Sudan on How ‘Happy Accidents’ Led To His Genre-Defying Debut Album

Mumbai-based producer, singer and multi-instrumentalist Sudan aka Pritpal Sudan seemingly becomes a different artist on every song off his 13-track debut album Sudan?

Released in June, the artist who first made a mark as part of alt-pop duo Khoya Firdaus is throwing a big, collab-heavy launch gig on Aug. 8 at Antisocial in Mumbai, bringing in the likes of Tejas, Frizzell D’Souza, Anoushka Maskey, Bendi and more.

While making a statement as definitive as one does with an album, there’s a fine line between being all over the place and presenting a spectrum of sound and Sudan builds upon his love for synth experiments to be the latter across 13 songs.

He’s an openhearted singer-songwriter (“Can You?” which goes from acoustic to tabla-infused to electronica), electronic artist who can turn clubs upside down (“Omg”), but also an accidental Midwest emo artist (“Fool” and “Weakness,” the latter shapeshifts into electronic music so seamlessly) and finally, a warbling mess that seems to rise above it with a horn section on “Iiiii.” Sudan says in an email interview, “The goal of the album for me was to showcase the range of my sound as a producer, so I was more than happy to let my creativity flow in whatever direction it naturally went into.”

Inspired by the likes of artists like Tom Misch, Tennyson and more, Sudan? was two years in the making, even as Sudan was managing sessions duty and production work with the likes of Maskey. As it turns out, he was working on most of these new songs simultaneously and the unnamed song that actually started him off on the album didn’t eventually make the cut. “Ironically, the last track that I wrote and produced was ‘Intro,’” he adds.

To finesse his ideas and arrive at the myriad synth textures and loops heard on the album, Sudan credits “sound designs and happy accidents” as part of the process. He says, “I spend a lot of time exploring new sounds, textures and sound design techniques and that usually results in either me creating a sound exactly like how it is in my head or accidentally coming across something that’s even better than I could come up with.”

Where the likes of Mumbai singer-producer Nicholson aka Landslands introduced electronic music with singer-songwriter hues – itself a reflection of being inspired by the likes of U.K. artist James Blake – Sudan pushes the sound even further. He’s also gotten a little bit of help from other Indian indie artists on his album.

Featuring the likes Lavi on the banger “Trouble,” Sudan seems to take every artist’s strength and leans into their signature sound. Bendi signature vocals lead “Dreaming,” while Bengaluru-based singer-songwriter L’nee Golay is Taylor Swift-like in her poignant questioning on “Aftermath.”

A pre-requisite of sorts for Sudan to collaborate was that he would be “so in love with their work,” which is perhaps why he says the songs with featured vocalists sound like they belong in those artist’s catalog as well. “The point of a collaboration to me is to showcase the collaborator’s sound and personality as much as mine even if that means I have to sacrifice a bit of cohesion as a result of that,” Sudan says.

At the end of the day, Sudan feels he’s an “electronic producer who’s obsessed with playing in a band.” That said, he’s not going to take any time away from production work even as he sets out to take Sudan? live on stage this week.

He adds, “In fact, I’m currently producing records for some of the most exciting acts out the country and I will continue working on them while I’m taking the album on the road. A lot of music under different hats coming your way in 2024.”

Sudan & Friends perform on Aug.8 at Antisocial, Mumbai. Get tickets here.