Gayathri Krishnan’s Upcoming R&B Single Is An Experimental Love Letter To Carnatic Music

Most people don’t realise that the best vocalists are like athletes. Vocal training is about learning how to utilise your body properly; you have to strengthen, stretch, and exercise the right muscles to create the sound you want. This is why a singer’s technique, how they’re programmed to sing, shapes the music they make. Just as a ballerina, whose muscles are precisely attuned to their delicate dance form, may struggle with hip-hop choreography, a singer’s primary style bleeds through in their vocals, whether they’re singing an operatic aria or a bubblegum pop song. 

When I first found Gayathri Krishnan’s music back in 2020, I could tell she was a student of Carnatic music through her vocals alone. Her first EP, ‘Create To Express’, fused an ethereal pop-RnB with elements of Indian Classical music, seamlessly bridging Eastern and Western sounds. Her classical training was obvious through her vocal flexibility, as she explored complex melodies and dipped in and out of semitones with ease. In the five years since its release, Krishnan has continued to experiment with genre, moving into sensual, playful RnB and neo-soul while maintaining her homegrown flair.

Considering how glaringly different Carnatic and Western music are in their melodic and rhythmic properties, Krishnan’s ability to bridge those two worlds is exciting, to say the least. Though Krishnan was raised in Irvine, California and is now based in LA, she revered Carnatic music while growing up. At just four years old, Krishnan started taking classical vocal lessons, ultimately causing her to fall in love with music as a form of expression. The singer-songwriter also cites L. Subramaniam’s performance of the Raga Charukesi on the violin at the Royal Albert Hall as transformative to her craft, telling Homegrown, “The performance grounds me and connects me deeper to myself. It's pure euphoria listening to the different ways he is improvising with the notes of the scale.” Krishnan’s love for her roots seeps deeply into whatever she makes, as she told us her integration of Carnatic styles into her music is “more of an intuitive choice than a planned one,” and something that is “always subconsciously woven into [her] singing.”

Krishnan’s upcoming single, ‘Made It’, seems to be the singer-songwriter’s greatest love letter to Carnatic music yet. Releasing on April 18, 'Made It' is a genre-melding track that was made in collaboration with pianist Riccardo Gresino. Krishnan describes the song as a fusion of Carnatic music, RnB, neo-soul, jazz, and blues, making it one of her most experimental songs yet. While working on ‘Made It’, Krishnan felt moved to incorporate an improvisation of the Kalpana Swaras into the song, leading into a second half that she says, “transports the listener to a different world, and then brings you back.” 

Thematically, ‘Made It’ is an ode to creativity and measuring success based on self-fulfilment rather than numbers and virality. To Krishnan, “The record is a reminder to block out the noise, and savour the process as it's equally maybe even more gratifying than the destination.” Her sonic experimentation and incorporation of her culture into her music is a testament to this message. The best art is made when it feeds its creator's soul rather than when it is geared towards profitability. Krishnan uses her music as a vessel for her story, and as she says, “The rest is up to the universe.”

Pre-save ‘Made It’ here. 

Follow Gayathri Krishnan here. 

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