Peter Cat Recording Co., Bloodywood and More Indie Artists are Taking a Crack at the Coveted American Touring Circuit

Starting April 25th, New Delhi/Goa act Peter Cat Recording Co. will make their North American debut with a Spring tour comprising 29 shows across Canada and the U.S., with 25 shows not only having an upgraded venue, but also selling out for a full-capacity gig in store.

Meanwhile, folk-metallers Bloodywood return to the U.S. for their second tour, promoting their 2022 album Rakshak. Their headline tour brings in special guests such as American metallers Vended (featuring members who are sons of Slipknot‘s Shawn Crahan and Corey Taylor) and U.K. electro-rock act Wargasm.

While most mainstream Indian artists — like Diljit Dosanjh — are able to make their way around the U.S., it still takes a lot to set up a good network to break into one of the most prized music markets in the world for Indian independent artists.

Peter Cat Recording Co. have signed up with legendary talent agency WME, while Bloodywood have Artist Group International booking their U.S. tour. Elsewhere, Kerala’s fusion act Thaikkudam Bridge are also slated for a returning set at Milwaukee’s Summerfest on June 30th. They also undoubtedly have the streaming numbers on their side in these regions, which makes the pitch to promoters and venues relatively less difficult.

A press release for Peter Cat Recording Co.’s Spring North American tour notes that the band has their “largest current online listenership being in America without a single marketing dollar spent in the region.” It helps that they’re backed by their management in Pagal Haina, who have previously helped break artists like singer-songwriter Prateek Kuhad into global markets. Kuhad, too, now has a recordwith Elektra Records on his side to make a U.S. tour an easier sell.

But perhaps the more obvious fact helping PCRC is that they’ve been at it for more than a decade now, releasing music, putting together DIY tours and just putting out top-notch music that captures new audiences at every turn.

Bloodywood, for their part, have millions of streams to show from Rakshak. They also have festivals such as Download in the U.K. coming up, a set supporting French metal giants Gojira in Amsterdam and a Japan tour in the works, all of which is keeping them busy. Once those are knocked out, the band announced today that they will begin working on their second album, setting in place a rigid momentum of touring, writing, recording and releasing.

It’s safe to say it takes a lot to crack the U.S. market. After all, Indian indie artists like Pune’s Easy Wanderlings, Bengaluru’s RANJ x Clifr have got invited to SXSW festival in Austin in recent years, but there are a myriad of reasons they have had to turn it down. These could be issues in securing visas, the financial strain of flying and staying in the U.S. on your own dollar (which is about ₹82 now) and previously, pandemic-related restrictions.

Whether it’s the U.S. or Europe, these are coveted touring circuits for any artist to have their foot in the door, but it means putting a lot on the line. Nevertheless, there are in-roads available. Everything from sync placements to collaborations could prove fruitful. More recently, New Delhi’s singer-songwriter Dhruv Visvanath appeared on Apple TV+ series My Kind Of Country, finding new fans in not just jury members and star country artists like Jimmie Allen, Mickey Guyton and Orville Peck, but also covering songs that give them global mileage. It won’t be long before Visvanath likely makes the most of his U.S. sojourn.