Before Curtain Blue became one of India's most outstanding electronic musicians, Abhishek Bhatia grew up in a home where music was simply part of everyday life. His parents constantly played old ghazals, folk music and regional records, sounds that settled into him long before he began making music himself. "I don't think there was ever one moment where I discovered Indian music," he says. "It was just always around me." The artist has always been drawn towards melancholic sounds. "There's something about instruments like the sarangi, esraj or even the warmth of a dholak that immediately puts me in a certain emotional space. I never really looked at them as traditional instruments — I just loved how they made me feel," he notes.  As he grew older, he was influenced by artists like Radiohead, James Blake, and left-of-centre electronic music. For years, he found himself trying to figure out how those two worlds could exist together. "Over the last couple of years I finally found a sound that feels completely honest to me," he shares.

After first making a name for himself as the frontman of New Delhi experimental rock band The Circus, Bhatia launched Curtain Blue as a solo project to explore a more personal corner of electronic music. Early releases like 'Drones' introduced his signature blend of haunting vocal melodies, shimmering synths, dissected beats and downtempo grooves, earning comparisons to artists like Jon Hopkins and Apparat while establishing a sound rooted in detailed, textural production. 'S.T.R.I.P.E.S' brought together lush horn arrangements, analogue synthesisers, treated vocals, strings and acoustic instrumentation, moving effortlessly between groove-driven electronica and slower, more atmospheric compositions. His forthcoming EP, 'Kesar', pushes that evolution further, beginning with the rhythms of the dholak and the melodies of the sarangi before weaving them into indie-pop songwriting and electronic production. Across his catalogue, Bhatia has consistently favoured experimentation and reaching for new soundscapes.

In recent years, Bhatia has also composed music for runway shows and presentations by designers including HUEMN, Bodice, Komorebi, and Dhruv Vaish, alongside projects for fashion weeks and independent labels across India. "Honestly, writing for fashion feels exactly like scoring a film," he says. "Every designer already has a complete world in their head. My first job is simply to understand that world before I even think about writing music. The conversations are about movement, emotion, silhouettes and atmosphere, and once I understand that, the music almost starts writing itself. It's made me think much more visually, even when I'm writing my own records.”

From working with German electronic producer Robot Koch to projects with Coke Studio Bharat and a wide range of independent musicians, Bhatia sees every collaboration as an opportunity to discover something unexpected. "Every artist brings a completely different perspective, and sometimes a tiny idea changes the entire direction of a song," he shares. "Collaboration pushes me into places I probably wouldn't have reached by myself, and I always walk away having learnt something new."

Although he believes incredible music can be made entirely inside a laptop, he still finds something special about physically interacting with instruments, slowly building his studio one piece at a time. At the centre of that space sits his Sequential Prophet Rev2. "I'd wanted one for years because I was chasing that warm analogue sound I heard in Radiohead and James Blake records," he says. "Now it's at the heart of almost everything I write." His Korg Kaoss Pad 3 continues to play an equally important role in shaping his vocal production, becoming part of the sonic identity listeners now associate with Curtain Blue.

Outside music, Bhatia constantly finds inspiration in other creative disciplines. Films by Martin Scorsese, David Lynch and Quentin Tarantino continue to influence the way he thinks about atmosphere and storytelling, while architecture, fashion, and travelling regularly feed back into his music. He enjoys wandering through old cities, studying buildings, sitting in cafés and simply observing people. "I've always been drawn to things that feel timeless, rustic and honest," he says, “and I think that naturally finds its way into my music.”

On his Instagram, the artist often posts jam sessions, collaborations and studio clips of covers and original compositions. When he uploaded a short snippet of his upcoming single, 'Yeh Duniya', he wasn't expecting much. “The response completely surprised me, and I'm genuinely grateful for the amount of love it received,” he shares. The momentum eventually caught the attention of a label, opening the door to a full release accompanied by a music video. "More than anything, Yeh Duniya feels like the beginning of a new chapter for Curtain Blue," he says. "It's the first song that fully represents the sound I've been searching for over the last few years — a balance between my Indian musical influences and the songwriting style I've developed over time."

Follow Curtain Blue here.

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