Peter Cat Recording Co. Plot Launch Tour for New Album ‘Climax’

(from left) Karan Singh, Suryakant Sawhney, Kartik Pillai and Rohan Kulshreshtha. Photo: Courtesy of pcrc

It’s been about four years since Delhi psych rockers Peter Cat Recording Co. [PCRC] first made waves with their debut album Sinema in 2011, but bassist Rohan Kulshreshtha says the band is still putting finishing touches to their new album Climax even as they prepare for its launch tomorrow at Hauz Khas Social in New Delhi. When asked for the number of tracks on Climax, he says they’re still finalizing and a few songs might be added or dropped. Says the bassist, “You’ll get to know once it’s out.”

Climax, a title that stays consistent with their flair for the cinematic, has been in the making ever since 2011, even though the band did release a collection of B-sides and demos called Wall Of Want in 2012. While they released a single called “Flies” last year, they’ve been performing songs such as “Fridays” since Sinema released. Kulshrehtha says Climax was a “big learning curve” for the band, who had spent four years jamming together at multi-instrumentalist Kartik Pillai and drummer Karan Singh’s terrace residence in Hauz Khas. Says Kulshreshtha, “We’ve come across new music, new instruments and this album shows all that. We’ve infused disco beats too.”

Disco is probably an influence that comes from frontman Suryakant Sawhney’s electronic music project Lifafa, which has a distinct element of Bollywood dance music at times. The bassist adds, “Whatever anyone in the band does [outside of PCRC] comes back into the band. We’ve morphed our lifestyles into this and that’s what keeps the band going.”

The Delhi gig this weekend, is the first of an 11-city tour that the band is undertaking across India, from Jaipur to Kozhikode to Bengaluru to Mumbai, following which they embark on their debut Europe tour between July and August. The set, which spans across both albums, can easily go up to three hours, but Kulshreshtha says they’ll probably play a two-hour set at their India shows and hope that their sets on the Europe tour should go up to an hour.

Unlike the five-city tour that they undertook to promote Sinema, they’re much more experienced now to take on a much longer time on the road. Says Kulshreshtha, “It’s about 20 days on the road together and we’ve got our sound tech with us as well ”“ Anshuman Mishra [from prog metallers Escher’s Knot]. But being together for so long is not a big deal. Karan and Kartik are going to pass out and Suryakant and I are just going to keep talking, smoking and all that.” The bassist is particularly looking forward to their performance taping at Kerala TV channel’s KappaTV’s show Music Mojo. Says Kulshreshtha, “It’s really well-followed and we’ll hopefully get good leads for college festivals in the area for next year.”

Peter Cat Recording Co. performs at Hauz Khas Social, New Delhi on June 21^st, 2015. Entry: Free. Event details here. More tour details here.