Singer-songwriter Prateek Kuhad on how he gets inspiration for the love songs we can't get enough of
Prateek Kuhad
Prateek Kuhad
When we attended singer-songwriter Prateek Kuhad’s gig last month, we were not completely surprised by his popularity, but yes, mildly taken aback. The tiny, basement venue was packed to the brim — this writer had to kindly request his accommodating manager to let us inside, as the RSVP list was booked few hours after the gig went public. As he took to stage and started his set with his hit Flames from his album, In Tokens and Charms, the crowd seems to collectively swoon – and it wasn’t just the women doing the swooning. There was also a lot of singing along. It’s been a while since we have seen a musician, who doesn’t have a single Bollywood hit in their repertoire, to have such a following. But then his songs (mostly love tunes in Hindi and English with reflective lyrics and sweet melodies) are the stuff good music is made of. He recently finished a tour where he played for sold-out sit-down shows, which could almost be unheard of in the indie music space. When we meet him over chai in Mahim the weekend after, one of the things we are aching to know is – are all the “love” songs inspired by his own life? Or is it insipid of us to take them literally? But Kuhad just laughs, “Most of the songs are inspired by girls I may have known, or know. One of them doesn’t even know the song is about her. Maybe I should tell her now. It’s high time.” He still remembers writing his first "good" song after a really sad incident. “I was crying as I wrote the song. And then I made a few people listen to it, like my sister. And they were like, ‘ok, this is great stuff’,” says the 26-year-old.
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The Delhi-based musician’s EP Raat Raazi (2013) put him on every discerning indie listener’s playlist, and In Tokens and Charms (2015) just made every one want more. Kuhad’s strength lies in singing unpretentious songs that speak to the romantic in all of us. They were primarily guitar-based, but now he has weaved in the piano as well. On stage, he has a pleasing personality, and he smiles every time the audience hoots. “Being on stage is still the hardest part for me. I hate the whole setting up, sound-checking, lugging equipment, dealing with clubs… but yes, when people sing along, that makes it all worth it. But I used to be really bad at it. It’s still work in progress.”
Ask him about the lack of Bollywood singing, and he just looks a bit turned off. “I have sung a song in Baar Baar Dekho, but it’s just not worked out that well otherwise. I did have a few meetings a few months ago, but something was off about everyone I met. This one director told me that, you can either sing, or make music. You can’t do both. When he said that, I was like this isn’t working,” he says. But then it seems, he doesn’t really need the validation. His fans are the types who ache for something heartfelt, and that’s something Kuhad delivers fantastically. We come back to talking about the gig, and we can’t help but ask, are the girl fans crawling out of the woodwork. Kuhad smiles his trademark smile and says modestly, “There are a lot of men who write in too – but their letters are mostly ‘hey man, what chord did you play on that song’. And the girls, well, the girls react to how the song makes them feel. That’s what it is.” Well, we have officially joined the club.
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