US Singer To Aid Children With Speech Difficulties

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