![]() “To be honest, vocal-based music is much more demanding than electronic dance music,” he continues. It’s the first thing I hear when I wake up in the morning! I love Urdu too, but it’s for when I want to say something more serious. It’s also second nature to me, because it is my mother tongue. You can say one thing in seven different ways. A lot of industry veterans, such as Shuja bhai and Rohail bhai had told me that my strength was in Punjabi, and this new album has songs that mix English with Punjabi. “I never knew that I could write lyrics that way, to talk about things that were fun or just simple, ordinary things. Now, I decided to take a minute and relax, have fun. ![]() It was a very emotional place to be in and it would take its toll on me. I wanted to talk about serious things and stay away from frivolity. I wanted to change the world with my music. He continues, “Earlier, I had built these walls around me. He said that I would have more fun that way.” As I started work on a new album, a friend of mine advised me to think like a music producer rather than just the vocalist singing the song. “What could I do? What did I know? I knew music. I don’t have any regrets, but I wanted to start afresh. I felt that I needed to go back to the drawing board. A lot of people loved it but I couldn’t connect with it anymore, so I didn’t release it. “I was struggling with an album right before the coronavirus pandemic hit. “I just went with what I was feeling,” he says. Was it difficult upending his musical technique? They loved it, which is great, since they are my audience for the next 10 years.” “Once I had wrapped up this album, I crowd-tested it and the best reactions I got were from kids ranging from fifth graders to O-levels. ![]() This was their normal and, in Pakistan, we weren’t making music like that. They were listening to Bieber and BTS, and those were the frequencies that they were accustomed to. I realised that we weren’t making music for these kids. She said ‘Chachoo’s music’, which was basically a given, but aside from me, she didn’t listen to a single Pakistani band. He recalls: “One day, I asked my niece what music she listened to. I realised that if this is the sound that people want to listen to now, then I should give it a try.” The beats would simply be playing out from a laptop and the crowd would be enjoying it more than our performance. “I would be performing live on stage for 90 minutes until I was completely drained and then, as we left, a DJ would begin playing out music and the crowd would go wild. It’s the first thing I hear when I wake up in the morning! I love Urdu too, but it’s for when I want to say something more serious.” “I have seen the audience change, from head-banging to rock music to just head-bobbing to it,” Umair tells me. What prompted this about-turn in his music?įor one, he observed that the audience was tiring off rock music. Instead, the album offers a montage of upbeat, technically sophisticated numbers that merge Punjabi, English and Urdu and talk about everything under the sun, from going on a car ride to complaining about a lover’s nakhray (tantrums) to ‘feeling alright, feeling all cool.’ True to its name, the songs are a far cry from the rock music that is particularly associated with him. Umair has only just hot-stepped into a new musical arena with his album, enticingly titled Dance Karain Saari Raat. What’s the worst that could happen? The song could flop. But magic happens outside the comfort zone. Honestly, I wasn’t very happy while recording many of them, wondering what I was doing. ![]() Some of my most famous songs … Sammi, Gaagar … were hits because I tried to do things differently. “And in my case, every time that I have stepped out of my comfort zone, the audience has loved it. So what has prompted him to change tack completely and get into electronic dance music for his new avatar? Is Umair 2.0 simply a sell-out? Umair Jaswal was always known as the bad boy of rock. You have to be brave about it and step out of your comfort zone. Some of the greatest bands in the world have evolved themselves in order to stay relevant to the people listening to them. “We have to cater to an audience, put up a show, create music that connects with them. Umair is taking all this know-how, amassed over the years, and spinning it to a new tune. There’s also the experience gained from a career that spans over a decade, writing lyrics, singing original songs and revamped hits for shows such as Coke Studio and Velo Soundstation, and performing live-wire acts on stage. There’s the husky voice and the matter-of-fact observations that are quintessentially Umair. There’s plenty of the old still there, simmering just beneath the surface of his cool new haircut and slight stubble. ![]()
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