Indian Lofi Artists: 12 Names Behind the Desi Lo-fi Boom

Indian lofi artists fall into two camps. The first is the flip makers: Mittxl, WORMONO, VIBIE and Harrlin Beats take Bollywood songs and indie hits, slow them down and rework them into soft, crackly versions that spread on YouTube, Instagram Reels and Spotify radio. The second is a smaller group of original producers and songwriters, including Sulk Station, Katoptris, BULLU, Sanoli Chowdhury and Sanjeev Thomas, who use lo-fi textures in their own music. This guide covers both camps. Every fact comes from reporting by Mint, mid-day, Indulge Express, Rolling Stone India and Noise Artists, plus stats.fm's genre listings.

More facts

• Google Trends interest in "lofi" in India picked up in November 2020, when Mittxl uploaded his first lo-fi flip, and peaked in May 2022 (Mint).
• Spotify India's head of music Rahul Balyan told Mint that Gen Z streams lo-fi the most of any Spotify users in India, and that lo-fi songs regularly enter its top charts.
• Delhi producer Rishi Dabas has been uploading lofi flips of old Bollywood hits on his channel WORMONO since 2018, and it had over 750,000 subscribers in 2022 (Mint).
• VIBIE's lo-fi flip of Saibo went viral in February 2021, and Sony Music then asked him to release it officially (Mint).
• Pune producer Katoptris (Faizal Jamadar) released the downtempo lo-fi single Take The Pill in October 2020 (Rolling Stone India).

How lo-fi took off in India

Mint describes lo-fi as music in which the imperfections are deliberate: the recording is not polished in a studio, and the background noise is left in. The genre was first recognised in the 1990s, but Mint reports that it became hugely popular in India, especially with Gen Z, only in 2020 and 2021. According to Google Trends data cited by Mint, interest in the search term "lofi" in India picked up in November 2020 and peaked in early May 2022.

The pandemic played a large part. In October 2020, Indulge Express reported that India's independent scene, once known for electronic music and hip-hop, was seeing more mellow releases: ambient, vaporwave, chillwave, lo-fi and bedroom pop. Musician and curator Tejas Nair told the paper that lo-fi and ambient music had "always been a great companion to anyone working or studying" and had "caught on quite a bit during the lockdown."

The global YouTube channel Lofi Girl drove the trend too. Mid-day, citing a YouTube Culture and Trends Report, wrote in 2021 that the channel had passed 930 million streams over the previous year. Mint reported that it had over 10.5 million subscribers. Spotify India's head of music, Rahul Balyan, told Mint that India is among the few countries, along with the US and Denmark, where lo-fi is a popular genre on the platform.

The flip makers

The most-streamed Indian lofi artists mostly make flips: slowed, softened versions of existing songs, often with a "slowed and reverb" effect. Mint traced this sub-genre to users slowing a song down and adding reverb "to make the track sound like it's echoing in an empty room."

Mittxl

Mittxl is the YouTube name of Tanish Mittal, a web developer from Chandigarh. On November 27, 2020, aged 16, he uploaded his first lo-fi track, a reworking of Anuv Jain's song Mishri, released only five hours after the original. His flip of the Kalank title track, which he renamed Main Tera, reached Spotify's viral charts. He told Mint that his slowed and reverb mashup Dildara x I Like Me Better was in 35,000 user playlists on Spotify. stats.fm lists Mittxl under the Indian lo-fi genre. If you came to lo-fi through Mishri, our profile of Anuv Jain covers the songwriter whose song started it.

WORMONO

Delhi EDM producer Rishi Dabas has run the YouTube channel WORMONO since 2018, uploading lofi flips of old Bollywood hits. Mint reported that the channel had over 750,000 subscribers. Dabas told Mint that people like lo-fi "for the calming and relaxing effect it has."

VIBIE

VIBIE is a music producer from Hyderabad who had over 1.6 million monthly Spotify listeners when Mint profiled him. In February 2021 his lo-fi flip of Saibo, from the 2010 film Shor in the City, collected millions of likes on the streaming app Resso within two weeks. After celebrities used it in Instagram Reels, Sony Music, which owns the song, asked him to release his version officially. He told Mint the track had passed 16 million Spotify plays, and that he now releases flips through Sony Music, Times Music and Saregama. Still, he said, the money is small: some labels pay him between Rs 6,000 and Rs 10,000 per song.

Harrlin Beats

Mint names Harrlin Beats as another Indian YouTube channel known for lo-fi flips of old Hindi classics. On stats.fm, Harrlin is tagged Indian lo-fi alongside Hindi hip-hop and desi hip-hop.

More names on the Indian lo-fi charts

stats.fm's Indian lo-fi genre page lists dozens of artists with Spotify followings. They include Anirudh Sharma (about 72,000 followers), Amit Roy (about 45,000), Shrylox (about 41,000), Nitin Shukla (about 39,000), AMAN (about 28,000), Rishabh (about 22,000) and Coffeekids (about 19,000). Follower counts change quickly, so treat these as a snapshot rather than a ranking.

The original producers and songwriters

A second group of Indian lofi artists write their own material and use lo-fi as a texture rather than a format.

Sulk Station

Sulk Station is a Bengaluru electronica duo of producer Rahul Giri and vocalist Tanvi Rao. Their debut album, Till You Appear, came out around 2012. In 2013 Giri told Rolling Stone India that the band made "moody downtempo electronica which is not dance floor friendly." He described the style as "mellowdramatic pop" with a "dark, hazy, atmospheric" vibe. stats.fm now tags Sulk Station as Indian lo-fi, electronic and Indian indie. For more producers in this area, see our guide to Indian electronic music producers.

Katoptris

Katoptris is Pune producer and singer Faizal Jamadar. Rolling Stone India reported that he began with bass music before moving to R&B, lo-fi and ambient, inspired by indie acts such as Dropped Out, Three Oscillators, Kovsky and Kaxi. His October 2020 single Take The Pill was drawn from his experience of depression. It has a heavy lo-fi beat and was the first time he sang on a record. He also started writing lyrics in Hindi and Urdu during the pandemic.

BULLU

Baroda-based singer-songwriter and producer Shashwat Bulusu, who records as BULLU, began experimenting with lo-fi production around 2014 and 2015. Noise Artists described his music as "dreamy, lo-fi atmospheric soundscapes" with heavily reverbed vocals. His 2018 singles included Gulnava, Ruksana, Dhanyavaad and Chaand.

Sanoli Chowdhury

Bengaluru-based Sanoli Chowdhury made an album, Mellow Appetite On A Sweltering Indian Summer, that Indulge Express called an ode to her love of lo-fi. "I think lo-fi really expresses honesty in the purest form," she told the paper.

Sanjeev Thomas

Musician Sanjeev Thomas turned the lockdown into a lo-fi album called Future. He told Indulge Express that lo-fi often includes elements of jazz, blues and R&B and called it "the sound of the season."

Sahir Nawab

Mid-day featured Mumbai-based Sahir Nawab as a local musician making lo-fi. He told the paper the genre works because it is simple and dreamy.

Lifafa

Lifafa is not a lo-fi act in the YouTube sense. But Rolling Stone India described it in 2013 as the "ambient/glitch-hop side project" of Suryakant Sawhney of Peter Cat Recording Co., and it shared bills with Sulk Station. Listeners who like lo-fi's hazier side often find their way to it.

The catch for flip artists

Lo-fi's reach has not always meant recognition. Mint found that many listeners hear flips through Spotify's radio playlists or Reels and never learn the producer's name. Mittxl told the paper that "listeners consuming your work through radio playlists are not your fans." Labels are also quick to put copyright claims on flips once they go viral. YouTube income is small because ad rates in India are low: Mint put the average CPM at less than half a dollar, against about $6.5 in the US. For many of these producers, Mint concluded, flips remain a hobby. Original lo-fi artists such as Katoptris and Sulk Station own their catalogues, which gives them more control. For new songwriters crossing over from lo-fi playlists, our list of Hindi indie songs is a good next step.

Where to start listening

If you want the sound that took over Reels, start with Mittxl and VIBIE. For instrumental study beats, WORMONO and Harrlin Beats are the long-running channels. For original music with lo-fi textures, go to Sulk Station's Till You Appear, Katoptris' Take The Pill and BULLU's singles. Anuv Jain's own acoustic recordings, the source of the Mishri flip that started Mittxl's channel, are a natural companion.

FAQ

Who are the most popular Indian lofi artists?

The most-streamed names are flip makers such as Mittxl, WORMONO, VIBIE and Harrlin Beats, who rework Bollywood and indie songs. VIBIE had over 1.6 million monthly Spotify listeners when Mint profiled him.

When did lo-fi become popular in India?

Mint reports that Google Trends interest in "lofi" in India picked up in November 2020 and peaked in May 2022. The pandemic lockdowns are widely credited for the rise.

What is a lofi flip?

A flip is a reworked version of an existing song, usually slowed down, softened and given reverb. Mittxl's first flip reworked Anuv Jain's Mishri five hours after its release.

Do Indian lofi artists make money from flips?

Usually very little. VIBIE told Mint that some labels pay him Rs 6,000 to Rs 10,000 per song, and YouTube ad rates in India are low. Labels also often claim copyright on viral flips.

Are there Indian lofi artists who make original music?

Yes. Sulk Station, Katoptris, BULLU, Sanoli Chowdhury and Sanjeev Thomas all release original songs or albums that use lo-fi production.

Sources

• Mint, "How Lo-fi music turned into a cultural phenomenon powered by Gen Z"
• Indulge Express, "The pandemic has contributed to a rise in calming lo-fi and ambient releases in Indian music"
• mid-day, "Lo and behold"
• Rolling Stone India, "Exclusive Premiere: Hear Pune Producer Katoptris' New Lo-Fi Single 'Take The Pill'"
• Rolling Stone India, "Sulk Station Debut In Mumbai"
• Noise Artists, "Indian Shoegaze, Noise & Dream pop guide, volume 1"
• stats.fm, "Indian lo-fi" genre page
• Wikipedia, "Anuv Jain"

Cover photo: BhikhariInformer / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).