KALBAISAKHI WAS NEVER MEANT TO BE QUIET

With roots in Delhi and a rave education from London, the producer's chaotic, emotional sound is shaking up the underground scene

- MANASVI POTE

Before he was known as Kalbaisakhi, Vibhu Singh was just a drummer kid. A quiet one, wide-eyed around seniors who walked the school halls with drumsticks in their back pockets and band posters in their notebooks. “Drummers didn’t have to smile,” he says. “They didn’t have to show you anything. They just felt it—and hit back.” He learned tabla. He studied rhythms. Then he walked away. For a while, he didn’t want to learn music. He just wanted to hear it.

It was hip-hop that cracked things open. Through friends, through the internet, through that weird rite of passage where Eminem lyrics make more sense to an 11-year-old than they should. Later came beat-making, hours on YouTube, and eventually, his first original tracks. His earliest releases were lo-fi sketches, born during the COVID lockdowns when everything felt hushed. “That was a very quiet time,” he says. “I made quiet music.”