Popular for her songwriting, whimsical and comical concept music videos, and passion for artist collaboration, Peekay is focused on ensuring that her music represents the arts in every way. The Hyderabadi converses with The Pioneer about her musical journey and more.
K. Ramya Sree
From being the lead singer of the rock band Spell Check (previously The Ragamuffins) to going solo in 2020 as a Pop/RnB artist, Pranati Khanna, aka Peekay, a musician and entrepreneur from Hyderabad, never stops experimenting with her sound. Her first few singles as a solo artist, Good, Old Fashioned in Love and Much Better, were produced by Bangalore-based, Grammy-nominated producer Jonathan Anand Wesley and collectively hit 50,000 streams on Spotify in no time at all.
Her performances are packed with energy and positive affirmations, leaving her audience feeling elated. Popular for her songwriting, whimsical and comical concept music videos, and passion for artist collaboration, Peekay is focused on ensuring that her music represents the arts in every way. From featuring her illustrations on merchandise related to each release to conceptualising her own music videos and selecting teams of artists to include in each project, her aim is to encourage the arts in her city and showcase talent from her community.
To Peekay, not many dance forms come close to Bharatnatyam, Kathak, and the like in terms of storytelling and expression. After a lot of conceptualising with director Apoo Mahi, the two of them got together dancers Vaibhav Modi and Nenita Praveen, two of Hyderabad’s most popular classical dancers, and together they choreographed the music video for No Ordinary.
This bunch of talent who grew up as an emo kid shares with The Pioneer, “I grew up an emo kid. In the most stereotypical way! My parents were totally into rock and retro pop music, so I always had those influences growing up. Jamming with their musician friends, learning from them and my parents, etc. Because I was going through a lot of emotional turmoil growing up, I turned to music and drawing a lot. And those outlets turned into me writing a lot of original music. So yeah. I put my first band together, The Ragamuffins, and we put an EP out and performed our songs around the country once. And then disbanded. But then I continued as PEEKAY. So that’s how it went.”
She is soon going to present her impending debut album, Starlight. Shedding some light on it, she shared, “Starlight the album is a 5-song EP that follows the journey of a person going through depression and overcoming it, finding strength within themselves, and moving past it. So this album is all stories in a way, I guess. It’s the typical 90s emo kid sound we grew up on.”
She continues, “The idea and concept of Starlight stemmed from me making it through one of the deepest depressions I’ve ever been in. I was afraid for my life. I was living alone. I was heartbroken. Abandoned. Confused. And I have a full-time job where I’m the boss. I play commercial shows. I have gigs for Peekay. And despite being so broken, I pulled myself up and out of this ridiculous valley and marched up that hill. So every song on the album is a phase of depression. From the “what a shame” dialogue to myself as I watched myself pathetic and unable to leave my room. Or my bed to a fever dream where I was in denial about my situation. And moving to nothing ordinary and wanting to be bad, which is the upward spiral of getting out of bed and into the shower and feeling proud of small wins and big ones alike. To starlight, where I sang this affirmation to the world to remind them that they are the power of this universe, and no matter what happens, we can motivate not just ourselves but those struggling around us to recover from mental and physical injury.”
Peekay’s sound is an interesting mix of her husky jazz influences, honest songwriting inspired by her own life, and pop music from across the ages. Often compared to Hiatus Kaiyote, Moonchild and Erykah Badu – her style of performance and soulful writing are indeed attributed to her idols and influences. Winner of an Asia INC. 500 award for her contribution to the arts, Peekay also co-owns a design and marketing firm in Hyderabad called The Whole Shebang, and was also a partner with an Olive Group speakeasy called Giggle Water, which she turned into Hyderabad’s first jazz bar and LGBTQ inclusive venue, as well as displaying her digital art at exhibitions every few years and most recently (2022) at The Pullman in New Delhi.
She has often been open about being a non-conformist. Recalling her childhood days that led her to believe in this and also inspired her to create music, she revealed, “My parents always taught me to believe in being original and authentic. My mom is a writer and a pastor, and my dad is a lawyer who used to give me Led Zeppelin and Steve Vai albums to listen to. So we weren’t always normal as a family. And we had our ups and downs. I grew up in a school that was filled with kids who I couldn’t gel with. And eventually growing up to go through heartaches of a traumatic level, etc. I just kept writing about life. My life. The only thing that keeps me going and keeps me motivated to create more music and move through my sound in a more experimental fashion is the fact that I’m an artist, and it is of ultimate importance and necessity for me to purge. I need to keep writing, telling my story, releasing my emotions, and yelling my testimony off the rooftops. If artists don’t do that, they tend to go down a rabbit hole. So I have made sure I never stop.”
All the music that she has created to date has a message behind it. For instance, Sunshine on the Street talks about the LGBTQ+ community. Furthermore, taking us through her music-making process, she explained, “There’s literally no point to any of us as musicians doing what we do if not to put into words and tune what other people can’t fathom or express. It’s our job to write about life, be honest about situations, give advice, and externalise internal dialogues or trauma. My process is to write poetry, put it to tune, and get it produced by Jonathan Edwards, my big brother and one of the best producers ever.”
For her, hard rock, alt-rock, metalcore, old-school thrash, and the like will always be the core of her soul. Lately, it’s been bands like Bad Omens, Bring Me The Horizon, etc. So pop rock and metalcore are where her heart lies.
Lastly, sharing what’s in the pipeline for her fans, she said, “Because I’ve been shying away from going heavier for years, but now I don’t care about being anyone but myself authentically, my audience can expect a consistently heavier sound with each album or single I put out. I’m definitely experimenting with hard rock and alt-rock a lot more with Eddie, Alex, and Rex. We’re prepping a PHAT sound for life and playing a lot of songs we’ve been writing but haven’t released yet.”
