Peter Cat Recording Co.: 2024

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Straddling multiple genres and cleverly adhering to none, Peter Cat Recording Co. artfully weave tangential rainbows of psychedelic rock jams, jazzy interludes, Indian classical, and straight-up soul ballads into their songs all while tackling big philosophical questions. Their lyrics smartly bounce between bone-dry wit, sentimental irreverence, and spiritual, thoughtful reveries on aspects of love.

With three songwriters and singers — Suryakant Sawhney (guitar and harmonium), Dhruv Bhola (bass), and Kartik Pillai (guitars, horns woodwinds) — joined by Rohit Gupta (keys, horns, woodwinds) and Karan Singh (drums), the band found an enthusiastic fan base outside of India during the pandemic, as homebound listeners across the globe discovered their 2019 album Bismillah. Primarily based these days in North Goa after relocating from Delhi — although Sawhney has recently uprooted himself again to London — Peter Cat Recording Co. released their latest album, BETA, over the summer.  The title means "son" in Hindi, which Singh's toddler chose by happenstance.

"It's like a picture of everything we've been through as individuals so far," says Sawhney, who explains why BETA might be the band's third album — or seventh or eighth.

That album release coincided with the group's biggest global tour to date — 77 dates worldwide, both headlining and supporting Khruangbin. In New York, Peter Cat Recording Co. swiftly sold out their two dates at Brooklyn Steel and Irving Plaza — and they also made their way to Studio A for a set of three songs, sung by Sawhney ("Flowers R. Blooming"), Pillai ("Foolmuse") and Bhola ("I Deny Me").

The quintet of friends also chatted about their process and their choice to record BETA in the middle of the night in North Goa, with locales that including an ancient church and cottage. Sawhney also touched on his years in San Francisco studying film, the logistical challenges of being a band in India, and what he describes as the "deity" perspective of some of BETA's songs. "There's a whole universe going on," he explains.

[Recorded: 9/12/24. Engineered by Jim O'Hara with Nadia Garriga and Matthew Ellersick; produced by Meghan Offtermatt. Videographers: Therese Burgo, Adithi Vimalanathan, Stephanie Lane, and Nikki Phillips.]