Like most musicians, Nyla Saldanha was introduced to music by her parents. Her father played country music at his dental clinic in a small town called Kolar Gold Fields; about 100 kms from Bangalore.
Her early experiments with music like in a track called ‘Small Talk’ were full of melancholic feelings, touching upon deeper emotions. But now she takes herself way less seriously. Like she had a lot of fun with her new EP, birthday menu. An album that was inspired by an actual birthday menu Nyla made when she was just five. She retained the misspelt menu options and made them into a tracklist of basic and fun lyrics that talks about friends, family and guinea pigs. More from her follows below.
MUSIC SENSIBILITY
I keep saying ‘retro-pop’ but I don’t think that’s what my vibe is entirely. Someone once said that all my music put together is like if Lana and Lil Dicky went to the club.
MOVING HOMES
My life took a detour in 2020 and by the end of 2023 moving to London was my way of getting back on track. I moved to London to do a master’s degree in Global Creative & Cultural Industries, which I’m currently in the middle of completing. London’s creative scene has shown me that there are so many approaches one can take within the creative space, and how many different verticals culture can have as opposed to there being one “scene”. London has been kind to me and is what I am referring to when I say I feel like there’s more to me now than my origin story. I feel more grown up now.
birthday menu
birthday menu was super random but it’s the most fun I’ve had with music. All my past releases were pretty melancholic and I’ve always wanted to write happier music but struggled with it because I used to think that good music had to be ‘deep’. birthday menu started off as an experiment in writing to a set of tracks that I’d found online. My parents saved most of the artwork I made as a kid and at some point, during the pandemic I was flipping through it when I found this menu I’d made for a dinner party at home. I was 5 when I made it, so it’s grossly misspelled. I realised it looked a little like a set list and I started with writing ‘chiken’; which you’ll see has the most basic/fun lyrics (and is surprisingly a crowd pleaser). The other tracks just kind of happened after that. I’d stay up in my room in Bangalore, pick a beat and work on one song a night. Some are the kind of songs I’ve always wanted to write and some are based on friends, family, guinea pigs et al.
People have asked me why the album art has three tracks that aren’t actually on the EP. I tried writing them but by that point it started to feel forced, so I just released it. I’m not really a perfectionist in that sense.
MUSIC AS AN EMOTION
Writing, performing and recording all evoke very different things. Of late, I’ve found so much joy in community music. I sometimes sing with Orquesta Estellar, the Cuban band at my university, which is a 40+ member band and it’s made the whole thing so much fun. Performing is my favourite part and it evokes a lot of love, intimacy and strength for me. I used to like writing about things I felt but I really want to make more fun music now and channel that part of myself. Makes for much more fun live sets as well.
MORE COMING UP
I have two new ‘old’ releases in the pipeline. They’re songs I wrote pre birthday menu that have either been in production or I just recently revisited. I’ve worked on them with some really cool people.
Words Hansika Lohani
Date 31.07.2024
