The Second Edition of The Indies Awards Announce Winners

The likes of Shillong-based blues outfit Soulmate and New Delhi rapper Prabh Deep have been awarded the top honors at the second edition of The Indies, the digital award show for India’s independent music scene.

Across numerous categories, artists with releases in 2020 were in the running for this year’s Indies. While New Delhi singer-songwriter Kamakshi Khanna was given Song of the Year for “Qareeb,” fellow Mumbai/Sikkim musician Anoushka Maskey picked up the award for Emerging Artist of the Year. For his exhilarating, catchy and melodic sound, Mumbai-based singer-songwriter Tejas clinched Pop Artist of the Year whereas prog-rockers Protocol took home Artwork of the Year for their album Friar’s Lantern.

The rest of the categories spread the winnings in a diverse manner, with Mumbai ska band The Fanculos bassist Saurabh Suman picking up Bassist of the Year, Bengaluru prog-metal group Pineapple Express’ Gopi Shravan T.S. winning Drummer of the Year and beatmaker Yung.Raj grabbing Electronic / Dance Artist of the Year.

The jury featured Martin Popoff (heavy metal and rock journalist), Alam Khan (sarod artist and composer), Sunny Jain (from Brooklyn bhangra band Red Baraat), Forrester Savell (producer for artists like Karnivool, Animals As Leaders, Skyharbor) and James Monteith (guitarist from Engsih prog-metal band TesseracT). Also, household names from the country’s music scene such as Ehsaan Noorani, Fali Damania, Atul Churamani, Ritnika Nayan, Luke Kenny, Mercy Tetseo, Theja Meru (from TaFMA) added to the jury. Former Rolling Stone India writers such as Deepti Unni, Megha Mahindru, Gaurav Narula and current Executive Editor Nirmika Singh were also included as part of the decision making. Check out the full list of winners below.

The Indies Second Edition Winners:

Song of the Year 
Kamakshi Khanna – “Qareeb” 

Album of the Year
Soulmate – Give Love

Music Video of the Year
Prabh Deep – “Chitta” 

Producer of the Year
Anhad Khanna and Tanner Willeford – In Other Words (Anhad + Tanner)

Artwork of the Year 
Friar’s Lantern (Protocol) 

Emerging Artist of the Year 
Anoushka Maskey

Metal / Hardcore Artist of the Year
KillKount – Konflict & Terror

Instrumental Artist of the Year
Re-Laxman — Re-Laxman, Vol. 1

Folk-Fusion Artist of the Year
Anhad + Tanner — In Other Words

Electronic / Dance Artist of the Year
Yung.Raj – Knoxxville

Rap / Hip-Hop Artist of the Year
Prabh Deep — “Chitta” 

Rock / Blues / Alternative Artist of the Year
Karajimo — Lunar Howl

Pop Artist of the Year
Tejas – “Lead”

Keyboardist of the Year
Rahul Kannan (Protocol)

Bassist of the Year
Saurabh Suman (The Fanculos)

Drummer of the Year
Gopi Shravan T.S. (Pineapple Express)

Guitarist of the Year
Rudy Wallang (Soulmate)

Female Vocalist of the Year
Tipriti Kharbangar (Soulmate)

Male Vocalist of the Year
Lojal