About Shaia's Music

 

Genre of Music:

Shaia is a band which composes and produces ethnically influenced electronic music, especially world beat, dance and chillout tracks. Shaia's compositions are a juxtaposition of electronic riffs overlaid with real instrumentation, giving the tracks a rich and organic feel. Their tracks incorporate a wide variety of ethnic instrumentation, including traditional African percussion and Indian tabla, tampura, sitar and flutes.

Chris Stapelberg collects ethnic instruments, which he plays and records digitally at Shaia Studios in Australia. During his travels to India and Thailand Chris also digitally recorded local musicians playing traditional instruments. These ethnic sounds are blended with electronic beats and synthesized sounds, which form the foundation of Shaia's music.

Shaia's own vocalists are talented and versatile, often composing their own vocals in various languages. Shaia's lyrics are inspirational, uplifting and frequently incorporate chanted mantras or have a spiritual theme.

Members:

Kuljit Singh: Punjabi and English vocals. Kuljit writes her own vocals and frequently incorporates Punjabi religious chants, ethnic folk songs and poems into her vocals.

Roshan Singh: Hindi vocals.

Candice Espenschied: English Vocals, backing vocals.

Chris Stapelberg: Composition, instrumentation, sampling, production, and backing vocals, chants.

Special thanks to Anne Marie Forrest who composed and performed English vocals on "I Will Find You" and also provided backing vocals on several of Shaia's tracks.

Location:

 

Shaia Studios is based on the Gold Coast, Australia.

 

Influences:

Shaia's music incorporates a rich diversity of styles which reflects the wide-ranging and globe-spanning musical interests of its members.

Shaia's compositions reflect Chris's passion for techno, house, drum and bass, world beat and chillout music, as well as Kuljit's influences of Punjabi bhangra and religious music, Bollywood Hindi, techno, soul and pop. Roshan is influenced by several Indian styles of singing and music, ranging from mainstream Bollywood genres to more traditional ethnic vocal styles, whereas Candice loves modern western pop, including several currently popular Australian artists, as well as different genres of electronic music.