Hear Bowls’ Reflective New Release ‘Pretend Friends’

Its been quite a hectic past year for New Delhi bassist Dhruv Bhola aka Bowls. The artist released his debut solo EP Shed Winter at the start of 2019 and then went on to tour with singer-songwriters Prateek Kuhad and Ditty as well as his band waltz/gypsy jazz-rock outfit Peter Cat Recording Co. (PCRC) to promote their album Bismillah. The musician even scored a slot at desert music festival Magnetic Fields in Alsisar, Rajasthan in December. “All in all, it was a very busy year,” he says. Now, Bhola has shifted his focus back to his solo project with the release of two singles.

Bhola decided to record the two new wistful tracks, “Pretend Friends” and “Two Feet,” around six months ago and began plotting what he wanted them to sound like. Both tracks offer the listener contemplation while the musician juxtaposes acoustic elements with synths and samples. “’Pretend Friends’ turned out quite different from the first demo I made of it back in 2017, [while] for ‘Two Feet,’ I wish I had a grand string section to play with. It would’ve been great. But I mostly wanted to keep that song bare, which is what it ended up being.” The musician recorded the entire project in his bedroom studio and also mixed and mastered it himself.

Learning new languages and working on fresh music is what’s been keeping Bhola busy during the lockdown. The musician is plotting to work on a music video for his latest release and is also planning on putting more material out as Bowls before the end of the year. There’s also music in the pipeline with PCRC, waltz group Run it’s the Kid and Ditty. “[Dream pop outfit] Begum recorded an album in February this year, and we’re trying to finish it remotely,” he says.

Stream Bowls’ new release below and click here to listen to it on other platforms.