Udyan Sagar, popularly known by his stage name Nucleya, talks about the rise of independent music, his wordsmith wife Smriti Choudhary and more...
With his usage of sounds from the street making chartbusters at every party, DJ Nucleya is a bag full of surprises. Right from the songs, his parents played to him when he was a little boy to the music he picked up from his friends – the musician draws inspiration at every step of the way. His latest album, Tota Myna is a reflection of these very traits.
After sweeping hits like Bass Rani and Raja Baja, the musician took a gap of a year to work on his new album. He wanted everybody’s undivided attention. There are two sides to the story, Nucleya narrates, “One, the intention wasn’t to make the album the way it has turned out to be, which is mostly revolving around love. Secondly, when I am working on a song, I am not usually bothered about what the ‘all over’ theme will be,” he says. As he immersed himself into learning music, Nucleya realised everything revolves around humanity. For Nucleya, music making is divided into two parts — composition and production. “The composition part is where I should I have my entire song fully playable on the piano — the soul of my song. Once that is in place, I then decide where it has to go — whether on a radio, movie or club,” he explains.
However, the most unique and hardest aspect apart from his out-of-the-box beats is his assimilation of sounds. “Before I complete a song, I have these musical blocks in my mind where one part is very filmy, other is cinematic while the other is dance, electronic and bass heavy. The most difficult and complex part is to be able to put all these blocks together,” he smiles.
But for all the catchy and eccentric names for his albums, the electronic music producer runs to his wife Smriti Choudhary, and Tota Myna is yet another addition to the list of quirky names. “I spoke to my wife and told her what the album has turned out to be. I asked her if she could suggest a name just like the others. She quickly suggested we call it Tota Mayna. When I asked why? She replied, ‘When we were dating, my mother used to call Smriti and me, tota mayna,’ he laughs.
His latest album also stars a song by actress and singer Shruti Haasan, Out Of Your Mind, who showed a keen interest in collaborating with the musician. “She is one of the finest songwriters and singers. Whatever she is singing in the song are her own lyrics. I still remember when I met her, I had an instrumental song which I was to play to her. She heard it and immediately said, ‘give me sometime raja’. After 15 minutes she had the full song in the play. She went into the recording room and in 15-20 minutes recorded her part. It is unbelievable! I do not come across people this creative very often,” he says. At the moment, the musician is happy with the pace at which the independent music space is growing in India.
“There a lot of DJ, musicians, and bands, all are making interesting music. It is very refreshing to have interesting music. I think there has been a growth in the music space from the time when I had no audience to my last show where I had 35,000 people,” he asserts.
In the offing, Nucleya has a few Bollywood projects lined up and some projects from down south, which are close to his heart. But soon after, he plans to disappear again. “I think it is important to take a break. Then you get a perspective. Otherwise, life becomes pale and mundane,” he concludes.
