ALL STRINGS ATTACHED

CE speaks to the fan-favourite musician, Prateek Kuhad, who recently captivated the B’luru audience on the secret behind his popularity, the universal themes in his songs, and more

- PRIYAMVADA RANA

IF intimacy is portable, singer-songwriter Prateek Kuhad has been plugging it in our lives for more than a decade now.

There's a song for everyone in his repertoire. For those in search of love for a long time, his song With You/For You is a wistful ode to being emotionally tethered to someone. For those in love for the first time, the single Tum Jab Paas arouses a sensation resembling that initial spark of romance. But love is not always lovely. His intense heartbreak album Cold/ Mess became viral in 2018 for evoking a relationship at its most raw and turbulent.

After covering North America, the UK, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, the UAE, and Nepal, he recently mesmerised the Bengaluru audience with his big 48-city Silhouettes Tour that promotes his 2022 album The Way That Lovers Do.

Life in songs

Kuhad's songs usually pendulate between universal themes of romance, heartbreak, solitude and melancholy. Many of them are borrowed from different phases of his life from a Jaipur boy embracing the newness and cultural shock of New York at New York University to planning to quit his regular job for a full-fledged music career in Delhi. For instance, his 2011 eponymous debut album had a song There's Something Wrong With The Way I Think which is a reflection of how life falls apart when you don't pursue the work you're passionate about. It marked his official entry into the indie music scene. Later albums like In Tokens and Charms and Cold/Mess - which later catapulted into a six-track EP echoed the trials and tribulations of being in love.