Mohammad Muneem or most popularly known by his stage name Alif is not only a musician with a guitar or a poet with a pen, he transcends these realms with a knack to profuse embalming words for your deep-rooted wounds. Alif whose work is intertwined with philosophies recently released his new single Fitna Fitoor, a song which is a part of his full-length album Siyah.
In an exclusive interview with News18 Showsha, Alif talked about his album Siyaah, a 20-plus songs album divided into four parts i.e Haal Maazi Mustaqbil Hayaat and his most recent outing Fitna Fitoor. He also spoke about how Kashmir resonates through his music.
Here are the excerpts:
Alif Describes His Latest Single Fitna Fitoor
For light to exist, there has to be some kind of darkness. Fitna means chaos and Fitoor means madness, the wanting to win this chaos. That is the whole emotion of the song. This world is Fitna(chaotic) and how much will you endure? This chaos is skilled and it plays every game. I watch this game and yet I want to play this game. It’s like one of those games that used to take place in the Colosseum during the Roman Empire. People get thrill out of two people beating themselves to death and that’s human nature. And in between, the bridge is ‘Jalne De Isse Iss Roshni Ko’ which basically translates to ‘let the light go on’. And towards the end, ‘Kya Hai Tera Mujhpe Fitoor Koi Na Jaane, Kya Hai Isme Mera Kasoor Koi Na Jaane’. We all have inner-desires that is labelled as ‘nafs’. People say, if you control your desire, you can become a saint, you are elevated from the world. On the other hand, if you don’t have that ‘nafs’, then what is your being. Aristotle said that first came the being and then became the existence. There was another philosopher Sartre that said the opposite. According to him, you exist and then you ‘being’ which means you come into this life and
then you create your being around your existence. If you don’t have that desire then what are you? You have to be balanced with your approach, how much you want to walk, how much you want to win, if you have that hunger than how much is that hunger? The hunger of wanting to win and at the same time how much to win? So these are some of the philosophies and themes it tries to explore.
Alif Shares What The Music Video Of Fitna Fitoor Stands For
My collaborator in the music video was Abshar and she’s an incredible performance choreographer and dancer. She is very fluid with her body movements and she is amazing.
So when we made the video, we wanted to show how sometimes an emotion or entity that is opposite you, ignites you, lifts you. It’s like an opposite energy that lifts you. That was the emotion that we were trying to evoke that it’s a light that we all have but sometimes we need an outside source to incite the inner-things.
Alif And His Journey With Siyaah
Siyah means black and everything occurs in it. Our first part was ‘Haal’ which means present. Then the next part that came was ‘Maazi’ which means past. Then we released Azeezo which means ‘my friend’. And now we released Fitnaa Fitoor. Now we’ll be bringing out ‘Mustaqbil’ which means future and finally Hayat which means life. So this 21-22 songs album is an emotion of everything that has happened to me or I have witnessed it. And the beautiful thing is when people make it their own, the magic happens then. For example, in ‘Haal’ we have a song Khilona. If you listen to it, there is a line ‘Ajnabi Main Ban Gaya Hu
Tujhse Haan Jurm Hai, Kya Mureed Ab Hakeem Se Kahe’. And the next line is ‘Ajnabi Main Ban Gaya Hu Tujhse Haan Jurm Hai, Kya Hakeem Ab Mureed Se Kahe’?’. The first line ponders on what I am going to say to the doctor and the second line suggests what the doctor is going to say to me. The crux of Khilona is like how you neglected yourself in your childhood, how you had ignored your desires, how you didn’t take care of yourself emotionally as a child. When you grow up, it’ll come back and haunt you. That is why we say all the trauma and everything that has happened in childhood. And when that song comes out, for someone like you or anyone, a boy or a girl, they listen to it and they feel connected to it. It’s nice. It’s like Alif’s work has reached their lives. It is cathartic. It is helping them process that second or that day. I think that is the purpose. If you look at you and me, we have fallen back to art in some form or the other. That has saved us. When we are happy, we listen to peppy music. When we are sad, we listen to words. I teach a course for Sarire Khaama related to song-writing and poetry. And I tell my students that the purpose of an artist or a writer or anybody who is a creative person is to transform one emotion into another emotion in that person. For example, there is something called Ishq-E-Majazi. It means love for worldly things. Then there is another kind of love which is called Ishq-E-Haqiqi which means love for the divine.
Now the problem is that Ishq-E-Majazi is connected with Ishq-E-Haqiqi because the way towards Ishq-E-Haqiqi is through Ishq-E-Majazi. The journey of going from Majazi to Haqiqi. And from Haqiqi to Majazi. That is the pendulum. Sometimes people want to have that conversation, sometimes they don’t. Because if they have that conversation, they have to do something about it. So we tend to not have that deeper conversation with ourselves. That’s why people go about their lives as it is. It is not the answers, it’s always the questions you ask, what questions are you asking?
Alif’s Music Cannot Be Contained Within Genres
I grew up listening to Queen, ACDC, a lot of ghazals and various artists. But honestly, there is no specific sound to what we do. And if you ask me the genre, there is no genre. I don’t think we fall in a genre. We are genre agnostic. If you listen to Aladin, it is in the zone of dance pop. If you listen to another one, that is ambient. Fitna Fitoor is rock. The Coke Studio one is theatrical. There are different emotions.
Alif’s Viral Kya Kar Korimol From Coke Studio Bharat Was Given A Theatrical Treatment
Kya Kare Korimol song was previously released in 2018.
When I listened to Coke Studio for the first time in 2009, there was a song called Aik Alif by Noorie and
Saieen Zahoor. If you listen to it closely, Saaien Zahoor starts the song and then Noorie comes and the song advances. Coke Studio stands for telling stories. And if you are telling a story, it won’t just have one emotion. That’s why we wanted to put the theatrical emotion into it. The opening starts with me singing ‘Khwateeno Hazraat’ and then we go to the satire. And the strength of satire is that it will help you communicate very strong, complex emotions with ease. There are four protagonists in this song. One is the narrator which is me. Then the father which is Noor Mohammad. Aashima Mahajan is the bride and then there is the society and the relatives that have sung the ‘Wanwun’ part. Towards the end, the ‘Karvaan’ is ongoing which never stops.
Alif Reveals What Came First-His Writing Or His Music
My journey started as a writer. I use to write a diary back in the days. But then I got scared that if someone finds that diary, they’ll get to know everything. And our society is such that if they catch a ‘guy’ penning something in their diary, it’ll get even worse. They label him as ‘sensitive’. It tough. So I discovered poetry. For example, If I say, ‘Abhi Hasaas(Sensitive) Hai Dil Bharosa Kaise Kare? Banega Sung(Rock) Ye Jabhi, Tab Ke Tab Pyaar Karo”. Now If I had written this directly in my diary, the one who found out will understand. So I started searching for ways to survive. And then when this started happening and then I wanted people to sing these things. But people didn’t had time and they had ‘why should we do it?’ kind of attitude. You have to have same dream as mine for the dream to grow big. So I couldn’t find such people. So finally I started learning, picking up my guitar and composing and singing. Music came accidentally to me. Cilis Lobo who is the mother of Ashley Lobo, she gave me the training and technique of singing for quite some time. With composition and guitar, it came after spending time with it.
Alif Doesn’t Feel His Music Is Not Purely Folk
I’ve been doing this from the last 17 years and even I was born in London, I would have done the same thing. I don’t feel like it’s something that I have to do. This is my wish and passion because more than me doing it, it has been saving me all my life. Because if I didn’t had this, I would have been somewhere else. And because of the nature I do it, it’s different. I don’t consider the kind of music or work that I do as folk. Because my sound is contemporary. I cannot put it in the category of folk. But in contemporary, where every emotion is different, then yes. And the language that we think and write in is Hindustani Urdu, Hindi and Kashmiri. You find pain and happiness in that. You can think and express themselves in these languages.
Alif Breaks Down His Another Single Jhelamus
Because in some or the others, stories keep people connected and going on. Whether folk tales, contemporary tales etc. Whether you want to do that storytelling through cinema, through painting, through journalism, storytelling keeps us going. And Jhelamus is the story of how can you go further ahead when people are asking you to cross over the other side. Jhelum is in between and everyone is telling the woman to do this and to do that when all she wants to do is to be one with her emotions. And that is the emotion that not only women feel that. That is the emotion even men feel. Even boys are told it’s their responsibility to bring money, run the household, men don’t feel pain, men don’t cry etc. So the song breaks those stereotypes. It wants to create a situation where there is a dialogue. When people are telling you what they want you to do,there should be someone who listens to what you want to do. Because the nature of how things are happening, it’s insanely difficult for women.
Alif On How Kashmir Resonates Through His Music
If you see all our music videos whether it’s Malaal or Haal, a lot of our visuals when we write songs, they help to take it further. And most of our visuals have been shot back in Kashmir. And it is a great feeling that you are sharing this piece of the story with the whole world, you are sharing an emotion with the people. And there’s nothing big than that.
Alif Wants To Inspire People With His Music
Who am I to tell people what to take away from my music and work? But I will surely give advice that if Alif’s work or music or films whatever you are listening to and in whatever context you connect to Alif, if it inspires you to be yourself, if it gives strength to be yourself, if it gives you a feeling that ‘Tumhe Maalum Nahi Tum Kaun Ho, Tum Qaid Nahi Tum Ijazat Lo’ then I think it’s game over. You don’t want to take permission to be yourself. You don’t have to take permission to become what you want to become. If somebody gives you that emotion and makes you feel it, it’s the most beautiful thing.
Comments
0 comment