By Lauren Willett
PURIST: What first inspired the three of you to create Offering: Ancient and Timeless Chants together, and why did this feel like the right moment to share these chants beyond your own family?
FALU: These chants have been part of my life since childhood, passed down from my grandmother to my mother and then to me. In many ways, they are in our DNA.
Gaurav and I often chant together. Nishaad grew up watching us and naturally joined in. Soon, chanting before school and work became a family ritual. We thought about sharing these chants as an offering from our family to the world. With Nishaad soon leaving for college, we also wanted to create something he could carry with him and perhaps pass forward one day. Working with wonderful musicians, engineers and producers helped us honor that inheritance and offer others a little of the peace it has given us.
These chants have been passed down through teachers, families and generations. What role have they played in your own home and spiritual lives?
FALU: These ancient Sanskrit chants are woven into our everyday lives. Each morning, no matter how tired I feel, I do Surya Namaskar and chant the Gayatri Mantra. For me, it evokes urja, or energy, and helps me begin the day feeling renewed.
When life becomes overwhelming, chanting gives me permission to pause and remind myself: You are human. You are doing your best. Slow down. Breathe. Even 30 seconds can help me settle and begin again. Spiritually, chanting brings me back to myself. The noise becomes quiet, and I feel centered and connected to something deeper. These chants aren’t reserved for spiritual occasions; they are part of how we live.
What was it like recording an album together as mother, father and son? Did the process change the way you experienced these songs?
FALU: The process was incredibly organic. We recorded in San Francisco with Kenya Autie and Oscar Autie, who are also dear friends, so the studio felt safe and intimate. We arrived as mother, father and son, but once we stepped inside, we became three artists.
My instinct was to guide Nishaad, but Kenya told me, “Let him fly. Let him sing these chants the way he feels them.” Learning to step back and hear his own interpretation was deeply moving. At just 15, he spent five consecutive days in the studio with remarkable patience and perseverance. Watching him work gave Gaurav and me a new respect for him as an artist. Recording didn’t change the essence of the chants; it helped us hear their subtleties more deeply. With a team we trusted, we could surrender to the process. We were still a family singing together, only now there were microphones, and I could hear my son finding his own voice.
Nishaad, at 15, you’re bringing your own generation into a very old musical tradition. What does this music mean to you?
NISHAAD: To me, this music means the continuation of my heritage, into the next generation, I see it as my duty to pass it onto the 13th generation, (I am the 12th). It’s also very peaceful and calming, and it helps reduce stress and slow down from the fast paced world I live in. And it allows me to share this with others, to achieve the same positive effect.
The album brings centuries-old Vedic and Sanskrit chants into a contemporary listening experience. How did you approach the music so that it remained true to its roots while still feeling accessible to someone encountering these traditions for the first time?
FALU: We kept the chants themselves unchanged—the words, melodies, phrasing, pronunciation and rhythms—as I learned them from my grandmother. The contemporary elements come through the arrangements and production.
Many of our collaborators come from Latin American backgrounds, including Cuba and Argentina. Without necessarily understanding Sanskrit, they responded to the chants’ energy, emotion and stillness, creating arrangements around what they felt. Some now sing the Gayatri Mantra in their own lives, which I find deeply moving. It shows that you don’t have to understand every word or grow up with these traditions to connect with them. That is our hope for Offering: to honor the chants’ roots while opening a door for someone hearing them for the first time.
Music is increasingly being incorporated into practices around meditation, stress relief and well-being. What have you experienced personally about the ability of chanting and music to change how we feel?
FALU: I first experienced music’s power at 6, when a serious bicycle accident left me hospitalized and in terrible pain. My mother sat beside me and said, “Don’t yell. Start singing.” Singing didn’t take the pain away, but it changed my relationship to it and helped me get through it.
I have carried that with me ever since. Even today, I quietly chant Om when having blood drawn because I’m afraid of needles. When I feel overwhelmed, singing or chanting settles my mind and helps me return with greater clarity. As a family, we would chant the Shanti Paath together before Nishaad’s exams or at bedtime to help him settle. Chanting is woven into ordinary life for energy, calm, courage or rest. For me, music has always been an anchor, helping me pause, reconnect and find my center.
Gaurav, your life spans both medicine and music. Has your work as a physician influenced the way you think about music, healing and the different ways we care for ourselves?
GAURAV: Yes. In medicine, I spend much of my life trying to change the course of disease. Music works differently. It can change the course of a moment, sometimes a day, sometimes much more. Medicine has taught me to respect evidence, precision and the body. Music has taught me to respect emotion, memory and connection. Both are forms of care. One may help us live longer; the other can make us feel more alive while we are here.
You’ve described Offering: Ancient and Timeless Chants as something listeners can turn to for “peace, light, or connection.” How do you hope people incorporate the album into their everyday lives, and what do you hope stays with them after listening?
FALU: I hope Offering becomes part of everyday life, something to listen to while driving, upon waking, before sleep or whenever you need to pause. You don’t need a special ritual. Even one three-minute chant can offer a little energy or calm through listening, singing along or simply being still.
More than anything, I hope people find quiet strength in these chants: a feeling of being grounded, peaceful and connected to the universe. falumusic.com
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