Indian Shoegaze Bands: 9 Acts to Know

Indian shoegaze bands to hear, from Lo! Peninsula in Imphal and Begum in Delhi to Long Distances, CVRSES and Minaxi, with sourced facts.

Key facts

Northeast pioneers: Lo! Peninsula, a shoegaze, dream pop and psych rock trio from Imphal, formed in April 2017 and self-released the EP AKA Lo! Peninsula in August 2018 (Noise Artists, KEXP).
Delhi dream pop: Begum formed in New Delhi in 2013. Their debut album Bagh (2014) has only three tracks (Noise Artists).
Mumbai revival: Long Distances released their debut EP How the Mighty Will Fall in January 2024 and were billed to open Lollapalooza India that month (Rolling Stone India).
Heavy end: Pune quintet CVRSES mix alternative hardcore and shoegaze on their three-track debut EP Heart Decay (Homegrown, 2025).
Shared members: Begum's Karan Singh and Kartik S Pillai also play in Peter Cat Recording Co. (Noise Artists).

India's shoegaze scene is small but it covers the whole country. The key Indian shoegaze bands are Lo! Peninsula from Imphal, Begum from Delhi, Long Distances from Mumbai and CVRSES from Pune, with the solo projects Kouros and Hoirong and the New York band Minaxi, led by a musician from Mumbai, on the edges. Peter Cat Recording Co., which shares members with Begum, has also used a shoegaze wall of guitar on record. This guide uses reporting by Noise Artists, KEXP, Rolling Stone India, Homegrown, The Indian Music Diaries and Pitchfork, and every fact is sourced.

More facts

Lo! Peninsula, a shoegaze, dream pop and psych rock trio from Imphal, formed in April 2017 and self-released the EP AKA Lo! Peninsula in August 2018 (Noise Artists, KEXP).
Begum formed in New Delhi in 2013. Their debut album Bagh (2014) has only three tracks (Noise Artists).
Long Distances released their debut EP How the Mighty Will Fall in January 2024 and were billed to open Lollapalooza India that month (Rolling Stone India).
Pune quintet CVRSES mix alternative hardcore and shoegaze on their three-track debut EP Heart Decay (Homegrown, 2025).
Begum's Karan Singh and Kartik S Pillai also play in Peter Cat Recording Co. (Noise Artists).

A short definition

Homegrown describes shoegaze as a sound "born in the late '80s and early '90s" that "blurred distortion and melody until both collapsed into something dreamlike." The name came from critics who noticed that bands played with their eyes on their effects pedals. In 2018 the blog Noise Artists, which publishes a guide to Indian shoegaze, noise and dream pop, said it was "difficult to say Noise Pop has established a foothold in the Indian independent music scene." It credited festivals such as Bacardi NH7 Weekender, Ziro Festival of Music, Magnetic Fields and Hornbill with helping the wider indie scene grow. Here are the bands that have kept the sound alive since.

Lo! Peninsula (Imphal)

Lo! Peninsula is a shoegaze, dream pop and psych rock three-piece from Imphal, Manipur. The 2018 lineup listed by Noise Artists was Nitin Shamurailatpam (guitar and vocals), Avinash Thokchom (bass) and Jyotin Elangbam (drums). The band formed in April 2017, released the single Chasing Tidal Waves in July 2017 and self-released the EP AKA Lo! Peninsula in August 2018. Their Bandcamp tagline reads that they "Weave dreams for a living."

The Seattle radio station KEXP picked them up after the band emailed its Morning Show host, John Richards, describing themselves as "a shoegaze/psychrock/dreampop trio from India." KEXP said the EP was "crammed full of catchy melodies, swirling guitars, bluesy bass runs, and driving drum beats." The band took its name from a business card found inside a guitar amplifier. In the interview, Shamurailatpam talked about leaving an ad agency job in Mumbai and then a government job in Manipur to concentrate on music. For more bands from the region, see our guide to Northeast India bands and artists.

Begum (New Delhi)

Begum describe themselves as "Dreamy, lo-fi experimental perverteres from New Delhi, India." Noise Artists reported that they formed in 2013. The lineup it listed was Tushar Mohan on bass and samples, Karan Singh on drums and keys, and Kartik S Pillai on guitars and vocals. Their debut album Bagh (2014) is "dreamy/waltzy" despite running to only three tracks. Noise Artists listed their releases as Waiting (2014), Bagh (2014), W.A.E (2016) and Sweet Nectar (2018). Rolling Stone India's tag page notes that members Kartik Pillai, Karan Singh and Dhruv Bhola are also in Peter Cat Recording Co. Delhi's wider underground is covered in our Delhi indie scene guide.

Peter Cat Recording Co. (Delhi)

Peter Cat is not a shoegaze band. Esquire India describes their sound as a mix of jazz, cabaret and indie pop. But Pitchfork's review of their 2024 album BETA notes that the track Black and White "opens with an MBV-esque wall of guitar noise," a nod to My Bloody Valentine, before turning into a funk groove, "from shoegaze freakout to the bastard love child of bossa nova, disco, and rave." The Recording Academy reported that the BETA tour took the band across North America, Europe and India, playing headline shows and supporting Khruangbin. Because of the shared members with Begum, it is a useful entry point for listeners who know the band but not the Delhi dream pop around it.

Long Distances (Mumbai)

Long Distances emerged in late 2022, Rolling Stone India reported. The core members are multi-instrumentalist Aarifah Rebello and guitarist-producers Apurv Agrawal and Zubin Pastakia. Pastakia said he was told the shoegaze and guitar music he wanted to make was "dead," and that he disagreed. Their five-track debut EP How the Mighty Will Fall came out in full in January 2024. Its songs were begun remotely during the pandemic, Rebello explained, which meant learning to build DIY recording booths. The band was programmed to open Lollapalooza India that month, though technical problems cut the set short. Backing vocalist and synth player Gouri Ranjit, bassist Adil Kurwa and drummer Karun Kannampilly later joined.

Talking to The Indian Music Diaries in 2025, the band said the EP sits "at the intersections of genres such as post-punk, shoegaze, dreampop and synthpop." Their influences include The Cure, Ringo Deathstarr, New Order and Slowdive. The interview followed the band's selection for TuneCore's Next spotlight, and the headline quoted their view that bands not playing to algorithmic trends need regular support. Mumbai's scene is covered in our Mumbai indie scene guide.

CVRSES (Pune)

CVRSES are a Pune-based "alternative-hardcore-shoegaze quintet," according to Homegrown. Their debut EP Heart Decay, covered in September 2025, has three tracks: Waves, Faith and Marionettes. It mixes early-2000s emo and post-hardcore with modern indie pop melancholy. Guitarist Mikhail Khan said the EP draws on "melancholy, rage, tenderness, disconnection, and yearning." Drummer Armando Khan said the band's sound is "marked by anger, pain, joy." Homegrown listed their influences as Enter Shikari, Turnstile, Deftones and Holding Absence.

Minaxi (Brooklyn, led from Mumbai roots)

Minaxi is a New York band led by vocalist-guitarist Shrenik Ganatra, who grew up in Nallasopara on the outskirts of Mumbai. Rolling Stone India reported that he formed the band in June 2018 after moving to New York, with Liam Christian on bass and Steve Carlin on drums. Their first Hindi song, Ae Khuda, is described as a shoegaze song "prone to bursts of guitar and drums." It came from the debut album Khwab, scheduled for March 13, 2020, which followed the EP Zidd.

Kouros and Hoirong, the noisier edges

Noise Artists also covers two solo projects. Kouros, a project of Sushant Rawat, is an experimental metal and rock project with "elements of doom, Noise Pop and Shoegaze." Its albums are Causa (October 2015) and The Distance Between Us (May 2018). Hoirong is the project of Bangalore lo-fi and noise rock guitarist Kamal Singh. Its bio calls it "the fat and ugly stepsister of pop music." The debut album was The Resurrection Of The Princess Of Woe And Her Vampire Hound Posse (2013), and Singh formed a live band in 2014.

BULLU, the dream pop cousin

Baroda's Shashwat Bulusu, who records as BULLU, appears in the same Noise Artists guide for his "dreamy, lo-fi atmospheric soundscapes with generously reverberated melodic vocals." He is not a guitar-noise act, but he is a good bridge from bedroom pop to shoegaze.

Where to start

Start with Lo! Peninsula's AKA Lo! Peninsula EP for the classic sound, then Begum's Bagh. Long Distances' How the Mighty Will Fall is the most polished recent record. CVRSES' Heart Decay shows where the genre is heading, towards hardcore. Peter Cat's Black and White, from BETA, is the best-known Indian track to borrow the sound.

FAQ

Are there shoegaze bands in India?

Yes. The best known are Lo! Peninsula from Imphal, Begum from Delhi, Long Distances from Mumbai and CVRSES from Pune, plus solo projects like Kouros and Hoirong.

Which Indian shoegaze band was featured by KEXP?

Imphal trio Lo! Peninsula. Seattle station KEXP interviewed them in 2018 about their self-released debut EP AKA Lo! Peninsula.

Is Peter Cat Recording Co. a shoegaze band?

No. Esquire India describes them as a mix of jazz, cabaret and indie pop. But Pitchfork notes that BETA's track Black and White opens with a My Bloody Valentine-style wall of guitar, and members Karan Singh and Kartik Pillai also play in the dream pop band Begum.