#Kula Shaker #psychedelic rock #neo-psychedelia #raga rock #post-Britpop #psychedelic revival #world music #1990s
By reviving the swirling, guitar-heavy sounds of late-'60s psychedelia and infusing it with George Harrison's Indian mysticism and spirituality, Kula Shaker became one of the most popular British bands of the immediate post-Brit-pop era. More musically adept and experimental than many of their contemporaries, Kula Shaker brought the overpowering rush of Oasis to psychedelia. Led by vocalist/guitarist Crispian Mills (born January 18, 1973; the son of '60s actress Hayley Mills and film director Roy Boulting), Kula Shaker were initially a psychedelic quartet called the Kays, which formed in 1993. In addition to Mills, the Kays featured his teenage friend Alonza Bevan. The two had previously played together in a band named Objects of Desire; during that time they also ran a psychedelic nightclub in the back of an ice rink. Following the dissolution of Objects of Desire, Mills made a spiritual pilgrimage to India, and upon returning he formed the Kays with bassist Bevan, drummer Paul Winter-Hart, and vocalist Saul Dimont. Within a year, Dimont had left and organist Jay Darlington had joined the band; prior to joining the group, Darlington had played in several mod revival bands. After spending two years touring and recording, releasing two EPs on Gut Reaction Records, the group had not made any headway. According to Mills, the band changed its name and direction in the spring of 1995, when he had an epiphany that the group should be called Kula Shaker after a ninth century emperor and pursue a more spiritual direction. For the next three months, they performed as Kula Shaker, and they quickly received a record contract with Columbia, which was eager to sign another band that had the multi-platinum crossover appeal of Oasis. From: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/kula-shaker-mn0000776408/biography
Kula Shaker’s Crispian Mills, now 27, is the son of actress Hayley Mills, so he met a lot of artists (including David Gilmour) when he was growing up in the '70s and '80s. Some of those artists introduced him to Indian music and philosophy when he was only 10, and by the time he was 16 an interest had grown into an obsession. "I finally got on a plane to India when I was 20," he says. "When I got there, I was very lucky to meet people who understood the best aspects of India, especially the older devotional traditions. I was lucky because India is sinking more and more under the weight of the industrial world we live in. A lot of the time they don't notice the treasures they've got because they want to stock up on Coca-Cola and get a satellite TV. I don't know how long it will last, but it's still there." Mills didn't become a classical Indian musician, however. Instead he tried to integrate elements of Indian culture into the rock'n'roll he had grown up with. He found that the droning guitar tones and repeating rhythms of psychedelic-rock were especially easy to blend with Indian music. "Because psychedelia in its purest sense, putting aside all the drug associations, is about mind expansion, it fits in nicely with the Indian concept of transcendence. Both want to take us beyond what we already know into fresh territory, fresh experience, a fresh outlook. They complement each other.” "The world has shrunk to the size of an orange," he adds, "so we're rediscovering our planet and all these interesting people in different places. In the West, we have a monopoly on technology, but we have a lot to learn in other areas. And we should learn it before it disappears forever." From: https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1999/07/09/kula-shaker-what-a-concept/1baea3a4-0d82-4b3f-b7dc-b923da508b7e/
