Peter Cat Recording Co Members 2026: Who Plays What

Who are the Peter Cat Recording Co members? The current line-up, past members and who plays what in the Delhi band.

Key facts

Origin: Indian alternative band from Delhi, founded in 2009 by Suryakant Sawhney.
Line-up: Current members: Sawhney, Karan Singh, Kartik Sundareshan Pillai, Dhruv Bhola and Rohit Gupta.
Albums: Albums include Sinema (1 January 2011), Climax (2015), the compilation Portrait of a Time: 2010 – 2016 (2018), Bismillah (2019) and BETA बेटा (9 August 2024).
Solo project: Sawhney also records solo electronic music as Lifafa (NME).
Awards: The band was nominated for Best Band and Best Song for Clown on the 22nd Floor at the Jack Daniel's Rock Awards.

Peter Cat Recording Co members are Suryakant Sawhney (vocals, guitar), Karan Singh (drums), Kartik Sundareshan Pillai (keyboards, guitar, electronics, trumpet), Dhruv Bhola (bass, samples) and Rohit Gupta (keys, trumpet). The Delhi band was founded in 2009 by Sawhney, and its current five-piece line-up has been stable since 2017, when Gupta and Bhola replaced founding-era member Rohan Kulshreshtha, according to the band's Wikipedia entry. Former members are Kulshreshtha (2010 to 2017) and Anindya Shankar (2010 to 2012). Below is who plays what, how the line-up changed, and the records each version of the band made.

Who are Peter Cat Recording Co.

Peter Cat Recording Co., often shortened to PCRC, is a Delhi band whose music mixes jazz, cabaret, pop and electronics. NME summed them up in 2018 as five men from New Delhi who look like an indie band but sound like Dean Martin. Sawhney told NME the band does not really do any genre, and that his own crooning style comes from old Indian singers such as Mohammed Rafi and from Sam Cooke, his favourite singer.

The band grew out of Delhi's house-party and Hauz Khas Village circuit, which we cover in our Delhi indie scene guide.

1. Suryakant Sawhney, vocals and guitar

Sawhney founded the project and has led it since 2009 (Wikipedia). After what Wikipedia describes as a spiritual experience in San Francisco in 2008, he began writing the songs that became the debut album; Jeremy Cox of Royal Baths helped record the first demos. Family and financial pressures brought him back to Gurgaon in early 2010, where he spent the year learning production and building the band around his songs.

He grew up on his mother's bhajans and the songs of Mohammed Rafi and Mukesh, and studied animation in San Francisco, as he told Scroll. He is also the solo artist Lifafa, a project he started with a self-titled album in 2013.

2. Karan Singh, drums

Karan Singh joined in 2010, when the project became a quintet in Gurgaon (Wikipedia). He came from the metal band Lycanthropia, and Sawhney told NME that Singh then had to figure out how to play other styles, calling him a "weird alien mutant kind of drummer". He and Pillai later lived on the rooftop of building 87a in Hauz Khas Village, where the band hosted secret house-party concerts until a police raid shut them down.

3. Kartik Sundareshan Pillai, keyboards, guitar, electronics and trumpet

Pillai joined in 2012, replacing guitarist Anindya Shankar. Unknown to the band at the time, he was the same person who had mixed their sound at the Sinema launch (Wikipedia). He began bringing trumpet into the band's music in 2014, and he has his own electronic project, according to Scroll. He also sings on BETA बेटा.

4. Dhruv Bhola, bass and samples

Bhola joined in 2017, one of two young members brought in on Pillai's suggestion after Kulshreshtha left (Wikipedia). Like Pillai, he contributes lead vocals on parts of BETA बेटा.

5. Rohit Gupta, keys and trumpet

Gupta joined in 2017 alongside Bhola and plays keys and trumpet (Wikipedia). His arrival completed the line-up that recorded Bismillah and BETA बेटा.

Former members of Peter Cat Recording Co.

The two former members, both from the 2010 Gurgaon line-up, are listed by Wikipedia:

Rohan Kulshreshtha (2010 to 2017): also the band's de facto manager and booking agent, who booked the Sinema tour across Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Goa and Chandigarh. He left after tension over the band's direction.
Anindya Shankar (2010 to 2012): guitarist, replaced by Pillai.
Caleb Prabhakar was never a member but tracked drums on several Sinema songs during a period when the band had no drummer.

How the line-up shaped each album

Each phase of the band lines up with a change in members (Wikipedia):

2011: Sinema, recorded by the first quintet and released at a Delhi house party on New Year's Day, first priced at 2,000 US dollars as a digital download and soon cut to 10 dollars.
2012: Wall of Want, raw demos and experiments, released exactly a year after Sinema.
2015: Climax, the first album with Pillai, followed by self-made videos for I'm Home and Copulations.
2016: Transmissions, a project in which the band wrote, recorded and released a new song every week for two months.
2018: Portrait of a Time: 2010 – 2016, a compilation on the French label Panache, released 1 March as Kulshreshtha left and Gupta and Bhola arrived.
2019: Bismillah, the first album by the current five, recorded at a farmhouse in Sainik Farms, Delhi, and at Spectral Studios in Paris, and debuted live at Magnetic Fields Festival.
2024: BETA बेटा, released 9 August after the single People Never Change on 16 May, with a 77-date tour across North America, India and Europe (NME).

Essential songs to hear the line-up

Wikipedia lists the band's singles as Love Demons, I'm Home, Copulations, Floated By, Where the Money Flows and People Never Change. NME called the song Portrait of a Time a stunning piece that opens as a bouncy jazz number before sliding into an electronic bridge. Floated By, from Bismillah, has an official video on the band's YouTube channel and is the easiest entry point.

Is Peter Cat Recording Co. independent

The band built its early career on self-production. Sawhney told Scroll that the band became independent quickly because it produced itself at home and never needed money for outside studios. Its catalogue later went out through Panache in France, and the band partnered with Pagal Haina for management around Bismillah (Wikipedia; see also Wild City). For more acts in the same space, see our list of the best Indian independent artists of 2026.

Sources

Cover photo: Duk3L1xon / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

FAQ

Who is the lead singer of Peter Cat Recording Co.?

Suryakant Sawhney is the band's vocalist and guitarist and has led it since founding it in 2009 (Wikipedia).

Are Lifafa and Peter Cat Recording Co. the same?

No. Lifafa is Suryakant Sawhney's solo electronic project, while Peter Cat Recording Co. is his five-piece band. Sawhney told NME he uses the Lifafa name to explore Hindi music with an electronic sound.

Is Peter Cat Recording Co. Indian?

Yes. It is an Indian band from Delhi, formed in 2009 with its first line-up assembled in Gurgaon (Wikipedia).

What genre is Peter Cat Recording Co.?

Wikipedia classes the band as alternative rock and describes Sinema as a mix of jazz, cabaret and pop. Scroll describes its sound as a blend of jazz, funk, blues, rock and lo-fi.