It’s a grey, rainy summer’s day in Brixton. The floor-to-ceiling windows of one of the best hideaway bars in South London, Upstairs at The Ritzy, reveal a microcosm of the area’s residents running to escape the drizzle.

Nila Raja rushes breathlessly in to meet me, carrying a cardboard box full of CDs to promote the release of her mesmerising EP, Unattached to Desire. She brings with her the brightness that the day is so conspicuously lacking and begins our first conversation with the ease of someone who has no problem making friends and influencing people.

With piercing blue eyes and an English rose-freshness, this Anglo-Indian beauty makes light of the monumental achievements she has master-minded since graduating from Goldsmith’s, where she studied Popular Music, less than one year ago. Shrugging her shoulders nonchalantly, she says; ‘It all came about by chance, really.’

Just one week after her final degree performance, she became involved in the Nitin Sawhney Project. This led to her being personally chosen by Sawnhey to join the Emerging Artists in Residence (EAR) at the Royal Festival Hall, along with Aruba Red (previously featured on Brina’s Big Ups) and urban heavyweights such as Riz MC.

Working with Sawnhey was a long-held dream come true for Nila;‘At first I was like, Woah! I’d always wanted to work with Nitin. I had his albums, I knew his music. The whole experience has been amazing – we’re really good friends now and we’re talking about collaborating further together.’

Sawnhey (who succinctly describes Nila’s voice as ‘overflowing with wistful innocence and grace’) won’t have been the only person to notice that Raja’s music is incomparable to her contemporaries. With it’s exotic mix of classical Indian, Arabic folk and Western-style instrumentals and vocals, it has the ability to pour in through the ears and find its way to the soul – as all exceptional music should. It wouldn’t be out of place on epic film scores as there is, to use Nila’s description, a ‘heart-pulling’ quality to its rhythm.

‘I listen to a lot of Indian music and the thing that captures me the most about the Indian voice is that its so, kind of, longing and it feels like it’s pulling on your heart.’

Nila’s heart has always been pulled towards music. She started playing the violin at the improbable age of two and constantly rehearsed for choirs and orchestras when not occupied by school. Perhaps somewhat unusually for such a young music-aficionado; who cites her influences as an eclectic mix from Ravi Shankar and Miles Davis to KD Lang and LTJ Bukem – her parents did not introduce her to the music she came to devour and later, to create.

‘As I started composing and writing songs, they all had an Indian hint in them. It wasn’t purposefully done, it just came out. I mean, my grandparents used to have Zee TV on whenever we visited, but my dad [who’s of Indian ancestry] preferred Simon and Garfunkel, so I wasn’t very exposed [by the family] to the kind of music that really ended up influencing me. I think you’re born with strong feelings about things and if you’ve got an inclination to go one way, you’re going to get there – do you know what I mean?’

I do, Nila, but it’s not every 22-year-old who can play the piano, the santor, shake and sing – all on stage and all to perfection. What would seem to be an intense pressure to most people, is something that lights up those blue eyes even wider as she exclaims that when she’s performing; ‘I’m totally myself. I’m kind of used to it now. I laugh about any mistakes we make on stage – I’m quite comfortable with it all.’

She also seems to be ambitiously comfortable with taking control of the arguably less creative
side of things. Nila is releasing the Unattached To Desire EP independently on her own label and has dealt with all the responsibility ensuing from such a decision with the strategic go-getting you would expect from an MBA graduate. ‘I’ve done all my own PR, organised the EP launch night on the 25th July at the Southbank Centre, got the artwork for the CD done – everything. You find yourself thrown in at the deep end. It’s like, right, I’ve decided to release a CD. How are people going to know?’

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Filed under: Big Smoke Soirees, Music