Meet Nikhil Suresh

We recently connected with Nikhil Suresh and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have Nikhil with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?

First of all, I want to say — great questions – hard to choose one.

But as for work ethic — to be completely honest with you, I’m really not sure – because I was horrible in school.

I had ZERO motivation and drive to do things, especially in high school — i really didn’t like any subjects except
for psychology and music — music class was probably the only class in the last 2 years of high school that I passed. I actually dropped out of high school because I had NO INTEREST in any subject other than music. Fun fact: my high school music teach is the one who convinced my parents that I should pursue a career in music.

Anyways – I’m not sure where this drive and purpose came from, but I since 10th grace, when my best friend in high school told me about audio engineering, and how you can actually make a living doing music, I basically knew thats what I wanted to do — although perhaps people who knew me then might say the opposite — I felt wasn’t particularly insanely talented — I just knew I was good at it compared to other subjects – and that I really enjoyed it.

After convincing my parents to let me drop out of high school so I can go to audio engineering school — I got my GEDs so I can actually get into the college. I remember just being incredibly motivated about learning everything there is to know about audio engineering and how to produce/mix/master etc. Then throughout college, the driving force was just wanting to be in studio and learning every aspect of music making.

We had some stellar recording studios at the school (SAE, London) which were available for students to use, and I had the record for the highest number of hours spent in the studio. I just loved everything about it. After college was over, that passion and love for the craft continued, which propelled me into honing my guitar/songwriting skills, The pursuit continued — I remember spending 12 hours a day just practicing guitar — which I did for about 2-3 years, around 2013-2015 — when I lived in India.

PS I dont do that anymore, and dread the idea of practicing guitar — now I just enjoy and play when I need to write something — maybe all those hours paid off, ha.

Then in 2015, I moved to LA and focused really on production and mixing – I spent 10-12 hours a day, again, just mixing anything and everything I could get my hands on. I tried to be in any session that I can be a part of, and just put myself in situations where I’m actively doing the thing I love — tracking and mixing.

In 2019 I started working at a studio in LA – Clearlake and Fever recording studios – where I spent sometimes upto 120-130 hours a week working sessions, recording other people and my own music. Shortly after – started working at NRG recording as well — where I did the same thing. I remember days where I would work a session at Clearlake from 9a-9p — get called into NRG from 11p-6a then have a morning session at Fever from 9a-3p. it was crazy times, but it was literally what I came here to do, so I loved every moment of it.

All in all — I think my passion for the craft and pursuit of wanting to be really good at what I do is what motivates the work ethic. There are days even now, even after 15 years of doing this, that I will gladly sit in front of a computer to write/produce/mix songs all day — and honestly, that to me is more fun than going to the park or the movies etc.

Also I guess coming from India – a country where 6 day work weeks are incredibly common probably helps, ha — the discipline factor feels a little inbuilt. Watching people there work 6 sometime 7 days a week — 12-14 hours a day, on jobs they don’t even like — I feel blessed and grateful that at least I get to work those hours in a field I truly love.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

So there are two aspects to what I do:

First is I have a project called GRIHASTHA that I’m currently developing. Its a LA based Hard Rock/Metal band. Imagine if Linkin Park got in the studio with Nine Inch Nails and Rammstein, and occasionally Slipknot and Pantera showed up to write songs too — thats basically what GRIHASTHA sounds like. I do all the production/songwriting and handle guitar/bass and vocal duties in studio for the project. I also do branding/marketing/content creation etc for the project. Basically I’m the artist and the label.

Second part is I am a music producer/mixing engineer at 91 Sound Studios and collaborate and work with artists around the globe on some incredible music.

With GRIHASTHA — I just released a single, EXiT — its out on all streaming platforms, if you like the bands mentioned above, give it a listen, it might end up on your daily playlist! That aside, I have 4 songs ready to be released, and working on something currently, which we’ll discuss.. not just yet 🙂

At 91 Sound, currently wrapping up a project with this incredible metal band from Japan called Cosmic Earth that has one of the most skilled shred-guitarist that I know.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

I’ll keep this general instead of music specific, as applying these principles helped me become really good at things outside of music too (such as photography/video editing etc):

1) Always keep things simple — learn the absolute fundamentals of something and stick to them, dont over complicate things. 80/20 rule — 80% of the results come from 20% of the cause. I often times see people always start over complicating things and get lost in the weeds. Keep things simple and always practice fundamentals.

2) Learn from EVERYONE. Theres a saying, by Einstein (i had to google it, ha) “Everybody is a Genius. But If You Judge a Fish by Its Ability to Climb a Tree, It Will Live Its Whole Life Believing that It is Stupid” — there will be different interpretations to this, but the way it impacted me is — don’t judge people based on narrow expectations and ideas about what you think their value is towards a specific subject – everyone has something to teach you. Don’t ask a fish how to climb a tree — ask it how to swim.

3) Seek alignment over anything else. Takes a while to hone this, but only work on projects you’re aligned with internally. If your gut is fighting it and telling you this might not be the right project/job/opportunity/etc for you, learn how to trust it, and move forward.

Before we go, maybe you can tell us a bit about your parents and what you feel was the most impactful thing they did for you?

Support me in the pursuit of a career in music. Not talking financially, but actually support my decisions, such as quitting school and going to audio school – then moving to India – shortly after that moving to LA, and moving back to LA.

Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t as simple as:
me: “oh – i wanna quit school, and do music”
them: “sure! that sounds great! we’re here for you”

Hell no, ha.

I had to push multiple times and really know thats what I wanted to do. But I’m grateful for the fact that they allowed me to do it and supported me through the journey by always believing (to some extent) that I can do it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.grihasthamusic.com
• Instagram: imakemusicsoundgood
• Linkedin: nikhilsureshproductions
• Youtube: @iamgrihastha

Image Credits

Leire Baztarrica