Jiva

Jiva was a Los Angeles rock group active during the mid-1970s, built around Michael Lanning, Thomas Hilton, James Strauss, and Michael Reed. The band grew out of earlier school-age and club-band activity before settling into the Jiva identity in Los Angeles, where its members developed a warm, guitar-based sound that sat between hard rock, funk rock, soul, and West Coast soft rock. Their self-titled album appeared in 1975 and featured "Something's Goin' On Inside L.A.," "The Closer I Get," "Love Is a Treasure," "Hey Brother," and "All Is Well." The record was produced with a polished, studio-minded approach, adding keyboards and layered vocals to a traditional bass, drums, and two-guitar lineup. Jiva's history is also tied to the spiritual and musical circles around George Harrison, whose interest helped bring the band to a larger label platform. Although their recorded output remained limited and did not become a commercial breakthrough, Jiva's album has remained a period document of 1970s Los Angeles rock shaped by melodic guitar writing, group vocals, and a reflective, spiritually inflected tone.