Born and raised in the UK, manuka is a singer/songwriter who embarked on a transformative journey from Leeds to Goa, India. Wanting to reconnect with her heritage and forge her artistic path, the musician immersed herself in a new way of life - an experience that would, and continues to, shape her sonic identity.

After discovering her immersive new single Antenna and sensing that she was an artist with an interesting story to tell, I really wanted to get manuka in the interview hot seat. Thankfully, she was more than willing to accommodate!

Chatting with us about her diverse musical upbringing, the five-year break that helped her find her way back to music, and how learning to trust the process has changed her outlook, please welcome our new friend manuka!

Hey manuka - welcome aboard! I'm so excited to introduce you to our ever-growing audience!

Let's kick things off with an easy one...Who is manuka, what first drew you to music, and how did you discover your passion for it?

I was brought up with a variety of musical influences. From Bob Marley and the Wailers and Men at Work to Mohammed Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar, my family has always been in love with discovering music.

I was raised in a Sikh family and introduced to singing at a very young age after expressing an interest in it when I was little. I started off singing Kirtan at the Gurdwara before going on to train in Hindustani Classical music. I later found my passion for singing through developing my vocal technique.

When I was living in Brighton, my housemate had a guitar, and through them I was introduced to the world of folk music. I fell in love particularly with Mumford & Sons and Rising Appalachia. I was also really into the mainstream pop charts of the early 2000s, which influenced my songwriting, from Colbie Caillat to Corinne Bailey Rae and Nelly Furtado.

I think all of these influences are now finally coming together to shape the songwriter I am today. I didn't fully understand it before, but now I can see how significant each part has been in shaping how I connect with music and write my own songs.

I have fallen deeply in love with Antenna, your gentle, delicate, and utterly immersive new single.

You've mentioned that the song was born during the 2022 monsoon season in Goa, India. Please tell us more 😊

It actually came about while I was practising a cover of a Malayalam song called Cherathukal from the soundtrack of the film Kumbalangi Nights. While I was playing the guitar, I took some of the chords and changed the arrangement, which then developed into the guitar loop. So, with this song, I had the guitar before I had the words or melody.

This time of year, when it rains a lot, I tend to feel more of everything. I notice that when there is more cloud and less sun, I feel more sensitive to whatever is happening in my life. Just like the rains in the song and the rains during this time of year, I also release. I’ve repeatedly come back to this place of awareness every year.

Now...I know this is a toughie, and possibly like asking you to pick a favourite child, but if you could pick one of your songs to skyrocket to the top of the charts and achieve massive international success, which would it be and why?

That’s tough! I love all my songs. They were written at significant moments in my life, and I always get to go back in time to that space and remember myself in that moment.

If I did have to choose, I think I would choose Antenna, purely because it’s my most recent song. I do have many other unreleased songs that I think I might favour more than Antenna, though.

Antenna has a sound that I feel connects with a lot of listeners. The feedback I’ve received on the ground has been that the song is so memorable that the hook and melody stay in people’s heads for a while after listening to it. Keeping that in mind, I would definitely invest in this song to reach as many people as possible.

Its catchy nature and the universal connection to the lyrics are really important to me. When a message or feeling stays with a person, I believe that is where the real impact lies, rather than simply following trends. And I think Antenna has that kind of impact.

Take us through some of your biggest musical influences.

And, just for fun, if you could pluck one song from history and add your name to it, which would it be?

Musical influences like Bob Marley, Michael Jackson, India.Arie, Lauryn Hill, Erykah Badu and Sade were incredibly influential when it came to passionate songwriting. I remember listening to my mixtapes on my boombox as a young teenager, shouting out the lyrics to Lauryn Hill’s I Get Out and Black or White by Michael Jackson, and then getting completely lost in India.Arie’s Acoustic Soul album.

I’d also get pumped up by the Spice Girls, Justin Timberlake, Sisqó, Backstreet Boys, Destiny’s Child, Stormzy, Nas, 2Pac, Eminem — and the list goes on.

If I were to pick one song from history to take and attach my name to, it would be I Get Out by Lauryn Hill. When I listen to a song, I search for the lyrics and look for meaning. Lauryn Hill’s poetry and songwriting, alongside India.Arie’s music, were significant in helping me navigate the natural challenges that come with adolescence. I believe listening to them at such a young age also guided the way I write songs today and shaped how I listen to and connect with music.

I’ve always been intrigued by artists who choose to style their moniker in uppercase or lowercase - MGMT and girl in red, for example. What made you settle on lowercase?

There’s something mellow and minimal about “lowercase.” I hadn’t really given it much thought, but I saw the usual format of starting with a capital letter and decided to do the opposite. Whenever I see it now, I feel like there’s some significance in the tone of my music as my name lands on the page… but hey, maybe I’m just thinking too much into it. It was honestly a spontaneous choice.

Success is, obviously, such a broad term with different meanings for everyone.

What would “being successful in the music industry" look like to you?

Over the years, my idea of success as an artist has changed. I’m much more optimistic about trying to get out there in the industry because of the accessibility we have today. I used to feel that being successful was about being something that sells. In the past, I received advice and feedback about becoming someone I wasn’t to make it somewhere.

I guess this is why I felt really challenged by embracing this path. I had spent so much of my life working on myself so that I wouldn’t have to fit into society’s labels, only to then find that, in order to follow my dream, I had another set of boxes to tick and fit into. That’s why I left and stopped releasing music for five years. I needed that time away to trust the industry enough to feel comfortable being a part of it as myself, rather than trying to become someone the market wanted me to be.

Maybe with time and age, I’ve gotten a little wiser. I can trust myself now to take on whatever comes my way without being as easily fazed by it.

Today, success means being able to sustain my life through my music. It means being able to create and do what I love for a living, while getting to travel, see the world and connect with people — audiences and artists alike. Ultimately, it means continuing to create and share the heart, feelings and experiences that I carry with me.

When you’re not creating music, what keeps you busy and happy? Walk us through a non-music day in the life of manuka.

I’m a Social and Emotional Learning facilitator at an experiential learning centre called The Learning Centre in Goa. This is my day job, and I love working with children. Over the three years I’ve been here, building bonds with my learners has opened up my life to such rich curiosity. I crave learning, and what better people to learn from than children?!

I also like to take care of my body and mind, so any chance I get to chill at the beach, do some yoga, cook hearty meals or dance, I’ll take it.

If I took you through one of my days, it would look something like this…

I wake up and head off to work after some early-morning meal prep (food is soul!). I spend the whole day with the children, and afterwards I often work privately, offering one-to-one emotional support to children. On most days, I then spend the evening rehearsing with my theatre group. By 9pm, I’m home, brewing myself some blue pea tea and gently easing myself into sleep.

If I’m not too tired, I’ll probably watch a few episodes of a Korean series. I just finished My ID Is Gangnam Beauty on Netflix or Ted Lasso on Apple TV!

manuka, thank you again for taking the time to chat with us! It's been great getting to know you better!

Before we say farewell, what comes next for you musically, and do you have any words of wisdom you'd like to leave us with?

I am definitely going to release new songs because Antenna has given me the boost I needed. I feel that everything has its own time and its own moment — a time to move, to grow, to be still and to rest.

In the past I had been moving slowly, but I can definitely say that trusting the process, whatever it may be, will always be a part of my life journey. To show up and make the effort, whilst also trusting the way things unfold.

Uncertainty is not something to fear.

Follow manuka on Instagram

manuka: “I remember listening to my mixtapes on my boombox as a young teenager, shouting out the lyrics to Lauryn Hill’s I Get Out”

Vidura Barrios: “Even without humans, you will find music everywhere. Nature is full of music—the birds singing, the rumble of the ocean”