Nikki Nair

Nikki Nair gets serious about fun — the formerly Tennessee, formerly Atlanta, currently LA-based DJ and producer talks about how a punk sense of purpose, Detroit and Chicago foundations, and a love of “broken” sound converge into sets and tracks that surprise without losing the groove. Nikki gets into how a recent UK residency sharpened his instincts, the studio sessions that kept his mood afloat, and the tiny cultural artefacts (hello, Percy Pigs) that colour the journey as much as any plugin.

From a life-changing afternoon at Submerge with Underground Resistance legend Mike Banks to late nights in Knoxville and formative trips to Atlanta, Nikki maps the lineage that informs his playful, left-turn club and electronic music. We get into the tension between function and originality, how drumming shaped his breakbeat brain, why he chases flow states that make him literally laugh at the DAW, and how he decides when to risk losing a slice of the crowd in order to move the culture an inch forward.

There’s a wider lens, too. Nikki is candid about the modern reality of nightlife — selling tickets and telling a human story — while keeping the focus on service, community, and sincerity.

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Nikki Nair on Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/nikki__nair/?hl=en

Nikki Nair on Bandcamp:

https://nikkinair.bandcamp.com/

Huge thanks to Audio-Technica – makers of beautifully engineered audio gear and sponsors of Lost and Sound. Check them out here: Audio-Technica

My book Coming To Berlin is a journey through the city’s creative underground, and is available via Velocity Press.

You can also follow me on Instagram at @paulhanford for behind-the-scenes bits, guest updates, and whatever else is bubbling up.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Sponsor Shout
• 2:35 Who Is Nikki Nair
• 4:35 UK Winter, Residency, And Mood
• 7:35 British Embrace And Early Releases
• 10:25 Atlanta’s Influence And Midwestern Roots
• 13:45 Meeting Mike Banks And Punk Purpose
• 17:45 Broken Sound Aesthetics And Human Feel
• 21:10 Making While Touring And Mental Health
• 24:40 Percy Pigs, Ingredients, And Import Jokes
• 28:18 Dance Floor Function Vs Creativity
• 32:00 Writing Songs Beyond The Club
• 35:15 Risking The Crowd To Push Culture
• 39:05 Art’s Language And The Bowie Analogy
• 42:05 Early Life, Drums, And First Sparks
• 46:10 From Compulsion To Community
• 50:05 Service, Parties, And No Superstars

Transcript

Paul: 0:03

Today we get into the serious side of fun with one of the most constantly surprising, fresh and unpretentious club producers around Nikki Nair. Hello, you're listening to Lost and Sound, the show that goes deep with artists shaping music and culture from the underground up. But before we get going, Lost and Sound is sponsored by Audio Technica. For over 60 years, this family-run company has been making the kind of gear that helps keep artists, DJs, and listeners alike really in touch with the details. Headphones, microphones, turntables, and cartridges. Studio quality, beautifully engineered, and designed and built on the belief that great sound should be for everyone. So wherever you are in the world, head on over to Audiotechnica.com to check out all of their range of stuff. Let's do the show. I'm Paul Hamford, I'm your host, I'm an author, a broadcaster, and a lecturer. And each week on the show I have conversations with artists who work outside the box about music, creativity, and about how they're navigating life through their art. So whether you're new here or you've been listening for a while, it's so good to have you along. And yeah, I hope you're doing really well. I'm speaking to you from an absolutely freezing Berlin. It's like it's well within the minus temperatures. I think it's about minus four today. So forgive me if I do this talky bit at the beginning quite quickly before I freeze up. I don't know why I don't just go in and do this, but it just feels right doing it outside. Nikki Nair is on the show today, who I just think is a real breath of fresh air in club music. Producer, DJ, and label head who, since emerging in 2018, has been carving an idiosyncratic path of releases and sets that fall somewhere between techno, breakbeat, jungle, electro, bass, and house. But as is often the case, even listing genres feels slightly beside the point. There's a really playful unpredictability to what he does. Tracks often mutate and restructure as they go along. DJ sets pivot sharply but keep the central driving intent. He seems to be just as adaptable to working with collaborators, like on the Settler Roof EP with Hudson Mohawk, as he is working solo. Even going a bit perv electro in the early mute record style on the Snake EP. So there's a playfulness going on to his work that comes out in his social media too, but it's way deeper than you might expect. And we go into this in the conversation. Based in LA now, which, as you'll hear in the conversation, Nikki has just moved to. Nikki has just spent the last month in the UK with a residency at London's Phone Ox nightclub, as well as playing a few other places across the country. And we caught up via Zoom during the last week of his residency. It was a really fun chat, and you're going to hear it in a second. Firstly, here's rather next here is the little bit of housekeeping I always do. If you like the show and you haven't already, please do give it a subscribe, hit the RSS feed button. It really, really, really does make a difference. And if you're really feeling really special today, leave us a review and a rating on the podcast platform of your choice. Okay, it is getting really, really cold, so I'm gonna get in somewhere warm and have a nice cup of tea. And this is what happened when I had a chat with Nikki Nair. So you've been in the UK for the last month. How's that been going?

Nikki Nair: 4:39

It's been good. It's been uh I've had this residency at Bonox that ended last weekend. Um, and that's been incredible. Like some of the best gigs of my life. Uh and this trip has also been good. Usually when I'm in the UK for more than two or three weeks in the winter, I get depressed. But I think I learned how to adjust to it somehow. This this trip. What kind of things did you pick up to adapt to it? I think it's like actually realizing that I I think everyone in the UK deals with this kind of like gnawing sadness from the weather. Then they enjoy being a little bit uh sad all the time. And I think that's what I've started to do, and it works.

Paul: 5:33

I think you've definitely hit the nail on the head of like a big part of Englishness there. I mean, like there's there has been like a bit of an English connection, UK connection with your career, like for example, uh early releases on some UK labels like Scuffed Recordings and Gobstopper. And uh there was also the Hudson Mohawk, I mean it's Scottish, but the Hudson Mohawk collab. I mean, is that just stuff that's kind of happened organically and naturally, or was there like an appeal with the UK with you beforehand?

Nikki Nair: 6:06

It was like an organic thing. I think I probably listened to a lot of British music like growing up, and I think that like informed how I make music, um, like specifically jungle and IDM. But it wasn't on purpose, it was like after like I was I was submitting music to a variety of labels when I first wanted to like start releasing records, but Scuff once Scuff picked it up, the British audience like caught on very quickly, and all of those releases after that were on UK labels happened really fast, and I was mostly not even submitting stuff. I was being asked to submit stuff, so it just felt like they embraced me here very fast.

Paul: 6:58

Yeah, you're from Tennessee, from but you but you've been living in Atlanta for a few years now. I mean Well, I live in LA now. Um information.

Nikki Nair: 7:10

I should too. Uh it's probably not even updated on all my social media accounts or something. Yeah. But I but I was in Atlanta for five years. Uh yeah.

Paul: 7:21

Yeah. I mean, did was there anything particular that you felt you took from Atlanta in terms of like your sound or like you know the the attitude or anything?

Nikki Nair: 7:31

Yeah, I mean I think uh even living in Knoxville where where I grew up, the closest city that was cool was Atlanta, I guess. And so I mean, not that Knoxville wasn't cool, but it wasn't like that cool. But Atlanta had a lot of stuff going on there, and like the whole you know, the type of rap music that people listen to in the south is all kind of informed by that city. Um, and then also there's a great dance music culture there that I got to experience by traveling down there kind of frequently for parties.

Paul: 8:11

Yeah, and is there like um that the dance culture there in Atlanta is there a UK influence that comes into it at all? Like, do you are there sort of little styles or or ideas that you felt like that's you know, does it does it merge or is it is the do you feel like from your experiences that the Atlanta sound is very like Atlanta?

Nikki Nair: 8:34

I think it's very Atlanta, like I think it's it's more um like it's more informed by Detroit and and Chicago than anything else. Like it's like even I when I got into DJing and making like dance music proper, I wasn't actually interested in making UK type music. I I was really like into Midwestern techno and Detroit house music and Chicago house music, and that stuff was really popular in uh in Atlanta too, especially like the deep house kind of scene in Atlanta is really incredible and has a lot of like connections to Detroit with the people who are there and and and even Chicago. I think that those those they're all kind of connected.

Paul: 9:29

Yeah, I mean, I think for a lot of it they're the Detroit and Chicago are the starting points that's of where you can trace everything back to the time anyway. And you you had didn't you have like a bit of an encounter with Mike Banks at one point?

Nikki Nair: 9:44

Oh yeah, that was like uh the first time I went to Movement, which was maybe in 2012 or something. I went to the submerged store, and like me and a couple of friends were the only people in there, and we got to hang out with Mike Banks for a couple of hours or maybe an hour, I don't know. But he he taught us or he told us kind of this this story of of Detroit Techno, which was almost like it all was almost like radicalizing, because it it like I mean at that time I was interested in it, like I I liked it, but I I was not really even considering DJing or making it, but I it kind of made me obsessed with it.

Paul: 10:27

Yeah. What was there something particular that he told you that did sort of enable you or radicalize you or or give you the impetus to sort of get into making that a like a living or a thing you do?

Nikki Nair: 10:42

I think it was just this like the f what the stuff he was saying made it feel like punk. Like it made it feel more like music with a political message and a purpose. And that that kind of like gave me this deeper obsession with it and what it means and all of that stuff. And then uh like I still wasn't gonna make it at that time. I was like, I made music, but I was just making stuff for myself and not showing anybody. But then there was this party in Knoxville called Technox, which I ended up kind of like joining their collective, but they were throwing these tiny like parties, but the music they were playing was like I mean, one of the things in particular I remember seeing someone play was a Mr. G record. And it just sounded busted and like distorted, and this is like what I would want to DJ if I were to play dance music, because a lot of dance music that you hear otherwise is really polished sounding and clean, but it doesn't feel human. But like stuff like Mr. G and like Jeff Mills and stuff has this really human, and even old jungle feels like that, like Dillinger records feel like that. They feel like broken and aggressive in this way that like that I really like, and so that that made me like want to learn how to do that.

Paul: 12:15

Yeah, I like some of that music you mentioned there, and I think particularly as well, I get this with underground resistance talking about my advance, is I have this sort of feeling that I can hear what it's I'm not like a tech nerd, but I can kind of hear what it's been made on, you know. It's uh it's like I mean, when I was getting into like electronic music in the late 90s, it was so polished, you know. That was like the era of like epic prog house and things like that. Like everything was about transporting you off to like a magical ibefon land of unicorns and things. And um, but like I've when I discovered like uh for myself uh like underground resistance and um also things like UK Garage and and jungle and drum and bass, it's like I could it sounded like you know, it sounded like done on a four-track or the hit or the just the limitations of the sound, really, really you know, I see what you mean. It is very punk rock in a way, isn't it? Just sonic yeah, yeah. So you you've been in UK for a month. Um, so the last month have you been mostly focusing on DJing, or do you get a little bit of production in whilst you're doing something like this?

Nikki Nair: 13:22

Uh yeah, I do. Uh like I mean, this is actually probably another reason why I didn't feel depressed this time. I got a lot of like music made while I've been here. I've been doing sessions with different people who live here, and even just doing some days in studios by myself. I tend to get kind of depressed if I haven't made a song or something or a track that I like in more than a week. I will just start getting really down on myself. And and it's been like this my whole life. Even before I like thought I would make music professionally or anything, I I've just always made stuff and it kind of keeps me happy.

Paul: 14:07

Yeah, I I I relate to that from making things myself, and I think most creatives of any kind have that thing. I think I mean for you, do you feel that that is rooted in um like that's just what you do, or do you know is that is there a sense that like if you don't make something good in a week, or that you that that maybe think like, oh, will I ever make something good again?

Nikki Nair: 14:31

I think I I don't know if I could pinpoint it, but like I know that if I don't make something, I get really, really like it things become very dark for me. I become like like almost suicidal if I haven't made something in a long time. And and it I don't I don't know really what it is. It's it's I just have to do it, and and I've it's been this way since I started making music, I think.

Paul: 15:02

Yeah, yeah. So I guess being in the UK in in January, like I'm in Berlin, which is pretty fucking miserable at the moment, as well as covered it covered in snow. Um, I it finding music to being able to do music must be a big release. I really love that Instagram post you made where you're going around like looking at English stuff. Is there anything from England that you feel like you could import back to Atlanta? Like, you know, any like food or drinks or anything like that that you feel you know, this is really good. Like we should have some of this in LA. Sorry, LA, not Atlanta.

Nikki Nair: 15:40

Oh, yeah. I mean, one of the things that I bring home every time I come to the uh back to the US is Percy's Pigs. What's that? It's like this candy from MS. They're like these pig-shaped gummies, and they're maybe the best gummy that exists, I think. It really was like life-changing. So ever since the first time I had them, I've been just bringing those back.

Paul: 16:06

They're they're great.

unknown: 16:08

Yeah.

Paul: 16:09

Do you think you could open up like a little concession in LA selling them?

Nikki Nair: 16:13

Possibly, but I imagine there would be like legal issues with that. I feel like the United States has a lot of has a lot of laws that would prevent someone from making money unless they have a lot of money already. So I have to get really rich first, and then I can start selling Percy's pigs. So I because then I can then I can get around the system that prevents people from getting rich there.

Paul: 16:41

Yeah, that's true. And with Trump's tariffs as well, and whatever else he's gonna do, that's also gonna be prohibitive to the Percy's pigs, I imagine.

Nikki Nair: 16:51

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think so. And I feel like if if I wanted to sell them in America, I would have to change out the ingredients to be much more toxic ingredients, and then they would work better on the American market.

Paul: 17:05

That's something I didn't realize until quite recently. How like international products have slightly different ingredients wherever you go. I spent Christmas time in in Australia and had some English products there. I can't even remember what, but they were definitely they felt like definitely tasted different. Like the level of ingredients was like different wherever you go.

Nikki Nair: 17:26

Yeah, yeah, it's true. Even um the the most obvious place I see it is with McDonald's. Um, if you eat a McDonald's in the US, it's going to make you feel weird after you've eaten it. But it doesn't that doesn't happen if you eat it over here. Like it's not great here, but it's not gonna make you feel weird in the same way that the McDonald's in the US makes you feel weird. Because I think there's probably like plastic or something in in the American McDonald's that you're not like allowed to eat plastic here.

Paul: 17:58

Yeah, yeah. I do get weird if I eat McDonald's, but I think sometimes I'll overdose and have like two burgers instead of one, and then that that does send you into sort of like a bit like the dimension, like if you've had too much coffee, I think, but yeah, of the gut rather than what about like energies? Like so, when when you're producing, do you feel like you're drawing a lot from your dance floor experiences when you're producing? Or do you feel like that there has there's a point where you sort of shut away the dance floor experiences and just see what happens?

Nikki Nair: 18:34

I think with dance music, like when I started making music to DJ with, uh like it became a thing where I really do draw from dance floor experience. Especially like at the beginning when I was like when I had started doing that, I was like really thinking about how the track would like affect your body and and how you would mix it, and like what the moments would be in the track when people would either throw their hands up or put their heads down or whatever. And I and I do I think that is like important to think about because if you're making dance music, because it's like it's very functional. Um and I always also think of what would surprise people on the dance floor, but probably more recently I've been thinking less about that because doing that can be restrictive and it can like turn every track into this, like into this very functional kind of for formulaic thing, and that's not good. Or I mean it's not that it's not good, it can be great, but it's like I I'm I I want to try to figure out how to get out of patterns after you know you make these patterns when you're making stuff, but then you can fall into them really fast.

Paul: 19:58

Yeah, uh do you feel that there could be a point where you make music that is definitely not for the dance floor because of that?

Nikki Nair: 20:06

Yeah, I I do. I mean, I am doing that now. I spend like I mean, right now I've been kind of obsessed with learning about how songs are written and how to make music that is like for your life. And even just like learning about chords and and melodies and stuff has been really exciting. Um and also just like uh because I'm always at parties and I'm always on the dance floor, there's a certain part of me that wants to blow off steam and just make stuff for myself that makes me happy. So uh that that isn't that isn't for anyone else, I guess.

Paul: 20:51

Have you ever got to points where you've got a track that you've you've sort of thought, I don't know if I can really push that with this crowd, you know, the the this will maybe I'm taking people too far into something here that they're not really that loses its function, I guess, on a dance floor.

Nikki Nair: 21:09

Yeah, yeah, all the time. I mean, I feel like even when I make dance floor music, I want it to hit the edge of that. I feel like that like if that's what makes it good when it like I mean not always. There are some tracks that are just like for crowd pleasing, but like the most exciting thing is when it's like something that will probably lose a chunk of the crowd, but be really surprising and interesting to uh to other people. And uh I yeah, I it I like hitting that edge where where it's possibly something is pushed too far or or not enough or something.

Paul: 21:50

Yeah, I mean I've I feel like the idea of risking losing the crowd when when someone's DJing is important from time to time, isn't it? We end up not really progressing the culture forward in certain ways, maybe in other ways, but there has to be certain certain risks that people take. And there's worse things than losing a dance floor.

Nikki Nair: 22:12

Yeah, I mean, and that's what's it's like uh why why make music if you're not gonna do something new? Like, if if you're not doing something new, then you can just listen to an old song. Like you know, I don't need to make something if that already exists. There's no point. And and I think the only way to make new stuff is to like push limits. And I guess like on one hand, the logical conclusion of that is just like making stuff that is fully non-functional and weird, and that's cool, but like I like the idea of like how do I get a room full of people to dance to something that if they heard it outside of the dance floor, they would assume it was terrible.

Paul: 23:02

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I I think it is a he was talking about something totally different, but I mean there was this sort of David Bowie quote that I'm gonna terribly misparaphrase now, where he'd talk about everything he did. He would try and step a little bit further into the ocean, but not so far that he drowned, just like an extra step. Uh, and and maybe that's a sort of similar sort of idea that you know you don't want to totally throw away the whole the things that can help something be functional on the dance floor, but at the same time, there's got to be like a a step into the unknown or a step where you don't know where your foot's gonna land, maybe. Yes, I think that's true, yeah.

Nikki Nair: 23:43

I mean, and and I think that even extends past dance music. I think like that's that's how art is generated, because uh like you know, art I think exists in in like a ecosystem of other art, or like it exists with the language of all the stuff that came before it. And so if you make something that is like fully in the ocean or whatever, you might have just like kind of gone past any meaning, and it it could just become meaningless to anybody at that point. But if you have it still some of the language of the other stuff, but then add your new elements, that's kind of making it still work or or function as art for that other people can relate to and enjoy.

Paul: 24:37

Yeah, and it connects it to, yeah, definitely like a it's like a a lineage or a line that you know you can do something with, you know, you can change, but you know, there is still it's like being aware of that and or just like naturally just having that in you, I guess. Yeah, and I I was wanting to sort of ask you a quest, a few questions about like how music came into your life. So you were born in Knoxville, Tennessee. Um did you have musical parents?

Nikki Nair: 25:05

Uh my mom sang like when she was a kid, a lot of like in India, a lot of people will like take voice lessons and stuff when they're kids to do because singing is very like popular there. So my parents really liked music, and my dad loves music. He he he's just always been obsessed with music, but Indian music. Um and same with my mom, they both really like it. Um, so that was probably like I be I was I can't remember not being obsessed with music, um, and feeling like it was it was some kind of like divine spiritual thing.

Paul: 25:48

Was there any moments you had where you felt like you found that sort of spiritual connection to music that came from something that existed outside of the family for the first time?

Nikki Nair: 26:01

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think I I actually don't think I ever liked the music that my parents listened to. Um, but like uh I mean I remember hearing like crisscross when I was like three or two, two or three years old. And it this was probably the first hip hop music I ever heard, and I was I was really little, and it was on some like VHS tape that I had. That's jump, was it I think it was yeah, yeah, they made jump. I think I think it was jump that I heard, and I really loved the beat. I like the drums, and I I would I would really was obsessed with them when I was at that age, like between the ages of like two and four or something, and and that's kind of after that I kept to I had heard other music in you know random orders. Like my friend's mom would listen to this oldies station, and they played Motown music and like the Beach Boys, and I really loved that stuff too. Um, and then and I found like MTV and stuff and and was listening to everything on there. Yeah, so Chriss Cross was the the gateway drug.

Paul: 27:18

Probably, yeah, that and like Michael Jackson. Yeah, yeah, both with good moves. Well, Chriss Cross, they were the ones that wore the trousers back to front.

Nikki Nair: 27:27

Yeah, yeah. And like it was uh one of Jermaine Dupree's first projects that like he uh I I didn't actually know that. I didn't know that. I didn't know that, but but yeah, he was he it was it was a Germaine Dupree project, so he's kind of one of the like fathers of of Atlanta music, Atlanta hip hop and RB, but he uh kind of created them in some way. Um I think the story was that he like found them at like a mall, and they were just these cool kids, and he kind of convinced them to like write songs for like to make these songs, and he made beats and stuff for them.

Paul: 28:08

I did not know that. That's and I love the the the sort of lineage of uh people that get discovered in malls or in in airports as well. It's part of the dream, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, and you you started playing drums. Yeah, yeah. How how did that come about? Were you were you in bands? Were you what were you doing with the drums?

Nikki Nair: 28:32

Yeah, yeah. Like I think, you know, it at that like when I was little, I liked the rhythms and all those bands, and so from I feel like about four, I kept can can trying to convince my parents uh like I wanted to play drums. That was like all I would talk about. And then they finally kind of caved, and I'd got got like a drum practice pad, and then eventually a drum set. And yeah, I was in I was in bands like little the first thing I did was like me and my friends would uh kind of try to cover new metal songs when you know, like like Papa Roach and Limp Biscuit and stuff like that, and then uh punk bands and stuff like that later, um, and and then jazz and stuff.

Paul: 29:25

I mean, like I guess like the the punk and the the new metal had the it's got quite intense fast drumming sometimes, you know. And uh um did you feel that that kind of armed you with anything that you you now use now in terms of like drum programming?

Nikki Nair: 29:42

Yeah, definitely, especially when like I there was a time when I was making really heavy breakbeat-oriented music, and sometimes I still do, but like that I think even just liking break beats was like probably because I played drums, and then or I mean I don't know if which one came first, but like it was all connected, I guess.

Paul: 30:08

Yeah, yeah. And um, so was there a point where you know you talking about the encounter with Mike Banks earlier on, and you said that was like 2012? Yeah, were you you were making music at the time, but you were you saying that that before then you weren't like I guess I don't want to use the word taking it seriously because that just sounds a bit wanky in a way, but you know, like do it sort of making it your life, I guess.

Nikki Nair: 30:36

Um yeah, like so before that I was like music was almost a vice for me for most of my life, like it felt more like a thing that I would do instead of attending to my life. Um so like I I mean I spent so many nights as a kid just like on my computer making music uh until the morning, like just alone making music, and that and and I kept doing that in college, and I like I just you know, like a lot of people get addicted to video games. I was like addicted to just like making music, and and it was not it wasn't like some of it was kind of IDMy and some of it would have like guitars and singing and just weird sounds, but it was I just had to do it, it was like a compulsion. Um, and I think when I got into DJing, it started feeling like like it could be something that I shared with people. I mean, I would when I I was in bands and stuff too, but I don't know how much I really liked a lot of the bands. Like I I wasn't I never felt that connected to that stuff. I at the time, I even when I was in bands, I was still mostly listening to like electronic music and stuff like that.

Paul: 32:01

Um I I guess if you're drumming, you know, you that's a sort of skill set that you can share with people. It's a little bit different in a way as well from doing what you want to do.

Nikki Nair: 32:10

Yeah, and I mean also you have to coordinate with people to be in bands. And I'm I'm like not an easy person to work with or be around. So like I like would frequently like not, you know. I well in high school I always got grounded, I always got in trouble, and then I couldn't be in the bands anymore. So I would join all these bands and be in the band for like six months, and and we would do like one or two shows, and then the band would have to get a different drummer uh uh or a different guitarist or whatever, because I would have I got myself in trouble or something, and then couldn't come to practice.

Paul: 32:48

Uh what kind of things would you do to get into trouble?

Nikki Nair: 32:53

I mean, probably like a lot of it was just like smoking weed and stuff, a lot of the normal stuff that normal trouble for.

Paul: 33:00

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it seems really severe at the time when it's happening to you, but oh yeah, but then you sort of talk to other people like years later, it's like, yeah, yeah, that's just we everyone did that. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think I love what you're saying about like music felt like a vice for a while for those those times. I think, you know, like I think all kinds of art in a way, like in terms of people making it, like it is a you know, society does make it a bit of a vice for people to do that until you actually start earning green on it. Um, and it's like, why am I doing why am I making this silly thing up? You know, that am I just doing this for myself? Am I just like, um, are you going to make money out of doing this thing? Is it are you gonna be a doctor? You know, uh yeah, yeah, exactly.

Nikki Nair: 34:00

Yeah. I mean, I think like I was kind of taught that like, you know, the most important thing you can do with your life is make a bunch of money and take care of a family. And I don't I don't know if I think that's true anymore, but and I don't know if I ever thought it was true. I just felt like that was like how society was set up. And I also thought that being like I you know, I was in Knoxville, Tennessee, and I wasn't cool. I was like not a cool person, and so I just assumed that like getting into music and actually having anyone accept accept anything I did as cool was impossible, and and it was very negative, but like it was just kind of how I assumed the world was. I assumed I had no business really being a part of like uh any kind of larger music community, so I just enjoyed it myself.

Paul: 34:59

Yeah. Was there a moment where you was did something particularly happen to spill that over, or where you realized that other people did want to hear what you were doing? Was there like a crystallizing moment?

Nikki Nair: 35:14

Yeah, I I mean it was that party in Knoxville, Tech Knox, like those people became my best friends. Like as soon as I went there, they were they were nice, and they like you know, they were into the same music I was. And one person was like, You come to these parties all the time, and you seem to know so much about the music and all this stuff, and you even seem to make the music. Why aren't you DJing? Why aren't you you know a part of it? And so then uh when I I was like they asked me basically, and so I was like, okay, and that kind of opened this box, and uh I found out like I could make make people actually dance, like, and there's something different than with DJing, it always felt like this service kind of because people come to the party and they don't necess at least at the time they didn't necessarily care who I was or were they weren't looking at me. It wasn't like when I was when I was playing in rock bands, there was this kind of attention that you get where like you you have to be like the you have to be kind of a star or whatever. You have to at le or at least pretend like you're important. And I don't really I don't like pretending I don't like that or I didn't like that at the time, maybe I do now, but like at the time I I wanted people to like it because they liked it, not because they thought I was like cool or something. And I think you know, making those parties and helping with the sound and doing the lighting, all of that stuff, like making this experience for people was like what I really enjoyed. It felt more like I was providing something than um and when you're DJing, you're like curating the room kind of you're you that was how I felt, and that was that was cool.

Paul: 37:10

Yeah, I I guess that tips into well that's how at least how I view the like a lot of the original ideas of club culture as well, you know, whether you're talking about New York in the 70s or Detroit or Chicago in the 80s or the or like Berlin in the uh late 80s, early 90s, that or like the Brave thing in in the UK is that that sort of communal thing, like it's not self-serving, you know, the the the no no superstar DJs, you know, which superstar DJ is basically just a rock star, really, isn't it? And um Yeah, yeah.

Nikki Nair: 37:46

I mean, and there there's this feeling you get when like you have you've created a party and like you're standing in some corner of it, and you see all these people dancing, and someone is telling you how good of a time they're having, and they don't even know that you were one of the people who made it. And you you know, I don't even want to tell them. I just like I'm that makes me so happy. They're like they are independently having a good time, and they're not they're not telling me because of some so like weird social obligation to tell me that I've done a good job. They're telling me that they're having a good time because they are, and that's cool, I think. That was so cool.

Paul: 38:29

Yeah, that's like a the very rare barometer of truth within that situation, isn't it? Yeah, yeah. I mean, but now you are, you know, you uh you pretty damn well known for what you do, and your reputation is growing, and you know, with that karm does karma sort of identity, you know, that of a sort of you know, there's you as a you privately, and then there's there's like the you that you know I know and and people that listen to your music know. Is that something that you've come to terms with, like having some kind of public front or uh like public image?

Nikki Nair: 39:08

I think I'm starting to now. What I'm realizing is that it's like a part of the job. It's like you have to do it in order for like once you s you've you know opened the gate of making a living on off of the art, then it ceases to be just like you know, people like my music enough to you know pay me to keep making it. I mean, that's part of it, but then for people to really like music, like something further than just DJs playing my tracks, for normal people to get into into music, they like usually want to have a story, and that's that's part of what separates us from like now AI or something. They they want they want like uh to know that a human is made and they want to know who the human is, I think.

Paul: 40:03

Yeah, in terms of that, do you feel comfortable? Because I those uh like stories and posts that you did in in London, like they were just really funny, and they just felt really sort of self-deprecating and down to earth, and like like you're having a bit of a joke. And um do you do you feel the how do we do that? How do how do you show that yourself? How do you how does it feel good for you to be this sort of like real person that's also in the limelight?

Nikki Nair: 40:33

Uh I don't know yet. I feel like uh you get all these dopamine rushes from like that stuff, from like playing shows and from even you know a thousand people liking a post or whatever, like that kind of stuff gives you this like weird head rush. And I I I don't think that's emotionally good for a human being. Like it's probably I I imagine it has like a similar effect from like having a cocaine habit or something. It's like it's gotta be like really similar to that. Where I don't know, you I guess uh I don't know where I was going with that.

Paul: 41:11

Um no, it was good. I love the comparison to the cocaine habit uh and like the endorphin uh dopamine rush because it is I feel like you are using up a lot of something that you've gotta find again somehow, you know. Like you you deplete a supply of something, yeah, yeah.

Nikki Nair: 41:28

But you have you have to like give people that stuff, I guess. And then I honestly like I'm making this stuff, and I I I probably have even alluded to this in the videos. I need to sell tickets, that's my job. My job is to sell alcohol and tickets. It's like making music is the thing that I get to do, but like the job, like the reason I get paid to do it is because somebody can make money off of me doing it, you know. That's the world we live in, and so yeah, I have to just do it, and I'm I'm gonna keep doing it, I guess, and get better at it, uh like and just do my best and and do it in a way that like makes people happy, I guess.

Paul: 42:12

Yeah. I mean, talking about happiness as well. That there is um one of the things I love about your music is the playfulness of it. Um it feels like in some ways, like sort of there's something very serious going on in terms of like, you know, the power and the where the music takes you, but it also feels like you're not there's there's a lack of pretension to what you're doing as well, in terms of how I experience it, you know, and a lot, a lot of fun, you know. And I I was wondering where that fun, if if the fun is something that you connect with as well, or if that's something that I'm just sort of picking up, you know, and fair enough if it is, but if there is a sense of fun, like where does that come from?

Nikki Nair: 42:54

Yeah, I I I don't know if I could tell you where it comes from, but I I could tell you that like when I'm making a song, if I don't hit like a flow state where I'm like getting up out of my chair and laughing and like happy about the song, then I won't want to put it out, you know? And I think I have trouble like even listening to or watching like really sad media, so like I don't make that dark of stuff. And I do make some of it, but I probably won't release it because it's too dark or and it makes me sad to listen to. And I I I think that could have to do with it. I I like making people happy, and I like trying to be happy. And I think at parties people sh like should be happy. Um so I want the like I think last. Laughing and playfulness is an important part of dance music. It's a like a lot of the greatest dance music songs are funny songs. Like like the the percolator is like maybe one of the greatest dance music songs of all time. And it's it's like a joke, but it's a great it's it's great. It's like a forever track. You know, I don't have a great view of what society is, and I feel like greater society or is discourages people from having fun and laughing and being happy. And most of my life I've always been the kind of person where I'm afraid to to be too happy. And I think in dance floors is like a a rave or a dance music party is a place where you should feel free and uninhibited. And so like I want the music to make you feel free and uninhibited. And like and that's that can be an uncomfortable feeling because I think we're trained to regulate that, to like, you know, not get too excited, to not get too happy, and to to like you know, because as soon as you get too happy, something bad's gonna happen and and the shoes gonna the other's foot is gonna drop or whatever they say. Yeah.

Paul: 45:28

Or even the being too happy is just not cool. Yeah.

Nikki Nair: 45:34

Yeah. But that's also that's also like these like fucking like these people whose heads are so far in their asses they've forgotten that they're making art for people to enjoy. Yeah. I mean, that's what I think. I don't know. I mean, I think you know, there are people who enjoy that kind of stuff. I I think there's also part of me that thinks I might just there's like I might not be smart enough to understand some of that stuff. Like I can't I can't even watch movies that that are like that sad or like uh or too anxiety inducing with no relief, uh, you know, that kind of stuff I just don't understand. And so so I it could be like a emotional limitation that I have.

Paul: 46:19

Well, you know, I think we I mean I definitely think that there is a sort of uh there's a sort of I don't know, like a vibe that someone is trying to consciously give out when they're telling you about like some really hardcore film that they that they're really into, you know, um, or like a really hardcore piece of music that's just really dark or heavy. And um, it might be a really amazing piece of art, but like I think they're also there's also sort of a currency, like a sort of that someone can people often try to kind of get across by saying, you know, ah yeah, I I watched this uh come and see. That's you know, three hours of like misery set in the Holocaust or something like that. I can do that, you know. I have uh it's like being able to hold a lot of chili, you know.

Nikki Nair: 47:08

Um yeah, yeah, that's true. Yeah, I mean I I I I do like I do think like there's a a re like pretentiousness is okay. Like I think it's cool to know a lot about music and to know a lot about art and to appreciate it, and like while you can be playful and do that at the same time, like I and I think that's probably what I like aim to do a lot of like is sometimes like even in dance music, there's a lot of music that is just jokes, or it's like it'll be like you know, you see it at like you know, a lot of like younger parties, which are fun, but it's like at the end that it'll be like the DJs just playing edits of pop songs with like donk kicks under it, and that's it's funny and stuff, but it's not necessarily creative or informed. And I think you can do both. It's and both are okay. It's like it's it's cool to be both like pretentious and well-versed in stuff, and also laugh and smile and have fun.

Paul: 48:26

Definitely. I I love the way you say that. I mean, for me personally, I think it's cool to do whatever so long as it feels like someone's being sincere when they're doing that, you know, they don't have to outwardly go, I'm being sincere, you know. But like it has to come from a place that someone's really into what they're doing, I think.

Nikki Nair: 48:44

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. It's not just irony as of like being used in a lazy way, I guess. Yeah.

Paul: 48:52

And and just finally, I wanted to kind of ask, is there if you could go back to the younger Nicky Nair, like before you met Mike Banks, before perhaps before you even started making music yourself, but just when you were setting off to start thinking about that, is there something that you would tell yourself?

Nikki Nair: 49:09

Yeah, I think I would have told myself to like start showing people my music earlier and to start like to have more confidence about it and not think so negatively about like is uh I mean, my whole life there was nothing else I ever wanted to do than make music, but I just assumed that I could never do it. I like I had it like deeply embedded in my head that it was just physically impossible for me to ever be accepted in in a in any music community. I I don't know why, but I think I would tell myself that that was that that's possible and that it you can just do it and it it will work if you love it enough.

Paul: 50:01

Yeah, beautiful. Um Nikki, thanks so much. That was it. Thanks. Oh yeah, thank you. Yeah, thanks for having me. Okay, so that was me, Paul Hamford, talking with Nikki Nair for Lost and Sound Podcast. And we had that conversation on January the 26th, 2026. Thank you so much, Nikki, for sharing your time and thoughts with me there. If you like the show and you haven't already, please do give it a subscribe. Give the show a rating and a review on a platform of your choice. It really, really, really, really does help. And yeah, um is sponsored by Audio Technica, the global but family-run company that make headphones, turntables, cartridges, microphones, studio quality, yet affordable products, because they believe that high-quality audio should be accessible to all. So wherever you are in the world, head on over to audiotechnica.com to check out all of their range of stuff. The music you hear at the beginning, at the end of every episode of the show is by Tom Giddens. Hyperlink in the podcast description. Right. Oh my god, I'm gonna get in the warmth. Have a great one, chat to you soon.