Nikhita Chats About ‘Solace’

Nikhita is rising music star from Scotland. Her splendid blend of soul and R&B, soothing melodies, relaxing instrumentation and powerful vocals make her a promising artist you want to watch out for. Recently, I chatted with Nikhita about her upcoming debut EP Solace.

Solace has been in the making for a while. Nikhita wrote some of the songs years ago and some more recently. “To me, a debut project is a big thing,” she states. “I wanted to make sure I was at a space where I was creatively ready to put that out. It is kind of a collaboration of all this work that has come together over these years, and it felt like it fit perfectly for me. I really enjoyed collaborating with so many talented instrumentalists and dear friends to me on this, so it feels like a special baby that has just come together with everything and everyone I love.”

Releasing a debut project and sharing it with the world, whether it be a novel, record, painting, film, poem, or sculpture, among other things, can be extremely exciting but also super nerve-wracking. “I think it’s kinda inevitable that you’re gonna feel the anxiety leading up to something as big as this,” comments Nikhita. “I try to focus on the excitement obviously ‘cause I remind myself I create for myself. Any negativity or any lack of response when I put the project out, I’m gonna try not to focus on that and focus on all the love and community it creates.”

Nikhita found that Solace was the most fitting name for the EP. “I was initially struggling to think of a name for the project because these songs were written quite far apart,” she reflects. “Then they all just sort of came together, but I was like, ‘How do I come up with a name that fits as well as I feel these songs fit sonically and story-wise?’ Then I was like, ‘What does this project mean to me?’ and it literally provided a space of solace for me. Writing these songs was like a form of therapy for me. Also, just hearing it back just brings me so much peace and that’s what I want to bring to other people as well who can relate.”

Solace sees Nikhita working with lots of people who are close to her, including her partner, Dylan Elphinstone. “That’s something I just love doing so much, just working with people I love who are other creatives,” says Nikhita. “My partner, he’s so talented. He’s a photographer and videographer. He’s done the music video for “Lake Karachay,” which will be out a week after the song. A lot of his guitar is in this project, too. A little bit of his bass as well. He’s so talented, and I love working with him.”

Solace has really helped Nikhita start to figure out her own creative process. “To be able to create as sustainable as I possibly can just with working with all these instrumentalists and getting confident with my sense of direction as an artist and being able to be courageous and saying what I like and what I didn’t like was definitely something I learned I learnt a lot through this project.”

There is a wide range of influences on Solace. “In this project there’s lots of influence of nature, people, and stories,” says Nikhita. “In terms of artists, there’s so many artists I love. I think some of the main ones I feel like I channel in this EP are Raveena and Cleo Sol, people who really use their music to bring people solace, bring people peace, understanding, and community. That’s really something I wanted to do with this project, even though when I wrote a lot of the songs I was in a more negative space of reflection, but when I went to record them, I sonically wanted them to be peaceful. In terms of the writing, take those spaces I was in more of a lesson of reflection rather than something I want to promote, like being in this space of negativity.”

Initially Nikhita was having difficulty feeling inspired while working on “Cleopatra.” Inspiration struck her when she started playing her partner Dylan Elphinstone’s guitar. “His guitar is so cool,” she comments. “It’s like a modified Jag. I’ve never played a guitar that felt so easy to play before. It was amazing. Then I was just messing around and came up with the guitar part, which is in the break of the song where all the harmonies are laid over. I came up with that, and I was like, ‘Wow! This is the coolest thing I’ve ever come up with on guitar.’ I just started singing, and then I put it to a poem that I had written recently inspired by the book Cleopatra and Frankenstein, and it just, like, all came together in that moment of inspiration.”

“Lake Karachay” was inspired by one of the most toxic lakes in the world that was used as a nuclear dumping ground in the 1950s. Eventually, while writing, Nikhita realized that she surrounded herself with a bunch of toxic people, and the lake became a metaphor for what was going on in her life. “I think thinking about things metaphorically in a creative process just makes it so much more interesting, and nature is definitely something that inspires me,” states Nikhita. “Another song on the project, “Chamomile Clouds,” is similar, just using nature as a metaphor for certain feelings. “Lake Karachay” I randomly stumbled upon an article about the lake when I was feeling this space where I was very down and surrounding myself with those toxic people and instantly sympathized with it. I think it’s cool that nature, random stories, and other people’s stories can prompt these realizations in ourselves.”

Nikhita is based out of Edinburgh. She finds that the local music scene of Edinburgh is wonderfully vibrant and diverse, filled with a variety of genres and an amazing community. “One thing I find in Scotland is, there is so many creatives that take it upon themselves to create spaces of genre diversity and spaces that amplify queerness because a lot of the mainstream venues maybe don’t do that enough. I’ve met so many creatives, and myself as well, who are creating these spaces and something I love being in Edinburgh is, all the people you meet and the love they put into creating community.”

Amplifying queerness and supporting the queer community is something that Nikhita thinks is incredibly important. “It’s so important, especially in times like now where people are outwardly not supporting the queer community,” she exclaims. “It’s so important to be loud and celebrate these spaces, which is why I’m so happy to be here today and especially for me as a queer POC, it’s so important to find those spaces and community and uplift each other in our identities, and, you know, just remind us that we’re allowed to be who we are in our truest forms, especially when sometimes the people who are supposed to love us don’t support who we are. It’s just so important to meet other people who are queer and secure in our identities and people who aren’t to help them get there through community.”

“Golden Child” is a song from Solace that deals with queerness. “That was a lot about my queer identity and struggles I faced with traditional parents and trying to figure out how to exist in that true identity which now I realize like we can all exist with all parts of ourselves, like in all different levels,” comments Nikhita. “We don’t have to conform to anyone’s idea of what is normal. I feel like that song was me getting out all of my pent-up feelings like, ‘Oh my gosh. My family won’t accept me. Who am I?’”

“I come from a traditional Indian family. I definitely have a complicated relationship with my parents in terms of there is a lot of love there, but there’s also not a lot of understanding, and finding those spaces of community helps me express my queerness and speak to other people who have been through the same experience.”

Solace comes out on April 4. “It’s definitely a very personal project,” comments Nikhita. “It is honestly just journals of therapy for me because I was not in a good place when I wrote a lot of these songs, and now, I am. And just reflecting and seeing that documented through my music is just very personal.”

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Photo Credit: Craig R McIntosh