Today we’d like to introduce you to SAANVI Abha.
SAANVI, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I was born in Mountain View, California, and grew up with a lot of music and movement around me: my dad’s a musician at heart and plays guitar as a serious hobby, and my mom’s a yoga therapist and yoga teacher, so between the two of them I feel like I got a bit of both worlds, which is pretty great. But I actually went the sports route first. Started with swimming, then got into gymnastics, and did competitive artistic gymnastics for eight years straight. Amidst, I even did ballet and yoga for significant periods as well. I quit gymnastics shortly after my 15th birthday, and suddenly had an absurd amount of free time on my hands. So out of pure boredom, I picked up my dad’s guitar and just couldn’t put it down. Songwriting, though, had honestly been there the whole time. I’ve been writing songs since I was, like, 5, just as a leisure thing, before it turned into something I did habitually, and then obsessively.
That transition period was honestly full of side quests, which was very fulfilling. I got my first job as a math instructor, and I also started a small bracelet business called Encharm Beads. Any time there was a festival or even the smallest celebration happening in town, I’d set up my little table and sell a bunch of my bracelets. But once I really started diving into guitar and songwriting, I taught myself how to sing, completely from the ground up. I still have a long way to go with it, but I have to give a massive shoutout to my vocal coach Belinda, who I actually met at my very first open mic. She’s supported me so much, not just vocally but in so many other parts of my life. From there I started playing every open mic, pub, or random spot that would let me on, literally anywhere (even meditation centers and retirement homes), across Houston and California, and slowly that turned into more real shows.
The Woodlands, Texas is where I spent my absolute formative teenage years, and it’s incredibly special to me. Such a beautiful suburb, and it’s where I made some of my closest friendships and connections. Senior year, my close friend Léa and I would walk the Waterway almost every single day, having the deepest conversations. We just think alike, honestly, and those walks are one of my core memories from that time. It’s such a nice thing to look back on, getting moments like that right before everyone scattered into their own separate lives after high school. I also shot my music video for “21st Century Life” there, directed by my best friend Emily, filmed entirely on my phone. That video is basically my high school life and the peak of my teenage years poured into three minutes, just us being ridiculous and doing random teenage stuff. It was quite inspired by. Looking back at it now, it feels like a time capsule of that whole era.
These days, that same momentum has carried into a new chapter. I’m spending a lot of time in different studios recording new music, with live shows coming up soon too. It’s genuinely such an exhilarating time. On top of that, Emily and I are actually launching a podcast together called Two Talks of Life, named that because we come from two very different walks of life. We’re doing the whole thing together, just the two of us, and we wanted to create something that connects with people our age. It’s a mix of casual, semi-serious conversations and stuff that’s not serious at all. I’m so stoked to see where all of this goes.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Not particularly smooth, no, but I’ve made my peace with that at this point. I loved gymnastics, still do, but I went through a rough patch at one particular gym where I was treated like an outsider. There was a lot of mental toll: people shaming you, degrading your self-worth, moments where I was mocked in ways that were genuinely hard to sit with as a teenager. It was a toxic environment in a lot of ways, and some of that stuck with me for years afterward.
By the time I started playing open mics everywhere, something in me had shifted. I stopped caring so much about outside noise and just focused on my music, showing up and practicing every day. There’s still the occasional ignorance you run into along the way, but I’ve been lucky to have such a solid support system around me that it doesn’t bother me the way it used to. One challenge that’s harder to get past, though, is people in the music industry being patronizing, largely because of my age. Being the youngest in the room a lot of the time comes with that, and honestly, it still kind of does, which is annoying. But there are also genuinely amazing people in those same rooms who don’t treat you that way, so it’s not all one thing. Still, I’m going to be myself and put everything into the work regardless.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I think my gymnastics background, actually, plays a bigger role than just “discipline and determination” clichés. I’ve recently started incorporating acrobatic elements into my live shows. There was a point where I was competing at nationals in India and had to choreograph my entire floor routine myself, so bringing that same instinct onto a music stage has been such a thrill. But ultimately, the artistry and flow of movement that gymnastics engrains in you is an anomaly of a skill that I am actively working on carrying out with my performances now.
Songwriting is an art that I enjoy so incredibly much. I don’t think there has been a single time in my life where music wasn’t around me in some way. And I’m constantly listening So my ‘songwriting instinct’ isn’t really a mystery. It just comes from everything I’ve lived and been around. In Texas, as soon as I got my license, I’d go on long solo drives blasting my favorite music: Radiohead, Smashing Pumpkins, Queen, Mk.gee, Yebba. I did that so often, it had to have shaped how I write, even if I didn’t realize it at the time. I’m also a very, very observant person, which subconsciously shapes a lot of what I write. I’m not a going-out, party girl at all, I stay home a lot, and that quiet is where most of it happens.
If I’m proud of anything right now, it’s the sonic and emotional versatility in even my small catalog. I never wanted to be boxed into one genre, and I’m glad that’s starting to come through. Every minute detail in my work is intentional, and I don’t say that lightly, I really do mean every single one. I don’t know exactly how people will see what I’m building yet, but I’m proud of what I’m creating right now, and I hope it means something to whoever hears it. And more than anything, I want people to feel like they’ve stepped into a completely different atmosphere when they hear any of my music.
Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
Send a direct message or email! I’ve already had the chance to collaborate with some amazing individuals this way which is so cool. One of my goals this year is to meet (or e-meet) more creative/like-minded people.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: http://instagram.com/saanvzi
- Youtube: http://youtube.com/@saanvzi
