on the video, which was not less, but let me speak about the other aspects of it. The video of It’s My Way was my vision. Having an experience in film making and editing I was sure that I will pull it off. The song speaks about the desire of a free will against the will forced by unknown forces behind the so called known faces. So, in this video I wanted to symbolize the forces with technology. It’s not that I am against technology but as the last message of the video “A very useful Slave, but a dangerous Master”, goes, I believe in that. The savior to mankind from my idea was consciousness! I also wanted to make this video interesting with action and intriguing landscapes within my possibilities. So, the video was shot only with a crew of 9 people! It included the Director of photography, my friend Leo and his camera attendant, my wife who was acting and also helping with the costumes and art direction, two helpers, a friend, Drone pilot, makeup artist and a driver. &t=1s For the pre-production and the reiki, I rode across Goa back and forth for two days to find perfect locations, specially the waterfalls in the video where I receive my enlightenment and powers. We shot as per my directions and my crew was sort of confused with what I am doing since I was taking random shots in each location and asking the actors to just walk. Thankfully they did as I said. My vision was including the VFX which they couldn’t visualize. Going back to the bow & Arrow which you see in the middle of the song, that was completely hand crafted from the scratch by me before the shoot. My hands hurt seriously and it was swollen, since I didn’t have professional machineries. It took me two days to craft the bow and arrow. We had to travel with the crew about 100kms away to the Netravali forest for the waterfall scene. With all the stuff we had to hike for 0ne hour one way to reach the location and this hike includes a steep & dangerous 100-meter-long steps down to the waterfall. I am very sure my crew was rapping abuses on me that time since no one was there before the final day of shoot. After we completed our shoot, climbing up again was the most difficult part. You can’t imagine maneuvering those big generator and fans plus the other stuff, it was Hard. The shoot got over in two days and then I sat down on edit and contacted my old friends from Luma Pixel Vfx and graphic designers from Gauhati. They got scared with my requirements and my deadlines but glad they accepted it. they had challenges working on the footages since I didn’t shoot anything on green screen. The reason I didn’t shoot on green screen was, I was trying to play safe. I shot everything in real locations cuz in my mind I was thinking if the VFX doesn’t look seamless then have an option to release the video without any VFX. The guys from Luma Pixels were my friend but I never worked with them in the past. I just believed in them and I was sure that they will pull it off. And that’s what they did they showed their brilliant skills and I was a happy client and a happy friend. And finally, the color grading was done by one of my friend from Nepal, Ujjwal Joshi. In short, the whole process was challenging, risky but fun and satisfying after seeing the final cut. This song is indeed taken from your latest LP, 'Am I Evil'. Could you please introduce this record to our readers? What kind of songs can we indeed expect? Yes, this song is a part of my album LP “Am I Evil” which was independently released on Feb 2018 through all the major online stores. The album has 11 songs in it which are completely based out of rock arrangement. But each and every song travels through the sub genres of rock music with moods that gets graduated as an experience for the listeners, if the listener listens to the album in a flow. The songs are chosen and ordered in such a way that the listener shouldn’t experience a sudden change in the flow and mood. The listener can expect songs with a big canvas, storytelling, a feeling of being a part of a journey with Lushy Guitars, beats and the soundscapes. The album has mid-range Heavy and soft ballads. Eastern flavored orchestral rock, 70’s classic rock, Pop- Rock, Groovy, Hip-hop influenced Rock. Modern fast paced and head headbangers Rock songs in it. I am pretty sure the rock listeners will find their own picks in the album. The lyrics of the album are also a thing to watch out for. Which of the songs on this record would you say best reflect the spirit of this album and why? All the songs in the album stands on its own due to its character, arrangement, vocal style and writing. But if I have to summarize a spirit of the album then I am sure to pick the songs Fade away, Crazy BC-AD & Big Black Wings, since these songs are extremely different to each other in terms of the experience. Are you happy with the feedback you received so far, from both your fans and the media? Can we also expect new releases soon? I am very happy with the daily increase in the positive response of my album by the media and the fans. There is a lot going on here to boost the reach of the album in the coming months. And lot of reasons for my album to stay on top of my fans mind. I have understood times have changed and music fans and listeners have become more Audio-visual oriented. So we will be shooting lot more videos from our album and throwing it on social media. And we bet our video content is just going to get better and better. Also, our band is getting ready for the full-fledged performance and should be announcing a tour soon. I have already started working on my next album and I am already excited with my material to come. For sure it’s not going to be “Am I Evil” again. It’s a bunch of my kids waiting to see the world with a new hairdo.
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