ABOUT

At nineteen, Ananda Murari left Arizona for a Vaishnava monastery in Colorado. Not in crisis, not on a whim — most people spend their twenties figuring out who they are. Ananda spent his studying, traveling, and leading kirtan across the country, following a question that had been with him for years: what does it actually look like to live with intention? He stayed for nearly a decade. He came out the other side not with answers exactly, but with a way of holding the questions. That's what his music is.

He spent those years immersed in devotion, service, and the practice of kirtan — call-and-response devotional music that he led in communities across the country. He found that music wasn't separate from the spiritual work. It was the spiritual work. Sound as presence. Song as offering. That understanding never left him.

But after years of immersive practice, something shifted. He didn't leave in disillusionment. He left because the next step of the journey required it — what he calls "taking it out of the lab." The desire to fully integrate as a whole person, to bring the interior life into ordinary life, into relationship, into the world. That impulse is still the engine of everything he makes.

He met his partner through the community and they chose Michigan together, planting roots among friends who shared their commitment to sincere practice and continued growth. Michigan has been home for six years now. It is where he became a husband, a father, and in many ways, the artist he was always moving toward.

His most recent project, No Coins Needed, came from that home. It is a record about honoring the feminine — his wife, the village they are building together, and an ethic of care that he believes the world needs more of. It is quiet and direct, the way the most important things usually are.

Across three releases and more than 150 live performances, Ananda has developed a sound that sits at the intersection of folk, Americana, and something harder to name — eclectic, story-driven, and rooted in genuine inquiry. His reference points are Paul Simon's narrative precision, Hozier's spiritual weight, the intimate warmth of Bahamas, the restless intelligence of Andrew Bird. His collaborations with producer Tejas Leier-Heyden (Junaco), alongside Sam Weber and Danny Austin Manning, helped shape two bodies of work that established him as a songwriter of uncommon depth.

He is a two-time finalist of the Songwriter Serenade contest and a featured artist at the Dripping Springs Songwriter Festival. He performs annually with Bekah Brudi at The Yellow Barn in Ann Arbor. A new album arrives in 2025.

He is still spiritually curious. Still in motion. Still asking the same question he was asking at nineteen — just from a richer place.