Kingston Trio Capitol Collectors Series CD

A quiet child who inspired those who heard him sing, Kiran's early love of music has directed his life path, and his experiences along the way have shaped the aural landscape of his songs. Fleeing the political climate of South Africa, Kiran's family immigrated to Ireland, where Kiran, the youngest of three, would be born. Despite the sectarian struggles that gripped their adopted nation, the family suffered no real inequity in Ireland ('If you weren't Catholic or Protestant, the Irish didn't really care,' Kiran remarks). It did, however, provide his first encounter with the disparity of social prejudice.

When Kiran was 4, the family returned to Lenasia, South Africa, an Indian village outside Johannesburg. The country was still in the grip of Apartheid, and segregation was the norm. 'We couldn't live in Johannesburg because one had to be upper-class; we were regarded as middle-class.

' Much of Kiran's childhood was shaped by the political backdrop of Apartheid and its racist policies of which he became more aware as he grew older. 'Because it was segregated, one had almost no idea what was going on elsewhere in South Africa. We lived about 15 minutes from Soweto and didn't know what was happening there,' Kiran recalls. Another time he remembers 'seeing people selling flowers by the side of a road with a sign that read, 'Whites Only'; I asked my father 'Why?' He simply replied that we had our own places to get flowers. It was like that everywhere, for everything.

'Kiran's childhood in South Africa awakened his love of song. Introduced to music by his parents and elder siblings, he remembers 'music could always be heard. It was around the time of Thriller, so Michael Jackson's sound was everywhere. We also listened to old jazz, Nat King Cole, early hip hop and lots of R&B, which was big over there. There were artists like George Benson who were absolutely huge stars in South Africa; but when we came to Canada, I soon realized hardly anyone here had even heard of him.