Part 1

Name: Anushka Manchanda aka Kiss Nuka

Nationality: Indian
Occupation: Producer, DJ, vocalist, songwriter
Current Release: Kiss Nuka's Serpentine EP is out now.
Recommendations: Our surroundings and state of mind influence our art. So I will recommend a bunch of books: The Life Changing Magic Of Tidying Up, The Brain, Ikigai, Seva. These are not pieces of art, but tools to develop ourselves and our lives so we are in the peak condition to produce pieces of art.

If you enjoyed this interview with Kiss Nuka and would like to stay up to date with her music, visit her official website. She is also on Instagram, Soundcloud, and Facebook.



When did you start writing/producing/playing music and what or who were your early passions and influences? What was it about music and/ or sound that drew you to it?

I grew up listening to my parents' collection of rock and roll. My mother was an airhostess and my father was a sailor, and this was music they had acquired on their travels around the world. We would have these post-dinner dancing sessions, listening to all the usual suspects: Jimi Hendrix, Deep Purple, The Police, Iron Butterfly, Led Zeppelin.

When I was 4, my mother saved up money to buy me a second hand piano, and by the age of 15 I was playing a bit of guitar and some drums, too. My parents have played a huge part in shaping me into the musician I am today.

When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening and how does it influence your approach to creativity?

It seems like you are a very visual person! That’s cool! I’m curious … do you dress well? I saw a Ted talk where the speaker was talking about people who experience life in visuals, or remember things from the past with visual references, and that they usually dress well.

For me it’s the feeling that a piece of music or a sound can give me, leading into a physical reaction. Scrunching up my face, bobbing my head in double time. When I like something, you can see it on my face.

I practice alternative healing, working with crystals and quantum healing. So I use sound as a way to heal myself and my space. I have an album called the Mahamrityunjay Mantra, which breaks down one of the most powerful hindu mantras for us to understand and how we can apply it for ourselves.



I also play a lot of different frequencies in my space to clear out negative energies or raise vibrations.

Here’s a tip: on YouTube search for ‘clear negative energies’ for a 1 hour 11 minute 11 seconds (yeah yeah 111111) audio of the sound of a Tibetan Bowl. Super minimal and really warm.

Then, I live for the dance floor. The feeling I have when I’m dancing, everyone’s hearts in sync with the bass, its epic. These days that’s what’s inspiring the new music I’m making.

How would you describe your development as an artist in terms of interests and challenges, searching for a personal voice, as well as breakthroughs?

I was a part of the commercial Indian music industry for over a decade and a half. I started out in an all girl pop band, totally on a lark, and then went on to have a pretty successful career in television, film, Bollywood music. I was 18 when I started, and I was going with the flow.

There was a moment in my late 20s when I opened Bhanumati Ka Pitara, the Indian version of Pandora’s box. I started to pay attention to what was happening around me. Inequality, animal cruelty, the destruction of the environment. It was an awakening. And it was pretty rough. I started to see the cracks in the system that I was a part of, and it took me many years to finally pull myself out of it.

I created this new artist name Kiss Nuka to separate myself from all the work I did before as a work-for-hire artist. I wanted to express myself freely, without restriction or censorship, to do what the f... I wanted to. To use my art as a tool to talk about the things that mattered to me. I taught myself everything so I didn’t have to depend on anyone else. I was producing the music, directing and editing the videos and my works "Dakini", "Don’t Be Afraid", "Ayo Burn", "Kashmir" are all shining examples of that.



I started creating photo stories, shifting between media to say what I needed to. My work has been recognised around the world, featured amongst artists I love and respect. This has been very encouraging.

Tell me a bit about your sense of identity and how it influences both your preferences as a listener and your creativity as an artist, please.

When I started to produce music, I was running away from my roots. It was tiring to hear people, especially people from outside India, recommend to me that I make music that had ‘Indian influences’. Made me want to scream.

Now, as I get older, I find myself going back to my roots, discovering and embracing them in my own way, as opposed to having them shoved down my throat. I also find that I cannot really separate the artist, the activist, and the human. I am all of it, all at once. Then the art I create becomes an outlet of expression for everything that I am.

As a listener I am a musician first..and absorb sound without an agenda or trying to attach meaning to it.

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music and art?

Currently I find myself writing about the feminine. I believe that for us to survive on this planet, we all need to tap into our feminine energies of healing, compassion, nurturing, creativity. This EP will be released sometime in the next two years.

I often write music with nature in mind and heart. "Serpentine" has the snake symbolising healing, grounding, shedding of skin, appreciation and reverence of nature and all its beings. “I Love The Drive” was about illicit relationships, something I considered too frivolous a topic to write about in the past, but produced and released because I am now allowing myself to be more personal with my subjects.

In the end, I want to say something.

How would you describe your views on topics like originality and innovation versus perfection and timelessness in music? Are you interested in a “music of the future” or “continuing a tradition”?

I am totally disinterested in boxes. By that I mean that I am interested in the music, no matter what bracket it falls into. There is music I can hear now which sounds dated, but is nostalgic and has such wonderful memories attached to it.

Of course I want to make music that is timeless, but I’m not thinking about that when I am writing or producing it. Does it make my ears tickle with pleasure? Then bring it on! The rest is just classification, and to some extent can be subjective.

Over the course of your development, what have been your most important instruments and tools - and what are the most promising strategies for working with them?

At the risk of sounding like a complete hippie, it's my heart, and its connection with the Universe. I find that the universe is always giving us signs, we just need to pay attention.

Going vegan helped me to remove all the dark and deeply suffering energies of the animals I was consuming, like a complete clean up, and opened my channels to receive.

I also have this one method I apply to my work and will share with whomever is willing to listen. It's called Dynamic Structure For Limitless Flow, something I learned years ago from a friend just as I was starting this project. This means that you make plans for your life and work, a kind of structure, if you will. That allows you to flow in a direction, preventing you to go all over the place.

The key here is that the structure is dynamic. Meaning that it can change at any point. You can pivot at any point. This approach has been amazing for me.