In a world that often forgets how to slow down, Akshara dares to stop. From Los Angeles, the Indian-American artist presents CLONES, an EP that stretches beyond alternative R&B into a deeply spiritual and immersive sonic experience.
Across six songs, Akshara explores stillness, identity, and feminine strength with quiet grace. Her velvety, emotive voice, deeply rooted in India’s musical heritage, carries listeners into a luminous, dreamlike space.
“With my EP ‘CLONES,’ I wanted to explore the many versions of myself that exist at once—the parts that conflict, overlap, and ultimately find peace together. It’s about learning to love every version, even the ones that don’t make sense yet,” she says.
From the very first chord, CLONES feels like a warm cup of tea. In songs like “theplaceicomefrom” and “Orbit,” ancestral melodies weave through textures that evoke both nostalgia and cosmic vastness. Each note expands gently, reminding us that vulnerability can be its own kind of strength.
The lead single, “Glass,” has already surpassed 300,000 plays on Spotify and has become an anthem of self-reflection. Here, Akshara speaks with unfiltered honesty about what happens when you choose truth over comfort.
The lyrics reveal a woman tired of softening her feelings just to protect someone else’s ego. “Your ego’s fragile, so I shatter it like glass” captures that moment when you stop staying silent and choose sincerity, even if it breaks something.
The song is about learning to let go, not carrying guilt, and reclaiming your own energy. It’s a story about the clarity that comes after chaos and how breaking something is sometimes the only way to be free.
On the title track, “Clones,” Akshara delves into the inner chaos of living with ADHD and the ongoing struggle to balance creative authenticity with modern demands. The music video expands on this idea, transforming the song into a visual meditation on vulnerability and perception.
She explained it in a post, “My impulsive, attention-deficit clones are afraid of stillness. They are an out-of-body manifestation of me; they move like robots, checking off lists, operating at maximum capacity. It’s when they all fall asleep that I come alive. In the quietest moments, I feel the most discomfort, and all my clones merge into me. A love story to anyone who feels the way I do.”
Mentored by the legendary A.R. Rahman and a graduate of Berklee College of Music, Akshara fuses the spirituality of her roots with the refined edge of experimental soul. That duality has drawn praise from artists like M.I.A., SZA, and Jhene Aiko, who have praised her distinct voice and visionary sound.
In an age saturated with noise, her music feels like a breath of air; it’s warm, human, and profoundly aware. “How brave of you to rest,” she says in one of her most striking lines. And in that stillness, Akshara reminds us there is power in pausing, beauty in contradiction, and freedom in gentleness.
Connect with Akshara on Instagram and stream “CLONES.”
Photography Jaya Kang
