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‘Darbuka’ Siva as he is popularly known, is a drummer and a percussionist based in Chennai,INDIA. Siva had his initial informal performances at his school using benches, tables, chairs and all other props available as his drums. Slowly he picked up drumming techniques by watching other drummers play but his initial practice was all on tables and pillows because he never had a drum kit. Finally after years of struggling he managed to get a very basic drum kit. His proper training started when he was in college. Soon, Siva also started learning Latin-American percussions like congas, timbales and the bongos, which really amazed him. He also learned the ghatam and basics of carnatic music. By this time he was already playing for some professional bands. Though Siva started out as just a drummer, his interest was more on world rhythm and percussions. It is this thirst, that pushed him to explore different genres and different instruments thus gaining him that uniqueness as a musician and made him a sought after musician in the Chennai music scene. Siva plays a wide range of percussion instruments that includes drums, congas, timbales, the cajon, middle-eastern derbouka , bongos, the Egyptian doumbek, the African djembe, the tabla, ghatam, dholand the dholak to name a few. He learned his technique in world percussions like the darbuka, cajon and djembe from the internationally acclaimed percussionist PETE LOCKETT ( based in U.K ).He got trained in Latin styles like salsa, son, rhumba, cumbia, merengue, samba-cancsao from latin percussionist Aldo Rodriguez from Bogota, Colombia. As a freelancer he plays for a good half-a-dozen bands ranging from jazz to folk to fusion bands. As a percussionist he has toured all over with musicians like Saxophone legend Kadri Gopalnath, Ganesh-Kumaresh (violinists), the Raghu Dixit Project (Bangalore), Oikyotaan (Baul music band, Chennai,KARNATRIIX to name a few. He also freelances as a recording artist for the Tamil movie industry playing for all the leading music directors. Apart from music Siva is also a radio-jockey for the FM channel “Radio Mirchi”. His main focus is on exploring new musical forms and creating a new world class sound for “Yodhakaa” which is an experimental music band led by Siva.