Prateek Kuhad has a new album out and is excited about touring India after a long drawn hiatus

Back on the road for an intense tour and a new album that’s already a hit, the singer-songwriter is in a “good space” and ready for more

For cult-favourite singer-songwriter Prateek Kuhad, the pandemic was understandably “a blip”. He was on the road till right before the pandemic hit in 2020, and now he is back at it again. After wrapping up an intense tour across the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe, Kuhad will soon hit the road in India, starting October 29. “I felt amazing during this past summer in New York and wrote a bunch of new songs–that hasn’t happened in a while, very honestly,” says Kuhad, as tickets are selling out fast for his pan-India The Way That Lovers Do tour, named after his latest release. Songwriting is a part of his craft that he holds integral to the process of creating music and of his own admission, he is in a good space right now. His fans in India can’t seem to wait to be able to appreciate his music in a live setting–and that’s something that Kuhad himself is looking forward to as well. In a chat with The Established, he talks about being back on the road and his perspective towards his music.

You have been on the road for a while now and you have an entire India tour coming up too. Since you were touring till right before the pandemic hit, how does it feel to be doing it after such a long time?

It feels awesome and it also feels like it’s [going] back to the same, to be honest. You can definitely see that people are really stoked to be back; we have experienced this with our shows across the US–the entire tour was sold out. We were playing after over two years and this time, the venues were larger than the last US tour. Everybody was super hyped to attend a live performance but once the concert starts, it is kind of like the same, nice energy as before.

How has the reception for the new album been?

It’s been good so far. It’s really hard to gauge until you get to the shows, to be honest. I think the US tour started just a week after the album’s release in May, so you could tell that a lot of people did not know the newer songs. But now that a few months have passed, I can see a lot of people already liking the new album. Recently, I had put out a post online about the India tour dates and so many people were asking for the newer songs. I can tell that people already have favourites from the album. I am excited for the upcoming tours because people have had a chance to listen to the newer songs and it’s a lot more fun for them. It’s more fun for me, too, because if you go to a live concert and you know the [lyrics of the] songs, you always connect better.

You have been open about how cold/mess was inspired by what you were experiencing at that point in your life. Since then, has your approach to songwriting changed? Has the pandemic and the quiet time that came with it had any impact on your craft?

The pandemic feels like a blip and I didn’t write as much then. However, I felt amazing during this past summer in New York and wrote a bunch of new songs–that hasn’t happened in a while, very honestly. But my process is still quite similar. It might be hard to say because with time, you change as a person. So the ways in which I have been interacting and collaborating with people have changed a little bit. But when it comes to the actual songwriting, I think it’s pretty similar. I tried different ways of approaching the process but ultimately, I ended up going back to how I write, which is pretty intuitive and barely a process. I just sit down with a guitar and a piano, and I write a bunch. I let it happen.

Have you seen your fans evolving or expecting a different sound from you?

I try to keep myself away from that as much as possible. A while ago, I was looking out on social media but that significantly influences how you write. Then it’s not as fun for me, more than anything else. I really like what I am doing. I don’t want to get into my head too much; then writing becomes a chore that I have to do for other people as a means towards an end versus writing for the sake of writing. I am back in that zone now, I feel really good about it and I want to stay here.

You have also mentioned earlier that you struggled with social anxiety. While writing can be a very solitary process, touring can be very public. So has that become better and how do you cope with it?

Struggled? (laughs) I still struggle with it but it’s definitely much, much better. I think after being forced into touring and being in situations that are super social and public, you eventually get used to it. You also start liking it, actually–which is where I am now. Not all of it but generally, I quite like social interactions now. If you throw me into a social situation where, literally, I don’t know anybody, then I get nervous because I am not that extroverted. Some people are so extroverted and social that you can put them in any social situation but I am not like that. I like meeting people in smaller groups and have always enjoyed that.

So what’s next? What’s happening after the tour?

While in New York, I was mostly trying to write as much as I could, along with preparing demos and looking at older stuff. I go back a lot of times because I have so many recordings on my phone that are half-finished–I then take time to write new stuff and also reflect on old stuff that I never put out. Sometimes a relook or a new perspective on the old material makes it really good. Or I work on things that I want to improve myself in, like my voice or my guitar skills or piano skills or production skills. That is what I was doing in New York for a solid two-and-a-half months and I feel really refreshed. The India tour is a little easier than the international tours because for those, we usually do a show every day. There is no break and it’s pretty hard to get the time to write. But in India, we are playing over the weekends so I intend to get into a bit of the recording mindset during November and December. I am always working on new music because that’s the fun part of what I do.

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