I was just surprised to read Haroon’s letter on his website! Man paisaa bari burri cheez hay…
Dear Fans and friends,
I want to thank all those people who have supported me over the last few months since the release of my first solo album. Lots and lots has been happening; I toured the UK in March and then performed at the BBC Asian Awards along with stars such as Karisma and Sunil Shetty. Look out for the spectacular video “Pyareya” on all major networks shortly. Also look out for a fabulous TV concert/interview special coming your way soon.
There is something that is troubling me a great deal. At first I chose to ignore it, however events have taking such a turn that I feel I must address this issue.
My former band mate has given several interviews claiming to have composed and produced the majority of Awaz’s material, claiming that he did most of the composing and producing and Haroon helped only a little bit here and there.
Further more, he frequently states that the he alone composed popular Awaz songs such as “Ay Jawan” and others. I find this very offensive. Someone is trying to eliminate and take all the credit for eight years of my input, hard work, producing, composing, blood, sweat and tears. This puts the final nail in the coffin.
I can guarantee that I will never ever resurrect Awaz if it means having to work with somebody so petty, small minded and who wants to take credit for my songwriting and work. If you pick up the inlay for Awaz albums it very clearly states that all songs are composed by Haroon and Fakhir (on the Shola Album) or Awaz (on the first two). Obviously that is stated there for a reason. Furthermore we have a legally binding signed contract with the prestigious Performing Rights Society UK (copyright and royalty organization) that states all Awaz songs are composed by Haroon and Fakhir and that they will collect royalty equally on any sales or broadcast. I can only speculate at why my former band mate feels he needs to behave in the way he is.
I made the decision to leave Awaz after truly exhausting all other possibilities. I implored my band mate to give more time to the band (apart from the two odd hours a week) but he said that he was too busy making jingles and that he thought being in a pop band was unstable and would last only a couple of years more and that jingle making is a solid career and his future.
We had not released a new album in nearly four years and this weighed heavily on me. So I hired “ghost” keyboard players Jawad Hyder and Faizi, (with my former band mate’s consent) to fill in for him in recordings and I even set up my own studio to start recording a new Awaz album. Only after realizing that I was working practically alone did I make the decision to go solo. I was interested in making new music and new albums and videos and performing new songs live and if the only way meant doing it solo then so be it. The only thing I regret is not doing it earlier.
After the break up we mutually agreed not to perform any Awaz songs on any broadcast medium such as television as this would infringe copyright laws. We decided that if we were to do Awaz songs on TV then we would only perform them together. However over the last one year several times my former band mate has performed Awaz songs alone on television. While I have not done this even once. I guess some people have morals and principles and some don’t.
I want to apologize to the fans that have been upset by this episode. I truly never wanted things to become so negative but after ignoring this issue for so long and watching things go from bad to worse I felt that I must speak. Yet the great thing is that from all this some good has come, all three-band members are making great new music. Where there was none before there are now three forces making music. Individually I have not had such personal satisfaction from my career in years. And of course the success of my solo venture could not have been possible without all of you, once again thank you. Look out for my second solo album coming your way soon.
Goodbye and God Bless,
Haroon