Prateek Kuhad has had a busy year. The singer-songwriter, who got the world swooning to his ‘cold/mess’ after former US President Barack Obama included the single in his favourite songs list in 2019, has not a minute’s rest ever since he started his Silhouettes World Tour early this year. Kuhad isn’t complaining though. Self-admittedly, this has been one of the best tours for him and he is raring to go.
As he continues travelling across different cities in India, the man’s already got a plan for next year which might not be what you would’ve expected.
Esquire India: What is the best part about touring in your home country?
Prateek Kuhad: This tour is really special. Playing in your home is always special. Everything started in India. I played my early sets at Blue Frog in Mumbai in front of three people and now ten years later, to be playing in front of an audience of 10,000 – I think that’s pretty cool.
ESQ: What is your earliest memory of making music?
PK: I must have been five years old when I would try to learn and sing whatever I heard on television or on audio cassettes. I was listening to a lot of Harry Belafonte. My mom used to listen to him. Also, whatever I heard on the television, whatever was popular at the time.
ESQ: A stage performance of a musician that has stayed with you?
PK: This was when I was living in New York. I went to the Bowery Ballroom to watch a performance of Ben Howard. I just remember it being really wonderful. I think he had just come out with a record that time which was really popular and I was really into that album. It was nice to be there and listen to him play it live.
ESQ: A stage performance of yours which will always be special?
PK: The show I did in Mumbai in 2019. It was in that year that I had started playing relatively bigger shows – for audiences of 3,000 to 5,000. I had played in festivals earlier to crowds of that size but never for my own show where people had bought tickets to listen to me. That is a very different energy and it just felt really special.
ESQ: Who are some of the musicians you have grown up listening to and whose music has touched you?
PK: There are a lot of musicians whose music has touched me. I think I started falling in love with music because of Harry Belafonte and Cliff Richards. Then of course, there was Bollywood and the entire indie-pop movement with Lucky Ali, KK, String and others. I was never into EDM or techno but I would listen to everything else. I have always liked good songs and songwriters.
ESQ: What is the kind of music you have been listening to currently?
PK: I’ve been listening to a lot of obscure music. There’s a very popular show called ‘The Bear’ and it has a really crazy soundtrack. There’s a playlist on Spotify which has the soundtrack of all its three seasons. Then I recently heard ‘Black Venom’ by The Budos Band. I was listening to the Thievery Corporation a lot earlier this summer because it’s instrumental and chill.
ESQ: What’s on the agenda for 2025?
PK: In 2025, I want to stay in one place and do nothing. That's why I'm doing all the touring and everything else now. I like doing that kind of like sprinting for a bit and then resting for a little bit. And I just haven't really rested in a while properly. Next year, I want to disappear and go and live in a small mud hut somewhere in South America where nobody can find me. That's my plan!