move forward. Slowly but surely we’re
moving towards our dream!
Many of our readers have often been
curious to know the philosophy behind
the dress, styling and choices of
accessories with which you perform
on stage. Is it a manifestation of
your inward meditations with the
philosophies attached to your music or
is it an outcome of something else?
Uma: Some ideas are mine and some of
them were produced with other stylist-
image makers. Usually I’m getting
inspired by attributes and symbols of
Vedic culture while studying Vedic
scriptures in India. Then I add some
of Western fashion trends to those
looks. Such top-rated designers as I ra
Butleska ( NDI) , Konstantin Borovski
, Dara Duhnovska and Mari Mir brand
help me to make my ideas come true.
Your music is pretty unique and mostly
caters to a niche audience, how difficult
has been for you to become all inclusive
and acceptable?
There are things that we can’t control.
Such as talent, charisma and ability of
being acceptable. Naturally we attract
people that are resonating with our
music and lifestyle. We just do what we
do, what makes us happy. And people
feel that even if they don’t understand
meaning of Mantras.
You never fail to surprise as a band, tell
us something about your Yoga tours? Is
this an extension of your exercise with
Vedic culture?
The main program of our tours
includes Vocal Yoga classes running
by Uma and daily Mantra Jams by
Shanti People. We are organizing
these Yoga-tours because we want to
share the knowledge we got from our
Gurus with other people. And also
it’s a great opportunity for our fans
to communicate with us in informal
atmosphere, to try work out their voice
and to do Yoga with mind-kinds in a
beautiful place.
Tell us something about the Vedic parties?
We love to party, but unfortunately
there aren’t so many well-organized
parties in our country for those
who don’t eat meat & drink alcohol.
So we’ve decided to make parties
ourselves for us and people like us.
Every year we surprise people with
the new concept and thematic décor
& dress code (For example White New
Year or Family New Year). But the pith
remains unchanged - at midnight we
celebrate New Year by Mantra-singing.
What about your tryst with India,
when are you planning to tour the sub
continent with your music?
Bo: Different organizers (as
independent organizers of trance-
parties as booking or event agencies)
are contacting us all the time. To our
regret none of them are interested
enough to bring Shanti People to India.
All of the process stops on the phase of
negotiations pretty soon. But we hope
that someday some kind man will make
such a gift for our Indian fans and
organize our tryst with them.
As a band what kind of music do
you follow?
For 10 years we've been experimenting
with different music genres, combining
Vedic hymns with EDM, drum ‘n’ base,
trip hop, dub. But most likely this year
we’ll be working on psy-trance genre.
Also we have a side-project called
‘’Pianagi’’ – this is a unique creative
experiment of Uma and pianist Oleg
Pashkovski, wherein melodies of
Indian ragas are being interflowed
with the sounds of Western chords.
This winter we made a chamber
performance of ‘’Pianagi’’. In the
nearest future we’ll present concert
film that was shot that day. Beside
that there is an acoustic format called
‘’Mantra Jam’’. For the Mantra Jam we
invite different interesting musicians
and together we perform a kirtan with
the audience.
Is there any musician or band of singers
that you draw your inspiration from?
Uma: Björk, Massive Attack,
James Blake, Nitin Sawhney,
Uma Mohan, Aruna Sairam, Kaya
project, Hariprasad Chaurasia, Zakir
Hussain, Susheela Raman and other
EDM representatives.
Where do you plan to go with your
music in the future?
We’re planning to continue
collaboration with po pular electronic
artists and making our project known
worldwide.
Any final words for your listeners back
in India.
Thanks to our Indian listeners for
their wild feedback on the Internet (no
matter is it positive or not). We hope to
please you with the liveshow of Shanti
People someday. Not a long time ago
our music has become available on all
the possible music platforms such as
iTunes, Deezer, Spotify etc. so till our
real meeting you can enjoy our music
digital. Your support is important for
us! See you!
The
Score Magazine
highonscore.com
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