Beginning April 25th, Peter Cat Recording Co. will make its North American debut with a Spring tour consisting of 29 gigs across Canada and the United States, with 25 events not only having an upgraded venue, but also selling out for a full-capacity gig in store.
Meanwhile, folk-metallers Bloodywood will return to the United States for their second tour in support of their 2022 album Rakshak. Special guests on their headline tour include American metallers Vended (containing members who are the sons of Slipknot's Shawn Crahan and Corey Taylor) and U.K. electro-rock group Wargasm.
While most mainstream Indian singers, such as Diljit Dosanjh, are capable of making their way throughout the United States, it still takes a lot to establish a decent network in order to break into one of the world's most valuable music marketplaces for Indian independent artists.
Bloodywood's U.S. tour is being booked by Artist Group International, while Peter Cat Recording Co. has signed with famed talent agency WME. Thaikkudam Bridge, a Kerala-based fusion outfit, is also planned to return to Milwaukee's Summerfest on June 30th. They also clearly have the streaming numbers in these locations on their side, making the pitch to promoters and venues relatively easier.
According to a press release for Peter Cat Recording Co.'s Spring North American tour, the band has its "largest current online listenership being in America without a single marketing dollar spent in the region." It helps that they have the support of Pagal Haina management, who have previously helped break talents like singer-songwriter Prateek Kuhad into global markets. Kuhad, too, now has Elektra Records on his side to help sell a tour in the United States.
But maybe the most evident factor assisting PCRC is that they've been doing it for more than a decade, producing songs, doing DIY tours, and just putting out top-notch music that attracts new audiences at every step.
Bloodywood, on the other hand, has millions of streams from Rakshak. They also have upcoming festivals such as Download in the United Kingdom, a set supporting French metal titans Gojira in Amsterdam, and a Japan tour in the pipeline. Once things are completed, the band stated today that they will begin work on their second album, establishing a strict schedule of touring, writing, recording, and publishing.
It's safe to say that breaking into the US market is difficult. After all, Indian indie acts such as Pune's Easy Wanderlings and Bengaluru's RANJ x Clifr have been invited to the SXSW festival in Austin in recent years, but they have had to decline for a variety of reasons. These could include visa complications, the financial burden of travelling and living in the United States on your own dollar (which is currently around 82), and earlier, pandemic-related restrictions.
Whether in the United States or Europe, these are desired touring circuits for any artist looking to get their foot in the door, but it comes at a high cost. Nonetheless, there are opportunities. Everything from sync placements to collaborations has the potential to be fruitful. More recently, Dhruv Visvanath, a New Delhi-based singer-songwriter, participated on Apple TV+'s My Kind Of Country, gaining new followers not only from jury members and famous country singers like Jimmie Allen, Mickey Guyton, and Orville Peck, but also by covering tunes that give them global mileage. Visvanath will almost certainly make the most of his trip to the United States.