Music
Taking it easy with Prateek Kuhad
We caught up with singer-songwriter Prateek Kuhad to talk songwriting prizes, new music and more.
In May last year, New Delhi-based artist Prateek Kuhad got a call from his manager Dhruv Singh about landing first place in the folk/singer-songwriter category of the International Songwriting Competition 2016.
It is a prize whose previous winners include Australian artist Gotye and singer-songwriter Passenger, and is selected by artists like Perry Farrell, Lorde, Tom Waits, Trilok Gurtu, Hardwell and Bastille. But the reason the win came as a surprise to Kuhad was that he didn’t even know he had entered the annual competition. His manager Singh says, “I didn’t even tell him, I sent the entry. The first time he found out was when he won. I called him and said, ‘So bro, I entered this and you won.’ At first, he was like, ‘What the fuck are you even talking about?’”
For an artist who started gaining popularity for his Hindi tunes off his Raat Raazi EP (2013), Kuhad has an international presence now. He’s recorded in Rio de Janeiro, hung out with musicians at a conference in Cannes, performed in New York, as well as the massive South By Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas. Kuhad says, “Every year, we try to build it up more and more – get a team together, contact booking agents.”
He’s also got a co-publishing deal with American company Cutcraft Music Group that lets him test out songs, lyrics and match them with songwriting counterparts in that part of the world. He says about visiting places like Nashville for shows as well as songwriting sessions. “For me, at the root of it, I just want to write more songs. That’s just what it’s about. It’s not like writing for a commercial where you’re restricted and you have to use this line or something. That sucks. There’s no rules in this case. It’s really great with these people. If you’re working with a really good songwriter, and you’re on the same page, temperamentally they’re cool. It’s been stress-free.”
With his manager Singh’s record label Pagal Haina backing him, Kuhad spent August and September performing a barebones “unaccompanied” set of shows that were mostly sold out, featuring Kuhad’s old and new songs accompanied by just a guitar and the occasional turn on an acoustic piano. He can do this because his songs are rooted in simple melodies, carried by his wistful, sometimes cajoling voice. He says, “I can pretty much play all my songs solo because I write them that way, but there’s definitely some that sound a lot better solo.”
He released ‘Tum Jab Paas’ early last year, but as recently as October 3, he put out a live video for a new song called ‘You Are Mine’. Written last year, the video features Kuhad at the piano with cellist Nawahineokala'i Lanzilotti as he serenades, pleads and promises about bringing back the old times, over a solemn tune that’s overall reminiscent of the likes of Nick Cave and Jeff Buckley.
Over the last two years, Kuhad has been performing plenty of new and unreleased material, as well as retooling songs off his debut full-length In Tokens & Charms (2015). When you’re going from an intimate auditorium and small rooms to open-air stages and club venues, things may get disorienting, but Kuhad says the simplicity of his solo sets made him comfortable. He adds, “I played a band set after that though, and that was pretty cool too. In terms of the show itself - even though we were a little rusty on stage. Although it’s a lot more work and I find it more time-consuming (in terms of the effort that goes behind it - longer sound checks, more logistics, longer and more thorough rehearsals), you’re dependent on more than yourself to put a really good show.” Backed by bassist Dhruv Bhola and drummer Nikhil Vasudevan, (whom Kuhad describes as “boss af”) says there’s no discomfort in the switch either.
Prateek Kuhad’s top 5
Here are five tracks that Prateek has been listening to lately.
XXXTentacion - Everybody Dies In Their Nightmares
This is from an album called ’17’, all of which is excellent. He uses a lot of samples from this mysterious Vine/Instagram account called Shiloh Dynasty, who sings short but beautiful ‘songs’ with just guitar and voice. It’s a cool story, nobody knows who he/she is (at least as far as I know).
Elliott Smith - Say Yes
The most beautiful way to tell a girl you love her.
Francis and The Lights - May I Have This Dance (Remix) [Feat. Chance The Rapper]
I saw this video and heard this song for the first time a few weeks ago, late one night with some friends (quite smashed tbh) and it got stuck in my head for a good week. Solid song, solid video.
Phosphorescent - Song For Zula
There’s this playlist in Spotify called “Roots Revival”, which is like my go to playlist because I rarely want to skip a song. This is one of the songs from it, and it’s really lovely and it has a very pretty string-section refrain.
Ludwig van Beethoven – Beethoven: Piano Trios, Op. 70 No. 2, Op. 97 "Archduke"
Not really a song, but I was reading a lot of Murakami sometime ago and one of the books mentioned Beethoven’s Archduke so I wanted to listen to it and now it’s my running music, so I listen to it a lot.
