About Susheela Raman

Susheela Raman (b. 1973) is a singer of Indian descent. Raman was born in London, later emigrating to Australia with her family. In Australia she studied classical South Indian song and began giving performances. She then began working with Western forms including rock and soul, while continuing to study classical Indian music with Shruti Sadolikar. Her desire to mix Indian with Western music resulted in her first album, Salt Rain, in 2001, followed by Love Trap in 2003. In 2005, she released Music For Crocodiles. The basis of the album was recorded in Britain (Wiltshire in September 2004); the work was continued the next month with Indian musicians and mixed in Los Angeles. In 2006 Susheela was again nominated for BBC World Music Award and was the subject of a one hour documentary by French-German TV Channel ARTE, called 'Indian Journey' directed by Mark Kidel. In the same year she independently recorded 33 1/3, which is a set of re-imaginings of music from the sixties and seventies. Artists covered include Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Velvet Underground, Captain Beefheart, Can, Joy Division and Throbbing Gristle. The album features long term collaborators Sam Mills on guitar, Vincent Segal on Cello, and tabla player and percussionist Aref Durvesh. The album was released in April 2007 in France. In 2011 she released the album Vel. Susheela continues to research and discover music from South India, studying in 2007 with the Bhakti singer Kovai Kamla.