Jubin Nautiyal: The Soulful Musician

Jubin Nautiyal in conversation with Deepti Chandak

What's your creative process while working on a song ? I am from the beautiful state, Uttarakhand and my love for mountains is no mystery. Mountains inspire me in life to go ahead, be strong just like they are, help me create beautiful and soothing music that touch your soul. Honestly, the creative process evolves as you grow as a musician and an artist. I love to be out with nature, because the love received is pure and innocent and helps me in my music. When sometimes I feel off, I think of the mountains, transporting myself there and it helps to give my best work. Other than Mother Earth, hard work and consistency is the key to making any form of pristine art.

What is the secret of your success? There are no secret ingredients to success. It is one's honesty, effort, hard-work, the time and love you put into it relentlessly without thinking about anything. That is what drives you to achieve your dreams and goals in life and when you are appreciated and loved for your work that's what you can call success.

Can we know more about your days of hustle when trying to make a name for yourself in 2012. Where were you staying? How were the expenses being taken care of? How did you survive? I hail from a small town, my family lives there so it wasn't easy to reach where I am today. I didn't care about difficulties as I had my targets clear about what I had to do. I could have been an entrepreneur, martial arts trainer, into sports, etc but after doing everything in the day, when I used to sit 1 hour with my guitar it would be the best part of my day and is still is. Of course I faced rejections and many times even ended up questioning my talent and asked if my line of work is right but when you surpass that stage and don't let it get to you, that's when an artiste is built. My attitude to never give up and my love for the music keeps me going and achieve what I have to and try to do better than before. Can you tell me one memorable response for your songs? There are many but I would share about this concert I did at IIT Roorkee, I sang 'Tujhe Kitna Chahein Aur Hum' from Kabir Singh and there were approximately 30,000 kids or more in the audience and the energy during that performance was mesmerizing and the audience was very excited to sing along. Later, when the video of that performance released and went out to be the most viewed live performance on YouTube in Asia. I got a lot of recognition for that. That moment was quite a memorable one. Well, there have been many such moments and I am very thankful for the love my fans shower on me.

You usually shoot in the mountains, what's your favorite place ? I would like to say Uttarakhand is a hidden gem in India and travellers know about it, but still unaware of lot of wonderful places. People visit to Uttarakhand for it's tourist places but there are so many great areas to explore like Jaunsar - Bawar, a tribal region from where I belong. It's beautiful and people have to visit it to experience the rich beauty that resides in it. There are places where clouds are below the mountains, fresh air, great food and smiling people. Viraat Khai and Chatkara are great places too. If you are an avid trekker, then mountains are the best place to explore. Uttrakhand has many such beautiful treks to be explored. Has the singer in you changed over the years? How do you protect the essence of Jubin Nautiyal? Change is inevitable and with change in our circumstances and surroundings one has to adapt to move forward in life. As a singer, I have evolved myself with learning and developing new skills, learning languages, phonetics and listening to alot of music to maximize my potential and growth as an artist. I surround myself with like-minded people, with people who have seen my career graph so far. I surround myself with the same people who critique my work and would not only praise it because of the artist that I am. Instead , they love me for the human being that I am. When you surround yourself with such people who know you in and out, then I think you are protected. How significant is social media for a success of an artist? How much importance do you give to it? Digitalisation has worked as game changer for all of us. With advanced technology and the availability of various social media platforms, we have connected globally and broken boundaries that come with their pros and cons. Opportunities are vast and I'm glad people are making most of it. The best example of this would be Killi Paul and Neema Paul the infamous brother and sister duo from Tanzania who love listening to Bollywood music and their short video on 'Raataan Lambiyan' ( From movie -Shershah) has made them an over night internet sensation. But we can't solely depend on social media only. We have to connect with real world which is outside the virtual world. So it's good to have a medium to go extra mile, but we shouldn't lose the connection with our roots. Upcoming projects that you are working on? So for this year, you will hear a lot of new music and new songs. I would want to put out other flavors of my voice for my fans to enjoy. Currently, on my fan’s request we have dropped two songs and there are many more in the pipeline. I'm excited about the journey ahead. What is your idea of true love? There are many kinds of love and emotions around us and for me love is being with my family, in my hometown in mountains, with my guitar in a room creating music, being around nature. Love is the power of God that connects us all as human beings in different form of relationships. What is that One song you think people will remember you for after 100 years from today ? It's difficult to select one, I can't choose just one of my song as they all are very close to my heart, they are like my babies. If still I have to select then it would either be 'Tujhe Kitna Chahein Aur Hum' from 'Kabir Singh' or 'Zindagi Kuch Toh Bata' from Bajrangi Bhaijaan.