We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Nilawan Levy a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Nilawan, appreciate you joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.
When I was younger, I was greatly interested in arts and crafts. I was always sketching or gluing random trash I’d find together; quite literally creating something out of nothing. However, It took a while for me to recognize music as an art form. Though my dad’s side of the family is musically inclined, I failed to acknowledge that because it was so normal to me. Whenever I saw my dad in the basement producing music in his studio, I didn’t think anything of it. I heard him sing since I was a baby, and I didn’t think anything of it. And when I practiced singing karaoke in my room, I didn’t think anything of it because my ear and appreciation for music came naturally.
However, I grew tired of just singing karaoke. Instead, I wanted to sing songs of my own. I wanted to be an artist known for their signature songs, and sing words that were significant to my life. So one day, I asked my dad if I could make a song using his musical equipment. He taught me the basics of Logic Pro X and Native Instrument’s Maschine. I also watched YouTube videos on music production, but a lot of the production knowledge I’ve gained of those two softwares is from fiddling around and figuring out things on my own. Having this creative freedom can seem intimidating, but I believe it pushed me to become more curious. To me, curiosity is an extremely important aspect of creativity, and art. Most of the time, I’d mess around and try out different sounds. Sometimes, I’d come across a sound that was non-traditional to the genre I was going for, but it then added a whole new color to the overall sound. Experimenting like this allows me to develop a unique sound, and expand my sonic palette. Alongside curiosity, persistence is another essential skill. As with any art, my songs were not very good at the beginning. They’re still not very great now, but they are better and that’s what matters. Persistence is important on a smaller scale as well. For example, when I first start developing an idea of a song, it might not sound exactly how I want it to. It’s easy to lose motivation and interest at this point. But if I keep pursuing the idea, unexpected changes may happen, and the idea may turn out sounding better than I had anticipated. As the song starts to come together, I become increasingly excited and inspired. This is where I have the most fun, riding off the momentum.
I recently finished my first year at Berklee, which allowed me to consistently focus on creating a song each week. Before college, I would make songs at random with the mindset that it had to be perfect, a finished piece. Since I put in work and effort, I wanted to release every song; an immature and impatient mindset. But after taking songwriting classes, my focus shifted to the act of creating, rather than the result or end product. I viewed the songs that I made each week as practice or at least a work in progress. If I had tried to actively practice before, I would be a much more efficient producer and singer. That’s why I’m grateful to be attending this school; Without even realizing it, I am learning new skills as I go.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I always felt a strong connection with the arts as a child, so I knew I wanted to pursue a creative career. Surrounded by music as a child, I taught myself to sing by listening to my dad sing, write and produce music. Initially, I gravitated towards visual arts, but eventually, I came to realize that music is a gift that allows an artist to not only be a part of the creative process, but to be a part of the moment. There is beauty in not only being the artist, but being the art as well. At age 14, I began writing and producing my own music with my dad’s musical equipment using Logic Pro X and Maschine by figuring out certain functions independently. I focused on the whole process of creating a song from writing the lyrics to production to recording vocals. Now, I am currently a student at Berklee College of Music working my way into the industry with a major in Independent Recording and Production. I would identify myself as a musical artist, singer-songwriter and music producer.
My goal is to write and produce for other artists as well as myself. I have a couple songs released under my name, “Nilawan,” that I wrote around the ages of 16-18. I also have a great interest in performance, and would love to share my art and message to the world. In terms of the style of music I write, it is heavily influenced by hip hop and r&b as well as k-pop. So, I often implement aspects such as hard-hitting, upbeat drums, 7th chords, and vibrant vocal harmonies. Everytime I produce, I let the song take me where it wants to go. And because of that, people often tell me that I have an authentic sound. Additionally, I songwrite using a (DAW) digital audio workstation as an instrument compared to a guitar or piano. This really helps to capture the big picture, as I am able to utilize virtually any sound. Being able to express myself and who I am with limitless possibilities is the very reason I fell in love with this art.
Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
A book I really love is Atomic Habits by James Clear. As a creative, I always want to improve at my craft and attain more skills and knowledge. I also have many goals that I want to achieve such as performing on a big stage or releasing an album, but these goals can be really hard to achieve when there’s already a lot going on in your life or you have trouble consistently working towards your goals. Atomic Habits helps you to design good habits that will ultimately lead you to your goals, and remove the bad habits keeping you from achieving them. Something very valuable that I pulled from this book is the idea that your identity is aligned with your behavior change. For example, he said, “The goal is not to learn an instrument, the goal is to become a musician.” This really correlated with me since I believed my music was not very good. I identified myself as someone who produces songs, but not a producer. But now that I confidently identify myself as a producer, or musician, the work that I do reflects what I believe myself to be, which is very powerful for a creative or entrepreneur.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
As a child, I was always pointed out as the “quiet kid,” but as a quiet person, I still have many thoughts. However, words have never been an easy way for me to communicate with people because of my social anxiety. So, being an artist and musician allows me to process my emotions, thoughts or feelings through my art, and be able to communicate it. I am able to connect with people which is something I’ve always struggled with. So, the most rewarding aspect of being creative to me is sharing my art with others.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/nilawan.and.only
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nilawan.and.only/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100076672327155
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@NilawanOfficial?feature=shared
- Other: Linktree: https://linktr.ee/nilawan.and.only Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/55zGhlL8YxVjIYrIySyfLo?si=d3m98o7eT7mKcflelN0HPw Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/nilawan/1668007380
Image Credits
Nilawan Levy Ana Paola Solano Worawan Lehman