“It Was Really Weird We Were Even Nominated”: Peter Cat Recording Co.

Peter Cat Recording Co.

Peter Cat Recording Co. and frontman Suryakant Sawhney and manager Prathamesh Naravane recently spoke to ROLLING STONE INDIA about their multiple nominations for the JD Rock Awards, 2012.“I thought it was really weird we were even nominated” says Sawhney, frontman and guitarist of the self-described “cabaret/gypsy golf/bathroom waltz” act that is Peter Cat Recording Co.

Peter Cat Recording Co. is nominated for Best Band and Best Song (‘Clown On The 22nd Floor’) at this year’s Jack Daniel’s Rock Awards.

Somewhere in the scatter-plot trajectory between design and film, Suryakant found his old friends from his back-in-the-day jam sessions – Rohan [Kulshreshtha, bass], Karan [Singh, beats] and Andy [Anindya Shankar, organ/ guitar/ harmonium/ electronics] – part of existing metal band, Lycanthropia.

So, is PCRC basically Sawhney’s brainchild? “Pretty much, yeah. You take out Suryakant and you have a full fledged heavy metal band. The ideas, the lyrics, the composition ”“ all him” says Naravane.

“God, no,” counters Sawhney “Maybe a little bit on record, but live, it’s the whole band that makes the music what it is.” He describes the band as a Delhi-boy parody band, which confirms and busts the stereotype in one fell swoop. “But I guess we’re still kind of finding our feet with our stage image”, he admits.

When asked what went into making the band’s debut album Sinema, he cheerfully responded “dozens of musical fragments, recorded everywhere, and bits of old footage from our previous stuff.”

Their song ”˜Clown on the 22^nd floor’ is a contender in the Best Song category this year. “Well, ”˜Clown”¦’ was a happy surprise, the lyrics hadn’t even been written down, we sort of pieced it together from scratch as we went along, went through about  a million versions, and then, voila, it was there.”

And we simply had to ask them who their favorites among the other nominated acts were, and the answer was deliciously simple. “Well, we love Menwhopause, because they’re from Delhi, and they’re our friends”, says Naravane. “And also, their music is unbelievable”, he hastens to add.

To vote for your favorite band, log onto www.jdrockawards.com and cast your vote!

Interviewed by Saumyaa Vohra