interview
Ever since 'Channo' hit the airwaves, Ali Zafar has established himself as a pop icon and has received acclaim every step of the way. Not only has this multi-talented 25-year-old made his mark as a singer, actor, and model, but he has also proven his worth as a director through the video of his track 'Aik Pal'. His debut album, 'Huqa Pani', was one of the best selling albums of Pakistan in 2004, and won him multiple awards. The album was released in India this year, where it continues to earn praise. We caught up with Ali Zafar to find out more about his musical ventures.
Us: Were you at all surprised by the massive success of you debut album?
Ali Zafar: Well, I made it to be a success and I believed in it and put in everything I had. God likes those who believe in themselves and Him, and thus blessed me with the fulfillment of a dream.
Us: How long did it take you to make the album?
AZ: Brainstorming for three years and then finally recorded it in over a month.
Us: How's your second album coming along? When will it be released?
AZ: I am working on the second album these days. I've composed more than forty songs and am working on ten for the next album. I hate and love being a perfectionist, so I'll take my time till I think it's the best I can do for now.
Us: You were in Norway a few weeks ago. How was the experience of performing there?
AZ: One of the best shows of my life. They told me it was the biggest turn up ever in Norway's history because it had about 8000 people there and I was the only one performing. It was so touching that they were there for me. Lovely crowd. Would love to go there again.
Us: How does it feel to get such an overwhelming response from the international audience?
AZ: Well, overwhelming responses always overwhelm you. It's an amazing feeling to realize that your music has traveled lands and seas.
Us: And success in India seems to have gained a high priority for our musicians...
AZ: You need to set new goals for yourself and new milestones so that they inspire you to work harder. As you go international the competition increases and makes you work even harder.
Us: So are you keeping the international market in mind while you're working on your sophomore album?
AZ: Yeah, you can say that.
Us: You did the cover of 'Every Breath You Take' for New Year's Eve (the MP3 of which is available on your website) - are you planning to venture into the English music arena?
AZ: Well, you never know. Let's see.
Us: Have you decided which video you'll release next?
AZ: Now, I think the next video I release will be from my next album. We might do one more with our Indian record company for further promotion in India.
Us: How was the experience of directing the 'Aik Pal' video? And how has the response to the video been so far?
AZ: Well, I loved it. I've always been fascinated with film making and had wanted to apply it sometime in the future. Good that it happened now. I love taking risks and trying new things out, providing an outlet to my artistic endeavors. People have taken it better than I thought they would. It was something very abstract but surprisingly a lot of people came up with brilliant perceptions and angles of it that I had wanted them to.
Us: Do you plan to direct more videos?
AZ: I do, actually. But I haven't planned anything as yet.
Us: And what about acting and modeling? Any projects lined up?
AZ: Well, I have been offered a couple of movies from here and abroad. But I really wanna do something for our rotten film industry. Might just take up one, but then that depends on a lot of things. Let's see how it goes.
Us: Do you read the stuff that's written about you in magazines and posted on forums and websites?
AZ: Yes, I do. It's a lot of fun until something is printed about you that you never did or never said.
Us: So how do you cope with people spreading rumors about you? And just how annoying are rumors?
AZ: Well, it was the toughest thing for me to handle initially. I would sit down depressed with my head in my knees trying to figure out as to why somebody would make up such a thing and how could they have the time to try and waste other people's lives, but then I learned that they actually waste their own lives by doing that. I couldn't let that affect my work and figured that it's a package which comes with being in the limelight. You should just concentrate on good work. Everything else will fade away but the work in which you induce your heart and soul.
Us: And what about the endless criticism that 'Channo' is a rip off of an old Indian song? What do you say in response to that?
AZ: I have been accused that most of the songs on my album are copies. In return to that all I've asked is to bring me the actual songs from which they have been copied, but no one's ever done that. Have you ever thought why? Regarding 'Channo', people relate it to Burman's 'Dhanno'. I will not deny that I am a huge R.D. Burman fan like almost all the musicians I know to date, and have been listening to his songs since childhood. Now if that inspired me (like every other musician who is inspired by someone) to create something of my own that sounded a bit like it, then I don't see a crime in that. The song 'Channo' has given pleasure to countless audiences all over the world and recognition to a Pakistani artist internationally, and thus to Pakistan. Those who can't accept that or don't want to, can't be helped. Just some informal information: I made twenty different people sit and listen to both the versions. Nobody agreed that it could be called a copy.
Us: Any comments for those who say that you don't sing live during your concerts?
AZ: We have the footage of almost all of my live shows. You're most welcome to come and see it also and check for yourself that I've always sung live on shows even in the worst of conditions with fever, cold and sore throat, just to make sure that people are not fooled and I don't ever feel guilty. For shows which are being recorded for T.V., nobody sings live because it's being recorded for the T.V. On the other hand I take it as a compliment when people think I'm not singing live because they probably think so because I sound damn good, or they're just tone deaf!
Us: What can we expect from Ali Zafar in the next few months?
AZ: The new album!
Us: Any message for your fans?
AZ: There has to be a way to meet each one of them! I wish I could. I love them all.
- By Sameen Amer
Us Magazine, The News - 11th November 2005
Friday, November 11, 2005
Monday, November 07, 2005
Rock Star – reality TV in excess
reality bites
Every once in a while, a star is born, destined to dazzle everyone who catches a glimpse of it, only to disappear just as quickly as it emerged. And Michael Hutchence was the very personification of this phenomenon. The main force behind the rise (and subsequent fall) of his band INXS, Hutchence was a captivating frontman, the likes of which are very hard to come by, and his untimely death effectively marked the end for INXS – or so we thought. Just like Alice In Chains, The Doors, Nirvana, and many other bands that have lost their vocalist, no one expected to hear from INXS again, but then a reality TV mogul stepped in. Mark Burnett saw the chance of cashing in on the opportunity and selling some more mindless junk in the name of reality television, and Rock Star was born. First season: INXS.
Elegantly wasted
The story of INXS began in Sydney in 1977 when high school buddies Michael Hutchence and Andrew Farriss started a band called The Farriss Brothers with Garry Gary Beers, Kirk Pengilly and Andrew's brothers Tim and Jon. They eventually changed the band's name to INXS, just prior to the release of their self–titled debut album and first single 'Simple Simon'. Their international breakthrough came a couple of albums later in the form of their 1987 release 'Kick' that included the single 'Need You Tonight', the band's biggest hit to date. INXS was at the peak of its success during the late 80s and early 90s, but interest in the band soon dwindled and their popularity waned. A couple of commercially unsuccessful albums followed, and their comeback album, 1997's 'Elegantly Wasted', had just come out when tragedy struck and Hutchence was found hanging in a hotel room in Sydney. And it's been a downward spiral for the surviving members of the band since then.
Calling all nations
After Hutchence's death, INXS tried to continue with various temporary vocalists, including ex–Noiseworks singer Jon Stevens, who appeared with the band at the closing ceremony of the Sydney Olympics in a performance that went largely unnoticed by the international audience. Jon was officially named a member of INXS in 2002 but left in 2003, after recording just one song with the band. In 2004, INXS announced that they were going to find a new vocalist for the band through a reality television show called 'Rock Star: INXS'. Chosen by the band from all over the world, and housed in a Hollywood mansion, 15 contestants were to vie for the position of the band's lead singer. The show turned out to be everything that an INXS fan would label cringe worthy.
Fabricate. Emulate.
Irrespective of the mess his personal life turned out to be, Michael Hutchence was, without a doubt, one of the most charismatic frontman the world has ever seen. So the mere idea of having a whole Big Brother meets American Idol setting to find someone to fill Hutchence's shoes was enough to generate ridicule. But that didn't stop the surviving members of INXS from lurching clumsily down that road.
The news that INXS had signed on to do 'Rock Star' was met with disbelief, so the fact that the show initially generated low ratings hardly came as a surprise, and it's quite easy to see why the show got such a lukewarm response. To begin with, many have argued whether a reality TV show (and all the melodrama that comes with it) is a legitimate way for a rock band to find a new lead singer. Whatever happened to good old non–televised auditions that bands normally have? And to someone who isn't a big fan of covers, the very concept of the show appears to be highly flawed. Just how does the performance of cover versions of Rolling Stones, Queen, and Radiohead tracks merit a place as the frontman of INXS? And why would the rest of us want to hear someone else's rendition of a Pink Floyd classic when we (thankfully) have the original version?
Here's yet another thing that was wrong with the show – the hosts. Everything from Brooke Burke's outfits (or lack thereof), to her shrieking voice and tendency to over-pronounce every proper noun that appeared on the teleprompter, left one cursing the person who had picked her as the host. And one could easily spend half the show wondering what former Red Hot Chili Peppers and Jane's Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro was doing there. They might as well have had Carmen Electra along with Dave instead of Brooke. It would've made more sense anyway.
As for the competition, well, as with all television shows, we'll never know if they even considered the votes or if the bottom three were actually determined by the viewers, not that it really mattered – look closely and you'll see how the outcome of the show was completely under the band's control at all times.
Old world, new world
The contestants on the show were a mixed bag. Some of them could transform a pop song into a haunting rock anthem, but, highlighting the pitfall of the plan, the others could just as easily make a rock classic sound like a pop ditty. And it finally came down to choosing between a former Elvis impersonator, a theater performer, and someone who has been termed the 'mad conductor'. Yeah, a really tough decision indeed.
Sarcasm aside, it was hard to picture most of these contestants fronting INXS, and it came as little surprise when, after everyone else had been told that they were 'just not right for the band', Jason Dean Bennison a.k.a. J.D. Fortune was chosen as the winner. Quite obviously, the fans of the other fourteen contestants weren't all too pleased about it, and conspiracy theorists even allege that JD had been chosen long before the show's finale, and that 'Rock Star' was nothing more than a publicity ploy by the now forgotten INXS members to return to the public eye. And in all honesty, I really can't think of any other reason the band would attach themselves to such a show either.
Are you ready for a new sensation?
So whether we like it or not, J.D. Fortune is the new vocalist of INXS, and their new album, 'Switch', their first album in eight years, will be out on November 29th. But I still think the surviving members of INXS should've moved on – in their own lives and in their own ways - just like so many others have. Look at how Joy Division morphed into New Order after Ian Curtis' suicide, and how Nirvana gave way to the Foo Fighters and Sweet 75. Perhaps it would have been better to bow out gracefully.
Quite predictably, the majority of those who followed the first season of 'Rock Star' were completely indifferent to INXS and more interested in the contestants than in the band. As for the INXS fans, they really don't want to listen to the back catalogue in someone else's voice, and they didn't want this show. Sure there was the "nostalgia from the time that INXS was at top of their game", as Dave Navarro put it, but the show left a bitter aftertaste for those of us who actually saw the band in its prime. Then again, it's obvious that the show wasn't aimed for that faction. For them there is no INXS without Michael Hutchence. And the 'new look' INXS might turn out to be a 'new sensation', but that's exactly what it'll be: a 'new sensation', not what we knew as INXS. The band has alienated a huge portion of their original fan base by doing the show, and for me, 'Rock Star: INXS' was nothing more than a marketing gimmick and a disgrace to Michael Hutchence's memory, for the INXS that we know died the day Michael Hutchence did.
- By Sameen Amer
Instep, The News - 6th November, 2005
Every once in a while, a star is born, destined to dazzle everyone who catches a glimpse of it, only to disappear just as quickly as it emerged. And Michael Hutchence was the very personification of this phenomenon. The main force behind the rise (and subsequent fall) of his band INXS, Hutchence was a captivating frontman, the likes of which are very hard to come by, and his untimely death effectively marked the end for INXS – or so we thought. Just like Alice In Chains, The Doors, Nirvana, and many other bands that have lost their vocalist, no one expected to hear from INXS again, but then a reality TV mogul stepped in. Mark Burnett saw the chance of cashing in on the opportunity and selling some more mindless junk in the name of reality television, and Rock Star was born. First season: INXS.
Elegantly wasted
The story of INXS began in Sydney in 1977 when high school buddies Michael Hutchence and Andrew Farriss started a band called The Farriss Brothers with Garry Gary Beers, Kirk Pengilly and Andrew's brothers Tim and Jon. They eventually changed the band's name to INXS, just prior to the release of their self–titled debut album and first single 'Simple Simon'. Their international breakthrough came a couple of albums later in the form of their 1987 release 'Kick' that included the single 'Need You Tonight', the band's biggest hit to date. INXS was at the peak of its success during the late 80s and early 90s, but interest in the band soon dwindled and their popularity waned. A couple of commercially unsuccessful albums followed, and their comeback album, 1997's 'Elegantly Wasted', had just come out when tragedy struck and Hutchence was found hanging in a hotel room in Sydney. And it's been a downward spiral for the surviving members of the band since then.
Calling all nations
After Hutchence's death, INXS tried to continue with various temporary vocalists, including ex–Noiseworks singer Jon Stevens, who appeared with the band at the closing ceremony of the Sydney Olympics in a performance that went largely unnoticed by the international audience. Jon was officially named a member of INXS in 2002 but left in 2003, after recording just one song with the band. In 2004, INXS announced that they were going to find a new vocalist for the band through a reality television show called 'Rock Star: INXS'. Chosen by the band from all over the world, and housed in a Hollywood mansion, 15 contestants were to vie for the position of the band's lead singer. The show turned out to be everything that an INXS fan would label cringe worthy.
Fabricate. Emulate.
Irrespective of the mess his personal life turned out to be, Michael Hutchence was, without a doubt, one of the most charismatic frontman the world has ever seen. So the mere idea of having a whole Big Brother meets American Idol setting to find someone to fill Hutchence's shoes was enough to generate ridicule. But that didn't stop the surviving members of INXS from lurching clumsily down that road.
The news that INXS had signed on to do 'Rock Star' was met with disbelief, so the fact that the show initially generated low ratings hardly came as a surprise, and it's quite easy to see why the show got such a lukewarm response. To begin with, many have argued whether a reality TV show (and all the melodrama that comes with it) is a legitimate way for a rock band to find a new lead singer. Whatever happened to good old non–televised auditions that bands normally have? And to someone who isn't a big fan of covers, the very concept of the show appears to be highly flawed. Just how does the performance of cover versions of Rolling Stones, Queen, and Radiohead tracks merit a place as the frontman of INXS? And why would the rest of us want to hear someone else's rendition of a Pink Floyd classic when we (thankfully) have the original version?
Here's yet another thing that was wrong with the show – the hosts. Everything from Brooke Burke's outfits (or lack thereof), to her shrieking voice and tendency to over-pronounce every proper noun that appeared on the teleprompter, left one cursing the person who had picked her as the host. And one could easily spend half the show wondering what former Red Hot Chili Peppers and Jane's Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro was doing there. They might as well have had Carmen Electra along with Dave instead of Brooke. It would've made more sense anyway.
As for the competition, well, as with all television shows, we'll never know if they even considered the votes or if the bottom three were actually determined by the viewers, not that it really mattered – look closely and you'll see how the outcome of the show was completely under the band's control at all times.
Old world, new world
The contestants on the show were a mixed bag. Some of them could transform a pop song into a haunting rock anthem, but, highlighting the pitfall of the plan, the others could just as easily make a rock classic sound like a pop ditty. And it finally came down to choosing between a former Elvis impersonator, a theater performer, and someone who has been termed the 'mad conductor'. Yeah, a really tough decision indeed.
Sarcasm aside, it was hard to picture most of these contestants fronting INXS, and it came as little surprise when, after everyone else had been told that they were 'just not right for the band', Jason Dean Bennison a.k.a. J.D. Fortune was chosen as the winner. Quite obviously, the fans of the other fourteen contestants weren't all too pleased about it, and conspiracy theorists even allege that JD had been chosen long before the show's finale, and that 'Rock Star' was nothing more than a publicity ploy by the now forgotten INXS members to return to the public eye. And in all honesty, I really can't think of any other reason the band would attach themselves to such a show either.
Are you ready for a new sensation?
So whether we like it or not, J.D. Fortune is the new vocalist of INXS, and their new album, 'Switch', their first album in eight years, will be out on November 29th. But I still think the surviving members of INXS should've moved on – in their own lives and in their own ways - just like so many others have. Look at how Joy Division morphed into New Order after Ian Curtis' suicide, and how Nirvana gave way to the Foo Fighters and Sweet 75. Perhaps it would have been better to bow out gracefully.
Quite predictably, the majority of those who followed the first season of 'Rock Star' were completely indifferent to INXS and more interested in the contestants than in the band. As for the INXS fans, they really don't want to listen to the back catalogue in someone else's voice, and they didn't want this show. Sure there was the "nostalgia from the time that INXS was at top of their game", as Dave Navarro put it, but the show left a bitter aftertaste for those of us who actually saw the band in its prime. Then again, it's obvious that the show wasn't aimed for that faction. For them there is no INXS without Michael Hutchence. And the 'new look' INXS might turn out to be a 'new sensation', but that's exactly what it'll be: a 'new sensation', not what we knew as INXS. The band has alienated a huge portion of their original fan base by doing the show, and for me, 'Rock Star: INXS' was nothing more than a marketing gimmick and a disgrace to Michael Hutchence's memory, for the INXS that we know died the day Michael Hutchence did.
- By Sameen Amer
Instep, The News - 6th November, 2005
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