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Meet Nikhil Korula

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Meet Nikhil Korula

September 25, 2023
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We recently connected with Nikhil Korula and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Nikhil, thanks for joining us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

Music has been an ongoing journey for me to learn different instruments which first started with me learning how to sing from the age of 5, eventually as a professional, as a chorus and soloist with the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus from the age of 7 to learning how to sing opera in high school and college to learning how to sing blues, funk, world music, reggae and rock ‘n roll in the outside music world. I also had to learn how to play piano, guitar and produce my own albums which has been one of the greatest gifts that keeps on giving. Music has been an ongoing exploration of instruments, vocal techniques, guitar chords and solo licks, piano chords and soloing chops, discovering the art of songwriting in all genres and more while also understanding how the recording studio, both in the digital and analog space, can also be used as an instrument. This journey is why I was put on Mother Earth. Music is my calling, my therapist, my drive, my passion, my gift, my everything. Time is the biggest obstacle that always stands in the way. I always feel like I want more time to practice and learn than doing some of the business stuff that needs attention. I honestly feel like my learning process couldn’t be shortened to me. There are no shortcuts if you want to be good at what you do.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is Nikhil Joseph Korula and music has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. I started singing at the age of 5 in a church choir at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, California. After a few years, my choir director, Stephanie Mowery and another local choir director, Rebecca Thompson, started the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus and asked me to join when I was about 7. We were singing Mahler’s 9th Symphony and Bach’s St Matthew’s Passion at the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion and really intense works like that while learning to sing together and in complex harmonies. Through this choir, I was able to start singing professionally performing concerts with the LA Philharmonic (I sang under conductors Andre Previn and Esa Pekka Salonen) as well as the LA Master Chorale. I was then asked to sing operas at the LA Opera and performing quite a bit at the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion which for a number of reasons became my safe haven and workspace as a child performer. I still remember how cool it was to walk in through the artist entrance as a kid at the ages 10-13. I got the amazing opportunity to sing 6 operas with Placido Domingo and other fantastic operatic singers. Through the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus, I got other incredible opportunities like singing at Carnegie Hall at the age of 10, performing at the 32nd Annual Grammy Awards, singing on film scores by Danny Elfman and on recordings with Luther Vandross as well as singing for Rod Stewart’s wedding. I really believed this was all a normal childhood because it was the only one I knew.
After my voice changed, I took private lessons from Richard Berenstein, one of LA Opera’s principal singers (we met while performing Bizet’s Carmen) and eventually learned to sing other styles of music in my high school show choir. This was really the start of me wanting to sing other styles of music. After learning how to sing different types of songs and arrangements, it also propelled me to want to pursue a degree in music at the USC Thornton School of Music where I studied Vocal Arts. Honestly, this was such a giant change in my life because for the first time in my life, I was learning music theory, ear training, music history and living with all music majors which changed my world completely. I would learn classical art songs and opera arias during the day, then come home to an 8 piece funk band jamming in my living room. It was pretty wild. One of my roommates, John Scott-Wakefield, taught me to sing blues and soul music and somehow knew I had to learn to play guitar so he taught me chords while I also still pursued playing piano in my free time. It was around then I saw the Dave Matthews Band for the first time and knew what I wanted to do with my life. A songwriting class at USC with Pat Caddick turned my trajectory in a different direction when he inspired me to want to be a songwriter. He was such a fantastic teacher and mentor for music when I needed it most.
Writing music became the only thing I was fascinated with after learning songwriting from Pat. I would be singing operas, arias, art songs and musical theater pieces with my vocal peers and studying the scores and I remember being even more fascinated with the music underneath the melodies than almost the melodies themselves. I knew then I wanted to start a band and write music, but also knew if I didn’t finish school first, I may never get it done so I made sure I completely focused on putting together my junior and senior recitals. I studied voice with Bard Suverkrop, one of the best vocal teachers in the world, while at USC and in Virginia and even a summer in Graz, Austria, singing for so many prestigious politicians and famed artists from Europe. When I finally performed my senior recital at USC, it was one of the most highly attended senior recitals in school history. I didn’t realize how many people came until I walked out of the dressing room. I knew then my time with classical music was through for the moment because I felt like it could never get better than this and I remember the high from the recital not being worth the amount of work I put in because I couldn’t wait to just play my guitar and sing (along with all the music in several languages from different time periods that I sang, I closed my senior recital with a song I wrote for my family called “Dedication” which was the song I most looked forward to during the performance). I want to also give a special shout out to my vocal coach at USC, Vicki Kirsch and my ear training teacher, Veronika Krausas, 2 of my favorite teachers at USC. Without these 2 amazing women supporting me to pursue my artistic vision before I even started, I’m not sure I would have ever finished my degree and graduated like I did. One of the last performances I ever did as a USC Thornton School of Music student was an unbelievable opportunity to perform a concert for Carlos Santana with Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter and Nestor Torres with a 20 piece band with singers, dancers and some of the best musicians around. That was such an unforgettable experience that I think I’m still chasing the giant sound of that band in my mind. Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter also gave us all a pep talk before we hit the stage about how we were the future of music and how much we had to always immerse ourselves into every musical performance. That has forever stuck with me.
After I graduated from USC, I went to various jazz concerts to meet musicians I could start a band with. One by one, I would meet one talented cat which led me to another talented instrumentalist. When I showed them I had some songs, the guitarist, Anthony King, a super talented musician and I started playing acoustic sets all over Los Angeles. This really helped to get the word out about how I was starting a band. When it came time after a year of these acoustic sets to play a full band show, we sold out our first show at the Knitting Factory Alterknit Lounge in front of over 100+ people. The numbers quickly grew from show to show and by our 10th show, we were packing the House of Blues in Hollywood with over 750+ people. Because of how tenacious I was to get gigs, promote and start a management company and record label, I learned fast that to make it in this industry, it’s all about making sure the way you run your music and your business are at the highest levels they can be. The Nikhil Korula Band soon starting playing shows outside of LA and Santa Barbara was our first stop. I have so much love for that city because I remember our first gig there was for 2 people and one of them was the bartender. We soon learned we had to play different and better venues and soon we were packing all of Santa Barbara’s biggest music venues, too. Santa Barbara was the first city outside of LA to show me we had something. We soon started touring from San Diego to San Francisco playing small rooms and bigger ones until we eventually started to play major music festivals. Summerfest was the first music festival we ever played and as luck would have it, it was also the world’s biggest music festival. We opened for O.A.R back in 2007 and ended up playing that festival 14 years in a row. Through that time, we were asked to play Bonnaroo, Arroyo Seco, The Playboy Jazz Festival Warner Concert and other esteemed music festivals while also headlining venues like the House of Blues and I even got the chance to perform at the world famous Apollo Theater in Harlem, NY. We also started touring colleges across the country and word just kept spreading. All of this I did with no record label, manager or booking agent. This is important to notate because it meant I had to wear all the hats and make sure we were always being creative and working as professionally as possible. So many people told me I shouldn’t represent myself, but now, we work with some of the biggest promoters in the business.
It took years to take all these steps, but we learned to keep playing live shows to fund making albums and through this process, we eventually started selling more and more albums, getting a publishing deal and opening for our heroes, Dave Matthews Band, John Mayer, Jason Mraz, Ben Harper and more. I also started teaching songwriting and production to the new generations of artists, too. In 2017, I was asked by Ziggy Marley to write some songs for his new album and the opening track, “Start It Up,” was a song I wrote with a songwriting team called The Element that I started with Dimitri Cerny, one of my songwriting students and Brian Vibberts, engineer for Michael Jackson, Eric Clapton, Green Day and more. Ziggy’s album ended up winning the Grammy for Best Reggae Album for that year so I was able to earn my first Grammy Award as a songwriter. Sadly, around this same time, I lost 2 of my favorite musicians who ever played in the band, Zane Musa and Mike Eyia, both brilliant saxophonists. This made me take some time off from making any new music or touring until we decided it was time to make our 8th album, REVOLUTIONS. This album saved my life in a lot of ways and gave me something new to look forward to. I needed time to heal, but also realized quickly, music is my salvation.
Since then, the Nikhil Korula Band has opened for Rock N Roll Hall of Famers, ZZ Top, Ziggy Marley, The Fray, Sublime with Rome, Thievery Corporation, Gary Clark Jr and countless other musical heroes of ours. After touring and teaching songwriting and production for so many years, I recently decided to start a new blues trio with Andre Desantana, Sergio Mendes and Jason Mraz’s bassist and Gene Coye, drummer for Seal, Larry Carlton and more. We recently just released a new album called CROSSROADS that has both original songs and we cover musical heroes of ours like Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Clapton and more. As a bonus, legendary musician, Chuck Leavell, from the Rolling Stones played on 2 tracks for this album which we just released in the summer of 2023.

Through all of these ups and downs, music has been the one thing that has held me together, helped me to stay on the path and has always been the inspiration to keep me playing music, writing music, creating albums, producing artists, teaching the new generation of artists and keep the fire burning brightly. I even started my own radio show called Wake Up Hollywood on LA Talk Radio to create a platform where artists are being interviewed by an artist to showcase their talents. Creativity is everything to me.
I wouldn’t change a thing on my path. Every part of my journey has pushed me to a level of excellence in how I approach music, guitar playing, songwriting, piano playing, producing an album, teaching and more and I truly feel there is no artist or producer or musician or student I can’t contribute something to, both in the spirit of music and artistic philosophy. I’ve been so lucky to have been able to cross paths and meet incredible artists like Prince, Stevie Wonder, Dave Matthews, Ziggy Marley, B.B King, Paul McCartney, Paul Simon and so many more on this path. All of these moments just keep me wanting to keep learning, stay open minded and passionately driven to more musical possibilities.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I think being an artist is truly a journey that encompasses resilience. I know so many talented people playing with some of the biggest touring acts, but it just doesn’t mean the same to me as an artist putting out music from their soul. That’s everything to me. I don’t care how much money someone can make. I care more about what is in their creative output. That’s all the merit I look into for my own journey and what that means is you have to stick to your guns even when the whole world is against you. I’ve felt that way when band members have left or I’ve had to let some band members go or even when they pass on in spirit or seeing fans come and go based on the trends in music. It feels like the entire world is on your shoulders at times and all at once, no one is rooting for you, but that feeling is what should push you to dig deeper and keep creating. I will put my song catalog up against anyone’s out there. In a lot of ways, I haven’t had even 1/100 of the marketing budgets some of these major artists have to get their music out there, but I’ve achieved even more by winning a Grammy or making it through to play the Apollo Theater or headlining major venues like the House of Blues or Whisky A Go Go or playing festivals in front of over 10,000+ people out of state. This entire journey has been about resilience, learning to fail, overcoming those obstacles that keep you from ascending and then learning to push even harder to get the most into your work because at the end of the day, that is what I plan on leaving the world with. My band is one of the most talented musical groups and experiences out there. I truly feel that way because I am always seeing live music to make sure we can compete with what is out there. Every one of my band members is a complete badass at what they do. This is the greatest part of being in a band with such supremely talented musicians as Adam Gust on drums, Ray Bergstrom on lead guitar, Ray Zepeda on saxophone, Andre Desantana on bass and having special guests like Cruz Martinez on turntables and other amazing artists sitting in with the band at various shows. We all inspire one another to keep achieving our attempt at greatness while also staying humble enough to keep working as professionals and enjoy the journey. What I love most about my band is we play the same way whether we are playing in front of thousands or an empty bowling alley (which we have done by the way). Even our rehearsals are sometimes more creatively gratifying because of how much we enjoy playing songs with each other. NK Band has done it all and no one can take that away from us. Resilience is what this band is made of.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

People take music for granted. It’s the lifeline that connects the human experience to spirituality. Churches would have so much less power without the music that runs through it. Art and cultural movements are encompassed with music and movements in society are created and fueled by music. Frank Lloyd Wright once said, “architecture is frozen music.” Music truly is everywhere and its reverence isn’t the same as it was 20 years ago. I see that in how people show me music on their phones. If I have the choice, I just can’t listen to music in the same way on speakers that don’t play music in the highest fidelity possible, but I also get that it is convenient and also use my phone to listen on the go when there is nothing else around, but I always prefer people to email links of music so I can listen properly. The true art to music is listening. Ironically, music is more available everywhere than it has ever been, too, so that is a plus. I literally buy CDs and vinyls and play them super loud on incredible speakers to have a musical listening experience that gives me chills and keeps me inspired beyond measure. People don’t really do that anymore. I always want to have listening parties for albums, but I know people just don’t make the time to do so in the same way that maybe some musicians do.

Streaming is a great tool, but it is also disastrous for the music economy. Legendary artists always had music sales to help sustain their lifestyles and now, streaming is creating an environment where the app that holds the very music is financially successful, but not to the very creators their app is sustained by. Imagine if Spotify made music? My goodness, it would suck. That’s where AI is heading. People believe you don’t need artists anymore and honestly, the art will only suffer when you don’t have someone well versed in technique, artistic expression and passionate about creativity to make art and music. People need to learn more about music to love it and appreciate it like they should. Learn to play guitar, take a history of rock n roll class. Go to a recording session….anything to value music because it is highly undervalued in today’s society and yet, like I stated earlier, it is everywhere and more readily available than ever before. I have every album available to me in my pocket or on my computer, but that is an easy way to also take it for granted.

Go see live music, support artists, buy their albums, tell your friends about songs you love. This is what musicians and artists live for and feeling that level of being understood keeps us inspired to make more art. Music is my life. That will never change, but how people revere music certainly has. I know my tribe are all music people. What would life be without music?! That’s not a world I ever want to exist in.

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Image Credits
Braden Call Nikhil Suresh Steve Rose Logan Metz Zach Weinberg Coy Koehler Bonnie Helms Doug Silton Uri Gelman Garrett Baquet Tyler Forrest

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