Any time I’ve had the pleasure of watching Peter Cat Recording Co. perform live, there’s one sight that I’m always keenly struck by—frontman Suryakant Sawhney’s eyes. At once playful and introspective, searching yet at peace, the founder, guitarist, and singer’s face always seems to carry the soul of what Peter Cat is trying to communicate with their music: deeply introspective musings on life, juxtaposed with the lightness of their jazzy, upbeat, disco-inspired music. It’s a reminder that the beauty of life is to be celebrated; a recognition that any pensiveness and sorrows offer nuance to the joy we experience in life, not take away from it.
Fresh off of a flight from India, Peter Cat Recording Co. was selected to open the historic Stern Grove Festival’s summer season on June 14—celebrating the nation’s oldest free, nonprofit music and arts festival’s 89th year. The celebrated Delhi quintet—consisting of Suryakant Sawhney (vocals), Karan Singh (drums), Dhruv Bhola (bass), Rohit Gupta (keys/trumpet), and Kartik Sundareshan (multi-instrumentals)—has been redefining the Indian alternative scene since 2010. Their music is an eclectic, nostalgic melting pot where Romani jazz and wistful cabaret collide with disco and indie-pop.
It’s serendipitous that Sawhney—clad in a faded maroon cap, and relaxed brown, linen trousers—graced this iconic stage in San Francisco, when nearly two decades ago, a transformative psychedelic experience in this very city led Sawhney towards the drive and belief that a serious career in music was possible. In 2008, a 20ish-year-old Sawhney—an animation student here in the city at the time—made what would become one of the most pivotal decisions of his life: deciding to give serious credence to his early music demos, eventually moving back to India, and forming Peter Cat Recording Co., and his solo, experimental, electronic project, Lifafa.
In his deeply philosophical yet somewhat cheeky and playful manner, Sawhney recalls the experience in an answer emailed to me: “Suffice to say, it was my first psychedelic experience in life which I felt unlocked a part of me which had been sitting beneath the surface since I began. Or it’s possible I’m currently living through a self-imposed delusion and this is where we are now.”
“Maybe I’m a fool / a fool like you,” Sawhney bemoans in “Flowers R. Blooming,” almost smiling at the silliness and futility of our own attempts to make sense and seriousness out of a life that has little to do with logic. Sawhney continues, almost triumphantly; “People never change, but I will,” in “People Never Change”, indicating his radical self-acceptance, and commitment to continue evolving in a world full of people often afraid to look at themselves.
Sawhney is far from the first artist, but joins a celebrated roster of many, who have been inspired to begin pondering the larger existential musings of life among the Bay Area’s signature eucalyptus and redwood trees, pondersome fresh fog, and the sweeping natural landscapes of rolling hills, lush forests, and vast oceans.
Performing beloved hits like “Memory Box” and “Floated By,” as well as the sonorous “Flowers R. Blooming” and my personal favorite, “People Never Change,” from their 2024 album BETA, the five musicians moved confidently through their Stern Grove set, imparting a freeing joy and lightheartedness to the crowd. Their performance gave an almost subconscious permission to the crowd of more than 11,000 music lovers to participate in unfiltered, unabashed, loud joy.
The band. Photos by Andrew Brobst
While the term “forget your worries” has become a trite, almost offensive response to the state of the world currently carrying on, Sawhney and his bandmates extended a hand—pulling us into a protected, lush cocoon of orange flowers, bubbles, and tall trees, where the only expectation was to listen, and hopefully, smile.
Earlier in his career, Sawhney spoke about his desire to liberate Indian music, and thus, Indian musicians, from the expectations people held to Indian music. People outside of Indian culture often have a fixed idea of what Indian people should look like, dress like, smell like, and sound like—often ignoring the complex nuances of Indian people who do neatly fit into the Western notion that we should retreat to careers in engineering, medicine, or create music that only fits the religious and classical narratives shown in films and television.
An Indian teenager growing up in Mumbai who’s a huge Young the Giant fan and aims to make French-cafe-esque tunes informed by a recent acid trip? Rarer, but becoming more accepted as the norm.
The crowd. Photos by Andrew Brobst
“At some point, there was the idea of exploring what the notion of a subcontinental sound could be, something beyond exoticising our cultures, but now I’m honestly over trying to answer that,” Sawhney says. “It’s become a more personal journey of figuring out what my personal sound truly is. And I think in that quest, I may very well end up answering the former question as well. There’s an untapped universe out there and it’s important to find a way to break the hold of the Western cultural complex.”
While Sawhney’s mission may no longer lie in acting as an usher for Indian music into a broader, more modern landscape, as I was watching him and his bandmates effervescently strum and hum on the Stern Grove stage a few Sundays ago, I felt, if nothing else, that this band of musicians was so resolutely Indian. I felt proud that this representation illustrated the parts I love most about being Indian: a childlike playfulness that exists alongside melancholic severeness, a surrender to spirituality, and a genuine love for community and one’s neighbor.
Sawhney muses, “There is nothing to do but be yourself. The greatest artists are simply those who manage to find the most singular or honest versions of themselves, and be comfortable in that skin regardless of class and creed.”
