From an armory of instruments to personal stories told with an uncharacteristic straightforwardness, the Delhi/Goa band are taking over the world with their latest full-length Peter Cat Recording Co. Photo: Tenzing Dakpa are currently on their world tour promoting the and they might be the only band who can say some of these songs were recorded between Paris, Joshua Tree in California, New Zealand and Faridabad. A week before kickoff, it’s about 10:30 in the morning and Peter Cat Recording Co.
(PCRC)’s Suryakant Sawhney aka , Kartik Pillai aka , Karan Singh, Dhruv Bhola and Rohit Gupta are joining in from their different abodes. “I live in Haryana,” Pillai clarifies with a smile. While the New Delhi-origin band had originally moved to Goa, they’re now long-distance, with Bhola, Gupta (who’d just finished up a yoga session) and Singh living near each other and Pillai and Sawhney in Delhi NCR.
At one point, PCRC (and Begum, the alt act comprising Pillai, Singh and Bhola) used to jam and record music at their home in Hauz Khas Village, New Delhi. Sawhney points out that their 2016 collection of songs was recorded there. Pillai adds, “I mean, that was the only place at that time where we didn’t have to spend money on an hourly basis, and we didn’t have to go anywhere to jam rooms.
I heard it’s an OYO [hotel] now.” Regardless of where or how they’re recording, there’s a finesse (and at other times, the intentional graininess and fuzziness) heard on that�.