Few Punjabi artists are as lethal with their flow as Sukha. His lyrical intensity is arguably best exemplified on 8 ASLE, his Gold-certified 2023 track with fellow Punjabi artist Chani Nattan and producer Prodgk, on which he and powerhouse vocalist Gurlez Akhtar assuredly bounce off one another. The video for the joyous track recently surpassed 117 million YouTube views — evidence of Sukha’s growing worldwide appeal.
It’s hard to believe that Sukha only started releasing music in 2022. His debut single Siftaan was the first of three tracks to emerge before two EPs, SWITCHIN’ LANES and UNDISPUTED, were released in 2023 – with songs such as TERE BINA, ARMED and, of course, 8 ASLE amassing millions of streams. Sukha added to his growing catalogue in 2024 with the EP 2003, a record that showcased the artist’s developing sonic diversity, indicating how he’s broadening his creative horizons.
‘I feel like we’re still new; there’s a lot to do,’ Sukha tells M. ‘We’re just working through getting music out [now]. I think that’s our biggest achievement: being consistent.’
Repping Punjabi music at a time when it’s steadily becoming a stadium-filling, collaboration-pulling influence around the world, Sukha is modest when M mentions him in the same sentence as the likes of Karan Aujla, Diljit Dosanjh and AP Dhillon — artists he holds in high regard and respect.
‘These are all artists I’ve seen slowly develop into the artists that they are now,’ he says. ‘I was in high school when I was listening to Karan Aujla; Diljit, we’ve seen him turn into something completely different 20 years down the line. So, to be placed in the same category as them is a huge thing for me.’
'To be placed in the same category as Karan Aujla and Diljit Dosanjh is a huge thing for me.'
While Sukha and his creative team have been busy making homegrown hits, the goal has always been to go international. As he started to see his streaming figure increase and go beyond known circles in Toronto, Sukha started to sense that there was a bigger audience waiting for him.
‘It’s nice to look at those numbers, but it’s a really bad habit too,’ he states. ‘We’re used to seeing so many big numbers [now], so when we see something that’s average, we’re not [as] happy with it.’ While he’s keen to stress that he doesn’t judge his creative output solely by ‘the numbers’, he does acknowledge that such figures help ‘you keep going’.
As he was riding high into 2024 on the back of 8 ASLE blowing up, Sukha made his UK debut with the Undisputed Tour. Sold-out shows took place in London, Birmingham and Nottingham, and proved to be a revelation for the artist.
‘For the longest time, I never got to get out of Toronto,’ he says. ‘It was a shocking experience [to go on tour], as I never realised how far my music had got. It was a really big achievement for us.’
Part of Sukha’s charm as a music creator is his way with words. From romantic songs like Sangdi and Attraction to more provocative tracks like 8 ASLE, which speaks to his Punjabi identity in a hugely relatable way, Sukha’s lyric-writing process has, he says, evolved over time.
‘As you go to more places and see more things, you start writing differently… I think the topics [you write about] change when you start to see more things,’ he says. Acknowledging that he ‘always has [other] writers in the room’ with him to assist with the songwriting process, he adds: ‘I think everything that we see around us, we try to put into our music. Anything that we see that can push the culture forward.’
Like every hitmaker, Sukha faces continuous scrutiny over whether every new song of his can match up to his biggest hits. Rather than feeling the pressure of continuing his successful run of form, the artist is keen to simply enjoy the ride.
‘I think we just like to stay in the moment, because these things are so temporary,’ he says. ‘If we’re at the top now in any sort of way, it’s not guaranteed to last forever. Artists can only put out so much before people overwrite the hard drive and someone brings a new one in. Music has always been a passion that [in my case] just got very serious, very quick.’
'Everything that we see around us, we try to put into our music — anything that can push the culture forward.'
As he scaled these early career heights, Sukha joined PRS for worldwide royalty collections and says the society has been 'extremely supportive'.
‘PRS are so easy to speak to and communicate with,' he continues. '[PRS and MCPS] continue to do a lot for us, even down to collecting our royalties for mechanical publishing — a lot of Punjabi artists don’t know about mechanical publishing rights. These artists didn’t even know how much money they were making from radio, streaming, YouTube or social media platforms — there’s money to be collected. That’s why it’s important that those artists who didn’t know about this in the past find out about their rights. There are income streams they can make money from.’
Through tracks like HUNDO and DASS JATTA, Sukha is keen to use his prominent platform to speak to the younger generation and impress on them such ideals as self-improvement.
‘I think the more the youth can connect to a song, the more those songs can have a big influence whereby when we look at artists, we want to be like them,’ he says. ‘If in any way we can promote a positive narrative, that’s the biggest thing for us. I think of it as, “If I was a listener, what would I want to hear?”’
This article is taken from M's special Future Makers edition — you can read the magazine in full here. Sukha's new album By Any Means is out now.
