Life & Work with Prana Kishore Bommireddipalli

Today we’d like to introduce you to Prana Kishore Bommireddipalli.

Hi Prana, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Hi, my name is Prana Kishore Bommireddipalli (Prana Kishore). This is my story from learning an instrument from a blind teacher to singing and composing without music sheets to releasing 90 albums in 9 languages worldwide to winning the Prestigious World Artist Award from Josie Music International award in 2023 and the Guinness Record for Longest Officially released song lasting 5 days.

My journey in music started at the age of 7. My parents presented me with an Indian percussion instrument called the Tabla. This instrument is used in both Light, Classical, and Western music. I was taught to play the Tabla by Shri Shatrugnya, a famous Tabla teacher in Visakhapatnam (India). I had to learn without any music sheets or notes because my teacher was blind, and I memorized each class in my mind. As a child, my mother used to wake me up every morning at 4.30 am to practice and my teacher would arrive at 6 am to continue the lessons. I started giving stage performances from the age of 8 to the local community and even traveled out of state to other cities. 

Singer in Engineering College. 

I was studying for my bachelor’s degree in engineering when I discovered my voice. I started singing Hindi songs and realized I was good at it when my band gained popularity. During the holidays, I would continue my music lessons with Ms. Priyamvada. I learned to sing Indian classical music, Bhajans, and Ghazals. At the time, I became the youngest classical singer to sing for the All-India Radio Station for the Government of India. Back in those days, one had to pass a vocal exam to sing for the government radio as there were no private radio stations. 

While studying for my master’s degree in engineering at PSG College of Technology in Coimbatore, India I met 3 amazing people. My college sweetheart and my wife Rathi Kishore, who overlooks my operations now, Levlin who plays Electric Lead Guitar and Grand Piano, George the Spanish Guitar and S T Arasu, the Drummer are part of my Music journey even today. 

I then moved to Chennai, India, and started one of the biggest bands “Gopi-Kishore Musiano”, which had over 60 musicians. My band performed over 600 stage shows. I used to rent an electronic organ for the band from Mrs. Shekhar, Mother of Oscar Award Winning Music Composer A R Rahman. 

Early career and music composition. 

Every Sunday, I taught Tabla and held singing lessons at the Madras School of Blind as my way to give back. It is here I met other artists including Joseph Krishna, who was the associate music director for MS Viswanathan (one of the most reputed music directors in India). 

I worked with Joseph Krishna in learning the concepts of instant music composing in studios and went on to sing for many recording labels in India under his banner. My first album “Nazhira Divya Prabandham” in Tamil (4000 verses praising God) in 1983 was my transition from percussion player to singer to music composer. 

Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
There was a gap in my music career as our family migrated to America. After 20 years, I returned to the recording studio and faced the challenges of an ever-evolving music industry. Music distribution had moved from selling cassettes and CDs to music Downloading to live streaming. I learned the specifications of song recording and the required production standards for companies like Apple Music and Spotify. I also gained knowledge of the various music composition software used in the studio like Logic Pro, and Pro-tools. 

I leveraged my new skills to approach a different genre combining Hindu Sanskrit mantras with more modern musical elements. I released my biggest album in 2012 in Sanskrit “Om Shri Rama Hanuman Raksha”, which means God will protect you. The goal was to mix Sanskrit mantras with real sounds of the holy river Ganga, birds, and temple bells to convey the experience of being inside a Hindu temple as Prana Music Therapy. 

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
PranaKishore.com is a one-stop site to listen, learn, and sing in Sanskrit. My journey as a singer, songwriter, music composer, and music producer, with over 20 years of experience in classical as well as light music and Vedic scripts, helped me create Prana Music. The goal of Prana Music is to make people happy. 

By mixing real sounds of nature, birds, rain, and other elements with the symphony of Indian as well as Western instruments, I hope to reduce stress and bring joy. Enjoy 90-plus albums released worldwide through my record label, Prana Kishore Records in collaboration with iTunes, Amazon Music, Spotify, and over 150 big-name distributors. There are even Karaoke options for those who wish to sing along and learn. 

Awards: 

1. World Artist Award from Josie Music Awards, USA in 2023. Josie Music Awards is no 3 in the International Awards after the Oscars and Grammys.
2. Guinness World Record for Longest Officially Released Song in 2021 lasting 5 days plus for his Sanskrit Song “Secret Sounds of Sacred Sanskrit.”
3. Asia and India Book of Records for the Album “Healing Mantras Miracle Chants to Walk with Sri Krishna to Happiness and Heaven” won both the Asia and India Book of Records with a single song of duration 5 hours 15 minutes 50 seconds.

This new genre is Prana Music: New Age, World Music. Prana Music Therapy removes fear and gives hope, health, and happiness. Prana Kishore Quotes “If music cannot make you smile, happy, cry or fall in love it is called noise.” 

Prana Kishore fans love his music for mood-changing, upbeat music, melody, and choice of instruments. He lives in Nashville, TN, USA. He is happily married to his college sweetheart, blessed with 2 daughters and two miniature poodles, Bella, and Axon who also like his music. He hopes to one day compose or sing with legends like Dolly Parton or Taylor Swift about universal peace incorporating Sanskrit themes. 

Secret: Prana Kishore composes his background interludes for his songs by closing his eyes, imagining a picture, and humming the tune. 

Album Languages: Sanskrit, Awadhi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Hindi, Punjabi, Gujarati, Marathi, Spanish. 

Instruments Proficient: Tabla, Tabla Tarang, Mridangam, Dholak, Banjos, Triple Congo, Thumbas, Digitaranag, Drums, Organ, and Pancha Mukha Vadya. 

4-Support & Collaboration 

How can people work with you, collaborate with you, or support you? I am open to collaboration with any artist or music composer in any genre who is equally dedicated to music. 

1. Provide support as a singer in most Indian languages including Sanskrit.
2. Compose music and help produce new sounds for any artist.
3. Singing in Symphony interested in World Music with Sanskrit
4. Music Producer for your project if you need new sounds.
5. Distribute albums worldwide through all major music channels in every country.

5 Special for Nashville Voyagers Readers FREE! 

Please go to Pranakishore.com and contact me mentioning Nashville Voyagers, to get up to 3 songs of your choice emailed to you at no cost. 

Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting?
We as artists first need to find the sound of our songs, then see which genre our music fits in. Many times, we start composing and singing and then try to fit into a genre which is too late.  

I had this problem, why is this important when it comes to marketing online to streaming flat forms when you fill in the details of your song/album they need to fit genres there. Flatforms do not create new genres for you. Nowadays we are having fusion genres or multiple genres in one song, so it is getting complex. 

This is not difficult we just need a little patience. We need to understand the specifications of the songs we record and know about the software used in the industry because they define your sound. The more different you are in your voice the more successful you will be since music listeners want to hear new voices, new sounds, and new Beats. Beat, lyrics, and sound create emotions and reasons why anybody likes your music 

My motto is “Nothing is Impossible”. I grew up as a percussion player, singing music composing music producing, and music distributing worldwide. I design my album covers and do my marketing and Press releases. In America, we do have a ton of resources for every budget as we are the music capital of the world. Lastly, submit your work to awards as awards motivate us to do the next project. 

I did it, you can do it too, best wishes. 

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.pranakishore.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pranakishore
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@PranaKishoreB
• SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/prana-kishore-b
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/17cfg3ozBdqe1GnrjzZXlt?si=eiyezgt5Q_KUVCeIGabvkg

Image Credits
Prana Kishore Collage, Bella and Axon (Marketing, PR Directors), Rathi Kishore, Levlin S T Arasu, and Johnny