Nikhil D’souza To Release Full Length Album

Photo: Kautul Sheth

Mumbai-based singer and songwriter Nikhil D’souza says he knew he would name his full-length album after one of his songs. “I didn’t want to call it ”˜Shades of Grey’ because there are already too many albums with that name and when people Google it, they’ll probably only find Fifty Shades of Grey,” D’souza says. Instead, he chose to name his album Little Green Man after another song of his.

“The song has a lot of personal significance. It was about how, a while ago, I had isolated myself from people. ”˜Little Green Man’ refers to an extraterrestrial and the sense of alienation,” says D’souza. The singer put together the Nikhil D’souza Band roping in Rushad Mistry [bassist for rock vets Indus Creed], Warren Mendonsa [guitarist and frontman of Blackstratblues], Zohran Miranda [guitarist with alt rock band Airport], and Aatur Soni on drums. D’souza admits that most of them are busy with either sessions work or own projects. “So I write about 80-90 per cent of the arrangement and song structure and give it to them,” he says.  He adds that the sound never gets too cluttered with his three-guitar set up since “everyone thinks as a producer.”

D’souza took an unorthodox approach in releasing Little Green Man when he released a five-track album sampler this month. “I didn’t just want to drop the album on people suddenly,” he says, adding that the mini album went out on sale at the Goa edition of Live From The Console on December 29th. The sound on Little Green Man will be mellow says D’Souza with the exception of two tracks including “So” with some heavy distortion and “Light My Way,” which he had originally written for an MTV-produced short-film Phir Se in 2011.

Little Green Man is due to be released in March, and D’souza says he has enough songs for another EP and a full-length album. He will perform all five songs from the album sampler at his upcoming show at Swig, Pune.

Listen to Nikhil D’souza Band’s Little Green Man here. Nikhil D’souza plays at Swig in Pune on January 23rd, 9pm onwards. More details here.