Interview with Ramesh Kannan

(Editor's Note: If you saw Snatam Kaur on tour this year, you know who Ramesh Kannan is! Ramesh is Snatam's amazing percussionist and a dear friend to the Spirit Voyage family.)

Who is Urban Nature?

Urban Nature is a musical project started by me and Todd Boston. We bring in various artists throughout the country and all over the world to collaborate on our recordings and our live shows. It is an east-west fusion ensemble of acoustic ambient music. The idea is to integrate old instruments from sacred traditions…Indian, Native American, African…with modern day technology. During our live shows, we use a loop station, which is basically live multi-track recording machine. I’ll play a tabla beat, record it and then what was just played is played back to the audience in a loop. I’ll then jump onto another instrument, and play on top of what was just recorded. Todd does the same thing with his instrumentation of sarode, flutes and guitars. So what starts as a two-piece duo, turns into a 10-piece orchestra of sounds. We play with the energetics of music. Our album, Coming Home, is a great album for yoga studios, because it creates energetics for movement and healing… We’ve also been told its great to dance to!

What is your musical background?

I’ve been playing tabla since I was 7 years old. My mother is an accomplished South Indian vocalist, and started me on my musical path since I was in her womb. In my teens I branched out and really got into playing drum set in rock, hip hop and jazz styles. Later, I got back into my discipline playing traditional Indian music. I spent most of my time playing with artists on the East coast. Everything from coffee shops and clubs to festivals, theaters, and universities. Philadelphia, where I was living, has so much to offer in regards to arts and music. A major milestone in my music career was when joined Philly’s own 16-piece percussion orchestra called Spoken Hand. Sponsored by a government grant, it was formed to bring all types of drumming traditions together. It consisted of a five-piece West African drum ensemble, a three-piece tabla choir, three Cuban bata players, a five piece brazilian samba orchestra, and at times we added 7 break dancers from a dance troupe in New York city. We toured all around the country teaching and performing at universities, public school, and theatres. That was the richest, best music school I could have ever gone to. I was the kid…the rest of them were so accomplished. They really took me under their wings and molded me into the player I am today.

How did you start playing tabla with the Kundalini yoga community?

[Editor’s Note: Ramesh has played tabla with Snatam Kaur, Simrit Kaur, Prabhu Nam Kaur, Nirinjan Kaur and others.]

While playing with Spoken Hand, I was playing 5 nights a week and always teaching, touring, or recording. I was beginning to get burnt out. So I decided to go back to school. I went to massage school to get some healing for myself. Zakir Hussain was one of my teachers as a kid. I didn’t know he was one of the best in the world at the time, but later realized what a blessing it was to have him as a teacher. The last show I did with Spoken Hand was a show put together by Zakir Hussain, called Flamable drums. It all came full circle. I saw that show as the pinnacle of my career and shortly after left the group to go to school for massage. [During that time,] I got connected to the yoga community in Maryland. 7 or 8 years ago, there were some great Anusara teachers in Maryland, students of John Friend, and yoga music was not a happening thing then, but I started playing for their classes. A friend of mine, Wynne Paris, who lived in the area, introduced me to the kirtan world and I played locally with him while in massage school. He got me connected into the new age genre and landed me my first big kirtan, (outside of playing in the Hindu temples with my mom), with Krishna Das! I was totally blown away. There were over 400 people in the church! After that gig, I toured out west with Wayne Paris, to land me in Santa Cruz to attend Acupuncture School. To get through school, I had to put music on the backburner for a while. But music found me, as it tends to do. Your dharma always finds you. A friend of mine insisted that I meet her friend, Todd Boston. He had a gig at the local café and invited me to play on stage with him. So, I got on stage with this guy Todd Boston, and without any rehearsal, the music was totally seamless, like we had played together for 20 years. After that, we got together a bit to play. Now I was going to school out west, and he was living in Arizona, but he came out west to tour and record with me. One night, after seeing Ammachi during her Devi Bhava program we got inspired to do our first album, Global Village, and we laid it down in one week. During this time we learned that we were both from the same area of Philadelphia and had many friends in common. The universe certainly works in mysterious ways. Ever since that record it has been a musical marriage, everything has evolved from there. We are really close to the Anusara yoga community and have been fortunate enough to work with John Friend. I’ve been in the Bay Area now playing for about 6 or 7 years. In 2008, while finishing up my last year of school, I got a phone call from Guruganesha Singh asking me to join him and Snatam Kaur for a couple shows in the bay area. I had heard some of Snatam’s music, but I didn’t really know who they were. I did 2 shows in the Bay Area with them, and it was instant and easy chemistry. We all really loved the experience. Guruganesha called later and asked me to go on tour in 2009. I had just gotten married right before he asked me to do that, and I wanted to stay married haha! So I had to turn him down. I was so bummed! In 2009 I had graduated school and had been working non-stop as an acupuncturist, running a free clinic in the projects of San Francisco. Amazing work, amazing place, but very exhausting. My wife and I were visiting my brother and nephew during my Christmas vacation, and I just didn’t want to go back to work the next day. That night, the night before I had to go back, Guruganesha called and asked me if wanted to go on tour in 2010. Without any hesitation I said YES! It was amazing! The timing was impeccable and I toured with them this entire year. At this point I feel like we’re a big family. It’s been a great thing for my family and me. It is such a pleasure working with them. Everyone on the team are such genuinely great people, it really makes the tours enjoyable. During our February retreat in Costa Rica with Snatam, Robin [ed: Ramesh’s wife] and I conceived our first baby. Blue Spirit Retreat is such a phenomenal place…there is so much love and beauty in the air. And we conceived our baby boy there! [Ed: Baby Kannan is due around Thanksgiving … stay tuned!] Snatam and Guruganesha are so family-oriented, so it will work out that I can tour with them next year and still travel with my little boy and wife.

What’s coming up for you?

I’m working on recording a new album, a straight up drum album, that bridges drumming traditions from around the world. We’re in pre-production…its my first solo album. With the baby coming it’s a little crazy, but it should be out by March 2011.

Music for me is all about healing. I think drums are the best medicine. Whether it is acupuncture, massage or music…everything that I am doing is helping people and creating community through vibration and music. Something Todd and I do is bring music into hospitals…we love to bring healing through music to people who really need it. I bring drums, and Todd brings his flutes and we play for the kids in the ICU, and give them a chance to play together and have fun. It’s amazing how you can change the whole energy of the hospital and the patients, young and old, through music. Even the doctors and security guards get into it! It is in this way that I truly feel that music is one of the most potent forms of medicine in the world, and what fuels my desire to continually share music with the world.

(Editor’s Note: Ramesh Kannan has played with Krishna Das, Bhagavan Das, Rick Allen from Def Leppard, Snatam Kaur and Guruganesha Singh, Zakir Singh, Simrit Kaur, Jai Uttal, Suzanne Sterling, Deva Premal and Miten, Tina Malia, John Friend, Nirinjan Kaur, and Prabhu Nam Kaur. Watch for him on tour in 2011 with Snatam Kaur!)

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