SHALINI – Now available to Listen, Love and Buy
Digital album only $5 / Individual tracks $1 (hmm, dollar store or great music, dollar store or great music?)
“Freeze Up” – a loverly free download
Badadum-blah-blah... Dadadum-daaah-di-dah... Badadum-blah-blah...
Behind the Scenes: A World of Smiles – BC Children’s Hospital Telethon
I got the wonderful opportunity to perform at the "A World of Smiles" telethon and today was the pre-taping of the musical entertainment! I was really lucky to have my good-looking + talented friends join me on stage and I have to say that this was hands down the best rendition of "Book of Dreams" ever! Anywho, here's what the studio looked like - when we were taping, there were four different cameras and a crew of at least 12 people... and an audience! I had so much fun... but yup, the best part was singing with my insanely talented friends!
These are my friends! And trust me, I'm not exaggerating when I say that they are all INSANELY talented...
Mother’s Day Special
Mother's day is just around the corner (Sunday, May 13th, 2012!) so I wanted to share my favorite Mother's Day TV special, courtesy of the Rugrats!
Here's Part 1:
Here's Part 2:
I know what I'll be getting my mom for her present... I'll be picking it up on Sunday and I'll do a blog post after I pick it up - I think my mom will be stoked! What are you getting your mom? I'm not a fan of doing the whole "dinner-in-a-restaurant" thing... it's always so packed and hurried... maybe I'll make a nice dinner at home with my sister... hmmmm. What are your plans?
xo Shalini
My Tea Leaves Reading
My friend Faith and I spent an afternoon reading tea leaves. Faith is a natural psychic and she's totally in tune with her 6th sense... she's amazes me with her gift all the time! We've never done tea leaves readings before, but we tried it out for fun anyway.
We cut open a "Stash" green tea bag and mixed it in with a cup of hot water. It took a while for the leaves to settle to the bottom, but once it did, it was pretty easy to drink without sucking up any stray leaves. After drinking it, we swished the contents in the cup around 3 times in a counter clockwise motion. Lastly, we turned the cup upside down on a saucer so the excess water drained out.
Here's what my first cup looked like:
These are some symbols that Faith saw in my cup (we did two readings each):
Peak Performance Submission
This is my video submission for the Peak Performance Project 2012. I'm so excited to be given the opportunity to apply to such an amazing program! Best of luck to all the applicants - may the best musicians make it to the top 20! Please like, comment and share...and don't forget to subscribe to my youtube channel!
A special thank you to Vikaash Prasad (www.THiNKViK.com) for putting together this beautiful video and for inviting Cookie Monster to the stage!
Have You Not Heard?
Spice Girls Cover + Puzzleroot!
I got to perform at the Trees Coffee House on Granville Street last Friday in the company of some amazing musicians, and cheesecake/java lovers! My mom, dad and sister came to support and so did a bunch of my incredibly talented friends! Here's a video of a special Spice Girls cover that I performed that night - thank you to everyone who sang along and thank you to Vikaash for putting together this loverly video!
Puzzleroot was the third group that performed that night - I really like their eclectic-folky sound - some of their songs remind me of Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks. I was browsing online and I found a "preview" of their upcoming music video...pretty awesome stuff!
Best of luck on your tour Puzzleroot!
I Will Survive – Live at Falconetti’s with Brendan Mooney
I had the wonderful opportunity to perform a cover of "I Will Survive" at Falconettis with my talented friend Brendan Mooney! I lucked out that night too because one of the best photographers in town came and took a video of our performance! - Thank you for the amazing video Vikaash!
Thanks for checking out my cover guys <3 - let me know what you think. More to come soon!
Had so much fun playing with you, Brendan - can't wait to share the stage with you again!
<3 S
Treadmill Tunes
I couldn't spend a minute over 5 on the treadmill if I didn't have some good tunes to get me through. Here is my current playlist:
Human Nature - Madonna
Congratulations Dasounda!!!!
I'm so extremely happy for my friend, Dasounda Kalar - he got the supporting character role on a Bollywood film and today I got to see him on the big screen of his big movie premier! He did a kick-ass job (I wouldn't expect anything less!) and he did exceptionally on his homework and developing his "gangster-villan" character. Over celebration lunch (dosas) he told me that he worked over 11 hours a day on his big fight scene (that scene gave me chills!)... now that's dedication. He's a natural method actor and he said it took him awhile to get out of character after two months of continuous shooting.
Here's the trailer. It's playing at the Strawberry Hills cinema in Surrey right now. Dasounda told me that the film is playing in 155 different theatres (85 of those theatres are in India) internationally.
Tea Cupboard Spice Magick!
I'm starting a White Magick cupboard! Right now its just a bunch of tins and plastic containers in a paper bag, but I'll find a place for my tea/spice/herb collection soon.
So why am I starting a Magick cupboard? A couple people I really care about have high cholesterol and I'm determined to help them lower it naturally. Was researching online to see what would be good to help lower the bad and raise the good and I stumbled across Cayenne Pepper, White Tea and Green Rooibos Tea.
CAYENNE PEPPER:
The Perfect Bunny Name!
I think I've come up with the perfect name for my future pet bunny! ...but before I share, I'd like to share some names that my facebook friends came up with (P.S. I added pictures that I thought would fit the name choice...)
1. Bunny (by Isabel Porter)
www.cutestuff.co
“Freeze Up” – a loverly free download
From the bottom to the very top of my heart, I present to you a limited time free mp3 download of "Freeze Up" -- a song about the guy or girl who gets you shy, but makes you want to sing from green grass to bright blue skies.
Now on iTunes and Amazon!
Get your digital fix on your lovable portable device for 99¢ a song!!!
Press: Tunes News (Album Review)
By John Frazzetta of WMG (Wasabi Media Group), here's a review of the Shalini EP for Tunes News. John gives the Shalini EP 3/3 music notes, "Own It - you should pick one up"
So...what are you waiting for? PICK ONE UP! :)
When it comes to writing about pop music, sometimes the easiest way to describe something is to relate it to something else that is popular. Easy enough, right? Well, yes, it is easy enough, but now I have pigeon-holed an artist to sound similar to a more popular artist in order to entice you to check out some new tunes. That doesn’t strike me as fair at all, but it is the easiest way out of a conversation. For this particular EP I’m going to ask you to keep Sara Bareilles and Zooey Deschanel in mind and not go much further than that.
This set of tunes comes from Vancouver, British Columbia instead of someplace in New Zealand. We should be happy that Shalini Kumar is pursuing her dream of recording music rather than becoming a successful accountant living on a farm on the opposite side of the world. I’ll never know how her number crunching skills are, so I’ll just have to tell you that she can sing very well.
I’ve stated before that I’m a sucker for well crafted pop songs, and this EP has five great examples. When a sad subject can make you tap your feet and bounce, you know someone is doing their job; which is why I like “Feeling Lonely”. Another interesting piece is how she incorporates other instrumentation into her music that reaches further than guitars and drums. Piano and string arrangements intertwine to help create a soothing backdrop, and you can hear the complexity grooving underneath the sweet vocals that want to whisk you someplace far away or take you somewhere dark and personal.
There are not a lot of songs on this EP, and my favorites are “Feeling Lonely”, “Freeze Up” and her best track, “Book of Dreams”. She has lofty ambitions to make it into the world of music, and you can’t help but cheer her on as she races toward her goal. It is refreshing to hear and see artists that don’t rely on costume changes, skimpy clothing and bad reputations in a tabloid to bolster their careers. For more information on Shalini check her website. Anyone that likes pomegranates, Mozart and violent video games can’t be all bad.
Source: Tunes News - http://tunesnews.com/shalini-ep-2011/
Winston Hauschild
Many fans have asked, "Who is Winston?"
And so, on the 13th day of the 12th month of the 11th year of this millennium, Vikaash Prasad and Shalini Kumar took part in conversation with one Winston Hauschild, producer (and guitarist, bass guitarist, synth keyboardist and glockenspiel-ist) of the Shalini EP.
Press: CJSF 90.1 FM Interview with Nick Pannu
On December 23 (last year), after the Indie Pop Vancouver show at the British Ex-Servicemen's Association, Nick Pannu of CJSF 90.1 FM conducted an interview which aired at 3:00pm today on 90.1 FM.
The original air date was December 26, 2011 -- there were some technical difficulties because Nick was all alone at the station, but he held the fort and it was surreal to hear the EP on the radio (again).
Here's the short version of the original airing on CJSF 90.1 FM:
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Press: VanMusic.ca / Indie Pop Vancouver – Dec. 2011
Featured in an article on VanMusic.ca as they present the Indie Pop Vancouver Series Vol. 10 on December 23, 2011.
It's at the British Ex-Servicemen's Association in Vancouver TONIGHT!!!
Tickets at the door for $5 (and beer for only $2).
They've also got the podcast of my radio session with Oswaldo, live at CiTR 101.9fm Vancouver on Dec. 20, 2011.
A Woman’s Crowning Glory…
...her hair! Here's a poem I wrote about my lovely locks - Girls, I'm sure you can relate!
|
My Do By: Shalini Kumar It's making an impression as I walk in the room My hair, whatever I do or dare Wigs you know I dig, they're a beauty definer Oh its a mindless affair My hair, whatever I do I dare It's naturally long with my high heels on My hair, whatever I do or dare |
An evening with Shalini
On Monday, I had the opportunity to perform at the Displace Hashery. I got to play 2 sets for a total of an hour - my longest gig yet (thank you Oswaldo!)! What was extra special for me, was that I knew just about every single face in the audience personally and it made me feel at home and at ease (Thank you Vikaash, Giselle, Michael, Anne, Quynh, Randy, Nick, Raymond, Man-Shun, Ike, Angee, Ganesh, Aubrina, Michelle, Grace, Jasel, Mrs. Vinci, Anish (and to Anish's awesome parents for picking up the food bill...you guys didn't have to do that) Mom, and Papa!) The bartender was super cool too and he bought a CD with the tips he collected that night - I thought that was so sweet. :)
Vik brought a couple of hand puppets that he picked up from Seattle. They have such unique personalities! He and my talented friend Nick improvised a puppet show for one of the songs - it was so cute...We're going to have to script out a youtube music video with them - it would be a shame not to show them off to the world!
A couple of friends from my old school came by and caught me by surprise - I hadn't seen them for almost 6 years! I wish I had more time to sit and talk, but will rest assured knowing that we'll be having an eggnog/pumpkin latte get together soon!
My friend, Raymond, took some pictures at the event. I think they turned out so beautiful - especially the ones with the puppets! What do you think?
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...or see me at my shows to get the beautiful, fancy-schmancy package with juicier-than-the-real-thing pomegranate CD!
Upcoming Shows
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sunny one so true, i love youuu
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heard Sting's Desert Rose on the radio... felt like a refreshing glass of honey and spice iced tea!
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Recent Entries
- Behind the Scenes: A World of Smiles – BC Children’s Hospital Telethon
- The Staff Meeting
- Mother’s Day Special
- My Tea Leaves Reading
- Peak Performance Submission
Recent Comments
- The Perfect Bunny Name! haha which one?
- The Perfect Bunny Name! Ah, I couldn't help but chuckle. One of my rabbits has hit the spotlight!
- Press: 101.9 FM Vancouver - First radio airplay!!! Awesomeee ... imagine how many people must have heard your music ... too cool
- An intimate EP release party - December 4, 2011 Awesome work Shalini! I love the album and the creative design/artwork done by Vik! Looking forward to seeing the mus...