On Focus: Nikoli and his Nikoli Sessions

We asked Nikoli some questions to dig more about his new Nikoli sessions and his take on his matured music journey.

Nick has been a staple for the underground electronic music scene in Ottawa for the past 10 years, organizing events, playing festivals, bringing the community together and being part of the Music Art Ppl crew. In recent years we have seen him playing sets throughout Ontario and Quebec at events such as Eclipse Festival, Timeless, Amazone, Open Mind, Heal Your Mind, OM Gathering, and many more. 

These 4 sessions, released over the Music Art Ppl soundcloud have really shown his true evolution as a DJ / artist and also as a human, bringing sounds to his palette that has let him explore himself musically through deep techno, afro house and many other variety of new sounds.

This exploration seems to be a natural progression for what he has been doing for the past years and this progression for all of us that know him, will probably keep growing, who knows in which path, but a mature and self reflected one to take us to places we have never been or we went already.

We catched up with him at an outdoor event, on a beautiful sunny Saturday and asked him some questions about what he is up to, his take on these new Nikoli sessions and the journey he is trying to bring us in.

On Focus Nikoli interview:

You have been quite busy this summer, even with the pandemic. Early this spring you started the Nikoli sessions via soundcloud where you explore deep and progressive soulful house. Tell us about your inspiration regarding the sessions and your take on the music you have been playing lately?

So the sessions have been inspired by the lockdown mostly. As soon as we were not able to do more live events I decided to start exploring some part of my music collection that was more downtempo, groovy and that may have not been suitable to play in a club environment. 

I’ve been having a lot of fun exploring some of my favourite artists, a lot of vocals, afro house and other other stuff and I’m really looking forward to releasing 2 more by the end of the year. 

I’ve noticed that through the years your music has always been gradually evolving. How do you see your evolution as a DJ / artists in the past years while discovering new music?

Well, I just kind of go wherever the sounds take me. Being surrounded by amazing DJs and producers here in Ottawa and being part of the Music Art Ppl collective have been a big part of it. 

I think that the fact of not being afraid of deep enjoy what you like and to discover new producers and dive into their vibe and going down the rabbit hole to figure out where they come from, who did their remixes and start branching more and more. 

Is always fun when you are searching for music, always check their networks such as collaborations, re-mixers or labels and spend good some hours doing that. 

It seems that with these sessions you are exploring more of yourself, how do you see yourself in session number 10?

I don’t think that there will be a big departure from what I’m doing now but more new music or maybe more melodic takes, all depends on how things will develop with the pandemic and to be able to play parties again. 

Now I’ve been trying to play more music that will be more suitable for sit down venues. I want to play more things that will inspire people to remember moments in their lives like travelling and bring back these memories to them. 

I’ve been slowing down the BPM and it seems that it’ll be slower and slower as I go. That’s what happen when we age right? (laughs).