Rashmeet Kaur’s genre-traversing new album ‘Parinda’ explores love’s many phases, blending Punjabi folk, R&B, and global influences. In conversation with Homegrown, Kaur explains how the eight-track album reflects her journey of self-discovery, emotional growth, and artistic freedom.
Over the past decade, Rashmeet Kaur has moved between independent music, Bollywood playback and live performance, building a sound that draws from Punjabi folk, Indian classical and Sikh devotional music, alongside R&B, hip-hop and electronic influences. Her latest album, 'Parinda' brings these threads together across eight songs in Punjabi and Hindi, tracing the shifting terrain of love, from the excitement of new beginnings and the ache of heartbreak to acceptance and self-discovery.
“The album begins with a girl falling in love with a complete stranger,” she says, “and slowly takes us through the vulnerability, excitement, longing, confusion, heartbreak, self-realisation and freedom that follow. By the end [of the record], she has gone from falling for someone else to falling back in love with herself.”
Moving between intimate R&B, Punjabi folk, drill-inspired production and rock-qawwali, the album resists easy categorisation. For Kaur, the album is an expression of the freedom to trust her instincts, experiment with sound, and grow into herself without the pressure of fitting into a mould. It is also an invitation to sit with the contradictions of being human, finding ways to articulate emotions that often resist language.
In conversation with Homegrown, Kaur reflects on what making Parinda has taught her about love and letting go, how her diverse musical influences find their way into her songwriting, and why authenticity, both sonic and personal, matters more than the idea of building a brand.
‘Parinda’ moves through different phases of love, from the excitement of new love to heartbreak, acceptance, and finding yourself again. What did making this album teach you about love, and about yourself?
Making Parinda taught me that love is not just about falling for someone, but also about vulnerability, heartbreak, acceptance, and finding your way back to yourself. It made me realise that every phase of love teaches you something, and sometimes losing someone helps you understand yourself better. More than anything, the album taught me to let go, grow, and find myself again.
You blend Punjabi folk with R&B, jazz, rock, and electronic sounds. How do you know what a song needs, and how do you decide when to let those different influences take over?
For me, it always starts with the emotion and the natural feel of the song. I don’t really think about genres beforehand. I let the song tell me what it needs. For example, when I was making ‘Bholey’ (from KAURA), the “Shambo Shambo Shambo” chant at the beginning naturally gave me an Afrobeat vibe, so I followed that instinct and built the whole song around that sound. Punjabi folk is a big part of my identity, and the other influences just find their way in naturally. I experiment and follow the feeling until everything sits together in a way that feels honest.
You’ve spent the last decade moving between independent music, live performance, and Bollywood playback. How has that shaped the artist you are today, and what have you learned about finding your own voice in the industry?
I think moving between independent music, live performance, and Bollywood has given me a really broad understanding of who I am as an artist. Each space has taught me something different from being completely independent and experimental, to understanding an audience through live performance, to adapting to the demands of playback singing.
Over time, I’ve realised that finding your own voice is really about trusting your instincts and not trying to fit into one box. All of those experiences have shaped me, but they’ve also taught me to stay true to what feels authentic to me.
The title track, ‘Parinda’, closes the album with a rock-qawwali sound and a sense of freedom that comes through finding yourself. What does freedom mean to you now, both as a person and an artist, and how does it show up in your music?
For me, freedom is being able to express myself without feeling like I have to fit into a certain box. ‘Parinda’ really represents that feeling for me, trusting my instincts, experimenting with different sounds, and allowing myself to make music that genuinely feels like me.
I’m also learning that freedom comes from being fully present. I want to keep making progress every day, but not as a pressure or a race, more as a constant practice of being aware, staying curious, and growing. When I’m truly in the present moment, I feel the most free. And I think that’s what ‘Parinda’ ultimately represents for me: being comfortable with who I am, being present, and allowing myself the freedom to let the music take me wherever it wants to go.
You’ve spoken about wanting to make complex emotions easier for people to process through music. As a singer-songwriter, how do you turn something personal into a song that can belong to someone else, too?
I think the key is being honest about what you’re feeling without over-explaining it. When you take something deeply personal and express it through a melody, a lyric, or even a sound, people can find their own meaning in it. I’m not trying to tell someone exactly how to feel. I’m just sharing my experience honestly, and hopefully it gives them a space to connect with their own emotions.
That’s what I wanted ‘Parinda’ to do as well, take very personal experiences and turn them into something people can see themselves in, and perhaps make those emotions a little easier to process.
Over the years, you have developed a distinct personal sonic and sartorial identity that combines your Indian classical and Sikh devotional music background with global pop and hip-hop influences. How important do you think it is for musicians to develop a personal brand in this day and age?
I think developing a personal sonic and sartorial identity is important, but I don’t think it should be something you consciously build just for the sake of a “brand”. For me, it has come naturally from my background, the music I’ve grown up with, and the things I’m drawn to creatively and visually.
My sound is shaped by my Indian classical and Sikh devotional music background, alongside global pop, R&B, and hip-hop influences. In the same way, my sartorial identity is another form of self-expression. I think the most important thing is that both feel authentic and evolve with you. When your sound and style are genuinely an extension of who you are, people connect with the person behind the music, not just the brand.
Listen to the album here:
Follow @rashmeetkaur on Instagram.
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