Darbuka Siva

Darbuka Siva is an Indian musician, filmmaker and actor based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

Starting out as a drummer/percussionist, he went on to acting, writing and directing films which have won awards in film festivals in Europe and London.

Siva grew in the suburbs of what was then North Madras.

Siva was aware of his music calling early on during schooling, but was not able to do much because of the middle-class situation at home.

But soon, Siva started learning and playing music on his own interest.

In 1999, he managed to buy a basic drum kit and began playing on his own.

From there on, it was a classic case of one thing leading to another.

Siva started his performing career in 2000 with 'Oikyotaan', an experimental Bengali Baul music band led by Bonnie Chakraborty, who was also Siva's musical mentor.

This experience pretty much shaped up Siva's musical approach and also had a major influence on many of his future projects.

In 2002, during his final year in college Siva had to bunk all of his final year's exams to make himself available for an Oikyotaan tour.

That marked the end of his academic duties.

Siva initially started out as a drummer, but soon he found himself hooked towards hand percussions, especially South American and African percussions.

With the help of some Latin music cassettes and directions from Bonnie, he started playing congas and timbales.

That process led him to more percussion instruments like Djembe, Udu and Darbuka.

In 2003, he met Tanvi Shah, who also shared similar musical interests with Siva.

Together, they formed 'Zahrra', a band that performed popular music from all around the world.

Soon, the band became famous in the Chennai music scene for performing South American, Cuban, African and Arabic music in the local stages.

It also gave a huge recognition for Siva as a drummer and a percussionist and also gave him the tag 'Darbuka' because he was one of the few who played the Egyptian percussion instrument back then in the Chennai music scene.

It all actually started with a DJ friend of Siva who printed the show's paraphernalia with the name 'Darbuka' Siva on it for the first time.

In 2005, Siva formed 'Yodhakaa', which initially started off as an experimental band that primarily worked with Indian classical music with a contemporary approach.

Yodhakaa's sound was ever evolving as a result of collaborations with various musicians.

In 2010 Yodhakaa started working with ancient Indian Sanskrit texts, layering it with musical influences borrowed from all over the world.

This experiment set up the sound that made Yodhakaa famous in the contemporary music scene.

Purple Note, a record company that supported independent musicians in the country, signed Yodhakaa.

The eponymous album came out in 2010, garnering rave reviews from the critics and the music fanatics for its sensible approach to contemporary Indian classical music.

In 2010, Siva created La Pongal, a platform for contemporary folk music.

La Pongal was born out of Siva's extensive research work on traditional Tamil folk musicians and their history behind the music.

Siva visited villages of South Tamil Nadu to research and document Tamil folk music and the folk culture.

This work paved way for the material that would later become a huge part of La Pongal's sound.

Soon La Pongal became a well-known performing unit that featured traditional Tamil folk musicians collaborating with modern sounds.

The band became a huge hit on the festival circuit for its tantalizing folk rhythms and blazing energy on stage.

La Pongal released its first album in 2012 January on Pongal Day, which is an important harvest festival for Tamils.

The band is actually named after this festival with a slight international tweak.

The album features around 70 traditional folk musicians from various parts of the state belting it out with a bunch of contemporary musicians covering different styles of Tamil folk music.

It was a first-of-its-kind album that was lapped up by the independent music lovers in India.

La Pongal also went on with Anthony Daasan to feature in MTV Coke Studio India representing Tamil Folk music in the national stage alongside Usha Uthup.

La Pongal and Anthony Daasan were also featured in The Dewarists, a musical television series in India.

The series is part music documentary and part travelogue.

The show casts musicians from various parts of the world, collaborating to create original music while traveling across India.

La Pongal collaborated with Shaa'ir and Func, an alternate electronic music duo from Mumbai.