How Artist PEEKAY Popularises Jazz In India With Independent Music

PEEKAY was always looked down on at school for not being a class topper and her anger at not being able to pursue Tennis as a passion any further because of her board exams led to her discovering something that changed her life - art.

"I started venting through poetry and eventually put those poems into music. My mum taught me how to play a few chords on the guitar and my dad was always introducing me to awesome Rock music. So, I started learning tunes on the guitar and eventually performed them for audiences at home and eventually pubs and bars. I seemed to be pretty good at it so I decided to keep at it," she says. Today, Khanna is not just a performing artist but also an entrepreneur, and it won't be incorrect to say that art and hardship got her through it all. 

In an interview with SheThePeople, PEEKAY talks about her journey in music, her creative process, what led her to Jazz, venturing into entrepreneurship, and why music requires soul more than anything else. 

PEEKAY Interview

What are the primary challenges you can recall you faced when you were trying to break into a professional career as a musician? 

It always starts with equipment challenges like buying a nice guitar or ordering a decent one from abroad and selling a kidney to afford all of it, sound challenges, budget challenges with venues and then going into darker places like being followed into a parking lot by a drunk man. So, I mean - the generic complaints of a woman in music, starting off, I suppose. Now - after a decade of establishing myself I would say my current challenges are getting decent enough opportunities to play gigs outside Hyderabad. I have played lots of shows for sure but keeping that momentum has been very challenging. I need to keep staying relevant, put in the effort to keep releasing music and being seen around the country and build a following in every city. And I’m not with a label. I have to do this on my own. So, you know. I just need a nap!

What is your creative process like?

Fall in love, get my feelings hurt and get angry about it and write a song? Lol. No, seriously though - lately it’s been life. I’ve been writing about all my observations on human nature. Lots of dialogues on coming out of tough situations on top such as battling illnesses, losing loved ones, struggling for recognition, depression, etc. The album I’m releasing in August, Starlight, is a whole book on all of these topics. Picking yourself up, dusting yourself off and marching on.

You’re one of the few artists in the country who represent the Jazz genre. What made you choose this?

Billie Holiday. Specifically, her song Solitude. When I first heard it when I was 24 years old - the first verse just made me feel really., well, weird. I don’t even know how to describe the feeling. The lyrics just go:

“In my solitude, you haunt me

With reveries of days gone by

In my solitude, you taunt me

With memories that never die”

And I think I was alone at home after losing a loved one. The house was kind of empty and I never stopped listening to Jazz after that. My grandad always loved Nat King Cole and Sinatra and would comically sing this old Jazz tune “16 Tons”. But I was always into Rock and Pop. I think when I really “grew up” I turned to Jazz as an outlet for a new phase of my life. Where the stories were more mature. My voice suited the genre too. I had a wonderful teacher and guide in Dennis Powell - one of Hyderabad’s oldest Jazz musicians and teachers. We lost him recently. But yeah - it was like God just picked me up at 24 and plonked me down into the genre. Here’s the mood, here’s the playlist, here’s the teacher. Now, sing girl!

Are the dynamics evolving within the music industry with respect to outreach for independent musicians?

We all love it and hate it equally. Now, any old Joe can start uploading their music to the internet and build a following, use the available tools to promote themselves and that’s that. Niki Minaj said in an interview recently that when we were all growing up (30 and 30+-year-olds) what we heard on the radio or on television was talented musicians. Now what we hear are popular musicians. You can buy Popularity and a Blue Tick. You can’t buy talent.

So, while I am happy that we all have Instagram and Spotify and reach audiences across the globe thanks to this digitisation - I am equally sad that there’s no filter here. It’s just a “khichdi” - this whole music “industry”.

Who are the artists who inspire you?

It’s a weird spectrum. Goes from people like George Harrison and Paul McCartney to Jim Morrison, Roger Waters, Brandon Boyd from Incubus, Chris Cornell from Audioslave, Chester Bennington and Mike Shinoda from Linkin Park and then women like Stevie Nicks, Janis Joplin to even Madonna, Alanis Morisette, Gaga and then newer Soul artists like Leon Bridges, Tom Misch, Anderson Paak etc etc etc. I’m all over the place. I mean, even Mikael Akerfeldt from Opeth has played a HUGE part in my songwriting inspiration. But then, again, so has Avril Lavigne. 

Is it essential for you to be able to make yourself vulnerable during times when you’re stirred with multiple emotions? How do you channelise that into music?

I haven’t lived the easiest or the happiest life. No one has, really. But I’m a very sensitive person and every “hit” I’ve taken has left me with a scar I haven’t been able to process very well. It’s been music that has helped me and various musicians who have been like my therapists. Writing, singing, yelling, dancing, performing, losing myself - they are all coping mechanisms. When I started writing music for Starlight (the next album) - I was locked in my flat all alone and then in my best friend’s flat in Bengaluru all alone for the most part as well. I just allowed myself to grieve whatever I had lost at the time, whatever overwhelming situation I was in which I had no control over. I channelled all of that into the 5 songs that are on the album. It wasn’t easy. I cried so much while I wrote all of it, headbanged for some part of it, got thoroughly wasted for another half and ended up sitting on the floor and just feeling proud of what I had managed to purge. 

If you don’t throw your soul into a song, it doesn’t come out very well.

I think the reason the music on this album is the best I have ever written is because I allowed myself not to shy away from the truth of my stories. I'm very excited to release it and I’m taking very long to put it out because I want it all to be perfect.

How do you push boundaries for yourself?

I never stop studying. I took guitar lessons through 2022, I was part of the AMI Cohort which was organised by Tanish Thakker (founder of Amplify India etc), I learnt how to DJ (just to understand BPM and study crowds more), I studied production and live sound by doing a random UDEMY course and asking my producer, Eddy a million questions about equipment. The works.

I think the only way you can push boundaries is to keep learning and also to keep experimenting. When you’re just starting out in music, never settle for a sound. That is a restriction. Go from rock to pop to hip hop to rap to Bollywood to wherever your soul feels like travelling. This is music. I know it’s an industry but it’s also the sound of the universe. You can’t put that in a box. 

I recently interviewed a few musicians and both of them said the challenging part of the elevation of digitalisation is the constant need to be active and sell your craft which is demanding and stress-giving. Do you feel that too? 

As I said earlier, it’s both a blessing and a curse. This Instagram generation. Yes, your audience feels closer to you and you can constantly be active with putting out even reels or snippets of songs and videos but it’s dumbed down the whole concept of music. It’s exhausting to keep shooting stuff for Instagram and planning your posts, knowing the algorithm requires you to keep posting every day sometimes twice a day! I mean - you have to be a thirsty fool and not an artist. Purists cringe. But purists who want to make it, conform. 

Is there a project/performance closest to your heart?

This album I’ve put my life and soul into - 'Starlight'. Nothing comes close. Can’t wait to release it and take it on tour.

You don several hats as an illustrator, graphic designer and singer. You also own and run a marketing and design firm, The Whole Shebang. What keeps you going as you continue to empower into involved roles?

Thank you, firstly for saying that. But I do not recommend it to anyone. I’ve taken on way more than I can chew while living with Thyroid disease and I fall sick all the time because I never catch a break. It’s thrilling to be able to run this firm which I just merged with another one so we’re now called Freeform Creative. It’s also very cool to be able to perform these commercial gigs on the weekends and all of this funds my independent releases, my PR, music videos etc. My art deserves quality and that quality needs big bucks. So, just knowing that I want to leave this body of work behind for whatever it’s worth keeps me going.

Was entrepreneurship always something you wanted to venture into? Did art play a role in this journey?

I started off being a Digital Artist. Art was my primary thing. Design just happened when I was 19 and applied for a job at a studio as an illustrator but ended up becoming a junior graphic designer and falling in love with Branding. I’ve had a fair number of exhibitions as well. But art is seasonal and I needed a steady income. I was always organising things and getting teams together since school for projects. So, leadership was always my thing and thus entrepreneurship. I started TWS for kids like me who were musicians and artists and needed a day job to fund their projects. Now, we’ve evolved into a proper corporate venture but I hope to keep hiring people who need the income.

From when you started to now, what would you say has had the most significant impact on your growth as an artist?

Hardship.

What is your advice to aspiring musicians who wish to pursue music or any other path as artists?

Don’t make excuses. Don’t complain. Don’t sit at home. Go out there, work hard and just do it.

Suggested reading: Tu Jhoom: How Mansa Pandey Sang Her Way To Nation’s Heart