Aruna

Aruna Beth Abrams (born January 16, 1975) is an American singer, songwriter, DJ, producer and pianist. She is best known as a vocalist in dance music since 2007 but has been working as DJ and producer of her own work since 2011. She resides in Los Angeles, California.

Early life and career Aruna grew up in Flemington, New Jersey, the daughter of Beatrice and Larry S. Abrams, a clinical pharmaceutical researcher. Her name was suggested by her Indian godfather and means "sunrise" in Hindi. She began studying classical piano and later, jazz improvisation, and left her hometown to study piano as well as film scoring and electronic music production at the Berklee College of Music, Boston. In 1996 she worked on the 'Portal' project together with members of the progressive metal band Cynic, providing vocals and keyboards. This material was eventually released in 2012 as The Portal Tapes, under the Cynic name. At Berklee, Abrams completed courses in music production, audio editing and sound design. She graduated in 2002.

Growing up, Abrams listened mostly to 70s and 80s pop, which changed when 'my tastes started diversifying and I got into hair, thrash and death metal as a teen'. and recorded the three-song demo Broken Circles, produced by Alain Mallet and mixed by Kevin Killen. In 2000 she was selected as the opening act for the Boston show of The Girls Room Tour showcase.

After graduating college, Abrams relocated to Los Angeles. In 2004, she recorded and self-released her first full-length album, Running Red Lights. While pursuing a career as a pop singer-songwriter, Aruna experienced early success when a number of her songs were featured on the MTV shows, Laguna Beach and The Hills. The song reached No. 67 on the Billboard Hot 100.

EDM vocals and songwriting career In 2006, she was discovered through MySpace by her manager Stuart Squires, who began pitching her for dance collaborations. Two years later the single "Live Forever" with Ferry Corsten was released and featured on the album WKND. She also appeared in her first video for the song. In 2013 she went on to collaborate with Armin van Buuren on "Won’t Let You Go" for his artist album Intense. On these collaborations she noted that 'writing my own lyrics and melodies is and has always been a non-negotiable. I just can't sell a song I didn't write in the quite same way'.

DJ and production career In 2011, Abrams decided to move into DJing, Aruna joined Above & Beyond for a second time in November 2013, doing a guest mix for their podcast, Group Therapy.

In 2012, Aruna performed on the "A State of Pink" stage at Armin van Buuren's A State of Trance 550 festival in Den Bosch, Netherlands. A year later, she accompanied him with live vocals during his set at the Hollywood Palladium in LA. She has also performed live at Nocturnal Wonderland, Avalon Hollywood alongside Ferry Corsten and at Exchange LA with Myon & Shane54. She has performed live vocals and DJ sets internationally.

Abrams moved to the UK-based record label Enhanced Recordings in 2013. Her solo track "Reason to Believe" was her first single with the label and reached the No. 3 position on the Beatport Trance chart in August 2013. Remixes to "Reason to Believe" peaked at No. 7 and No. 9 in the Glitch Hop and Chillout charts, the latter a mix she self-produced. In 2014, Abrams released Amsterdam Enhanced together with AWD. In support the digital single 'What If?' was made available. She has continued to write, produce and DJ, concentrating mostly on drum and bass. She also contributed to the remix of 'Time To Say Goodbye' by Mr FijiWiji originally from the Dogma EP. In 2017 she co-wrote the song 'Trust You' for the album Trust by the singer Jaqi Velasquez that reached No. 7 on the Billboard Latin Pop Album chart.

In September 2019, she made a return to the live stage as vocalist when she appeared at the Electric FAIRy tale festival.

Style Abrams 'went through the requisite Lilith phase' in college listening to mostly female artist such as Tori Amos and Sarah McLachlan. It began to influence most of her writing and 'it was around that time that I really began consciously honing my craft'. 2014: Aruna - Start a Fire (Johan Malmgren Original Mix) 2014: Aly & Fila feat. Aruna - The Other Shore 2015: Aruna - The End (Husman Vs. Aruna Club Mix) 2015: Boom Jinx with Aruna - Light as a Feather 2016: Mr FijiWiji, Direct & Aruna - Time to Say Goodbye 2016: Aruna & Rameses B - Ready To Go (feat. KINGDØMS) 2016: Aruna - What If/Sunrise 2016: Aruna - All Of You (Ost & Meyer Vs. Aruna Mix)