Peter Cat Recording Co.

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Peter Cat Recording Co.
Peter Cat Recording Co Band.jpg
(Left to right) Karan Singh, Kartik Pillai, Suryakant Sawhney, Dhruv Bhola and Rohit Gupta
Background information
Origin Delhi, India [1]
Genres
Years active2009–present
LabelsPanache
Members
  • Suryakant Sawhney
  • Karan Singh
  • Dhruv Bhola
  • Rohit Gupta
  • Kartik Sundareshan Pillai
Past members
  • Rohan Kulshreshtha
  • Anindya Shankar
Website www.pcrc.in

Peter Cat Recording Co. is a Delhi-based band that was founded in 2009. The band consists of five members: Suryakant Sawhney (vocals and guitar), Karan Singh (drums), Dhruv Bhola (bass and samples), Rohit Gupta (keys and trumpet) and Kartik Sundareshan Pillai (keyboards, guitar, electronics and trumpet). In 2018, they signed to Paris based label Panache and released their first record Portrait of a Time: 2010 - 2016 and in June of 2019, they released Bismillah.

Contents

History

2008–2014: Early years

In 2008, Suryakant Sawhney had a spiritual experience in San Francisco which led him to believe that he should seriously examine a career in music. After a summer in Calcutta, he decided to create a band named Peter Cat Recording Co. along with roommate Jeff Abplanalp who proceeded to learn the bass guitar in order to be a part of it all. As he began working on what would become part of the first album, he met Jeremy Cox of the Royal Baths [2] at a party at their house.Jeremy proposed to Suryakant that he would record and help produce some demos for him. He kept his word and one of those demos would end up being part of the final version of the "Clown on the 22nd floor".

In early 2010, family and financial compulsions forced him to shift back to India to the city of Gurgaon, Haryana. Still eager to continue with his musical ambitions and now armed with an album worth of songs, he spent the year recording and learning how to produce music himself.  In the meantime, he began to play with Rohan Kulshreshtha, Anindya Shankar and Karan Singh, formerly of the metal band Lycanthropia. During the recording period (a period of few months wherein he lacked a drummer), Caleb Prabhakar stepped in and tracked drums for several of the songs and by December 31, 2010, the debut album was ready with mastering happening on the same day itself. Sinema was released on January 1, 2011, at a house party in Delhi, through the band's website and Bandcamp. It was originally priced at 2000 USD per download, eventually brought down to a manageable number of 10.

Sinema with its heady mix of jazz, cabaret, pop and noisier sounds launched PCRC into its true existence and a tour was planned in order to promote the album. Rohan, acting as defacto manager and booking agent managed to book a number of shows in various Indian cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Goa and Chandigarh. In order to make the tour cost effective, the band proceeded to drive all around the country along with most of their gear, performing one night and leaving the very next morning. in 2011, they continued to perform the album whenever they could and managed to release a music video for their song Love Demons, starring themselves and completely produced in house.

On January 1, 2012, the band released an album of raw demos and other experimental recordings, titled Wall of Want. As the band progressed, Anindya Shankar left the band and was replaced by guitarist Kartik Sundareshan Pilllai, a friend of a friend, who had unknown to the band, also mixed them at their Sinema album launch. As Karan and Kartik shifted residence to the rooftop of the infamous building 87a in Hauz Khas Village, Delhi, they began playing more shows around them and launched a series of secret house party concerts, finally being raided by the police and being forced to shut down. They continued writing new music and rehearse from 87a. Sometime in 2014, Kartik decided to take up trumpet adding another dimension to the PCRC sound.

2015–2018: Transmissions, Panache and Portrait of a Time

Five years on from Sinema, in 2015, the band launched its spiritual successor, Climax. It expanded on the PCRC sound adding a horn amongst other things. The album was followed by self-produced videos for "I'm Home" and "Copulations". The band launched it with a show at Social in Hauz Khas Village. They proceeded to organize another tour around India, which resulted in Suryakant crashing a car during their drive from Kartik's ancestral home in Kerala to Bangalore. The band finished the remainder of their tour using trains and flights.

The following year, they worked on a release titled Transmissions, which relied on the band writing, recording and producing a new song every week for two months.

By the summer of 2018, the band had been contacted by a new boutique French label, Panache, who suggested releasing a compilation on vinyl which would include music from several of their releases.

After seven years, tension in the band regarding its direction and future reached an impasse, and Rohan Kulshreshtha left the band. On Kartik’s suggestion, he was replaced by 2 young new members, Rohit Gupta and Dhruv Bhola. Portrait of a Time: 2010 - 2016 was released on March 1, 2018. This was proceeded by the band completely expunging its past and beginning again.

2015–present: Bismillah

Following the release of Portrait of a Time, work began on a new album. It was decided that the band would record it at Stefan Kaye's farmhouse in Sainik Farms, Delhi. The band proceeded to record most of it there, with a few songs happening in Paris at Spectral studios of Robin le Duc. The band decided to debut of their new material at an all night long show at Magnetic Fields Festival in Rajasthan. They partnered up with Pagal Haina who subsequently became their management.

Suryakant and Robin proceeded to mix the album in Paris itself and Bismillah was released in 2019. It was followed by a series of shows around India and Europe, promoting the record.

Discography

Albums

TitleDetails
Sinema
  • Released: January 1, 2011
Wall of Want
  • Released: January 1, 2012
Climax
  • Released: June 25, 2015
Transmissions
  • Released: July 18, 2016
Portrait of A Time
  • Released: March 30, 2018
  • Label: Panache
Bismillah
  • Released: June 7, 2019
  • Label: Panache
Happy Holidays
  • Released: May 11, 2020

Singles

Music videos

Band members

Current members

Past members

Tours and live shows

Europe

Leuven, BE / M-Idzomer

London, UK / Meltdown Festival

Vendor, NL / ZomerParkFest

Groningen, NL / Noorderzon

Paris, FR / Rock En Seine

Maastricht, NL / Bruins Festival

Island of Vieland, NL / Into The Great Wide Open

India

A self-produced, curated album release across five cities called Made in India [5]

Bangalore / Skydeck

Delhi / QLA Terrace

Bombay / G5A (2 shows)

Hyderabad / The Moonshine Project

Chandigarh / Upstairs Club

North America

In spring of 2023, the band embarked on their first ever North American tour, with the intention of playing in a variety of cities in Canada and the United States.

The tour consisted of 29 shows across the two countries.

Oceania

In January 2024, the band toured Australia and New Zealand, performing shows at the Sydney Festival and the Soundsplash Festival in Raglan. They also performed in Melbourne, Auckland and Wellington.

Accolades

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References

  1. "Meet Peter Cat Recording Co., the New Delhi troupe who've written an unmissable big band banger". Nme.com. 8 October 2018. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
  2. "Royal Baths". Bandcamp.
  3. 1 2 "MEET NEW DELHI QUINTET PETER CAT RECORDING CO". Musicvein. April 9, 2019.
  4. 1 2 "Peter Cat Recording Co. release 'Where The Money Flows'". Original Rock. May 13, 2019.
  5. Mitra, Prarthana (October 13, 2019). "Kicking off Bismillah tour, Peter Cat Recording Co. returns to stage with top brass". A Humming Heart.
  6. Vohra, Saumyaa (February 7, 2012). ""It Was Really Weird We Were Even Nominated": Peter Cat Recording Co". Rolling Stone India.