From Coachella to Sunburn: Indo Warehouse on Taking South Asian House Music Global

Just hours after Indo Warehouse’s performance in New Delhi this past week, founders Armaan Gupta — aka Kahani — and Kunal Merchant sit across a screen with The Hollywood Reporter India, visibly excited as they speak about the days ahead on their India tour. The momentum from the Delhi crowd still lingers, underscoring the significance of a return that feels less like a tour stop and more like a homecoming.

Formed in New York, Indo Warehouse emerged from a clear creative gap: the absence of a global club sound that authentically reflected South Asian musical depth. Rather than relying on familiar motifs, the collective set out to build Indo House as a genre rooted in rhythm, melody and emotion — drawing from south Asian traditions while remaining firmly embedded in contemporary dance culture. What began in underground spaces has since evolved into a global movement, connecting dance floors across continents.

The past year marked a series of defining milestones. Indo Warehouse became the first south Asian electronic collective to perform at Coachella, sold out London’s Roundhouse, and debuted at Hï Ibiza. With over 100,000 attendees across six continents, more than 50 releases, and upwards of four million streams, the collective has steadily expanded both its reach and its influence. Collaborations with artists such as Sid Sriram, Red Baraat, Raja Kumari and Tech Panda and Kenzani further reflect a commitment to bridging generations and genres.

Now, as Indo Warehouse brings its sound back to India for a landmark six-city tour — Mumbai performances, including a set at Sunburn Music Festival tonight — the moment signals more than success. It represents recognition, continuity and the growing global presence of South Asian electronic music on its own terms.

Edited excerpts from the conversation:

THR India: How do you define Indo house music?

Armaan Gupta: House or broadly dance music that authentically incorporates south Asian elements — percussion, vocals, other instruments. It's a broad definition by design. It follows the path set in place by other genre driven house music like Afro house or Latin house. We believe there was always a space for this. In fact there's been a lot of music that could have been classified as Indo house but was never given a name.

THR India: Would you consider yourselves as one of the first in the genre at this scale?

AG: No, definitely not. There have been plenty of incredible south asian collectives. Medieval Pundits are one of the OG pioneers of the fusion of electronic and South Asian sounds. In this day and age, we are one of the first few in terms of the kind of sound we're making and how we are making it accessible to people around the world; people who don't necessarily come from the dance world. We write our own original music and also pull from nostalgic sounds that we grew up with. It's about bringing people together. We’re not the first to do it, but I think we're one of the first to bring a lot of us together around this sound.

THR India: When did you know that this was what you wanted to do?

AG: We have different histories. This has always been a dream of mine. It's such a unique thing for a kid growing up to have an opportunity to be a full-time musician, DJ or producer. For a long time a lot of us have been kind of brainwashed to believe that we can't do that, that it’s not stable enough. That is still in my head a little bit. So we really believe we're in a situation where we have a responsibility to our community, to artists who are like us, to continue to build this path forward so we can see more of us on stages. I look at it more as a responsibility than a career. 

Kunal Merchant: There was a lot of passion behind bringing people together on a dance floor. From the first show, we set some pretty lofty goals and then didn't stop pursuing them. If we're going to do this, we thought we should go all in, otherwise what's the point? The two of us were working in tech at the time and we quit our jobs.

AG: We actually didn't know each other until 2021 so even our relationship is fairly new. But both of us were working in start-ups and tech and we took a huge leap to do this.

THR India: What are the elements of Indian music that you would consider as non-negotiables for an Indo Warehouse track?

AG: The typical things that people would assume are going to be in a track would be a vocal sample, some tabla, a basuri, and boom. That's exactly what the West would do. And we're from New York... diaspora kids. We were born there, we live there. But we also see the actual depth of our culture, and love it. We grew up in an environment where we saw non-Indians try and make something supposedly Indian, and know that there was so much more to this. Slapping on some tabla [beats] and some dhin-dhin-nak is not cool. There's so much more. We try to push beyond the typical.

THR India: You've also collaborated with a lot of great artists. What was it like to work with people like Sid Sriram and what do you look for in collaborators?

KM: Any work with Sid right now is at a very early stage. Just being in the room with him, able to share our sound with him is really amazing. We don’t force an artist to want to do something. They have to understand our vision with the sound which is very new to a lot of people. The time I had in the studio with Sid, we spent 90 per cent of it just listening to music together and sharing what we're into. When you're singing a record, look at how much space you have in electronic music to let things breathe.

But our collaborations with artists vary and can be done remotely over WhatsApp. In fact, Kahani sometimes sings a voice note, sends it to an artist and they come back with an amazing vocal.

THR India: Who have you sent a voice note to recently?

AG: Pretty much every person that I work with, actually. There’s a record that will be coming out soon, called ‘Rang Rasiya’, with Chitralekha Sen. I remember when we were chatting on WhatsApp, I created the structure for the song and then we were going back and forth on what it should be. I sent her a voice note singing a melody. And in classic Chitralekha fashion — literally 24 hours later — she sent me back a full arrangement and the song was done. As a producer, you have to write down or record yourself even if you're not a singer or not trained in something. It is vulnerable but you'll regret it later if someone can't hear your vision.

THR India: What are some of your other collaborations that are particularly memorable?

KM: Recently I worked with Raja Kumari on a few records and we just released one too. It was an amazing experience because she's incredibly talented as a songwriter. I had a record that had a sample on it and I couldn’t clear it. I basically presented the song to Raja and said that we had to fix this and if she could write something on it. She was in New York, working late. She came to the studio at 1 a.m. and by 3 a.m. she had figured out the problem. Now that’s released, and it’s one of the songs I’m super excited to perform in Mumbai.

THR India: Does performing in India feel like a homecoming of sorts?

AG: Yeah. We came here two years ago for the first time as Indo Warehouse and we did a 10 city run. At that time, our sound was generally not being played anywhere. It was very new. We met a lot of new fans, and every dance floor was filled. Two years later, all you hear is our sound, effectively. Not all of it is necessarily our music, but the general style of it. A lot of DJs are trying to create that and that's really amazing to see. There's a lot of talent here. India has grown a lot in the last few years. There's a lot happening, almost too much happening (laughs). There's like a show every day in every city featuring acts from around the world.

KM: Coming here is so special. If you look at the data, our biggest communities of fans — streamers, social media following — are based here. To come here and see them is such a tremendous privilege. What we experienced in our show in New Delhi was a feeling that we hadn’t had in a long time. The crowd was exceptional. We've played in the world's best cities — Ibiza, London, New York, Amsterdam, Toronto — but our first tour date this past weekend in New Delhi was such an amazing crowd to play for. They were there early and so warm to us. You know, sometimes in the world people hold up their phone and have song requests. There wasn't a single song request in Delhi. During my set, the crowd went into some chant, on their own. It was almost like being in a soccer match. It's making me think about this Mumbai show and how exciting that's going to be.

THR India: Speaking of concerts, we have to talk about Coachella. How did that come about?

AG: It is invite-only, I guess, if that's a phrase. After our first show, four years ago, we had said that we're going to take this to Coachella and make everyone see that the sound is infectious. So in the fall of 2024, we got a call from our agents. They broke the news, and said, ‘Coachella wants you to perform!' Our jaws were on the floor. We thought: what does that mean? Will we get an early slot? Would people be there? Quickly, we found out they were giving us a closing slot on the Gobi stage which we never really expected. But we owned it. The next six-seven months all we did was prepare for that. We brought a team of almost 40 people — stage managers, production managers, content people, dance teams, artists, featured artists. And it was incredible.

KM: They give you a stage and it’s a blank canvas — you have to build everything from the ground up. You have 40 to 50 minutes to create your performance. There've been South Asian artists at Coachella, but I don't think there's ever been a presentation like ours. It was not one dimensional. Obviously, Diljit [Dosanjh] performed and it was an incredible show, largely Punjabi. But we also had an incredible percussionist [Nihal Singh], with multiple dhols. We had Bhangra dancer, Raas dancers.

THR India: You feature a lot of nostalgic Indian tracks. Are there any singers you’re inspired by or want to work with?

AG: So many. We're inspired by the legends, of course. The idea was spawned when I heard a dance beat on a beach in Mexico and Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's Qawwali in my head on top of that. But today, it's also about new talent, learning who's on the streets. Young talent defines the next five to ten years and with them, you build for the future.

KM: I agree. One of the goals is connection. Some phenomenal nostalgic artists have inspired us, but the desire to work with them is more for ourselves. We feel pride in working with new south Asian talent.

THR India: What’s next?

AG: Our shows [in Mumbai]. We have the rest of our India tour over the next 10 days. But after four years of nonstop touring, we want to take a step back. We want to be in the studio every day, just like the gym. Create so much music so that six months from now, the second half of 2026, we reintroduce ourselves to the world. The next phase of Indo Warehouse is going to be a very fun, very beautiful new version of us.