Nikhil Uzgare is definitely not your conventional indie musician. He is a former microbiologist and is the frontman of the famous Dubai rock act, Point Of View.
His band opened for Guns N’ Roses. Now, he is the first-ever Hindi artiste to make a splash on the Universal Music, Middle East & North Africa (MENA) roster, with the solo release ‘Inteha’.
The Mumbai-born singer-songwriter and composer worked on the song during the lockdown in April 2020 after keeping the basic composition locked away in his mind for almost three years.
Once the track was ready, he shared it with his friend Neeraj Shridhar (of pop group Bombay Vikings fame), who added finishing touches to its mix and master.
The song is a message to humanity about the hardships and consequences of the pandemic— “a sad song” according to its parent. Though Uzghare originally wanted it to be a heavy, hard-hitting rock number, Shridhar suggested a soft rock vibe merged with a club-friendly bass thump. With extensive guitar solos and meaningful lyrics that project the paradox of feelings, ‘Inteha’, says Uzgare, “will speak to you about how the pandemic has affected us all, while bringing back the 80’s rock song vibe”. Shot by Munem Qureshi in six hours over two days at Moto—a unique coffee shop/workspace in Dubai, which doubles up as a bike workshop—the video was put together in a DIY, vintage fashion.
Uzgare says his band will always remain his first love, identity and claim to fame. “It offered that space in my life where I got to thrash out heavier tunes with heavy riffs, and express freely with words and voice,” he explains. The band had toured with ace guitarist Ron ‘Bumblefoot’ Thal. Opening up about the key takeaways, he says that Guns N’ Roses taught him “the importance of brand building. We realised that music is only 60 percent of what is needed”.
In April 2020 he also released a song called ‘Mother Earth’, which talks about saving the earth in the backdrop of the pandemic. Uzgare, who formed his first band in 2000 and started playing alternative and grunge music, also had his brush with Bollywood—which “is both a blessing and a curse for indie musicians”, he says. In 2017, his song ‘Irada’ was the first progressive rock track to be featured in a mainstream Bollywood film of the same name, starring Naseeruddin Shah and Arshad Warsi. Back in 2001, he also recorded with his friends Ravi Iyer and Vinod Shreedhar some Hindi originals, which he plans to re-record, re-package and release at some point. Currently working on another song, ‘Intezaar’, where he collaborates with Pakistani musician Khurram Waqar, Uzgare says that 2021 promises to be a busy year.
“Four more songs will be released with Universal Music MENA before July. Besides there is an active touring calendar for my Hindi projects as well as touring and releases with Point Of View,” says the musician, whose motto is “to keep the flag of Indian original Hindi music flying high and be its face in the Middle East”. Amen to that.