Singer-songwriter Prateek Kuhad has come a long way since he emerged onto India’s independent music scene about a decade ago with a batch of instantly relatable folk-influenced love songs in English and Hindi. Among the first artists to perform at Sofar Sounds in his home country, Prateek has gone on to play some iconic stages including The Fillmore in San Francisco, CA, which he sold out last month. Shortly after appearing on the magazine covers of Travel + Leisure and Grazia in India, he released his first major label album The Way That Lovers Do in May, and recently wrapped a month-long North American tour to promote the record. We spoke to Prateek about the album, which adds a new pop dimension to his sound, and making the jump from indie to mainstream popularity.
Sofar: The Way That Lovers Do, which has been produced by Ryan Hadlock (The Lumineers, Vance Joy), successfully expands your sound without changing it. How did you achieve that?
Prateek: The only thing I remember telling Ryan is that I don’t want this to be a folksy record just because a lot of my older stuff has been a certain way. [I said] let’s not have any rules or restrictions. To his credit, he reminded me that there are certain connecting points that you do through an album so that it sounds like one body of work.. I think what Ryan did really well was adding certain things or pushing back slightly in certain places, so that when you listen to the songs together, they sound really good as an album.
The playlists you’ve created on Spotify feature a lot more than folky singer-songwriters. For instance, there’s a fair bit of hip-hop in there. What’s the biggest misconception about you?
A lot of people, because of my songs I guess, think I’m this super-calm and composed person. But I’m not. I have days when I’m upset or angry. When I’m out with my friends, I can be very energetic and up and about. On stage, I definitely become very withdrawn. It just kind of happened, the whole being in the spotlight thing, I really didn’t ever expect it and wasn’t prepared for it. With certain things, I’ve got quite comfortable with it and almost started liking it. I really enjoyed doing a little bit of acting in the music video for “Favorite Peeps” for example. With certain other things, I’ve made my peace with it, like it’s part of the job. It’s my responsibility as a professional in terms of putting on a good show and being a certain way on set when I’m coming in for a shoot for a magazine or a music video or an interview.
You signed a deal with Elektra Records last year. Does being with a major bring additional pressure along with the resources it provides?
So far, there’s no pressure at all. It has taken off the pressure. One thing a lot of people don’t talk enough about is when you’re independent, you have to manage everything. That’s really, really hard. You’re building your team, you’re making all the decisions. Elektra has a team of around 50 or 60 people that work for all their artists but I have access to all of them. Every major label has that. That’s one of the pros. The cons are that you definitely can have a little less control over things like release timelines, because a label has to plan their calendar around 100 other artists.
Over the past few months, you’ve been on covers of magazines that usually feature Bollywood stars. At what point did you feel you had crossed over from the indie circuit?
It’s a crazy world. I could be mainstream today, and then not three years later. You don’t get to a certain level, and then just stay there forever. I’m always putting out new music. I’ll have ups and dips and lows in my career. So I try to be as objective about these things as I can because mainstream is a very nebulous word. Getting a few magazine covers doesn’t necessarily mean you have true popularity. For me, the main thing was my ability to do successful, large-scale live shows. For example, during my 2019 tour, 10,000 people attended the gig in Delhi. This was not people coming to a free concert or a festival or paying Rs500 (approx. $6.50). They paid Rs1,500 (approx. $19). In India, those numbers are quite rare. A lot of “mainstream” musicians can’t do that. To me, that was one very objective indicator that I’m not really indie anymore.
Words by Amit Gurbaxani
Photo credit: Prateek Kuhad, photo by Jamie-James Medina
