Since the same post kaa satyaa naas karr diyaa thaa mods nay and then closed it, I am posting this interview again!
The title song of your album Dil Ki Baat is a nice romantic song in the mould of Aitebaar. How and when did you conceive the song and why have you named the album Dil Ki Baat?
We, Shoaib Mansoor and I, conceived Dil Ki Baat while we were making my first solo album along with Biddu. The timings and arrangement of this song were quite difficult and we shelved it on that occasion. We once again tried to include in Us Rah Par but failed as no one was able to arrange it properly until I met Zeeshan (Shani) who is the son of our famous tabla player Arshad Ali. The lad programmed this song to perfection … us ne is gaane ka haq ada kar dia and I am very happy for him and kamijee’s additional work made this song beautiful.
You tried a lot of new things in Dil Ki Baat … for example you sang a Punjabi song for the first time in your career while the tragic mood adds colour to the already colourful album?
I think that those artists, who establish themselves over a period of time, must experiment at some time along with making good music in order to educate their audiences. Someone must have made the first pop song which is so popular these days. It was at one point of time an experiment, which gained popularity. Similarly jazz and semi-classical also were experiments at the time of their creation but now are liked by all. Us Rah Par was completely an experimental album and I used to think, at that time, 'What the hell I was making"! But it turned out be a huge success.
What makes Dil Ki Baat a better album even than Us Rah Par?
It doesn’t make it better … I would not call Dil Ki Baat a better album. In fact, Dil Ki Baat is a further extension of Shoaib Mansoor’s creativity and Kamran and myself learned a lot while we were making this album. Both of us got educated and got to know a lot of new things during the compilation of DKB.
Is it true that many top Bollywood session players participated in the compilation of DKB?
Yes it is and that is what makes this album prominent. Prominent session players of India have done most of the live playing. DKB is a beautiful amalgamation of the Indian side of playing and the Pakistani side of playing. In the same album, in one of the songs, Nabeel is playing the guitars while an Indian musician is playing the same thing with distinct difference which is something people have never been able to hear before. I loved it and am sure that people would like it too.
Why have you sung different kind of songs in Dil Ki Baat - your new album?
I have always gone for good songs and have never made songs by keeping in mind their state. I have never made a song that it should be slow or fast, tragic or romantic etc. Shoaib Mansoor has always maintained that a song should be perfect and should be liked by the listeners. The criterion of good song and a bad song is also different because we can only try to make a good song, it is for the people to decide whether they like it or not.
Yaar Nahin Haar De is your first Punjabi song and was an instant hit even before the launch of your album. What made you sing it in the first place?
I really wanted to do a Punjabi song because I had spent my entire university life in U.E.T., Lahore. The people there are very happy-go-lucky and they love music. More than 90 percent of the folk our pop stars have used is that from Punjab and that is what makes them so successful. Punjab is very very rich in its folk music and I have used many folk tunes from Punjab during my singing career. But what I had never done before DKB was a song in Punjabi and I always wanted to use the language of Zinadadilan-e-Lahore. I asked Shoaib Mansoor to use Punjabi language this time instead of the Punjabi folk and he agreed.
But the song is not on ethnic instruments as one expects a Punjabi song to be. Instead, it has been sung as if it is a pop song with lyrics in Punjabi.
That was the idea behind Yaar Nahin as we just changed the lyrics from Urdu to Punjabi. It was an experiment, as this kind of arrangement has never been made in a Punjabi song. We went for it and now have a chart buster. And the ‘Doorooroo Raaraaraa’ in that song made it unique as I never did that kind of stuff before. An Indian producer wanted me to do that and in order to go for something new, I accepted his request.
The song Tum Intezar Karna also features in the soundtrack of Shoaib Mansoor’s upcoming feature film ‘Yeh Baraf Hamari Hai’. What were your feelings when you were recording your first song as a playback singer?
Doing a song for Shoaib Mansoor, which would be used as a playback song later on, is actually different from playback singing. There’s a world of a difference. Doing a project for Shoaib Mansoor means the world to me. The pleasure would always be mine as long as I am working for him as he has been ‘spoon-feeding’ me ever since I came into this field. When we were composing this song, Shoaib said that it would really be nice if this song featured in the soundtrack of his movie. We made the song first and it was later decided that it would also be released in the soundtrack of Yeh Baraf Hamari Hai.
You have recorded most of your album in India. Do you think that there is a lot of difference in India and Pakistan as far as music recording is concerned?
There is a LOT of difference between them and us. The film culture in India is very strong while the pop culture has not been able to get to its righteous place because of Bollywood. There was a time when I used to think that the pop culture in India would prosper but now I have my doubts because film culture in that country just gulps everything else. Whatever talent comes, Bollywood just gulps it because they have a lot of money. It is exactly what pop singing in Pakistan is. I have seen a lot of classical singers in our country turn pop because they get recognition easily that way. Secondly, they get more money that way and economy plays a very important role in our daily lives.
Secondly, film music is always very situational whereas pop music is more emotional. That is why a pop song has more chances of survival than a film song and that is what makes it stay for a longer period of time. This is what the difference is between Indian music and Pakistani music.
It is a fact that Indian musicians handle orchestra better than Pakistanis. Why?
Economics play an important role in music in the sub-continent. Bollywood is a huge industry and besides having a lot of artists and musicians, they have better equipped studios. I believe that in India, the facilities are huge in comparison to Pakistan while expertise in music recording are far better in Pakistan. We understand music better than the Indians but don’t have well-equipped studios which makes India superior. If I say that in Pakistan, the producers have a better ear while in India, they have better equipment, then I won’t be wrong.
So, you have tried to come up with the mixture of ‘Good Ears’ and ‘Better Equipment’, right?
I have tried to do just that …
But why did you go to India in the first place?
Because by around the time I was recording in India, the Times of India wanted to release my album over there. The situation between India and Pakistan was getting better at that time and the President of Pakistan was scheduled to visit India in a couple of weeks. I was being treated like someone big in India and at that time, two Pakistanis were on top of the whole Indian nation. Mr. Pervez Musharraf was coming to India while Junaid Jamshed was recording for the Times of India. You can guess that from the fact that in one of my many press conferences, there were 67 Television channels present. There was a lot of enthusiasm at that time and I never thought for a single second that the situation would get worse and everything would be brought to a standstill.
Last year you had a successful tour of China with Junoon. Do recall some of the memories of that tour where you sang in front of people who don’t speak any language other than Chinese?
Music is an international language and has no borders. Don’t you and I listen to a Spanish song or don’t we dance on an Arabic song. Hamein kitni Spanish aur arabi aati hai? For the Chinese, it is exactly the same thing … if the music is good, then they will enjoy it and that is what happened during that tour. They loved it and in the presence of seven different nations, Pakistan came out to be the best.
Both Junoon and I became one on the stage and did a great show. Not once did it occur to us that we were from different bands because Ali (Azmat) and I exchanged our songs and enjoyed whatever time we had together.
You were labelled as ‘King of Romance’ during your visit to India. So is Junaid Jamshed the King of Romance?
I have written on the cover of DKB ‘Mein kisi aur ke dil ki Awaaz hoon’. That is actually the truth behind Junaid Jamshed and his romanticism. I have always maintained that ‘Mein sirf Shoaib Mansoor ke alfaaz ki tarjumani karta hoon’. I just recite Shoaib Mansoor’s lyrics and probably my voice suits his words otherwise I don’t consider myself as a romantic person. You have to be romantic if you want to understand Shoaib Mansoor’s ideology.
You have mostly sung for Shoaib Mansoor throughout your career. Do you care to explain why?
When I started singing in 1987, I had no direction and used to sing everything that came my way, but after making songs with him, my music has become very directional. I have always wanted to take the crowd with me and am proud of the fact that I never have had to depend on any nation other than the Pakistanis to make me what I am. It was only the Pakistani people who made me the biggest star of the country and it is only because of them that I am still singing. I never had to leave my homeland to prove my mettle as staying in Pakistan and singing for Pakistani people has its own delectation.
I used to get a lot of offers from Bollywood and always said to Shoaib Mansoor that we should go on to make songs for an Indian movie. But his words of wisdom made me change my mind every time as he used to guide me by saying that why should we go abroad when we have 14 million people waiting for us. I am thankful to him for supporting me throughout my career and consider myself lucky, as I did not have to go abroad to earn recognition.
I have also sung for Hassan Akbar Kamal and in this album, he has penned two of the songs. Tum Kehto Ho is a brilliant romantic song which is incidentally Hassan bhai’s first such song for me. Before TKO, he mostly penned our patriotic numbers Maula, Hum Hain Pakistani, Aisay Hum Jiaen, Qasam Us Waqt Ki and Dil Mangey which went on to become hits.
Now let’s move onto the million dollar question … what were you trying to portray in the video of Na Tu Aayegi which was only understood by 50 percent of its viewers?
This is a very good question and the point of view that you have given me in it is even better. It means that the video would be watched more closely the next time it goes on air and those 50 percent who did not understand it at first would get to know the theme behind it.
Would you care to tell them in detail as to what was the video all about?
In that video, which has been directed by Shoaib Mansoor, we have tried to show the past of a heart-broken man. We have used computer effects in it, which is nothing new. What is new in the video is the fact that while everything is going backwards, the lips are moving in the forward direction. This has never happened before anywhere in the world and is what makes this video different. In the end, the man sits in the car with his past and drives away happily.
‘Vital Signs’ were seen together performing after a long time at the ‘Tribute to Nazia Hassan Concert’ where Rohail Hyatt announced that the next Vital Signs album would be coming out at the end of the year. Can this be termed as the return of Vital Signs?
Probably, yes. Vital Signs performed Dil Dil Pakistan in 1987 when there were just four boys with musical instruments in their hands. But people came to know Vital Signs for the first time when they properly formed in Music '89, which was incidentally hosted by the late Nazia Hassan. Salman Ahmed left us in the early 90s while Rohail, Shahzad and I went in different directions in 1997. Nothing could get us together since then but during that concert, which was dedicated to Nazia Hassan, Salman, Rohail, Shahzad and I performed after nearly a decade and I give the credit of the re-birth of Vital Signs to Nazia even though she is no more in this world.
So are you working on the album with your ex-buddies?
Yes we are working on a couple of projects but first we will try to come up with one song. Let’s wait and see how we fare on our return.
It has been fifteen years since you made your debut on PTV. In those fifteen years, young people have grown old while Junaid Jamshed continues to get stronger. So what is the secret of your success?
Yaar Allah Ki marzi hai … To tell you the truth, I don’t work as hard these days as I used to do in my initial career. But now, by the grace of God, I get a lot even on working less. Now I want to serve His creatures and for that reason, I cut myself off from the world by staying for four-five months in Raiwand. But whenever I return, I find people more and more attracted to me which is not understandable.
People expect a lot from you when you return from Raiwand and does that disturb you in any way?
Main music ab zyada arsay nahin karoonga …. Dil Ki Baat may turn out to be my last album. I now want to devote most of my time for my Allah and the need of fame and prosperity has left me.
Would you let your children take music as a profession?
I would never stop them from taking up music but would love to see one of them become an Aalim or a Mufti because there has not been one such person in our family.
Do you think that by banning Indian channels on cable TV, the government of Pakistan has taken a step in the right direction?
Yes the step not only will have better effects on out TV channels but also would help us improve our daily lives. Let me tell my Pakistani brothers and sisters what I gained during my stay in India. In India, there is so much poverty, hunger, beggary, hypocrisy, lies, narrow-mindedness, theft etc that you and I cannot think of. By the grace of God, we are very well-off in Pakistan and one must be told that whatever the Indian channels show on their TV is non-existent in Indian society. Their media doesn’t like Pakistan and yeh sab bakwas hai ke Indian people watch our TV plays. They used to watch our plays but that was long ago.
Now, they don’t want to have any connection with Pakistan and if they can fall so low, then why should we watch their ‘fancy’ plays.
After the ban, the standard of TV in Pakistan has raised immensely only because we were made to watch programmes, which could be watched by the whole family. You cannot watch an Indian channel with your kids because they pollute you and your family by showing filthy and obscene programmes.
What do you have to say about your two young musicians n producer … Nabeel and Kamijee?
Both Nabeel and Kamijee impressed me a lot. Kami has gained a lot since Us Rah Par and you would find that he has matured since his last outing. The best thing about him is that he listens to you. I used to listen to Shoaib Mansoor when I was raw and now I am imparting my experience to Kami. For Nabeel, on the other hand, I would say that he played whatever I used to dream of in Dil Ki Baat. People said that he was not one of the best but for me, both Nabeel and Kamijee were just the best.
Where would Junaid Jamshed be if he had no support from Shoaib Mansoor?
Vital Signs and Junaid Jamshed are an extension of Shoaib Mansoor’s ideology. In the earlier part of my career, Shoaib Mansoor was using Vital Signs and today he is using me and tomorrow he may use someone else.
What is the difference between Junaid Jamshed of Us Rah Par and Junaid Jamshed of Dil Ki Baat?
I think that Junaid Jamshed of Us Rah Par was trying to find a direction while Junaid Jamshed of Dil Ki Baat is telling people what is there in his heart.
In the end, do tell us something about your future plans?
It may happen that I may leave showbiz after Dil Ki Baat but frankly speaking, I want to know the purpose of my coming into this world and in order to get the answer, I will try to devote more and more time to Allah and in acquiring his raza.