Indiana Gregg truly is an inspiration.
From a child suffering with speech difficulties, to a successful wife,
mother, businesswoman and recording artist, her journey has been long
and eventful.
Today, Glasgow-based Indiana is in the final stages of formally
launching "Kerchoonz", a new social media platform for bands and
artists, where fans can listen to music for free, and bands are paid
for each stream through an advertising share that they receive from
the site. Sales of the new "K-box", a gel audio portable speaker which
transforms surfaces into sound, are soaring and she is putting the
finishing touches to "K'Ching", an online sale and auction shop.
In the midst of all this, Indiana still finds time to record her
material and perform live. However, she has not forgotten the hurdles
she has managed to overcome, and has vowed to use her experience in
helping others to overcome theirs.
"I hope that my story will encourage other children to follow their
dream, especially in music", she says. "Challenges can be overcome and
will make them stronger and more determined individuals later in
life".
Indiana's story began in primary school, in the United States. A
musical child, she was frustrated by the inability to control her
stammering and the teasing which she endured on a daily basis. Music,
however, gave her focus and an outlet for true expression and she felt
most at home performing on stage. Her speech therapist, who she saw
twice each week for five years, encouraged her to use her singing
talent, storytelling and physical expression to distract her for being
nervous, and it is this one woman, she says, who led her to a career
as a recording artist.
"I was able to perform without having any trouble, since a song could
easily be rehearsed and not stuttered", Indiana explains. "It gave me
the opportunity to relax. Memorising a song and performing it became
much easier than having to speak out loud to people".
Indiana is determined to use her own personal success and that of her
organisation, Kerchoonz, to assist therapists through music and
performing. Through utilising her own musical resources, and speaking
to similarly-affected children, she is there to offer hope and
support. "Kerchoonz is interested in partnering with music, speech and
autism therapists who are interested in using both live and recorded
music as part of their therapy groups. We can help them to find local
musicians as well as recorded music and are involved in developing
audio tools like our recently released "K-box" speaker, to assist with
their programme. We hope to work with therapists globally, to gain
feedback and give support through the power and outreach of the
Kerchoonz social network and the internet as a whole".
With an estimated 300,000 children in the UK under the age of sixteen
currently experiencing this difficulty, without any definitive "cure",
Indiana and Kerchoon's input will prove to be a valuable resource for
many therapists in this field.
Indiana is a singer-songwriter living in Lenzie near Glasgow,
Scotland . Her music contains elements of pop, soul and folk. Releases
include featured artist on Kool & the Gang's "The Hits Reloaded" where
she performed their hit titled "Tonight" and a 2007 debut release of
her album "Woman At Work" with singles "Sweet Things", "Love Is Blind"
and "One of Us" released from the album in April, June and October
2007 respectively.
Indiana is also co-founder and director of Kerchoonz.com, a social
networking site that pays musicians, bands, artists and songwriters
when the public listens to their music. Indiana and her music producer
husband, Ian Morrow, began developing the site in October 2006. The
site went into beta in October 2008 and is scheduled to fully launch
later this month.
http://www.indianagregg.com
http://www.kerchoonz.com/indianagregg
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