Since childhood, having been surrounded by music, it is hard to imagine your life being enriched without its presence. That is precisely how FLAME alumnus Nitin Muralikrishna's journey began.
At age five, Nitin began playing the keyboard and soon became quite fond of it. Growing up, he loved listening to music and eventually started making his own music; he decided that he wanted to pursue a career in audio engineering and music production when he came across FLAME's Performing Arts Course and the choice of majoring in Music caught his attention.
"My education went from learning Indian classical to Western classical to folk music to the physics of sound, and my outlook towards arts completely changed," he mentioned as he reminisced about his time at FLAME.
Talking about how learning music professionally during graduation helped him during his career, he said, "Music is never one dimensional. I have to work with so many different kinds of music regularly, and every day is a new challenge. Being exposed to and trained in music from different cultures helps me connect with other musicians better." After graduation, Nitin pursued his Master's Degree in Music Production from Berklee College of Music. He says that his Master's journey became smoother given the three work-packed and rigid years at FLAME, where he learnt from the finest artists in the music industry and got a chance to train under them.
The musician, who also goes by the name "Palindorma", has worked on multiple projects ranging from feature films to ad films, but what he enjoys working on the most is independent music. He loves to have the freedom to experiment and explore sounds that are unique to him. His artistic journey became richer as he also got a chance to intern at Wisseloord Studios, one of Europe's biggest and most sophisticated recording facilities. He lived, worked and slept at the studio as he enjoyed full access to all the instruments and equipment there. "I was involved in producing and engineering multiple writing camps with other artists and musicians and worked as the assistant engineer on the band CAUSES' second album 'Wake me up so I can dream'. It was one of the best experiences I've had in my career," he went on to say as he very excitedly talked about his internship days.
An integral part of the internationally-acclaimed band "Easy Wanderlings" and five FLAME alumni members, namely, Sanyanth, Malay, Pratika, Sharad, Abraham, the 4-piece acoustic band went on to perform at India's biggest music festival - NH7. Currently, Nitin is working as an independent musician and an academician at the Gray Spark Audio Academy. Though hesitant about taking up teaching at first, Nitin has also come to enjoy this profession. "I think of teaching as exploring my professional skills orderly and meticulously with a magnifying glass. Because when you teach, you get to test your own knowledge, which keeps your mind active," he said.
To aspirants desiring to pursue their passion for music, he advised, "Music is a vast ocean and discoveries can be infinite, so don't be biased towards one kind of music. Try to explore and acquire as many skills in this field as possible because that will give you an edge over others to survive and make a living out of music. And lastly, remember to play your instrument every day!"
They say, "Love what you do, and you never have to work a day in your life". Clearly, Nitin is all for living by that notion!