Gurinder Gill is back.
The Punjabi star performed at NXNE for the launch event for SiriusXM’s new South Asian music channel, Dhamaka – Canada’s first-ever mainstream radio platform championing South Asian sounds.
When Gill walked onto the El Mocambo stage for the Billboard Canada-presented party, it had been two years since his last live show. He doesn’t offer a dramatic reason for the break – there wasn’t one. He just hadn’t been performing, which made the return feel bigger.
“Man, the energy was fire,” he says. “Fans were waiting for me to come back. The love was real.”
Gill could feel the love from the audience, and come face to face with the community his scene has built. Seeing a mixed crowd of people all partying together, it was the kind of platform he wished had existed when he started.
“Instead of having separate platforms for everyone, you could have one that brings all the cultures together,” he says. “You’ll see different collaborators from one industry working with the Punjabi industry. It helps a lot. When talent from different cultures and different minds come together, bangers are all that’s going to come out.”
Gurinder Gill photographed in Toronto in June 2025 by Bryan Egan.
Born in Punjab, India and raised musically in British Columbia, Gill is part of a generation of diasporic artists rewriting what it means to make desi music abroad. When he first moved to Canada in 2015, he remembers the Punjabi music scene being practically non-existent.
“It was fully dead, pretty much,” he says. “There was nothing that crazy like what it is today… Back in 2015, I never saw anyone doing that sort of thing. It was impossible for everybody. Nobody even thought to do it.”
Fast forward to 2025 and Punjabi acts are now selling out arenas in Canada, headlining global festivals and building their own creative ecosystems without the need for traditional industry gatekeepers. And Gill has been right in the middle of that shift – not just as an artist, but as someone who helped lay the foundation.
“We started without any proper support from people in the industry,” he says. “There was nobody to support us. We just did our homework, did our research – learned the music side, then the writing side, then the video side of it. So we tried to cover it all by ourselves.”
That DIY approach didn’t just build his own career – it gave other independent South Asian artists abroad something to look toward.
“From our group [consisting Punjabi singers AP Dhillon and Shinda Kahlon], you can see so many artists who were inspired,” he adds. “They found a direction to follow. They saw that there’s a way for an independent artist to do everything themselves. You don’t need a big label behind you all the time. You’ve just got to believe in yourself and make sure your craft is A1.”
The early days weren’t glamorous, but they were formative. From his breakout single “Faraar” to his most recent album World Is Ours, Gill’s growth has been steady. Early on, he was making music alongside Dhillon and Kahlon – tracks built on clean production, catchy hooks, and a consistent visual style that helped represent their sound as a group. In 2023, he quietly put out Hard Choices, his first solo project – a shorter release, but one that hinted at where he was headed.
With his 2025 album World Is Ours, Gill fully stepped out on his own. It was his first full-length solo project, shaped independently from start to finish and it marked a shift in both sound and focus, where the music feels more deliberate, the tone more introspective and the vision entirely his.
“You can see a total sound change – the videos changed, the outfits, fashion. Everything just kept getting better.”
Now based in B.C. (though he often travels to Toronto), Gill recently built his own studio – a clear step up from the DIY setups he used in the past. It’s a small but telling shift, reflecting how far he’s come from the lower-budget, self-taught days to now having the tools and space to make his music. Though he’s building things bigger, Gill isn’t looking to hand things over. If anything, he’s doubling down on doing it independently.
“If you’re still going to take the industry route, then why go through all this hassle by ourselves?” he says, candidly. “Then I could easily tell a big label, ‘Sign me and take care of everything.’ But instead of doing that, my team and I are taking care of the whole production side, the creative side.”
Gill works with a tightly-knit team across creative, video, design and marketing – and he’s hands-on with it all.
“Look at what I’m wearing right now, it’s World Is Ours merch,” he says, gesturing to his sweatshirt. It’s part of the upcoming World Is Ours merch drop, which includes T-shirts, short sets, a mix of full and half-sleeve fits. The pieces (one of which he wore at his NXNE show) reflect the same clean, minimal style Gill’s visuals have leaned into in recent years – more statement than streetwear, without trying too hard to be either.
The merch drop is just one of several things he has lined up for this year. A deluxe version of World Is Ours is in the works, new singles are on the way and a tour is being mapped out – both in Canada and throughout the world. He hasn’t been home to India since his last tour in 2020–21, but confirms that a return is in the cards. “We’re gonna come – 100% gonna come and visit Mumbai.”
Gurinder Gill photographed in Toronto in June 2025 by Bryan Egan.
When asked about his musical evolution, Gill brings it back to how the diasporic experience has shaped his music – not just in sound, but in perspective.
“It has shifted a lot,” he reflects. “When I started in 2019, the whole storytelling was different. But if you see 2025, even my last tape World Is Ours, the way we brought all those genres together, the music side of it is way different. We learned a lot from 2019 to ‘Brown Munde’ to ‘Excuses’… every project kept changing.”
While fans often ask about a possible reunion with Dhillon and Kahlon, Gill says it’s not something they’re forcing.
“We haven’t properly done any studio sessions or anything, but everyone’s doing their own thing right now. Hopefully, when a natural moment comes and we’re all back in the studio together… obviously, we’ll bring back something with the original group.”
At this point in his career, Gill says he’s focused on himself – not out of arrogance, but because he wants to grow and build his solo career.
“I just look up to my own self. I don’t even look up to anybody,” he says. “If I’m trying to get better at being myself, why should I wish to be someone else? I’m just trying to be happy with my own thing and grow in my own way.”
His early music with Dhillon and Kahlon was direct and hook-driven, built for volume and virality. The songs moved fast, both in structure and in how quickly they spread. World Is Ours, in contrast, pulls back. Tracks like “MVP” and “City 2 City” play with pace and space by mixing trap with softer guitar work, leaving room for detail rather than urgency. It reflects a shift in how Gill sees himself now: less about chasing a sound, more about creating one.
“People are just chasing clout,” he says. “But if you go viral with one reel, that means you don’t have a long-term plan. You’ve got to put time into your craft and think long-term.”
He’s also aware of the shrinking attention spans that dominate streaming culture.
“You could drop a 30-minute album and no one’s going to listen to it,” he says. “People are trying to make two-minute tracks, three-minute tracks. Attention spans are going crazy. If the music is bad, they’ll skip in two seconds.”
When asked about what’s next, Gill hints at big plans: collaborations, some with more talent, and a deluxe version of World Is Ours.
“We might even have another tape by the end of the year,” he says. And that’s only the beginning.
“We’re still properly starting,” he says. “We’ve still got a long way to go.”
