Indian Recording Engineer Bainz Talks Working Around the Clock with Hip-Hop Heavyweights

Angad Bains has spent over a decade in the U.S. and is currently the go-to man at the mixing boards for artists such as Young Thug, Gunna and even singersongwriter Prateek Kuhad

- ANURAG TAGAT

IT’S 9:30 AM in Atlanta when Angad Bains aka Bainz logs in for a video chat that’s been tentative mostly owing to the demands of the recording industry. Specifically, hip-hop artists such as Young Thug, whom Bainz has worked with prolifically over the last few years, including the chart-topping 2019 debut So Much Fun. “You got to work crazy hours. You just get compensated more to the point that it makes sense to do it. These guys just are in the studio a lot,” Bainz says.

In 2020 alone, the New Delhi-born, Los Angeles-based engineer had his name attached to 180 releases. At one point in his career, though, he would work on music with various rappers for two years with little publicity to show for it. Bainz says, “I worked with them every day and not one song came out. I was like, ‘What the fuck is going on?’ But then they all started coming out and the accolades started matching up.”

The shortlist of these include Young Thug’s “Hot,” a collab with Gunna and Travis Scott. Gunna’s latest album Wunna (2020), Travis Scott’s “Franchise,” with Young Thug and M.I.A. and many more. Closer home, Bainz has worked on In Tokens and Charms, the 2015 debut album by singer-songwriter Prateek Kuhad. In addition to the New Delhi artist, Bainz counts Brit pop artist Jay Sean and Canadian hip-hop artist NAV as the two other prominent Indian-origin artists he’s worked with.

“The artist is like the guest. You have to have that mindset, because artists are finicky people. They’re creative people and the higher level they get to, the more that’s going to happen.”