04 May In Conversation with Nush Lewis
The ‘In Conversation with’ series brings to you the stories of various creative professionals from the music industry and provides a glimpse into their journeys. Today’s piece takes us through the journey of an artist and educator, Nush Lewis. Our conversation revolves around her latest EP release along with her Australian tour, her journey as a singer and harpist and also her aim with her educational project, Offset.
Vivid with her storytelling and passionate about her craft, Nush Lewis lets us into her creative mind as we discuss her latest EP “Forgotten Verses”, the Australian tour and her impactful project, Offset. “If it’s meant to be then it’s meant to be. I want to keep my art as authentic as possible, the music needs to be honest and it will cut through all the noise because that is what people see and hear. I want to stay true with my music and how I dictate my narrative”
Nush is a Harpist, composer and singer-songwriter based in Mumbai, India. Like most, our early influences are shaped by our family and the music playing in our homes, Nush tells us how music was always a part of her family. “Everyone in my family enjoyed music as it was normal for us to just sit together and sing as a family. Music was something very mundane yet special, we would wake up to the radio, making it a part of our daily routine. That is where the love for music began, that ecosystem helped me nourish this art. The Beatles, Elvis Prisley, Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers and Tom Jones were artists that my father introduced me to and I was ever so grateful for this. Over the years, my taste kept changing as I was introduced to Pop music with Backstreet Boys and Linkin Park”.
Though music was quite natural to Nush, she only thought of pursuing it as a career in college when she enrolled in to study Vocals, but things took a wonderful turn when she discovered her love for the Harp. “My introduction to harp was entirely by chance, I was lucky to be in a music school and have a teacher who is also a Harpist. I saw her play the instrument at one of the gatherings and the instrument just had me hooked. I walked into that school as a vocalist but I just found myself drawn toward the harp and wanted to pursue studying that.” A moment when life gives lemons to turn into lemonade, Nush defined her sound and artistic vision with the Harp. “I found myself channeling my creative energy into that instrument, helping me find solace in the process. I knew it would be a great tool for me as an artist and it very much defined the person I am today.”
Forgotten Verses
‘Forgotten Verses’ is Nush’s latest EP, having four tracks titled “Fly, Your Story, Stained and Found You”, at the core of it it is a coming of age EP. Nush explains the process of the EP and how it is a project that has been in the works pre-pandemic. “The songs were written in 2019, when my second EP “Bridge” came out. Bridges was an art collaboration with Vaishnavi Kumar and I wanted to do something similar to doing a concept piece, but then the pandemic hit and it all went to a screeching halt”.
In general, the pandemic was a difficult time for many artists and being creative was simply too taxing and didn’t feel like the right thing to take forward. Nush explains how with the years in the industry, she has begun to trust herself and her thought process more. “I have come to rely on my gut in this industry, it did take me a bit longer than it should but the way it panned out was just right. It definitely was one of those EPs where I genuinely felt a sense of pride, not to say I wasn’t proud of my prior work but for this EP I felt more grounded than ever. We all have imposter syndrome, we don’t know why we’re here and as if we’ve faked our way into this but for the first time I was confident with the work.”
The process of writing this EP was a beautiful story in itself, Nush explains why the EP is called “Forgetting Verses”. “With the EP, lyrics weren’t coming as easily as they come, I was confused about what to do. I then opened my old journal which had these verses and the main idea was to just find influence and inspiration but some of those verses just sat easily with the songs I was writing. I had forgotten the context of these verses so I was just reading it as a reader. ‘Forgotten Verses’ was actually the verses I had forgotten about, which I found to be quite beautiful and magical, and as an artist, you have to find magic in your art or it becomes mechanical and burdensome.”
Nush has had an impressive body of work, with her debut EP “Fused” being released in 2015, “Bridges” in 2019 and her latest release “Forgotten Verses” in 2023. There is a point in every artists journey where they see their own growth, Nush shares with us her trajectory. “A few years back, I would have doubted myself but while working on this EP, I can see the incline and growth in my art and so can the people I have worked with. They have said how much they like my work and it meant alot to me because they know me, they have heard my music way back from the very first EP and for my peers to say they admire the work I am doing is a very fulfilling experience. Not many people see us fall and rarely do we talk about these moments ourselves, but talking about it lets them know of this human and artistic experience we all share.”
The Australian Tour and The Offset Project
An exciting opportunity for any artist would be to tour to another continent with their music, for a whole new crowd. “One of the main reasons why I released the EP this year was because I got the opportunity to tour Australia. I did not want to do an international tour without any new music. I wanted to take this opportunity to see what I could do with it. I have always felt like I never fit into the category of a genre and this opportunity gave me a platform to go beyond that box and channel my work. I played at churches, planetariums and historic houses, and when you play at places like that, it is quite hard to tell what the experience is like, it was simply surreal to be present in that moment and have it shared with the audience. I think the fact they opened their spaces for art to take place was an amazing opportunity for an international artist, something I feel we could expand on in India itself.”
Along with being an artist, Nush is also an avid educator who is very much involved when it comes to expanding on music education in India. The Offset Education Project was created to directly support arts education and creative development in India. Our conversation leads to understanding the aim of the project further and how a simple conversation with a friend turns into a tangible goal. “In India, we had quite a few workshops around music and most of the time I felt there to be a disconnect between the speaker and audience because there wasn’t any structure to them. Many people would leave in awe of either the person playing and the audience being mesmerized by the workshop or where the person has no idea what anything was about. It was 2017 when Offset came to be and I was quite lucky to get spaces and cultural partners. The aim was to provide a space of improvement in these workshops and also a structure. We even have a podcast titled “Out of the Box” which helps provide the right tools to the educators in India. We wanted it to become an educational conference for educators and people within the education field. There is a huge difference from ten years ago to today, music was limited to just hobby schools and not much more depth in it. For Offset, our plan is to help with this and work with the changing times in our country.”
“Over the years, there has been substantial growth in me as an artist and person. There have been many lessons learned and wondrous opportunities that have come my way. Writing music has always been my passion and a way for me to transcribe my mind on to that paper. My aim with my music has always been to be truthful and authentic and you’ll know when that is achieved by asking yourself the question “Am I done telling my story?”. I always ask myself if I am finished telling my story, trust your gut with a song and the story will come out of you naturally.”
Interviewed and Written by Naman
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