Sisters Sara Gracey and Andrea Santos were exposed to many different religions, cultures and types of spirituality growing upโone of them being a spiritual experience led by an Indian priest chanting the 5,000-year-old language Sanskrit.
They found the Sanskrit chanting captivating and incredibly beautiful when they first heard it at the ages of 7 and 9, and they wanted to replicate it through song ever since then. At such a young age, they found reading, writing and chanting Sanskrit easy to learn, so the two decided they wanted to expose other people to the beauty of the language.
According to Santos, Something Beautiful, the latest album by their duo Shanti Shanti, was created to be user-friendly, so itโs easy for people to follow along with the Sanskrit chanting. In each song thereโs also an English translation, so the words from the ancient chants are easy to interpret and help deliver positive messaging to the listener.
โWe wanted the really high positivity, really feel-good music and that spiritualness, that gentle spiritualness,โ said Santos.
The second track โWho Am Iโ focuses on how life gets complicated and how people may find themselves lost spiritually, but to Santos, you canโt lose yourself to all of the negativity cluttering your mind, otherwise you lose perspective.
โThe language of your heart gets replaced by all this stuff in your head,โ said Santos.
Gracey said the album was recorded to be as organic as possible. They left a lot of natural sounds, like breathing or a babyโs hiccup, to give it a more human element rather than editing it out for the sake of perfection. โWe didnโt take out [noises] intentionally,โ said Gracey, โA lot of [the recording] was done with children around.โ
In the past, this influence of Sanskrit in music has been popularized by artists like the Beatles. The song โAcross the Universeโ contains the Sanskrit phrase โJai Guru Deva Omโ (“I give thanks to Guru Dev”). What Gracey and Santos did with their music was chant Sanskrit with original pronunciation but new harmonies to make the music their own.
Santos and Gracey were singing before they could even remember. Their parents built Grannyโs House Recording Studio and passed on their knowledge of production to Santos, who did most of the production on Something Beautiful. Collectively, Santos and Gracey play piano, drums, violin and cello on the album in addition to singing and songwriting.
Their brother, Micah Forman, can be heard singing on the album, and their father, Robert Forman, played guitar and helped with production, too. In addition, Lane Cameron assisted with the mastering.
The sisters say that because theyโre a spiritually-driven band, theyโre able to incorporate many different cultures and religions into their music. Santosโs Catholic church choir chanted Sanskrit on the album. The duo have also performed for a wide variety of events like Buddhist ceremonies and Quinceaneras.
As part of the release of Something Beautiful, the band has created a project called Feed Your Soul, Feed the World. Part of the proceeds from CD sales will go to charities who work to feed hungry families.
โNow that we have families, weโve realized, โHow do you work on your own enlightenment, how do you work on your own spirituality when you canโt even feed your kid?’,โ Santos said.ฮฉ