Musician-composer Kalimireddy Nikhil aka ‘Kalmi’, a Hyderabad-based electronic music producer, has been making waves in the electronic music scene since 2015. Kalmi started his musical journey six years ago. His last project, a Tamil song called Amma, which released in the end-2018, was featured in the May edition of Rolling Stone India, the Indian edition of one of the world’s greatest music magazines.
A melodious ode to mothers
Amma, which is a melody dedicated to mothers, features Mumbai-based producer Advait Mahesh aka Advaitham and Coimbatore singer Shyam Sasikumar.
Elaborating on the song the musician says, “It was my first melody, which I played after I came to Vishakapatnam from Chennai during the summer vacation in 2016. I immediately wrote the melody for the instruments and orchestrated it. Then, I sent it to my friend Advait, and we completed it a year later. Later, we met Shyam, who added lyrics to the melody and sang it. That’s how Amma came into existence in 2018. The process of composing and producing Amma took a while, but the end result is perfect.”
Following his calling
Kalmi, who moved to Hyderabad a few years ago to pursue his music career, has strong south Indian roots. His musical learning began in his formative years in his hometown in Visakhapatnam.
“I was into music since I was a kid. There was always music at home. My father was an avid music buff. I learnt tabla for three years but didn’t get a hang of it. Even so, I realised music is my calling and started off on the musical path when I was 15 years old,” says the 21-year-old.
Kalmi’s latest album Duduksa, which released in April this year, is inspired by the sounds of ‘duduk’, an ancient Armenian double reed woodwind instrument made of apricot wood. The song, which is an impassioned jam, went on to make it to the April’s Top 10 Tracks on The Bangin Beats, an online dance music portal with close to 1.5 lakh followers.
Riding the streaming wave
Kalmi discovered the ins and outs of playing electronic music and piano on his own, something Kalmi’s proud of.
Today, his music is streaming on SoundCloud and Mixcloud. While the former is the world’s largest music and audio streaming platform with 200 million tracks and counting, Mixcloud is a British online music streaming service.
“My music on French Label ‘Otodayo Records’ and Indie Label ‘Nrtya’ helped me garner listeners from India and around the world,”says Kalmi. Currently, Kalmi’s working on his latest project God Bless, a track he made in with two very talented artists Tre Ess and Tienas from Ranchi and Mumbai.
