Carnatic music and jazz meet beautifully in Varijashree Venugopal’s world. As the Carnatic singer collaborated with the jazz-fusion collective Snarky Puppy at the GroundUP Music Festival in Miami, it felt less like a collision and more like a confluence of different forms of music. “Training in Carnatic music since childhood has helped me connect with many other forms of music in a meaningful way. I don’t feel I need to make an effort to preserve my identity wherever I go. Carnatic music is my mother tongue, the fundamentals are my alphabet,” explained the Mysuru-born singer.

The voice behind Teardrop and Chasing the Horizon, Venugopal’s signature style is Carnatic Scat. But it didn’t begin as a genre experiment. Instead, her style was born of curiosity.