From the independent platform Indie Grrrl in 2024 to launching a record label Femme Music at the start of 2025, the goal for city-based music producer and audio engineer Sanoli Chowdhury has been to develop female indie artists. While Femme Music is co-founded by music industry veteran Vinod Gadher, who is also Sanoli’s artist manager, together they launched Nyima Records, a sub-label for Indian singer-songwriters.
Ahead of the compilation’s first release Nyima Vol. 1 launching on November 28, a four-city tour featuring artistes on the album will kick off in Bengaluru on November 9, at Fandom in Koramangala. For Sanoli, who has also been working on her own music, it has been a hectic year. Still, she calls the experience of setting up the label and organising the upcoming tour as “extremely fruitful and humbling”.
She adds, “I genuinely believe what we are creating is going to be a success for all the right reasons; we need this push in the industry.”
Sahana Naresh
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Special Arrangement
Comprising 11 tracks, Nyima Vol. 1 includes a variety of artistes both new and seasoned, including Aanchal Bordoloi, Aadya Jaswal, Anjali Manoharan, kokum, Meera Desai, Ro Maiti, Ruhdabeh, Sahana Naresh, Tabitha Kagoo, Tiana Tara and Zahrah. These were the artistes that Sanoli and Vinod had in mind for their inaugural offering, and they believe the compilation will be a “treat” for any listener.
While this project features songs in English, Nyima as a sub-label is open to releasing music across languages, as long as they are in the indie, pop, singer-songwriter space. At the launch show in Bengaluru, Aanchal Bordoloi, Sahana Naresh and Tabitha Kagoo will perform, following which the Nyima tour will head to Chennai, New Delhi and Mumbai, featuring various artistes appearing on the album.
Sahana Naresh, who has been releasing music since 2021, has a song called ‘Into the Wild’ on the compilation. Evoking the classic sound of the 1960s and 1970s, she says the song is about “about finding your own rhythm in the chaos, that moment when you stop running and start listening to yourself.” An immediate hook in the song is of a character named Joanne, whom Sahana notes is fictional but metaphorical.
“Joanne represents that inner voice we often ignore, the one that tells you to take the leap, to go into the wild. Every artiste has a Joanne — that brave version of yourself you are trying to become,” she adds.
Sanoli Chowdhury
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Special Arrangement
For Tabitha Kagoo, her song ‘Come Sit By My Bed’ features contributions by fellow Goa-based artistes Anika Bharwani and Jenn Steeves. Written in 2019, the intimate song is a sobering reflection from the artist. “Sometimes we make people out to be different from who they actually are. We put them on a pedestal to justify being with them. This song was a way for me to sift through the reality and disappointment it brings,” Tabitha says.
Recreating her song ‘Anyway/Eitherway’ with guitarist Siddarth Nayanar, was a way for Aanchal Bordoloi to push the track once again after feeling it had not got its due by a previous label. The Assamese-origin, Bengaluru-based artiste is more than happy to work with Sanoli, whose music she also follows. “I trust her and that is enough; that is as plainly as I can put it,” Aanchal says.
All three artistes performing in Bengaluru for the Nyima launch, say they are drawn by the hands-off freedom that a label such as Femme Global provides at a time when songs are put through major label machinery and music is churned at a rate that rarely leaves a mark. Sahana says, “They are building a community where women can release music that feels true to who they are. That kind of ecosystem is exactly what the Indian independent scene needs right now.”
Tabitha Kagoo
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
Tabitha adds that support coming from a label can help female musicians further believe in their craft and work towards something bigger. “Most labels support you when you are already halfway there but there is a need for labels that will support you right at the start and Nyima and Indie Grrrl are doing just that,” she says.
Aanchal too, says how Sanoli’s platform Indie Grrrl was inspired by the Riot Grrrl feminist punk movement. “I’m all in for revolution. What is art without it?” she asks.
At the Nyima launch show, expect a wide-ranging set from Sahana, including songs like ‘Chasin Light’ and ‘Bhoopali Beginnings’ plus re-imagined versions of her older tracks with ‘Into the Wild.’ She adds, “I want it to feel intimate but expansive, like a musical escape right in the middle of the city.”
Aanchal is bringing in guitarist Manan J Panchmatia for two songs in her set, which will include ‘Anyway/Eitherway’ as well as her recent single ‘Brazilian Girl’ and a new song, ‘Hot Chocolate Honey’. She adds, “I’ve invited some of my students, who I mentored for a songwriting course. They are young, and I am thrilled to introduce them to concerts like this.”
Tabitha promises new material as well. “There are some songs that will break your heart and others that hopefully will mend before the set ends,” she says.
Nyima Tour’s Bengaluru concert takes place on November 9 at Fandom, Koramangala. Details of the tour and tickets available on femme-music.com
Published – November 05, 2025 06:06 pm IST
