Have you ever strolled through the jazz section in HMV looking for some Indian sounds? If so jump straight into the interview but for those who haven't, let me introduce to you a man who in educated musical circles needs no introduction. Seven studio albums including 'Beyond Skin' which was nominated for the coveted Mercury Music prize and new record 'Philtre' are the backbone of Nitin Sawhney's work, but beyond that are countless film and TV scores and further on a political message of goodwill which appears through personality and edges effortlessly into the music. To put it another way, how many artists have we interviewed who have appeared on Newsnight?

So when the maestro hit Leicester's De Montford Hall, Richard, Irfan and Suhail were not going to miss out on an interview opportunity. Nitin was fresh from stage, still red-eyed and sweating, unsurprisingly as he was wearing a 'Philtre' hoodie, which didn't look like the sort of thing you wear in Spain. Just as unsurprising was the 'make poverty history' band he sported on his left wrist, and the unbranded trainers, which I know, made me [Richard] feel bad. Here's what went down:

The comments of each of them have been colour co-ordinated to help you distinguish who is saying what. The following key can be used as a guide to help you with this as well.

Richard: You've just released your seventh studio album - 'Philtre' (click here to read album review) - can you tell everyone who hasn't heard it what they can expect?

Nitin: 'Philtre' means healing potion, and it is kind of an escapist album; it's an album that builds with intensity as it goes along. I've worked with a lot of very exciting artists of which most are unsigned, and it creates a feeling and atmosphere of something building up. I think its that sense of rising hope that you get when you're sat down playing the guitar or piano and forget everything else, you forget all the crap that's going on in the world and the dark stuff going on with politicians and negativity and you cut back to just focusing on music which takes your mind away from those more depressing realities. So I think its an album which has a rising sense of hope to it and I think in that respect I've tried to use all kinds of things and exciting artists, like Reena Bhardwarj who's stretching herself on this album and people like Murtaza Khan who has a voice similar to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan - its got that sufi qawalli feel to his voice but then you've got artists like Vikter Duplaix who came down from Philadelphia. There's a lot of strings on this album which I'm very pleased about, and Ojos De Brujo who are my favourite flamenco hip-hop band, there's Ges-E doing some programming on 'The Search', he's from the Nasha Collective who are killing it in East London at the moment. Then there's the regular people I work with like Jacob Golden, Tina Grace, Taio, Sharon Duncan, Jayanta Bose, the brilliant Bengali vocalist and tabla player. It's just a range of great artists and hopefully good songs.

Richard: That ties in nicely with our next question, you've used the same core of artists you've worked with before but who is your favourite to work with?

Nitin: The obvious reaction is all of them, and I wouldn't work with them if I didn't enjoy all aspects of playing, working and writing with these people. But they're all very different and I get a lot of excitement from working with all of them so I couldn't really pick between them.

Irfan: You're quite renowned for having a strong political message in all your albums but it's not really obvious in this one. Why was that? Nitin: I'm just sick of it. I'm sick of politicians like most people are, I don't want my mind colonised by bullshit, to be perfectly frank. So I just got to the point where it's all been said and the world is still ignoring it and politicians still manage to succeed in sticking too much paranoia and attention on them and not the real issues. I think we're too focused on politicians now and its almost like they have to kill so many people to get our attention and they use nationality as a means to manipulate our minds and create divisive ways of looking at the world. I'm just really sick of it and I don't want to think about that any more, that's why I called this 'healing potion' as a means of getting away from it all. I think what was interesting about the general election was how little choice there actually was and there was no feeling in most

people that we had much choice because all the politicians we are dealing with are so hypocritical and they're all people who aren't trustworthy and they're all people who are after power and not justice. Unfortunately there aren't many politicians who are after justice any more and its interesting that when I look at young people I wonder who their role models are in the world, I can only think about people like Nelson Mandela (right) but his time has been when he was fighting apartheid and now there are no strong leaders in the world to be role models for young people.

Nitin Sawhney with Nelson Mandela

Richard: That's a strong answer, but apart from the political edge, how do you rate 'Philtre' against your previous albums?

Nitin: I'd say it's just a movement on, I hope that like anyone when they make artistic statements they try and move forward. So artistically I think this is a stronger album than anything I've done before and I feel very good about the production values and the musicianship and singing I am very happy with. It's been interesting this year because I've been very focused on song writing and working with singers probably more than in the past, but I may not do that much longer, I may go back to more instrumental work, but it's been good.

Richard: We've seen the video for 'Koyal', [which is viewable in video section on www.nitinsawhney.com] and it's really abstract but works really well, where did that idea come from?

Nitin: It's interesting because I've been asked to score this film called 'The Throw Of Dice' which is one of the few remaining silent films of India. A lot of the silent films got burnt in a fire because they were all archived in the same place and this is by a German director called Franz Osten which is a really weird fact because he went on to become part of Nazi Germany!! So you think this is a strange thing yet it's one of the few surviving films. The connection is so weird between Germany and India, because you've got people like Herman Hoess who actually wrote books like 'Siddhartha' which is a fantastic book and this film was an episode of the 'Mahabharata', so it's a powerful film and one of the few ones that remain from that time in India. So I was pleased to be asked to orchestrate it, but in the mean time it's a beautiful romance and love story I thought it would work with 'Koyal' as well. We cut it the way we did to make it work.

Nitin Sawhney - Philtre

Richard: How did the DJ element come back to 'Philtre'? Nitin: DJ'ing is something I've been doing for quite a while and I used to DJ a lot more at the Outcaste pubs and around London, but I stopped for a bit and came back to it at Fabric to do a couple of things on the quiet, hoping no-one would notice me… Richard: Yeah right!! [Everyone laughs] Nitin: And then I was being asked to do this, that, appearances on compilations and that sort of thing and my agent said "oh, we can get you billions of DJ gigs all over America and India if you want them", so I was like 'ok' and I suddenly started DJ'ing a lot and did the

Fabric compilation and we'll probably do a lot more in the future.

Richard: And that influence comes through into 'Philtre'…

Nitin: Yeah, I think it does, but it's a different kind of thing though. A lot of DJs think about things like BPM and mixing beats and I'm not so interested in that and I like to find different ways of mixing. Mixing beats is all part of it but I like to challenge myself to find more emotional ways to build up intensity and there's something more solid about doing that. I think that for a lot of people, unless they're off their faces, actually lock into emotions more whereas some people will drop an E and be very repetitive with what they're doing. I always try to challenge the audience and try and do something that'll make them feel different, keep them dancing but give them a different sensation.

Richard: I saw you at Shaanti in February, and it was one of the heaviest sets I've seen and it's very different to the album stuff, but which do you prefer to listen to?

Nitin: My set at Shaanti was a bit different and I wanted to drop a little more drum and bass there because I think that I like to bring over a lot of the new Nasha stuff and I really like that sound and crowd - I DJ with them at Herbal every now and again - they're a great bunch so I like to bring their new stuff over and try it out to see how it works. My set does depend on where I am, like at Fabric the crowd is more diverse in what they respond to and you always try to gauge what the crowd wants but try and bring in new ideas as well.

Richard: DJ Asif of Fusing Naked Beats tells us that after you finished you set at Shaanti you where in cinema (at the venue) putting some beats together on your laptop. Is that the dedication required in order to sustain long-term success at the top?

Nitin: That's a very convoluting and spite question to ask!!

Richard: [Beaming] We excel. Nitin: First of all I don't think I'm successful at the top and I just do what I do. I'm not aiming to be successful in that way. Every project you do has got to be 100% and you've got to try act like you've never done anything before. That's my number one rule. I try to act like nobody's ever heard anything I've done before and I make that assumption. So I never go on thinking anyone should know who I am or what I'm about. If they do then it's great but if they don't then I need to find a way to understanding them and also getting them into what I'm trying to do. So it's a symbiotic process where you're working with either a crowd, an artist or an orchestra and it's about empathy and collaboration between the artists and audience. Richard: I also had the pleasure of seeing you with the Britten Symphonia in November that was a special show which was again different to the DJ stuff, but which do you prefer to perform?

Nitin Sawhney

Nitin: Really it's not that as different as you might imagine. I remember watching the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra perform some Mozart and I remember thinking how similar Mozart's mind was to that of a DJ, and how he uses frequency and creates sound to pan around the orchestra, how he plays with things and transistorises something and then drops something very powerful. I always think when I'm writing for orchestras and you're always thinking about building something up to make intensity. If you want to take people on a journey you need to build intensity, like an Indian classical Rama. You have a song like 'Prophesy' which draws people in unaware of how they got to the end but they like being there, that's what I'm always trying to do and hopefully time passes quickly and they enjoy their experience.

Richard: One of the things that took Irfan and Suhail aback tonight was the variety and diversity of the crowd. How much of a kick does it give you to play to so many different kinds of people?

Nitin: I hope that continues. It's been amazing going up and down the country as we've had really big crowds and some great responses. It's totally unpredictable who's going to show up. Generally, it's more student based and it's great seeing old people too. Some people come with families; it's all different types of backgrounds. We see a lot of mixed race couples and it's people who have very diverse ways of looking at the world, they're all up for coming over and I'm very happy with the demographic of who comes to see us.

Richard: You must be one of the most talented people in the entire music business at the moment, what makes you choose to put out music to a less recognised scene when you could easily make a hit pop or R&B record and take the money and run?

Nitin: I don't think that way. When you make an album and try and think commercially…there are people who do that and good luck to them but it depends on what you're doing. I've worked with Will Young and I know that if I'm writing for him I'll write pop songs, so I think in terms of that, but if it's my own stuff or films then I just think 'what suits what I'm trying to do?' and I just do it. I don't think 'pop' or anything like that, I think 'what would I want to buy' and if you make your own album you just make music you like. Otherwise, you're patronising people and you're shoving something at people, which is not as good as it should be. My tastes aren't generally commercial, I like all kinds of weird stuff, but it's interesting because we actually sell a lot of albums. I'm surprised by how many albums we sell to be honest. We've been number two on the iTunes download chart and we were number one with the EP. It's been really good and we're selling a lot, so it's weird but nice at the same time.

Nitin Sawhney

Richard: Will Young…we just mentioned him, what happened to the stuff you did with him? Nitin: We don't know if it's going to be on the album yet, we're just chatting at the moment. He did incorporate something I did for him and we get on very well, he's a lovely bloke and very down to earth and he's got great politics. He's a sorted guy and he studied politics at University actually. He's very different to how people think he is; he's a very hardworking bloke and he's got a lot of talent and I like working with him. Irfan: Switching things to the desi perspective now, and I'm constantly baffled by Asians dubbing you 'underground' one minute, and 'mainstream' the next, why do you think this is? Nitin: People always try and find categories, its just nature really, and people want to find a category for me. I grew up in this country like a lot of Asian kids

who just want to find their own sense of space in this country and just want to feel relaxed with who they are and not feel intimidated by a lot of the rubbish that they see on TV and from politicians. I just wanted to find my own voice and so that's what I've been looking to do. I don't know about the categories, the categories will always happen. I've always said that people try to reduce cultural change to a fad or a fashion, and it's dangerous to do that. As soon as you do that you're saying, "Asians were in last year but they're not in this year." They don't do that with black music and they don't do that with white music, but why is there an Asian category when they make up 57% of the worlds population? There shouldn't be an Asian category, it should be a diverse selection of things within the Asian diaspora in this country but it doesn't work that way because people's minds are too colonised to think in that way - even some Asian people's minds are too colonised. So until we let go of categorising music on the basis of nationality and we start thinking in terms of humanity and emotion, then it's very hard to get past stupid labels, which mean nothing.

Irfan: Who do you rate within the Asian scene and why?

Nitin: Right now, I like Asian Dub Foundation I think they're really good and I like what they have to say as well. I think they're really intelligent, and its cool what Steve is doing with JC001, who incidentally used to write with me, in the opera playing Gadaffi. Its surreal, but they challenge a lot of things and they're interesting with their thinking. The Nasha lot are great, they're good DJs, programmers and musicians, so I like their sound. I like, I suppose the balls of your Rishi Rich and Jay Sean because they do their thing and they're quite into expressing their identity in their own way.

Irfan: When we interviewed Trickbaby, Steve said that you were one of the few UK Asian artists to be A&R'ed properly for a considerable period of time. Do you think that if other artists were then they might have the potential to be successful in the mainstream?

Nitin: Asian people in this country is a weird term, and it's weird that we talk about them like this but Asian artists in the UK have got more opportunities than I did when I started off because when I started I had no role models whatsoever, and when I made 'Spirit Dance' and 'Migration' there was Jevant Chandra with Monsoon ten years before, there was Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, but it wasn't exactly what I did and he's not from here, so it was so hard to find someone I could use and say 'yeah, I get that'. There's now a lot more possibilities for Asian artists. In terms of A&R, Record companies are extremely prejudice, stupid and naïve in regard to Asian artists and they don't understand that Asian artists have all the exactly the same reference points as any other artists, as well as a whole additional array of reference points which makes them different and potentially more exciting in comparison with a lot of artists here. It's hard to break through, there's just too much prejudice. When you have politicians constantly saturating the media with bullshit about things like immigration, terrorism, asylum seekers and blah blah blah and getting into people's heads and making them fear anything that isn't white and straightforward. There's too much paranoia…

Irfan glances at Richard to visually impersonate that we are together [Laughter]. Nitin: And that's a good thing. I'm not turning round and knocking white people, I'm saying it's the attitude of the media against Asians. Suhail: In terms of what you just said that you had no role models. I felt when I was listening to the show, which was excellent, their was lot of shall we say Rabindranath Tagore and shall we say Bengali stuff. For me I understood most of it and felt more in tune. I understood the lyrics where as most people obviously would just like the vocal side of things. How did you come across that? Nitin: Well, I'm Panjabi but I didn't want to go down the conventional route. I mean, people say 'oh you're Panjabi, you must do bhangra', because what I grew up with was watching the APU trilogy and things like that, and reading Rabindranath Tagore he gave back

Nitin Sawhney

the Nobel Peace Prize because of the Amritsar massacre, he had a lot of balls in him. He's one of the people I idolise, but still in terms of folk singing and the boat songs are very special to me. Jayanta Bose is one of my great friends and the boat songs are very powerful because they have a lot of algothorical imagery in terms of fate and destiny, with the boatman not representing death as in Greek mythology, but representing something, which is about optimism and faith and moving on. I wrote 'Immigrant' in that way because it was like working with the idea of optimism that my parents had when they moved to this country, despite encountering the Enoch Powells of this world and they held on to the optimism they had. That's why I found it amazing when my mum wrote the poem that she did.

Irfan: We heard you have possible collaborations with Deeyah and Raghav in the pipeline, what can you tell us about those?

Nitin: Deeyah's really nice and lovely person, and Raghav is a really cool bloke too. He's an easygoing guy so it would be good to get something down. We've not worked out times or dates but we are planning to do something. They've both been down to the house and stuff.

Richard: And finally, have you any last words to the thousands of Desitunes4U readers out there?

Nitin: This is something I always say, that for anyone who's looking to get into music or get some kind of deal, the best thing to do is be yourself and try not to be anyone or make sure you don't do things you're supposed to do or be, because people will try and make you into something which can't represent. Don't buy into fashions, don't buy into trends, just find your own voice and try and make it work for you.

A massive thank you goes out to Nitin and his management team for talking to us. You can purchase the 'Philtre' album in all mainstream record stores and it's also available on iTunes. We gave the album 9.5 out of 10 (click here for album review), and it really is that good; trust us! If you want more information on Nitin, check out his website www.nitinsawhney.com which includes dates of forthcoming 'live' performances.