{"id":3184,"date":"2019-10-29T20:39:53","date_gmt":"2019-10-29T20:39:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shindig-magazine.com\/?p=3184"},"modified":"2019-10-29T20:39:53","modified_gmt":"2019-10-29T20:39:53","slug":"exclusive-interview-with-far-out-group-peter-cat-recording-co","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/?p=3184","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive interview with far-out group Peter Cat Recording Co."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Straight out of Delhi, PETER CAT RECORDING CO. are a fabulous quintet who have been mixing up psychedelia, indie and big band moves for a decade. JEREMY ALLEN catches up with the band to get the skinny on their beguiling sound for <em>Shindig!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Peter Cat Recording Company - &quot;Love Demons&quot; (Official Video)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MiUB22i8KFA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>It wasn\u2019t uncommon a few years ago for PETER CAT RECORDING CO. to get in the car and keep driving until they found themselves somewhere, anywhere, to play. On one memorable occasion the band left their homes in New Delhi and eventually located a trashy bolthole seven hours away in Rajasthan. The stage was raided by police, but rather than shut them down, one officer ordered them to \u201cnot stop playing this jajj music!\u201d Jajj could well be a new genre that really only applies to PETER CAT RECORDING CO., a hallucinatory swing band at the world\u2019s most psychedelic wedding &#8211; familiar and yet like nothing you\u2019ve heard before.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-3188\" src=\"http:\/\/www.shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/peter-cat-3.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/peter-cat-3.png 800w, https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/peter-cat-3-300x180.png 300w, https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/peter-cat-3-768x461.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/>When band leader Suryakant Sawhney started out eight years ago he was making gypsy jazz while spending his evenings listening to Strauss. As time went on he recruited further members &#8211; ten in all (although about half of those have since left). New recruits brought their own ideas, and PETER CAT RECORDING CO. became a broad sonic church. Bollywood is the main influence, but to some listeners its more like spectral showtunes crooned from a parallel dimension.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat&#8217;s the beauty of being a band,\u201d says Sawhney. \u201cThere are just so many more passages you can go down. This constant evolution is definitely something we really want.\u201d The uncanny effect is augmented by a strong visual aesthetic, especially where videos are concerned. The French independent label Panache signed the group on the strength of their brilliant eight minute promo for \u2018Love Demons\u2019, inadvertently discovered during an algorithmic forage. Peter Cat have toured all around Europe since they were signed, and were recently invited to play Nile Rodgers\u2019 Meltdown, meaning their driving days look to be behind them.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-3187 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/peter-cat-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/peter-cat-2.jpg 500w, https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/peter-cat-2-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/peter-cat-2-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/peter-cat-2-24x24.jpg 24w, https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/peter-cat-2-48x48.jpg 48w, https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/peter-cat-2-96x96.jpg 96w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/>Another recent video for \u2018Where The Money Flows\u2019 features a cameo from the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Suryakant singing to camera in a slightly creepy monkey mask: \u201cNone of us likes to show our face in our videos. It wasn&#8217;t conscious, it just seemed the natural way to go. When you put on a mask you&#8217;re also removing cultural and national identity, which for a video like that is nice. You put on a monkey face and you&#8217;re no longer English or Indian, you&#8217;re just a monkey.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So does a hallucinatory wedding band sound like a fair description?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat&#8217;s good,\u201d says Suryakant. \u201cIt&#8217;s a funeral band, it&#8217;s a wedding band, it\u2019s a psychedelic occasions band.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And is the music inspired by psychedelics, perchance?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don&#8217;t know about that, I don&#8217;t think we use them that much!\u201d retorts Suryakant, shaking his head. \u201cPsychedelic music is a form of romanticism and making something surreal doesn&#8217;t necessarily require drugs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Peter Cat Recording Co. - Where the Money Flows\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Yh5NDSKwJvw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-3189\" src=\"http:\/\/www.shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/peter-cat-bismillafrontweb-150x150.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/peter-cat-bismillafrontweb-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/peter-cat-bismillafrontweb-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/peter-cat-bismillafrontweb-24x24.png 24w, https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/peter-cat-bismillafrontweb-48x48.png 48w, https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/peter-cat-bismillafrontweb-96x96.png 96w, https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/peter-cat-bismillafrontweb.png 750w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>PETER CAT RECORDING CO.\u2019s latest album <em>Bismillah<\/em> is out now on Panache.<\/p>\n<p>Visit the band\u2019s website <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pcrc.in\">HERE<\/a><\/p>\n<span class=\"synved-social-container synved-social-container-share\"><a class=\"synved-social-button synved-social-button-share synved-social-size-24 synved-social-resolution-single synved-social-provider-facebook nolightbox\" data-provider=\"facebook\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"Share on Facebook\" 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JEREMY ALLEN catches up with the band to get the skinny on their beguiling sound for Shindig! It wasn\u2019t uncommon a few years ago for PETER CAT RECORDING CO. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3187,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,7],"tags":[675],"class_list":["post-3184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-music-videos","tag-peter-cat-recording-co"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3184"}],"version-history":[{"count":-2,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}