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In India, there is no such thing as co-writing,&rdquo; says Nikhil D&rsquo;Souza, fresh from returning after writing his next EP with legendary singer-songwriter and publisher Jeff Cohen in Nashville. D&rsquo;Souza, known for straddling both Bollywood (you&rsquo;ll remember him from hits such as Shaam from Aisha and Mere Bina from Crook) and the indie scene (Storm Without a Sky), has spent a lot of time in Nashville, the centre of music in America.
<img title="His heart may lie with his indie career, but Nikhil D&rsquo;Souza says Bollywood is the best way to gain an audience. pic/shelz photography" src="http://images.mid-day.com/images/images/2015/sep/Nikhil-DSouza.jpg" alt="His heart may lie with his indie career, but Nikhil D&rsquo;Souza says Bollywood is the best way to gain an audience. pic/shelz photography" /> His heart may lie with his indie career, but Nikhil D&rsquo;Souza says Bollywood is the best way to gain an audience. Pic/Shelz Photography
&ldquo;I learnt how songwriting really works. So, I would go to Cohen with a verse and a chorus, and he would help me understand the emotion better, and then we would flesh the song out,&rdquo; he says. He even got a chance to play at the legendary Bluebird Caf&eacute;, where many greats played, and got discovered, including Taylor Swift in 2005. His next EP, out in the next few months, is all about love, or at least a dysfunctional version of it. &ldquo;You grow up thinking about love in a fairy tale way. But what happens is that one person feels it intensely, but the other just sort of gives in. It&rsquo;s about that kind of love.&rdquo;
D&rsquo;Souza says he drew from his own experiences, of being in love, on and off, and Cohen added his bits and experiences. &ldquo;For example, we wrote the song called Simple Kind of Love, about the feeling you get before you enter a relationship, when you just want everything to be okay. But eventually, we always complicate it. Cohen had just come out of a relationship, I was just getting into one. And so, it worked,&rdquo; he says.
Back home, D&rsquo;Souza has a reputation of being an Indie artiste who has also found success in Bollywood. Born in Vakola, his parents thought he would die drunk at 30 if he became a singer. But the ex-geologist, who has worked on an oil rig, decided to pursue music seriously eight years ago. &ldquo;Validation came when people came up to my parents and told them &lsquo;we heard your son on radio&rsquo;,&rdquo; he laughs. He got his big break in 2009 when he sang the Airtel jingle Dil Titli, which prompted music director Amit Trivedi to ask him to sing Shaam in Aisha. &ldquo;Like most other Indie artistes, I looked down on Bollywood. We thought if we sang for it, it&rsquo;d be &lsquo;selling out&rsquo;. But, I have gained respect for it now; it&rsquo;s hard work. It also helps you build an audience, which would then even want to hear your own original stuff. And, if you can make a good living, that lets you go to Nashville and record your album, well, there is nothing like it.&rdquo;
The 33-year-old, who has sung for Katti Batti and is now planning the release of his album and video, says surviving in the music industry is about maintaining a balance. &ldquo;I was at a college in Delhi two days ago for a youth conference talking about Indie music. They asked me to play my Bollywood hits. I said I would do that if they let me play my original English song. They agreed. So I sang, and I got them to sing along as well. And then I sang Mere Bina. You have to respect your audience, give them what they want. It&rsquo;s the only way.&rdquo;

He&rsquo;s sung Lip to Lip in Katti Batti, but is about to release his indie EP. Here is how Nikhil D&rsquo;Souza strikes the balance

Nashville-return, Bollywood singer

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Nashville-return, Bollywood singer

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