Kiran + Nivi Open Up About Sisterhood, Their Indian Heritage, and Going Viral
Kiran + Nivi by Ryan West
Kiran + Nivi currently have 2 million followers on TikTok, the app that changed their lives right in the middle of the pandemic. After sharing a cover of “If I Can’t Have You” by Shawn Mendes online, the Indian-American vocal powerhouse duo went viral, and their perfect blend of sisterhood, harmony, and Indian classical music combined with today’s biggest pop songs quickly caught the attention of artists and fans around the world.
From a young age, Kiran + Nivi, who are also twin sisters, had a strong relationship with each other and with music. At age 2, when most young children begin to start speaking, the twins hadn’t spoken a word. After going to speech therapists and finding no solutions, their mother decided to teach them a short, Indian devotional hymn. A week later, they were singing the hymn just as they had heard it in perfect pitch and rhythm. Now at 22 years old, the San Diego-based duo has amassed a dedicated following of fans online. From working with artists like Jason Derulo to being included in Good Morning America’s AAPI 2021 Inspiration List, Kiran + Nivi are more than making a name for themselves.
What makes the two of them so special is that on top of having incredible voices, they continue to be 100% who they are. Embracing their heritage by combining Indian “swaram” scale tones into today’s the biggest pop songs is something that is not only unique in itself but a reflection of the kind of talent that a new generation of music lovers is supporting, accepting, and inspired by. Their latest single, “1 last bye,” is a heartfelt song about love and loss. Its sweeping melody and powerful tone breathe life into the painful ballad, proving both the emotional and musical range Kiran + Nivi can create together as artists.
Singing together was always a passion for the duo, but going viral was never planned. They were simply making music together and sharing it with the world. Now, their goals are even bigger. Growing up, the duo and others their age never truly saw much South-Asian representation in music, entertainment, or media, but now, they believe times are changing. Kiran + Nivi opened up to Amplify Her Voice about TikTok, songwriting, their supportive audience, and how they hope to inspire future generations of aspiring artists to come.
Congratulations on 2 million followers on TikTok! How does it feel to have such a huge following? Did you ever think from posting your singing videos that this was possible?
Kiran: We’re just grateful for all the love people have been giving us! TikTok can really change people’s lives and we just got so lucky to be one of them.
How did recording yourselves and doing covers come about? Was it something you did together as a hobby growing up?
Nivi: I think it was in high school when we started. The first platform we started posting videos on was Facebook. We had just posted some Indian classical music videos, and those were really random. We didn’t do it regularly. It was inconsistent, but I think in college, around 2020, I found TikTok, and that was when it wasn’t as famous as it is now, but I said, “Why don’t we just post something and see what happens?” So that’s when we posted our first video which was a cover of Shawn Mendes’s “If I Can’t Have You,” and then overnight, we got 1,000 likes, and for us, at that time, it was a big shock. We had never seen those kinds of numbers anytime before in our life, but then we said, “Okay, well people really like this,” so we continued to post more, and now we’re here.
Your music together, your blend, and your harmonies are so beautiful. Have you ever taken vocal or music lessons before?
Kiran: Yes, from the age of four or five, we took Indian classical music lessons, and then in middle school, we took Opera lessons so that was really our foundation in music. Everything else - pop music and all that - we just sort of adopted ourselves.
How did the idea of you blending your Indian heritage and its classical music with pop music come about?
Nivi: That was actually just a random thing for us! We just wanted to try it out. We would just see on our Insta reels this song called “Overwhelmed” by Royal & The Serpent so we just heard it and thought, “Why can’t we just add this in?” So we tried it out on the song and posted it, and we thought that it wasn’t really going to go over that well, but overnight, it went viral on Instagram. Then we posted it the next day on TikTok and that also went viral so it was just really shocking to see people accepting our Indian classical music element which is part of us. We’re super grateful for that.
Online, you both are really open about your family and your relationship to them. Do your parents or family have any influence on how you fell in love with music?
Kiran: Actually for us, our parents learned more about music as we were getting into our own music. They’re just like normal people who hear music that they hear on the go, but they were so surprised that we could sing, and they took us to lessons, and just as much as we learned about music, they also learned while we did.
So was your family supportive of your choice to pursue the arts? I know, also coming from an Asian family, that the traditional thinking can be to pursue science or math or medicine, but what was your support system like from them?
Nivi: We’re super grateful because unlike maybe some of my friends’ parents who probably wouldn’t have accepted it, ours have been supportive from day one. We have never even had one instance of them saying “You should be doing something else.” They’ve just always supported the fact that we wanted to pursue music as a profession.
What has it been like to work together as both sisters and artists? Does your sisterhood or friendship affect the things you do creatively or the music that you make?
Kiran: I think, yes, even in music, we both have our own opinions. We discuss a lot and fight a lot, but that also makes us pretty unique because I have my own thing, and she has her own thing too. So it’s like when two different artists come together, you’re going to get something unique out of that, so that’s like how we see ourselves, and I do think that because we’re sisters and twins, that bond does help, and it kind of shows when we sing unconsciously. I think there’s something special that people see in our videos that we have a bond together that is hard to explain to anyone else.
Your song, “1 last bye” is a beautiful track. Do you find it difficult to tap into painful emotions when you’re songwriting or was it more therapeutic to write it?
Nivi: Songwriting as a whole can make you feel better when you actually pen your feelings out and write them down in words instead of keeping it all to yourself. It is therapeutic in the way that you can bring all your emotions out. Even if you find it hard to share your feelings with someone, songwriting is something that can help you move on. For us, it’s kind of like a diary so it really did help.
Being from San Diego, does being surround by the music and arts culture in Southern California influence you in any way? Have you found any connections with other artists there?
Kiran: I don’t think being near LA has influenced our music, but it is very helpful to be around it because we can go there any time and meet with others. Actually, though, all of our musician artists or artists that we’ve met have been through TikTok so they’re all in different parts of the US. We just stay in touch virtually because they’re all in random parts of the world, but it’s been great to be able to go and have writing sessions with writers, producers, and other artists in LA.
What is something you wish people would know about Indian classical music that you think most people don’t know?
Nivi: Normally, for our generation, they kind of think that Opera music, Indian music, or any music in a classical form is boring. Most people might just zone out when listening to more traditional music, but what I would say to that is to just open your ears because the music is really not as boring as you think and you might find that you enjoy it.
Have you experienced any roadblocks or challenges as women artists or even as Asian-American artists in music, and if so, how do you keep pushing forward despite that?
Kiran: Because these past few years have been so virtual, I don’t think we’ve seen that yet. We’re just so grateful to see all the support from fans all over the world. They support who we are and what we stand for, and so do our fellow artists. Our life kind of changed in the middle of the pandemic so through this, we haven’t seen any signs of inequality and I think that’s the great thing about TikTok because the artists that you find and the people that you find actually support each other because they know that we all go through struggles in life, and I think we can relate to each other through that and through music.
Nivi: Yeah, and I also think in entertainment, there is some South Asian representation now, especially with the TV show, Never Have I Ever, I think that’s just the beginning, and for us, we would just love to be one of the first viral Brown artists in the music industry and to inspire others. That’s a huge goal for us.
Do you have any TikTok secrets for aspiring artists who are hoping to use social media to begin their music careers online?
Kiran: The truth is, online, you really don’t know what will happen! It’s random what goes viral and what gets a lot of views. You just have to be open to trying every idea out and doing it consistently. Just be open. The videos that went viral for us – I don’t even know why they did, so there’s no definite answer, but even though it’s cliche, a lot of people say that the bad videos are the ones that do well, and it’s true because sometimes the videos you think are really bad people love. Our first ever big viral moment was a video of my sister singing, “Never Enough,” and she thought it was bad, but I liked it, and that’s not what people thought.
Nivi: You just never know what’s going to happen, and you just have to do what you believe in, and post everything! Commit to whatever art you like to do and just share it.
What can you share with us about what you have coming up next?
Kiran: We’re writing a bunch of new music now so you can expect a lot more singles coming out from us on all the streaming platforms soon!
“1 last bye” is available for streaming now on all music platforms.