Raised in a Carnatic household in Bangalore, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Anjali Manoharan has always moved through music as both refuge and rebellion. A powerful epiphany on a school stage showed her what the rest of her life would look like. She built that life on a strong foundation of Carnatic music, so she could layer it with experimentation, diverse vocal textures and rich harmonies. The result is an artist who is deeply content yet never stops surprising you.
As a musician, Anjali is not rooted in just one scene. She writes across genres, with jazz being a key influence. She exists in a fluid musical space and draws inspiration from many styles and from the independent artists who are currently thriving in India. As a music educator and independent artist, she treats her voice as an instrument to be layered, stretched and played with, using jazz as a language of vulnerability, healing and quiet resistance. With her upcoming EP, she steps further into that space and invites listeners into a new chapter of her journey in discovering both jazz and her own voice.
When Music Found Her
Music helped me cope with things that were too hard for me to process at the time. That was when I started writing songs, because there was so much turmoil inside me that kept building up throughout high school. Finally, it had an outlet, a way to come out of me, and I did not feel alone anymore. I think I wanted to give something back by helping people feel the same way: to not be alone with feelings you cannot name or that are too hard to process. With the songs I put out, I hope they soothe you, even if just a little.
Family, Curls and Polaroids
All of these songs are more or less an outlet, songs that were sitting in my chest for too long. Curls and Polaroids are quite opposite, with one being a really happy song and the other letting go of something you held so preciously, but I guess both of them are more like a release, something that you hold in your chest for too long, and you can no longer take it. Family is the same way and I would say a bit more nuanced as well because it talks more about the trauma you faced growing up, I’d really like to credit Sudu Shan for this song, he is the creator for this song and the whole idea of wanting to put out this message was his idea, he approached me and I found it very relatable. We met a lot of times just to discuss how to write the song and carefully craft it in a way that we both were satisfied. It was my first time collaborating with another artist and I’m really grateful that I got to work on it. I feel with all three songs it’s like a quiet rebel against a system that wants to keep all of this shut down and buried deep, feeling good about yourself, loving yourself, talking about generational trauma and how almost all of us go through it but somehow we are shunned to talk about it and accepting the fact that you feel jealous and emotions that are not really ‘acceptable’ but are still human. In fact, we should talk about it more often.
New Sound, New Journey
My upcoming album focuses a lot on healing and finding yourself in a place where you feel lost and also a lot on the fun in life that you have. This EP release mainly focuses on the sound that I want to put out; all of the releases are a bit different from each other, genre-wise, but I want to stand out with my sound as a contemporary singer-songwriter and this EP is more of an introduction to who I am and what kind of music I make. It’s only the start of the path I’m stepping into like setting out on a new journey.
Words Hansika Lohani
Date 28.4.2026
This is an article from the April EZ. For more such stories, read the EZ here.