PAHAAD UNPLUGGED

Budding indie singer-songwriter Pahaad from Gurugram talks about stumbling into songwriting, collaborating with music producer Hashbass on his mixtape featuring 'Pata Nahi', and leaving behind his teenage beatboxing days.

- ADITHI REENA AJITH

Before Yogesh Dimri became Pahaad, he was just a kid beatboxing in anonymous internet rooms and scribbling poems. Now, he's one of Delhi's rising indie voices. In April, he featured on Mumbai-based bassist-producer Harshit Misra's mixtape House of Hashbass Vol. 1, lending vocals and lyrics to the dreamy track 'Pata Nahi'. He also composed music for the 2025 coming-of-age film Nukkad Natak.

As a young boy, he used to server-hop through Discord beatboxing competitions under random aliases and profile pictures. "Once, I named myself 'Teri Diwani' with Kailash Kher's photo," he laughs. One day, scrolling through his phone's gallery, he stumbled on a bunch of mountain photos and thought, "Let's try 'Pahaad' this time." He won the contest under that name, and thanks to a girl who told him "Pahaad sounds mighty," the name stuck. Hailing from Badrinath, Uttarakhand—the "mountain zone"—he embraced it.

Though beatboxing was his first love, Pahaad admits it's no longer his focus. "I do it when I'm alone at home, more out of habit. But I don't see myself pursuing it seriously anymore."

"I had no intention of pursuing music whatsoever," he says. His songwriting journey began unexpectedly after winning a Hindi poetry competition in middle school despite little interest in poetry. By ninth grade, he'd picked up the guitar and began experimenting with writing songs. "I thought, why not try making music?" And he hasn't stopped since.

Dissecting discography