Photo by Kevin Luong.
This year has been a busy and memorable one for R&B and hip hop artist Nylez K, taking the plunge to pursue music full-time, doing multiple live performances in and out of the city, all while releasing his new hit single Remind Me recently with an EP on the way for next year.
Nylez K will be headlining the Off the Rack Fashion Show at The Fall gallery on Dec. 14 and will have a solo show at the Biltmore Cabaret on Jan. 4 2019.
“There is no R&B scene in Vancouver and I think people born in the 90s and 80s will really appreciate this. They will get an experience that they will never forget. I am bringing something different to the table. I hope this is something that can change the shift in Vancouver” Nylez K says.
Rise of the Fiji star
Nylez K, R&B and hip hop artist.| Photo by Kevin Luong.
The musician, a second-generation immigrant of Indian heritage with roots from Fiji, grew up in an artistic family. His father is a singer and his mother a dancer.
“When I was 5 years old I used to watch my dad perform. I thought it was the most spectacular thing. I knew from that moment on, I wanted to be a singer,” Nylez K says, citing his father as his biggest inspiration in life.
Last month the father and son got their first chance to perform together at the Vancouver International South Asian film festival. It was an emotional moment for both of them according to the artist.
Nylez K got his first taste of success as a teenager, winning a singing competition in the Vancouver-Fiji community in 2008.
“It was like the Fiji Idol. There were 27 singers – my dad was competing too – and each week you sing 3 songs. There was a panel of judges and every week someone got eliminated and it went on for two months. I won the competition,” he says with a chuckle.
The artist didn’t initially pursue music as a career, until love – the breakup of his first significant relationship – pushed him onto what he feels to be the right path again.
“She was a blessing in disguise,” he says. “That breakup was the hardest thing that I had gone through. I was in accounting and I was singing at weddings. After we broke up, the tides changed, my lane changed. Everything just changed.”
Nylez K dropped out of accounting and enrolled in the Electronic Music Production program in Langara.
The artist achieved his first big career milestone in 2013 when he won one of the top three spots for the Much Music Coca Cola cover contest and was flown to Toronto.
“I was just a guy out of Surrey going to Toronto to be a part of the Much Music Video Award. I knew anything was possible.”
Making music for the city
Nylez K then created Vancity From Afar, a project with DJ Hark the following year, and hopes to bring people together with this ongoing collaborative music effort.
“I feel people in the Vancouver music scene are just not being appreciated enough,” he says “I feel like I have this opportunity to make Vancouver so much bigger than what it is. We have so many hidden gems in this city and they are not being showcased as much as they should be. I want to be that person that did it for the city.”
A perfectionist at heart, the artist expresses his determination to keep pushing the envelope and achieve something that has never been done before.
“I admire the artists who keep working and perfecting their craft,” he says. “I want to be known as the guy who makes great art, the guy who strives really hard, and I hope to create something so spectacular that I motivate other people that were once in my position to join in.”
Check out his music at www.youtube.com/channel/
