Dark Electronic Duo Bahari Feel the Impact of Netflix Features and Shazam Discovery
Photography by Mike Jurkovac
It can take years of grunt-work. Slogging your way down midnight roads. “Sleeping” odd hours, odd places while you get your music out into the ears of the world. The band loads up to play a festival circuit here, unloads to play another there.
Or you can land your music on a famous TV show. Now a legit goal for any band, not just because it’s a respectable side hustle, but also because your music gets play for as wide an audience as you can get.
This happened for the dark electronic duo Bahari
in 2020. Twice. On Netflix. First, they appeared on American DJ and producer Illenium’s track “Crashing (ft. Bahari)”, that was famously heard on the soundtrack for the 2020 teen rom-com, To All The Boys: P.S. I Still Love You. They did it again, later that year, with their song “Savage.” Initially released in 2018, it’s back on people’s pods since being on the network’s smash prime time show, Ginny & Georgia.
We find so much new music from watching TV, so it’s really cool to know that’s how so many people hear our music. Recently with Ginny & Georgia, we saw so many people discover “Savage” that it’s actually currently charting on Shazam around the world! We love the show so much and are incredibly grateful to have had this opportunity.”
What was it like for Bahari to reconnect with their older work. Artists can sometimes have weird vibes about it.
They laugh.
“It’s not weird for us! It’s more exciting because “Savage” is one of the favorite songs we’ve ever written. It’s been the gift that keeps on giving and we are so grateful that people keep coming back to listen and newly discover it.”
Singer and keyboardist Ruby Carr hails from the port city of Lamu Island, off of the coast of Kenya, and the band’s bassist and singer, Natalia Panzarella is a native Nashvillean who grew up in Manhattan Beach, California.
Observes Ruby:
“We’re both from different parts of the world and had different cultures, influences, and ideologies when we were growing up. When we met, none of those things were ever a problem or an obstacle. We had this mutual understanding and love of creating and sharing the music we wanted to make. We have different ideas and bring the best out of each other. We’re two very different people. Through music, we’re able to embrace those differences. We’ve always had a really clear vision of Bahari sonically and visually. Somehow, we found each other and agreed up on that.”
Ruby sometimes shares her exquisite drawings on social. Does the creative approach differ between drawing and writing?
“I think what I love about writing the most is that there’s no rule book, you can start anywhere and it’s different each time. In that sense, there’s more freedom in songwriting, whereas with drawing I have a clear idea in my head of what I want it to look like. Creating any kind of art is a form of expression, so you never know what you’re going to get by the end of it.”
2021 is looking stellar for Bahari (and us) with their work on a new album poised to come out. To create it, Ruby and Natalia moved in together, built a studio, and primarily took production into their own hands. Drawing on influences the likes of German film composer, Hans Zimmer and that space pop duo from Versailles, Air, they’ve meticulously crafted an expansive, ethereal, and entrancing body of work. @bahari
