Anish Kumar

Anish Kumar has had an unstoppable 18 months.

A slew of releases over the last few years, including recent EPs 'Postcards' and 'Bollywood Super Hits!' have led to co-signs from the likes of Four Tet, Daphni, Bonobo, Danny Howard and Pete Tong. Following festival appearances across Dialled In, Four Tet's All-Dayer and Field Day, he also appeared across the UK and EU, consistently appearing on billings across major cities, playing at revered venues such as The Warehouse Project and Printworks.

"I'm happy that it's happening," the 23-year-old says, "but I still can't rest on my laurels because I've got all this stuff I want to say. Releasing music can be very slow at the rate that I'm making it, but I just feel like I've got so much stored away that needs to come out. It feels good, it feels exciting, which is what keeps me going."

The Cambridge University student has made his prolific work rate look effortless. A veterinary student, he spends his days on the animal wards while DJing and producing at night. "Maybe it's because I don't do a lot else apart from those two things," he says, "but they work in some kind of synchronicity. Music has always been a nighttime thing for me and doing my degree is not a bad way to spend the hours between nine and five."

With an upcoming mixtape, multiple EPs and an album in the works, Anish Kumar is busy. He's also got upcoming gigs at Printworks, festival slots at Snowbombing and Hideout as well as an appearance at Primavera. "It was baffling to get that invitation to play at Primavera," he says. "To be on the same lineup as Kendrick Lamar is incredibly surreal.

His debut mixtape is 10 tracks that saunters between genres seamlessly. "It's quite sample-heavy," he says of the tape. "It's a journey through my life and reliving that hunger I had when I would come home every day after school and just be making tracks. " The mixtape itself is full of "sugar sweet samples" and catchy hooks built for the big room; none of it veers into "cheesiness" territory, though. "I'm not shying away from pop moments on this tape," he says. "But, the music is much more accessible as I've got no desire to be completely underground, but I've also got no desire to have my music bandied around everywhere you look. I want to be somewhere in-between."

For Kumar, it sounds like nothing's changed as he's taken his teenage habits into adulthood and found resounding success through that. The first-born child of Indian immigrants in North-East England, hard work was instilled in him at a young age. He grew up playing the piano, imprinting on him a musical theory and knowledge that naturally seeped into his creative output when he discovered electronic music production as a pre-teen. Initially inspired by EDM and, in particular, Avicii, he started "recreating hip-hop instrumentals badly" and then slowly "making what I thought I was techno," he says laughing. Over time, the "catchiness, melodies and hook" of Avicii's music stuck with Anish as he started producing regularly in his free time.

Certain he didn't want to do medicine because he was unsure "whether he has the temperament for it," Anish was unsure what to study at university. With a life-long empathy for animals, he decided to pursue veterinary studies at Cambridge University. The duality of growing up amongst expansive green spaces but being attracted to big cities allowed him to seek to study veterinary sciences as well as wanting to pursue music production. Spending the Covid-19 lockdown at home, away from the fast pace of university allowed him to dig into the root and the history of the music he had loved throughout his life. "I discovered disco, soul, northern soul, rockabilly and all these genres I hadn't been exposed to as a kid," he says. "It was like finding new music, even though it's like 60 years old."

With deep crates, Anish now had new music to sample from and be inspired by. It also allowed his production and sound to be as expansive as his imagination. No longer did he feel constrained by the formulaic nature of a lot of the music he grew up listening to in his teenage years. Singles such as 'Blackpool Boulevard' and 'Hummingbird' alerted listeners to new talent while it was his latest releases which well and truly cemented a rising star.

"I want to write albums," he says. "That's the main thing I want to get across. I want people to hear that I'm not one thing and I'd hate for people to think, 'this guy only flips samples, he only makes Bollywood-inspired tunes.' I do my best to dispel that notion. I'm actively trying to avoid being pigeonholed because I don't just do one thing. I try to maintain that there's a lot of stuff I want to do — it's quite reductive to be representative of just one thing."

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Festival Blurb

A whirlwind 18 months has seen rising talent Anish Kumar receive co-signs from Four Tet, Daphni, Bonobo, Danny Howard and Pete Tong as well as release a slew of critically-acclaimed EPs in 'Postcards' and 'Bollywood Super Hits!.' Following festival appearances across Dialled In, Four Tet's All-Dayer and Field Day, he also appeared across the UK and EU, consistently appearing on billings across major cities, playing at revered venues such as The Warehouse Project and Printworks. Influenced by a variety of genres, namely northern soul, disco, doo-wop and the production of Bicep and Four Tet, Kumar's sets have become one to watch for across festivals. His work is gratifyingly hard to categorise with its melodic, anthemic production coupled with synths that nestle deeply into the groove. Anish Kumar is influenced by the culture around him, incorporating sounds from around the world while experimenting with melodies and songwriting.