Kiran Ahluwalia is a young, Juno-award winning, rising international star who is dedicated to modernizing the ghazal genre – the sensual and highly literary poetry about unrequited love and passion for all things. Ghazal started in Persia around the 10th century and traveled to India in the 1300s. Over time the musical style, compositions and the way in which ghazals are sung have changed - and are continually changing. Kiran’s mission is to master singing and composing this language of the heart. Her favourite instrument is the voice followed by Sarangi but her current fresh passion is African Tuareg electric guitar.
From India to Canada to New York, Kiran Ahluwalia gives MyBindi.com’s Ashna Regina Singh insight on her journey to success.
Q. Most South Asian artists are pressured to stay within popular culture. How have you managed to resist this and contribute to the evolution of the ghazal genre?
Like everyone else, I listen to a lot of different types of music. When I was young, my parents took me to concerts of all sorts of Indian music - folk, bhangra, bollywood, Indian classical and ghazal. Somehow the effect of a ghazal concert would linger with me for days - much longer than any other music and so I was naturally drawn to this style.
Q. You used to listen to Indian music on a reel-to-reel tape machine that your father purchased from Hong Kong, and Bollywood on the radio. Since then, how have the advancements in technology influenced\shaped your current career?
In terms of discovering music, I discover music on the internet all the time. In terms of my own career...it is much easier to reach the audience with Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, and Twitter. It’s great to be able to chat with someone who has purchased your CD and they want to share their thoughts on it. For me, Facebook is the social networking site I use the most.
Q. What can fans expect from your new album "Aam Zameen - Comon Ground" with producer Justin Adams, which will feature collaborations with Malian super group Tinariwen?
I’m so psyched about this CD. It was absolute pure fun recording this music. The adrenaline took months to wear off and now I’m really looking forward to singing these songs on the Canadian tour. This CD is a significant departure from my previous ones. For the first time I started writing my own lyrics. This was something I hadn’t really done outside of my dear diary entries which were meant only to be repeated as a symbol of sorority with a close friend. So imagine my surprise at my own words, coming out of my own pen.
I can’t call these songs ghazals because they don’t have the same poetic structure -- they are simply songs that allowed me to incorporate the hypnotic Tuareg grooves that I had fallen in love with. When you take two styles of music and merge them together - and you don’t want a simple cut and paste - then you’re really trying to develop a hybrid genre. You’re doing something with no clear blueprints to help you. You have to figure it out by trying different things and seeing what works and what doesn’t. It’s scary and sometimes stressful, but it’s also incredibly invigorating when you find those connections between things that didn’t seem to connect before. Those moments of discovery are nothing short of sublime. It’s really the essence of everything for me, musically.
Q. How do you prepare yourself before a performance?
Mostly - stretch – I do some yoga. For my kind of music, I need good lung capacity so I try to rest but sometimes when we are traveling in beautiful places it’s very tempting. So I do go outside and see the city or the village and make sure I get back to the hotel to rest before sound check.
Q. On January 22 you will grace Koerner Hall in Toronto with the sounds of India. How do you feel about performing with the band Rhythm of Rajasthan?
I love that I’m performing with Rhythm of Rajasthan. It’s a great idea that I did the CD with musicians from the African desert, the Sahara. On the Canadian tour I will be doing some of the songs with musicians from the Indian desert.
Q. Despite having an MBA from Dalhousie University, working in the financial sector did not fulfill you. Who or what inspired you to pursue a career in music?
I fell into my career in music. There was no one time where I sat down and said to myself, “This is it! I am now going to pursue a career in music.” I just kept doing music alongside everything else - alongside university and then eventually alongside work. I would take a lot of year-long breaks to go to India to study music; it was a very serious passion but I never thought it would be a career. Then when I recorded my first CD in 2000, I ended up getting the attention of a manager and agent. From then on I started touring and thank God it hasn’t stopped.
Q. You have managed to conceal your personal life from the limelight. Can you give us some insight on your relationship with Rez Abbasi. It’s obvious both of you are very busy individuals so how do you balance your career and family life?
Rez and I work a lot together. He is definitely all over my projects. He started arranging and producing my songs and being my guitar player in 2004. As a jazz guitarist, he himself has many groups, and I am in one of them. For the first three years of our married life - between his tours and mine - we were never home for more than two weeks at a time. But we were together all the time; he was in my group and vice versa so we were constantly touring together. Touring is hard and it was easier to be on road with Rez right there all the time. This year, I made a conscious decision to not tour so much. Rez has been touring a lot but I really enjoyed dedicating myself to making the album and to other things - learning French, hanging with friends, cooking up fusion dishes. I took a Mexican cooking course and developed an obsession with Pilates.
When we work together, we definitely have disagreements but for the most part we’re able to either resolve them or just plain get over them. The way we each think about music is actually quite different from one another but we learn from each other as well. I’m lucky that I’m friends with all my band mates and I think our camaraderie shows on stage.
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Kiran Ahluwalia is free-spirited like the wind which is expressed through her music. She says home is transient as she flip-flops between India and Canada but embraces both cultures. Her fast-gained reputation, down-to-earth personality, and enthralling voice make her a role-model for aspiring South Asian artists.
Kiran’s new album “Aam Zameen - Common ground” will release January 4, 2011. Fans can expect sounds of African Tuareg grooves while Kiran draws from the wellspring of her own musical language.
See Kiran perform live with the Rhythm of Rajasthan at Koerner Hall in Toronto on January 22, 2011.
Click HERE for tickets to the show.
MyBind.com is a proud sponsor of this event.
Written By: Ashna Regina Singh
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