Atif Aslam Return's - Coke Studio 5

The return of Atif Aslam - Coke Studio 5
By Bishakha Kunwar

The biggest musical blockbuster of the year Coke Studio 5 is back with a bang. The ensemble casts of musicians are bigger and better this year. One name to keep an eye on is Atif Aslam and his fans couldn’t be more happier after his success in season 2 with songs like Jalpari, Kinara, Maa-e-Ne Main. The dynamics he provides this season is infectious with more serious compositions of poetry fused with elements of Sufi music. This season Atif wants to continue exploring different avenues of music and present his songs in a different light.

Most writers, myself included, tend to dislike doing big-star-ritzy-type interviews. But in case of Atif Aslam things are different, I must admit. I wonder how many hearts have skipped a beat when his romantic voice took his listeners through a wide array of powerful emotions. But every singer doesn’t possess the same charm and melody. Most local singers are like dandelion clocks: they look pretty for a while, only then the strong wind blows and they are scattered, gone forever. Atif, though, seems to be in a different league altogether. Right from the start, he knew what he wanted to do. When things didn’t work with the Jal band, he went solo and worked even harder to produce a rare blend of voice that sculpted him to become who he is today. With a voice as distinct as his, not surprisingly, songs in top Bollywood flicks followed. He has always believed in following his instinct and set an unprecedented standard for the young musicians of Pakistan.

The smooth-voiced crooner have since moved away from the dreamy melodies and now embraces Coke Studio season 5 with a voice and music that is more mature, bringing out a deeper, spiritual philosophy through Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s qawwali song Charkha Nolakha. With this song, Atif collaborated and reworked with the Qayaas band and put together an ethereal fusion of Sufi song with rock tunes.

As Atif prepares and returns for the fifth season of Coke Studio, he opens up and bares his heart in this exclusive rendezvous with Sunday plus about Coke Studio Season 5 and more.



1. From ‘Aadat’, ‘Doorie’ to collaborations with former band members of Guns ‘n’ Roses, how has the journey been so far and what is the most important thing you have learned during this collaboration?



ATIF ASLAM: The journey for me has been great so far. I have had the opportunity to explore myself not just as a musician but also as a human being and I have come to a conclusion that we are very insignificant in this world. When you are a musician at 17, you want to explore the world and once you have somewhat achieved what you wanted to achieve, only then do you realize that it all happened not because of you but because of GOD. This has really helped me a lot in exploring myself as a musician. I mean, playing with Guns ‘n’ Roses, watching the legends playing live, just shaking their hands, it was a dream come true and it was a great learning experience as well for me especially when you see artists of such caliber still working hard, how they interact with people, their personalities and how they carry themselves - all this influences me to work harder and make good music.



2. What motivated you to try Coke Studio in the first place in 2009? Also, did it aid in your development as an artist?



ATIF: Actually it wasn’t planned at all as I was perhaps the last addition at Coke Studio Season 2 –both Rohail and I were a bit nervous as to how we would manage to rehearse the songs and finalize the song structures but it took us only one day to finalize the tracks. At first Rohail had in mind that I was to perform a selection of my hit songs such as Lamhay and Aadat whereas I wanted to do something different, something which people haven’t seen me do before musically so I decided to perform songs such as JalPari, Wasta Pyar Da and Mai Ne. I wanted to show a different side of me which is a complete reflection of my music as can be seen in my performance at Coke Studio in 2009 as that is the kind of music I always wanted to do ever since I started my career.



3. Coming back to the current season of Coke Studio 5, tell us about your duet with the band Qayaas? Why did you choose to recreate Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s song ‘Charkha Nolakha’? Was it Rohail’s idea to bring you and Qayaas together for this song or did you choose to do so?



ATIF: “Sun charkhe di miithi mithi kook” is one of my favorite songs by Ustaad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan sahib and I always wanted to perform the song live. Sarmad Ghafoor, guitarist and producer for Qayaas and a session player for my live band, contacted me and asked if I will be interested in collaborating with Qayaas for “Sun Charkhe di mith imithi kook” at Coke Studio. I am all for supporting new talent, new artists, new musicians and if I feel I can help them in anyway which benefits them and their music, I would never say no. In the end, it’s all about fresh talent, fresh music.Qayaas I feel have been struggling as a band for the past 2 to 3 years with the kind of music they were doing but when I met Umair, I found him really passionate and enthusiastic about their music so I decided to give it a try. We worked on the song and shared our version of the song with Rohail Hyatt who suggested performing “Charkha Nolakha” by Ustaad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan sahib instead as it is much better suited to what we had in mind in terms of our music collaboration for Coke Studio. So we decided to re-work “Charkha Nolakha” and fused it with sufi, folk and progressive rock elements which you all saw in the first episode last week :) I think the Qayaas boys did a very good job with the song.



4. How different is Coke Studio 5 than your previous stint? How excited are you and what are your expectations from the current season?



ATIF: I think this time it was much smoother - the overall process I mean. While I do feel that perhaps the video could have been different, I liked the audio mix this year. The best thing about Coke Studio is that Rohail is open to all the ideas we share with him. He has done so much for the country and a lot of credit goes to him for bringing in new talent and rediscovering the old ones.





5. Your career shot to stardom after you lent your vocals to many Bollywood hits. How has this move affected your music and career, moving forward? What are your upcoming ventures?



ATIF: First it is important to understand the kind of audience that exists in Pakistan. There are three types: there is one niche category who doesn’t listen to Bollywood songs; there’s one which only listens to Bollywood and then there’s one who don’t listen to music at all. By releasing and performing songs for Bollywood ventures, I have been able to reach out to the major chunk of our music listening audience, the masses, all of whom listen to Bollywood songs. This category probably doesn’t even know who Slash is, so for them my songs in Bollywood are perhaps more newsworthy than my collaboration with Slash. It has helped me a lot in my career as India’s industry is huge all around the globe. It is because of my songs in Bollywood I get to go to places like Nairobi, Surinam, Bali, West Indies etc to perform there and represent Pakistan. So the credit goes to the Bollywood film music industry for their efforts in promoting the industry on a global stage. As for the upcoming ventures, I have just finished recording for Race 2 in Istanbul and I have a few other projects in the pipeline which I can’t talk about at the moment :)



6. How would you classify—if you can—your music? Any specific influences? Who are your musical inspirations?



ATIF: I listen to all sorts of music, I mean, if I am listening to Foo Fighters and although I really like the band, it won’t inspire me to make more music. I am only influenced and inspired by nature – there are also times when people inspire me but that’s about it. As for classifying my music, people often say I am a pop artist, some people say I am a rock artist – on stage the setup is more suited to rock music whereas my studio recorded material has a lot of pop going on and in Coke Studio you see me performing Sufi/folk tunes. So it’s difficult for me to classify my music.







7. What's the best piece of advice you have received?



ATIF: Mum says I should pray 5 times and recite the Holy Quran. My father says ‘bring me sweets from all over the world’. My brother tells me where I should and where I shouldn't perform. Fans advise me to produce new albums every day. My band and doctors advise me to take a vacation and my girlfriend says to leave this world for her. In short too much advice!



8. What advice would you give to other musicians trying to get off the ground?



ATIF: Try to be yourself and not someone else. Make your own mark and don’t try to be a clone or copy of some other artist. Your intention in being an artist should be about making good music and not about stardom. In Pakistan it’s quite easy to get famous these days but only a true artist can maintain his presence by producing and releasing good quality music.



9. What is your first memory of being inspired by music? When did you realize you could actually do this as a career?



ATIF: There were a lot of moments actually but two which stand out are: my first ever performance which was at a fast food restaurant in Y Block, DHA here in Lahore. My friend and I were sitting in the park outside and playing music when the restaurant’s manager came out and said we can’t play music here as it is not allowed. We requested if we could perform inside the restaurant for his customers but again he said it’s not allowed. Typical Pakistani teenagers we were, we didn’t stop and kept on playing music and slowly people started gathering around. The manager noticed this and when he saw the people enjoying our performance, he came up to us and asked if we would like to perform at the restaurant – that was the day I got my first pay cheque for 500 rupees and this was around 10 years ago.



The second moment was when I was at Gymkhana with my friends and they all had a bet of whoever gets on stage and sings a song will be treated to free food. ‘uss waqt yaar paisay hee nahee hotay thay :P’. So when I went up on stage and sang, people started to enjoy my performance. So these are the little little moments which made me realize that I can actually do this as a career, being a musician and the rest as they say is history.



10. Do you enjoy writing lyrics, composing or singing?



ATIF: For me the most important part is when you actually think of a composition or lyrics [as I never plan] and work on a composition. It just comes to me - it can be when I am just sitting and playing the guitar, it could be at a restaurant, it could be at the airport, it could be at my hotel room after the concert. It’s actually a combination of various moments; when you think of a composition, write the lyrics and work on the melody and in all that I enjoy the bridge section the most as it enhances the song structure and takes it into another dimension.



Having said that, there is one particular moment when I do work on the composition and lyrics and that is right after a live performance when I am done meeting my fans. I go back to my hotel room and that’s when ideas start pouring in. Maybe it is because of the energy I have absorbed from the audience during the performance and this process gives me an outlet to utilize that energy to express myself and work on more songs.



11. What has been your most memorable performance as a singer?



ATIF: By the grace of GOD I have performed in all the continents across the globe but the ones which I can never forget are my performances at the Royal Albert Hall, the O2 Arena, Oslo – Norway and just recently in Surinam. Performing in Surinam was really exciting as they only speak Dutch and when you have over 10,000 people in the audience who can hardly understand the language you are singing in but still are enjoying the performance– that I feel is an achievement for me :)



12. If hypothetically speaking, singing never worked out, what do you think you would be right now?



ATIF: Probably a doctor, Pilot or a cricketer!



13. If you are to do a duet with any Pakistani artist, who would it be and why?



ATIF: If Ustaad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan Sahib was alive, I would have loved to perform alongside him. Infact I would have been more than happy to perform as part of his Qawaal group even. And Abida Parveen, I have all the love and respect for her.



14. You have millions of fans across the world, how do you keep up with all the fans demands in terms of wanting to feel involved with whatever you do.



ATIF: It’s actually very simple – I keep scheduling for one on one interactive session with my fans. For instance, birthdays are an important occasion for any artist and I always take some time out on my birthday for my fans where I speak to my fans for an hour – I try to keep my fans happy as much as possible. It’s not just about listening to my music – my fans are more than that; I have a personal connection with them and I like to keep them involved. When I am out I make it a point to meet all my fans regardless of what some of them might say :)



15. Being in the entertainment industry is a hard road to follow, how supportive have your parents been regarding your pursuit as an artist?



ATIF: When I got selected for the Under-19 Cricket team, my parents told me to leave cricket and focus on my studies. But I had an inclination towards music, so I saved up my pocket money and recorded my first track, Aadat. I put the track online anonymously in the beginning and my parents had no idea about – they only found out about it after two and a half years when a friend of theirs told them that ‘aapka beta to bauhat acha gaana gaata hai’. They initially thought it’s just a hobby which will die down soon so they didn’t say anything but once they saw my passion and the support I was receiving from my fans, they kept supporting me throughout. I have to say that the internet has played an important part in my music career and it was perhaps one of the very first few music tracks which started the whole viral scene for our music industry in Pakistan.





16. After Bol, do you plan on acting in other Pakistani or Bollywood movies?



ATIF: I am not considering any acting assignments for the time being. I have received over 20 scripts but I have rejected all of them. The only reason I did Bol was because I felt a responsibility towards the society and my fans and I wanted to give something back to them as I truly believed in the message of the film and wanted to create awareness that this is something which is happening in our society and it should be dealt with accordingly. Unfortunately the film offers I have received thus far post Bol are your run of the mill typical Bollywood flicks which I am not interested acting in. Maybe if I get something meaningful and with a message for a positive impact on society, I’ll consider it.



CANDID CONFESSIONS

1. Top 5 songs on your iPod…Heartbreak Warfare by John Mayer, Come Alive and My Hero [Skin & Bones of Foo Fighters, Main Rowan Tenu Yaad Karke by Ustaad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan Sahib and a Turkish track which I just recently discovered on my trip to Istanbul.



2. What genre of music can't you stand to listen to… I listen to all genres but if there is one which I am not that fond of is Rap music. So we decided to re-work “Charkha Nolakha” and fused it with sufi, folk and progressive rock elements which you all saw in the first episode last week :) I think the Qayaas boys did a very good job with the song. I listen to all sorts of music, I mean, if I am listening to Foo Fighters and although I really like the band, it won’t inspire me to make more music. I am only influenced and inspired by nature – there are also times when people inspire me





Source = Sunday Plus – May 20, 2012