There was nobody there to guide me, I was doing everything on my own. Such as running after musicians, directors, hiring studios then going to different channels, radio stations and then convincing them to play my songs. Trust me its not an easy job for a single guy to do all that stuff.
I also had very less support from my family but I had complete faith in my self as well as in God and I finally made the album and all my hard work is now paying off. (thank u God for giving me courage and patience). So basically the song is about, if you want to get somewhere in life you have to be focused and consistent and you should struggle for it till you get what you want. Never give up and have faith in yourself, in God and in your work and never lose hope.
You of course come from Pakistan, What do you have to say about the current rock/grunge genre of music that everyone has adopted. If music is about culture then how does rock music depict our culture?
Its a good thing that people are finally developing ear to listen to different genres of music especially rock music and this is, thanx to our media who are promoting such bands. Rock music doesnt depict our culture but there is no harm in adapting it, we need to get out of stone age we should open up our minds and broaden our horizons.
Your album has a mix of different types of songs, it has romantic as well as ambitious songs in it, how has the response been so far?
The response has been tremendous, I wasnt expecting that things would start changing so fast. This is just the beginning of my career, and im not a seasonal artist, im here to stay(inshallah)i will keep giving my fans quality music and songs in the future too.
Which band/artist has inspired you the most and why? And name the Pakistani artists you enjoy listening?
My favorite artist is Dave Matthews, not only the guy is a good singer but he is also a true musical genius. His song writing is so closed to reality, and in real life he is very down to earth, sweet and humble, i enjoy listening to all the the new Pakistani rock bands.
Kamran the guy in your first video ‘piya' is your brother? Do you think your album would have been a different piece altogether if he was here and helping you out with music?
Well i dont think so, Kamran is into music but not as much as I am. He never wanted to pursue music as a career, he is a good song writer but not a good musician.
There is a certain trend being followed these days, there are about an infinite number of singers without any musical training whatsoever? Have you had any music related training of any sort?
This is true that there are a lot of singers out there, who don't know jack about music or singing but they are singing and they totally depend on computer softwares to tune their vocals. But the public is not dumb they know that whose the real deal and whose not. I never had any formal musical training from anywhere, I'm a self taught musician, i learnt music from tutorials, books, guitar magazines and tablatures. I feel that im blessed in more than one way.
What else do you have in store for the fans in future?
I know its still too early to ask for new singles (lol) , but perhaps another video wouldn't harm =) I will soon be working on my next video, but I cant tell you the name of the song yet.
Before we end, where was ‘akhiyan milalay' shot and whats the concept or story behind the video?
My performance was shot at Shara-i-Faisal behind duty free shop and the female car shots was done at sea view. Basically its a performance video not a conceptual one. The director wanted to show in the video that I'm an underground singer whose having a concert and he really looks forward that the girl of his dream would come to his concert, but the girl whose very rich and spoiled shows up at the concert very late.