Rupa & The April Fishes

Rupa & The April Fishes is a San Francisco group led by singer, songwriter and doctor Rupa Marya. The band plays a world-oriented style that brings together Gypsy swing, Colombian cumbia, French chanson and Indian ragas, with arrangements for cello, accordion, guitar, trumpet, upright bass and drums. Its songs move between French, Spanish, Hindi and English, and cover themes including love, death, politics and philosophy.

Background

The group is based in San Francisco and includes Ed Baskerville, Marcus Cohen, Misha Khalikulov, Aaron Kierbel, Rupa Marya, Safa Shokrai, Mario Alberto Silva and Isabel Douglass. Marya’s nomadic upbringing shapes the band’s multilingual writing and its emphasis on crossing cultural and geographic borders. Alongside her music, she works as a doctor and says patient care informs her songwriting.

Releases and collaborations

The band prepares the album este mundo on Cumbancha, and the music for both este mundo and ¡Catapulta! grows out of Marya’s interest in immigration and public health. ¡Catapulta! is a concert and multidisciplinary project created to address immigrants’ fears about public health options and the effects of US anti-immigration policy. The group also works with local musicians, performance artists and visual artists on large-scale shows in San Francisco.

Live activity

Rupa & The April Fishes performs in concert halls and on streetcars, and has toured the West Coast, Mexico, New York City and Europe. Its live appearances include Central Park SummerStage, the Montreal Jazz Festival, Outside Lands and Stern Grove, as well as shows at the Great American Music Hall and the Independent in San Francisco. The group also appears at festivals and venues across Europe and has played in cities including New York, Los Angeles and Brooklyn.

Style and associations

The band is described as an agitated global-pop act with a sound that blends elements from several traditions while resisting simple genre labels. It is compared with acts such as Gogol Bordello, Manu Chao, Beirut, Pink Martini, Lhasa, Dengue Fever and Keren Ann. Rupa & The April Fishes also works with artists including Marcus Shelby, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Aterciopelados, Susana Baca, Rodrigo y Gabriela and Richard Dawkins.