Above, The Nikhil Korula Band onstage at Arroyo Seco Weekend.
Published at 1:52 p.m., June 30, 2020; updated 2:14p.m., Dec. 11, 2020
By Steve Simmons
How do musicians get through a pandemic when making music for fans, their passion, becomes impossible?
For Nikhil Korula, singer, songwriter, bandleader and musician (he plays guitar and piano) this unprecedented time has given him the opportunity to focus on his latest album, set for next year, contemplate future projects, and yes, practice more.
The Nikhil Korula Band spent the last three months preparing for recording sessions. Since Korula switches from his customary guitar to piano on some selections, the band had to learn new arrangements. “I’m hard-core about rehearsing,” Korula says. “I want it to be tight so we can nail it in one or two takes.”
The band’s final session was the first week of March, and since then, Korula, working with engineer Doug Messenger (a guitarist who’s played with Van Morrison, Etta James and Chuck Berry) have been tweaking the album’s final touches. “Doug’s really great at mixing and finding the tones of each instruments which is why we have done the last few NK Band albums with him. We are also recording and mixing this album completely to analog tape and with no computers or automation which really sets this band apart from how most bands create records. But I never thought we’d be trying to get a record out during a pandemic, riots, protests and even an earthquake,” Korula says, “but the show must go on.”
“You Say You Want ‘Some Revolutions’”
In an eerily prescient choice, Korula based the concept for the album on revolutions. “Everything works in revolutions, on the one hand technically with vinyl and CD, but especially with how revolutions can change society in so many different ways. This record has a lot of beautiful messages,” reveals Korula, “including ‘doing the right thing,’ justice and peace for all people and the solace found in music and love.”
Of the 12 original songs, Korula knew his five-year-old song Revolutions would be the title track, he just didn’t know it would be more topical than ever. The song’s first verse reads: “When the world becomes divided, corporations rule the people like we’re puppets on a string; Get all the citizens united making war go out of business so we don’t have to pay the price; People looting in the streets while education takes its plight to help our leaders reach their bottom line; But making time to take the blinders off each other will inspire us to keep the wool out of our eyes.”
Among the 20- to five-year-old songs on the album is Power Through The Pain, “which talks about how much of a struggle life can be sometimes,” Korula says. “Pain is always part of the human existence, but we carry on.
Another “revolutionary” aspect of the album is the number of high-powered guests who join the band’s core members– Jesse Stern on bass; Adam Gust on drums, Ray Bergstrom on electric guitar, Will Herrington on Hammond organ and Korula on acoustic guitar, electric guitar, piano and Wurlitzer.
To achieve the recording’s eclectic mix of genres–ranging from blues, R&B, rock, folk, songs in the style of the Allman Brothers Band and Paul Simon, and world music including African-inspired and reggae–Korula assembled a high-powered lineup of special guests.
Joining the band on spotlighted tracks are: John Mayer’s guitarist David Ryan Harris, Lenny Kravitz’ trumpeter Ludovic Louis, Justin Timberlake’s trumpeter Sean Erick, saxophonist Wes Smith, who plays with Booker T; trombonist Lasim Richards, who’s played with the Dave Matthews Band and Jay- Z, Timberlake’s saxophonist Leon Silva and jazz saxophonist Nate Ketner, vocalist Maiya Sykes, Marty Rifkin, who’s worked with Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty, on pedal steel guitar; DJ Battleship aka Cruz Martinez, who “scratches” on one selection, the string Quartet 405 with Rebecca Charles, Eliza James, Jayna Chou and Danica Pinner, slide guitarists Greg Leon and Travis Stephenson, Sean Gaskell on kora, Dave Jenson on didgeridoo, Josh Feinberg on sitar, percussionist David Leach and members of ALLRIGHT, the acapella singing group he formed as a student as USC’s Thornton School of Music, Michael Landau, George Artope and Phillip Brandon on backing vocals.
To make the album even more special, Korula asked his father, Jacob Korula, to sing harmonies with him on the opening track, “so he will always cherish this album even more,” Korula says.
Paying Tribute
Korula is especially proud of the enthusiastic response from all who joined the project. “They were all affiliated and worked with the two band members we lost in so many different capacities,” says Korula.
Both saxophonists, Zane Musa, who played with the band for eight years, died of suicide in 2015. Mike Eyia, part of the ensemble for six years, died of a drug overdose in 2018. (Also, Korula was grooming his first cousin, Karan Joseph, 12 years younger to join the band. “He was studying piano at Berklee College of Music and came to L.A. and jammed with a few of the band members. He was truly a talent to be reckoned with..” He passed away tragically three years ago.).
The album’s final track, I Wish I Knew, is dedicated to Musa, Eyia and Joseph. “The song tells those guys how I felt when I lost each one of them,” says Korula. “I know people have inner struggles no one talks about. But if I had known those things I would have helped and told them they had options and choices.”
“We became closer as a unit working on this album,” says Korula, which features J.T. Thomas (whose been playing with Bruce Hornsby for the last 20 years) on keyboards for the closing song. “When it came time to record, I realized we needed another sax player, but after rehearsing with the band for months, it didn’t make sense to just have someone fill in on every song for the album, so as a way to pay tribute there are two songs where one of the horn players (Ketner) plays solo sax and on I Wish I Knew, the only solos are on soprano sax, tenor saxophone and keyboard to represent the three musicians who passed away who meant so much to me. We want people to understand and feel our loss, but know we are still powering through it.”
“I think the absence of sax is a strong statement,” admits Korula. “We want people to feel the loss in the way we do. We miss these guys. This album is a celebration of what they brought to our sound and a salute to them in a lot of ways.”
Keeping Up His Songwriting Chops
To maintain his creativity and songwriting skills, Korula has founded and developed, The Element, a songwriting and production team “that allows me to collaborate with so many artists,” he says.
One of the group’s most successful numbers is Start It Up, a song he started one morning at 3 a.m. “I wrote about 80 percent of the music and lyrics,” Korula says. With fellow group members Dimitri Cerny, Brian Vibberts, Ray Bergstrom and Andre DeSantanna, they “put the pieces together. I had a vision for the song and while working with the other guys, we wrote the bridge and came up the arrangement and it really jumpstarted the process when they all came on board to contribute.”
Also with lyrics especially relevant to today’s social climate –some of them read: “Like a lion in the morning sun; You can live like a champion; Save the world we live in; Burn down the walls of our skin; We can rise from the ashes again”—the song came to the attention of singer-songwriter Ziggy Marley.
Marley chose the song as the first track on his self-titled 2016 album, which went on to win the 2017 Grammy as Best Reggae Album. The creative team all received Grammy certificates. “It was great that we all shared this experience and said, ‘let’s make something together’. Teamwork always elevates the work.”
Korula also “had the pleasure” of watching Marley open a tour performance with the song. “I loved creating the song and experiencing it from the outside. I’m usually the one driving the car, as it were, performing my own songs. Listening to your songs by a different performer gives you a whole new perspective.”
As a “huge fan” of Marley’s father, reggae icon Bob Marley, Korula was especially moved to write for his son. “He changed some of the lyrics to make it his own interpretation and made the song take flight.”
The Element’s latest project is creating the theme song for an as yet unreleased animated TV series while working on current pop songs for other artists as well as an upcoming EP of original songs.
Getting Animated
In 2013, Korula recorded five original songs for his EP, Solo Sessions, with two of his musical heroes, Butch Taylor and Jeff Coffin from the Dave Matthews Band. One song, Fade Away, charted, debuting at No.106 and moving all the way to No. 10 on the Hot AC charts.
The flash-mob style music video of Fade Away, shot on the Santa Monica Pier and directed by Jethro Rothe-Kushel, won Best Music Video Film at Indie Fest in Southern California. The video was also an official selection for the NYC Independent Film Festival in 2014.
When it came time for his next music video, it was Korula’s father who suggested he try animation. “I told him I didn’t know anything about that world,” remembers Korula. But he took to Facebook posting that he was looking for concepts for one of three selected songs from the Solo Sessions record. Surprised at the numerous responses, Korula ultimately settled on director Jacob Patrick’s idea of turning Spark, into a tale about a firefly who can’t light up and how he ultimately saves his friends.
Korula was impressed that an animator could take a song he wrote in 2013 and turn it into a four-minute short about a firefly trying to find his place in the world. “The song is about how sometimes people need a chance to shine, something to follow and find their own light.” Part of the lyrics read: “The time has come to allow someone to be a light in the dark…a voice of unheard beyound the spoken word can lead the world with a spark…”
Created in India, the animation process was a lengthy one. In the midst of production, one of the key animators, Rakesh Kumar Shrivastava, died of liver failure and a second team, also in India, ANIBRAIN had to step in. The short is dedicated to Shrivastava. “He did so much light the spark, so it was the right thing to do,” Korula says.
The short was named an official selection of the New Directors New Film Festival (FEST) in Espinho, Portugal, and last year Korula flew in for a screening before 300 children, brought in from across the country. “It was tremendous to see their response,” says Korula. “It a good story for adults and kids.”
He’s been teleconferencing with various teams of screenwriters as well as directors to rewrite the screenplay he wrote with Patrick, Eddie Pence and Dave Jenson to turn the short, with the main character now named Spark, into a full-length feature. “It’ll be exciting to see what comes of it.”
For Now
With cover art picked and packaging to be finalized, Korula was hoping to have Revolutions wrapped up by summer’s end. The pandemic threw a monkey wrench into those plans, but on Dec. 10, Korula announced a new release schedule. It includes early availability of singles: Revolutions (Jan. 1, 2021), followed by Testify (Jan. 8), Give & Forgive (Jan. 15) and By Your Side (Jan. 22)
The NK Band Revolutions full album release, on all major platforms as well as CD and vinyl, will be Jan. 29, 2021. “We just have to figure out where and how to have a CD release party during a pandemic,” says Korula.
He also wants the CD in the hands of fans asking when The Nikhil Korula Band will get back on the stage and touring. “I really miss playing with my band,” says Korula, who’s also considering virtual concerts. “I just want a real representation of our sound, and most online shows just don’t sound as good. Nothing’s as good as live. The biggest thing this whole time being quarantined has taught the world is that we all need each other.”
In anticipation of the time the band can return to events like Pasadena’s Arroyo Seco Weekend or Milwaukee’s Summerfest, Korula’s been practicing guitar and piano, “learning what masters have done, like idols Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Ray Charles, and B.B. King.
Plus, he’s writing songs and working on music every day. “I’m always creating,” says Korula. “It’s part of me. I just want to dig in and make something that challenges me. And music is my passion. Music is the terminal I drive through to know my day was of value.”
