From Bukit Batok to the iconic neon-lit billboards in Times Square, Singaporean musicians The Bala Boys are creating wellness-focused music by bridging classical Indian ragas with Western soundscapes.
The twin brothers, Ganesh and Sriram Balasubramanian, 28, were featured on a Times Square billboard in New York City from May 16 to 22 for their album Om and Affirmations.
It was done in collaboration with US-based Pandora Meditation Radio in conjunction with Mental Health Awareness Month and World Meditation Day, observed on May 21 each year.
“Music has always been part of healing, and more people are aware of that now,” Mr Sriram said.
“When Om and Affirmations hit 400,000 streams in a month on the Pandora app, it reminded us that if our art can make even one person’s day better, its worth it,” he added.
Their four-track meditative album, produced by Mindwell Records and released on May 13 across all major music streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music, combines the vibrational power of mantras with the emotional resonance of spoken affirmations.
“Om and Affirmations was created from a space of reflection. ‘Om’ represents the vibration of the universe, and each vocal affirmation is shaped around a raga, a melodic scale designed to move emotion,” Mr Ganesh explained.
Their musical journey began at the tender age of five when their parents, Narayanan Balasubramanian, 62, and Sathya Balasubramanian, 58, immersed them in classical Carnatic and Hindustani music at home, during car rides and at concerts.
The twins described their childhood home in Bukit Batok as a creative and curious space to be in and share a close relationship with their father, whose name inspired their stage name – The Bala Boys.
“Appa has always been a grounding presence. He’s a musician himself, so he never had to convince us to pursue music,” Mr Sriram said.
From the age of seven until National Service, they trained at the Singapore Indian Fine Arts Society (SIFAS) under eminent gurus N R Prashanth, Poorna Rao and Srividya Sriram.
Since their late teens, they have been studying under the guidance of Carnatic music maestro Abhishek Raghuram.
After completing their studies at Saint Joseph’s Institution and Singapore Polytechnic, they moved to Boston to attend the Berklee College of Music, widely regarded as one of the top institutions for contemporary music education.
They were active members of the Berklee Indian Ensemble and contributed their vocals to the collective’s debut album, Shuruaat, which earned a nomination for Best Global Album at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards.
The album consists of 10 tracks that feature 98 musicians from 39 countries including Zakir Hussain, Shankar Mahadevan, Vijay Prakash and Shreya Ghoshal.
Recipients of the Berklee Asia Tour Scholarship, they both graduated with a Bachelor’s of Music degree in 2022, earning top honours (magna cum laude) and relocated to Los Angeles.
That same year, the brothers went viral across social media after a couple of their Indian song covers, Srivalli and Chinnanjiru Kiliye, were reposted by actors Madhavan and Rashmika Mandana.
Their instagram followers skyrocketed from a few thousand to over 800,000 within a span of a few months. “But what’s more meaningful than the numbers is the genuine connection we’ve built with our supporters,” Mr Ganesh said.
If they could serenade tabla! readers with one song, it would be Senthamizh Thenmozhiyal from the 1958 Tamil film Malayitta Mangai. “It’s poetic and powerful. A song about love for language and identity. That one always feels like home,” the twins said.
In 2022, they met Indian-American author and alternative medicine advocate Dr Deepak Chopra in New York and he shared with them about the connection between the voice and the vagus nerve, the longest cranial nerve in the body.
“The vagus nerve is connected to breath, vocal tone and emotion. When you sing with awareness, especially devotional or meditative music, it activates this nerve. That leads to relaxation, regulation and even pain relief,” Mr Ganesh explained.
“We’ve felt it first-hand. And it’s amazing to see the science starting to catch up to what ancient traditions have always known,” he added.
In Sep 2024, they were invited to perform at the Sages & Scientists Symposium at Harvard University and presented on how Indian classical music can be a tool for mental clarity and emotional balance.
The brothers plan to collaborate with mental health professionals and scientists for future projects. “Our dream is to build bridges between ancient music traditions and modern neuroscience, and to offer that to the world in a way that’s both beautiful and useful,” Mr Sriram said.
