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Shiva Machine
By Girish
Girish’s life journey has been marked by a series of profound transformations, unified by an underlying journey toward purpose. He has gone from aspiring jazz drummer to Hindi monk to first-call tabla guru for the likes of Krishna Das to solo mantra troubadour, and hes not done yet! Where the uninitiated might see restlessness in these transitions, Girish sees a commitment to continual refinement of his life purpose. In hindsight these changes seem drastic, but in the moment it was the only thing that could have happened. The calling was so strong, I really had no other choice. Girish. It should come as no surprise then that Girishs latest CD, Shiva Machine is all radical departure and simultaneous next step evolution. The musics mesmerizing trance-funk grooves and trip-hop devotional dirges boldly go where Sanskrit has never gone before. And while Producer Herb Graham, Juniors slinky grooves and Girishs smoky baritone feel and sound effortless, Girish reveals a process that wasn’t always comfortable.
“I knew I wanted to make a record that would reach out across the yoga divide. Then, as Shiva Machine started up, it became clear how much the music would ask of me. How much could I expand and surrender to let it come through? I felt like a woman in labour, learning to trust a process much bigger than me”. ~ Girish
If you want a taste of what boundless aesthetic possibilities sound like when they collide with Sanskrit chant, Shiva Machine is it.
1. Sita Ram
2. Shiva Shakti
3. Shiva Shambo
4. Narayani
5. Krishna
6. Hanuman 2
7. Ganapati
8. Govinda
9. Tara
10. Gayatri
ISBN: AMCD1118
Format: CD
About The Artist
For as long as he can remember, Girish has created rhythm to accompany life. When he was eight years old, his parents gave him a little red snare drum as a bargaining tool to stop him from banging on everything else in the house.
Drumming has always been instinctual to Girish, flowing freely from his fingers and knowing no musical bounds. In his teens, he started experimenting with pop, rock, jazz and orchestral music. His first experience of music as sacred art came in college, playing with jazz bands. “During improvisational sessions,” he recalls, “there were these unexplainable moments of synchronicity and intuition that felt like magic.”
These moments came just as Girish was feeling pulled toward a sacred life. A college philosophy class inspired him to explore spirituality through Kundalini yoga, meditation, and the study of Eastern scriptures. By the time of his college graduation, Girish was so deep into these practices that he decided to move into an ashram in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. Thus began an unexpected journey-a seeming detour that inadvertently nourished his musical artistry.
Girish lived in the ashram for five years, giving up music and taking the vows of a monk in the divine mother tradition called Dakshina Marg or Mahashakti Yoga. Yet, here, another compelling sound force emerged for Girish: the chanting of Sanskrit mantras. As a monk in the ashram he spent hours every day chanting. Girish also studied Sanskrit as a means to understand the deeper meanings of these ancient chants, and helped his teacher translate dozens of hymns.
He thought he had given up music for his spiritual practice, but one day he happened upon a set of tablas at the ashram and was instantly compelled to play them. This event set him on a life-changing course. Guided as always by rhythm, and now by his spiritual pursuits, Girish began to study tablas with Jagadessh in the nada yoga tradition (yoga of sound current), which emphasized the spiritual import of music. He also traveled to New York to learn the art of Indian drumming at Siddha Yoga Ashram.
After New York, Girish then hooked up with the musician and spiritual teacher Bob Kindler, known as Babbaji. “From Babbaji, I learned that sacred music is a viable outlet of spirituality, one that is profoundly uplifting and transformative,” says Girish. It became clear to him that his innate musical passions didn’t conflict with, but in fact lead to a spiritual livelihood. Traveling and performing with Babbaji helped cement this notion.
Girish also studied with legendary tabla master Swapan Chanduri at the Ali Akbar School of Music in Marin County, California. It was in northern California that Girish met other musicians at the forefront of the chant music explosion in this country. Krishna Das was just gaining popularity at that time and Girish played with him regularly. In this context, Girish was quickly introduced to a wider world of music for yoga. Soon he was accompanying many of the names in the yoga music genre, including Wah!, Dave Stringer, Thomas Barquee, Snatam Kaur, Shanti Shanti, Steve Ross, Swaha, and Rasa. His move to Los Angeles in 2000 brought him to the nation’s epicenter of chanting and world music.
Girish continues to explore and expand musical borders, and has found new avenues for his artistic expression. Yearning to express the power of Sanskrit mantras through his own voice has been a driving force behind his CD’s, Reveal, Shiva Machine, and his new release Diamonds in the Sun.
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