“I fundamentally believe that all of us live the same life,” says the artist known as The Sound Chalk Makes. “And when you’re living the same life, whatever experience you have is essentially somebody else’s experience in a mirror.”
We sat down with the 20-year-old producer, born Kabir Parekh, in a brutalist lounge at Elsewhere during his recent U.S. tour. Between a bedroom studio in London and the high-energy warehouse parties of his youth in Mumbai, Parekh is crafting a sound that feels both intimate and expansive. His work, which he describes as “sonic assemblage,” treats music production like sculpture—taking disparate, found objects and weaving them into a cohesive, emotional narrative.
This past winter, a makeshift snippet of his February single “Manmade Manmaid” went viral, drawing listeners in with its warm, fuzzy synths and lyrics that capture the specific melancholy of a winter morning. “I hate you in the morning / I’d love you if I was boring,” Parekh sings. It is this commitment to vulnerability that defines his project, The Sound Chalk Makes, as he navigates themes of youth, migration, and the bittersweet nature of home.
The Art of Sonic Assemblage
For Parekh, the recording process begins in his Notes app, capturing fleeting thoughts before building the “bones” of a composition. “You know what assemblage is? It’s a form of sculpture where people take found objects—a Red Bull can, a speaker, some shit on the road—and build something bigger than the sum of its parts,” he explains. “My work is kind of like that. I’m borrowing threads from every single place I can find them and weaving them into a carpet.”
His February 2026 EP, Re:, serves as a testament to this method, balancing infectious, danceable build-ups with devastatingly honest acoustic-electronic ballads. Whether he is reflecting on the stagnation of the London music scene or the chaotic, DIY warehouse parties he threw as a teenager in Mumbai, Parekh remains focused on the “beauty in discomfort.”
From Mumbai Warehouses to Global Stages
Growing up in Mumbai, Parekh was exposed to a vast array of musical influences, from traditional Indian music to touring international acts. This diversity informs his current approach, where he seeks to validate the experiences of his listeners. “We’re at airports, taking flights, and going places… just understanding this feeling of rushing through the world and seeing many people and many things happening at the same time,” he says.
Reflecting on his early days in Mumbai, he recalls the raw energy of throwing parties in a North Mumbai hair salon, where DIY audio systems would cut out, only for the crowd to keep singing in unison. It is that same sense of shared human experience that he brings to his current work, including upcoming remixes for artists like Tommy Fleece and Veronica Everheart, and a desire to interpret tracks by (Sandy) Alex G.
Ultimately, The Sound Chalk Makes is not just about the music; it is about the honesty required to create it. “There is beauty in that discomfort,” Parekh concludes. “Because you live with it and you experience it fully.”
