Indiva is one band who brings you a soulful, sonic journey that blends Hindustani, Carnatic, Elements of Jazz, Classical and World Music. Indiva which is probably the only all Women World Folk Fusion Band from India, is a culmination of women from different walks of life, and like their careers are different Indiva performs in 8 languages viz English, Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Konkani, Tamil, Kannada, Bengali, Swahili.

Their up tempo songs brings their multilingual music to life on stage by sharing personal stories and humorous anecdotes, speaking about love, peace, happiness, making the live experience, vibrant, interactive and colorful by the four glamorous divas from different fields of Music -  Merlin D’souza, Vivienne Pocha, Hamsika Iyer and Shruti Bhave.

The band consists of;

Merlin D’souza: India’s leading music director/pianist/composer who has lent her musical wizardry to Theatre, Advertising, Corporate, Bollywood, films, music albums and concerts globally. She helms the band and composes and produces the music of Indiva.

Vivienne Pocha: Much acclaimed Western vocalist is a recipient of the JD Rolling Stones Award for the best female vocalist, a stalwart in theatre, advertising, film and concerts

Hamsika Iyer: People know her as the Chammak Challo girl who sang this famous song in SRK’s ‘Ra One’ and the hit 1234 Get on the Dance Floor from ‘Chennai Express’. Besides this she has lent her vocals to World famous Electronica band Juno Reactor. She has received 3 State awards for the Best Female Playback Singer and also won the Best Female Singer award at the Mirchi Awards

Shruti Bhave: An all round artiste, she plays the violin in Carnatic and Western styles and records for Bollywood films too, in addition she is a trained Indian Classical singer and dancer.

We had had reviewed their album in our CD Review section sometime back. Now Dannie Pitter from Musicunplugged managed to also meet the four young ladies at a music event to know just a wee bit more about the band.

Tell us about how the four of you got together as a band.

Vivienne Pocha: Indiva was formed like the game of tic tac toe. It’s been over four years now. Merlyn and I go way back, we were doing also of blues jazz shows together. Merlyn andHamsi had a different connection with jingles and film music. When the three of us got together it just felt right as a band, but we still needed that one more connection. Shruti comes from the Hindustani school of music. So we fit beautifully balanced. We are like elements of nature.

Apart from Indiva what other work are you’ll engaged in?

Merlyn: We all have our own solo careers.

When you’ll write your music who would you say is the heart of it? Is it an individual effort or group?

Vivienne Pocha: It’s definitely a group effort, but certain parts like the melody and ideas come from each one of us however it is musically translated by Merlyn.

Being an all girl band would you say you have a greater advantage in the music industry as there are very few girl bands?

Merlyn: We feel it is a cultural ideology as girls aren’t encouraged enough. Especially in this line, so we would say we are few and far between. But it’s nice to know that today music is a career that people are taking up and choosing as a viable mode to earn a living.

Where do you get the ideas and lyrics for your unique choice of songs?

Vivienne Pocha: It’s the country India, it’s so diverse. Our songs are folk; you’ll hear us doing Gujarati, Tamil, Kannada, and Marathi. India is so big it inspires us most definitely.

So the name Indiva is inspired by?

Merlyn: Indiva is short for Indian diva. It’s a beautiful name inspired by our own country.

If you would like to know more about their album, read their review by clicking on the link below:

http://www.musicunplugged.in/reviews/cd_reviews_info/4/50

Interviewed by Dannie Pitter