I’m open to the idea of working in Bollywood: Nivo

US-based Indian-American musician Nivo has had a great year so far. He’s dropped two songs in 2021, and plans to come up with at least two more EPs before the year ends. He dropped a collaborative project with Dubai-based R&B artiste, Sobhhï, in 2019 that had eight songs. It was followed by his two EPs in 2020.

Nivo is a self trained musician, who is great at music production. His interest in the same developed when he went to high school in California. That’s when his interest in music grew, because all his friends were musically talented. When he felt left out, he picked up music production and ended up loving it. He also learnt coding and worked as a software engineer after college to fund his music career.

The talented musician has Indian roots and he plans to come back to the country for concerts and collaborations. “I am definitely open to the idea of working in Bollywood,” he says, as he goes in to talk about his favourites from the Indian music industry. He feels that there are a lot of up and coming Punjabi artistes that make fusion Punjabi hip-hop music that he’d like to work with. He’s also a fan of what Arjun (Kanungo) is doing and would love to work with him.

The musician was in the 10th grade when he realised his love for music. He rapped a poem in the English class, and his friend Sobhhï (a famous R&B musician now) invited him to his house to make a rap song because he liked the way Nivo rapped. They made a song together and the whole school loved it. That’s how his musical journey started. He never received any formal training in music and used sources like YouTube to hone his skills.

Nivo has a few idols from the world of music. He really looks up to artistes like Lil Wayne since the beginning, because Nivo believes that he’s the original hitmaker for the sound that’s so prominent today. He also looks up to Jay Sean and NAV, because they paved the way for Indians in the hip hop and R&B space. They made him believe that what he was pursuing was right and where he wanted to reach was achievable.

Looking at his background, Nivo’s parents are from Gujarat. His father moved to Uganda at an early age and was raised there. His mother is from Gujarat.