Watch: New age band White Sun wins a Grammy for their album inspired by yoga bhajans
'The lyrics were pre-written for me by saints, sages, and yogis 5,000 years ago.'
White Sun, a Los Angeles-based band famous for their musical interpretations of Yogic mantras, has won the 2017 Grammy Award for Best New Age Album for their sophomore album White Sun II. The trio – comprising Gurujas, Hari Jiwan Singh Khalsa and Adam Berry – beat out fancied competitors like Irish singer-songwriter Enya and pianist John Burke to win their first Grammy Award.
The lyrics of their album come from Yoga bhajans and their vocalist is inspired by the philosophies of kundalini yoga. “I didn’t write any of the lyrics,” Gurujas told AXS in a 2016 interview. “They were pre-written for me by saints, sages, and yogis 5,000 years ago.”
Apart from that, the album features another Indian connection – tabla player Abhuman Kaushal, who belongs to the Farukkabad, Lucknow, and Ajrara schools. The Hyderabad-born musician is also a professor at the department of ethnomusicology, University of California, Los Angeles.
Berry composes the band’s music and is a two-time Emmy Award winner for his work on animated satire South Park. Vocalist Gurujas also teaches kundalini yoga.
Here is the title song of their Grammy Award-winning album, which reached No. 1 on Billboard charts for New Age music.