May 29, 2026
Gabrielle Ravet/for PhillyVoice
KulfiGirls are made up of Stephanie Bruning, from left, Abi Natesh, Adesola Ogunleye and Joan McDevitt.
Before Abi Natesh became the frontwoman of rock band KulfiGirls, she mostly listened to the film scores of South Indian composers like A.R Rahman and Ilaiyaraaja.
“That was the basis for a lot of my musical inspiration,” the Lansdale native said. “Because the music was written for movies, it’s very progressive. There are so many different sections and they all kind of circle back at some point. That’s what I think is interesting about music, when you have more than a few sections of music that sound different, but keep the same motif.”
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Natesh's band incorporates a traditional South Indian instrument into classic American punk sounds.
The foursome is made up of Stephanie Bruning on bass, Adesola Ogunleye on drums, Joan McDevitt on guitar and Natesh, who sings and plays the Saraswati veena — a seven-stringed instrument that's named after a Hindu goddess and dates back to around 1500 B.C. The veena has typically been used in Carnatic, a form of classical music traditional to the southern region of India.
The resonance of the veena can be heard in the bridge of the song “Bite,” contrasting the band’s brash sound. Natesh belts angsty lyrics like, “My name’s stuck to the roof of your mouth, so now I gotta cut your tongue out,” before switching her dialect to Tamil in later parts of the song.
In the skate punk-adjacent track “Divinity,” the veena is used in lieu of a guitar solo as the tempo races while Natesh shows off her prowess, sitting on the floor and plucking away.
While Natesh, 29, seems to have found a niche sound in the band, pursuing music wasn't always the plan.
KulfiGirls frontwoman Abi Natesh plays the veena at WXPN's Performance Space in Philadelphia last year.
She recalls begrudgingly pursuing the veena after giving in to pestering from her family. She wrote her first song in her eighth-grade English class about Boo Radley from “To Kill a Mockingbird,” but she put her craft on the back burner for much of her adolescence.
“I wanted to quit so badly when I first started, I just didn’t want to practice,” she said. “I didn’t really understand the value of what I was doing at the time. It wasn’t until a lot later that I was like, ‘Wait, this is actually pretty cool that I did this.'"
While studying integrative science at Penn State University, Natesh said she discovered a freedom in being able to write her own lyrics and melodies. Shortly after meeting McDevitt in 2020, the two started making music in their apartments and began dating.
"Joan is a big rockhead," Natesh said. "She loves older rock music, so she brought a lot of that out. Because if it was just me, I would be doing pop."
In 2024, the pair scouted the Philly area for a drummer and bassist and met Bruning and Ogunleye, who infused contemporary punk sounds into their music. Together they formed KulfiGirls, named after a frozen dessert that's popular in India.
The band practices in North Philly and recorded their debut album “Divinity” last year in Gradwell House recording studio in Haddon Heights. They have played at Johnny Brenda’s, Dolphin Tavern and Philly Music Fest. Their music video for “Bite” was partially filmed at Rowhouse Grocery in Girard Park.
“I love Philly, I don’t know why anyone would live anywhere else,” Natesh said. “Our audiences have been amazing, very respectful of each other and they match our energy.”
KulfiGirls will perform their next Philly show at Warehouse on Watts on Friday, June 5, before playing in Baltimore and Kingston, New York. Then, they plan on working on their second album.
“We’re playing a lot of the music in a way we haven’t done before,” she said. “It’ll feel like it’s flowing like a cinematic experience.”
