It’s not unusual for you to feel a surge of positivity while chatting with Kartika Nair. The 25-year-old is a self-help guru and personal development coach whose spiritual video discourses put you at ease, after all.
The Bengalurean who started out as a cover artiste almost a decade ago, even singing in the lead for many an old Bengaluru band, finally found her voice as Synchroshakti. After rocking out to kirtan rock and higher conscious music sets, Kartika is now taking on reggae and her first album Love Unites Us is all set for release.
“This album is about one’s spiritual journey to self discovery and oneness. It is about reuniting with our own spirit, that of the universe, and with each other - a call to a spiritual revolution if you will,” she tells us about the 12 tracks that will be released as singles over the year and compiled into an album eventually.
Describing her sound as ‘positive, uplifting vibrations’, Kartika rightfully draws inspiration from conscious musicians like Trevor Hall and Dustin Thomas, kirtan rockers such as Deva Premal, Jai Uttal and Ram Das and modern reggae artistes who bring a unique vocal twist to roots music - Jah Cure, Sara Lugo and Kabaka Pyramid.
You may think that kirtan rock and reggae as a genre are on the opposite ends of the spectrum, but you’d be surprised how much they have in common! “Reggae is a musical tool of revolution, freedom, change, unity, oneness, love and positivity.
Its music has a very grounding energy field because the bass is the core aspect of the music, something that resonates through the body. Reggae as a genre, is not only heard, but felt and experienced in the physical body, especially when played on a proper Jamaican style sound system,” she explains.
The musician who also doubles as a music teacher believes that she received a lot of healing from the genre and that led her to choose it and use it as a tool to help others too.
Up until high school, Kartika was a dancer. “I always dreamt of being in a band. It was only in middle school when a music teacher said she loved my voice and I realised it was easy for me to pick up notes that I took to it,” she confesses.
After attracting what she calls ‘wrong people with harmful intentions’, battling with rejection and trauma, she is now a popular YouTuber with a channel bustling with content and thousands of followers from across the world. Now, as she unwinds with chamomile tea, she looks nothing but content.
“I will also be performing at Goa Sunsplash, India’s best reggae music festival in January. There are also a lot of collaborations with producers and artistes from Europe and the Caribbean,” says Kartika, with eyes fixed on the future.
