Art should be free from Boundaries, says Xulfi (Interview)
Wednesday, November 25th, 2009Interview: Art should be free from Boundaries, says Xulfi
Neha Jain, Sampurn Media
A toy piano has played a crucial role in Aao Wish Karein’s composer-lyricist Xulfi’s life. It was his mastery over that toy piano that made his brothers gift him a bigger keyboard. And Xulfi, a self-taught musician and the ex-lead guitarist of the first Pakistani mainstream rock band Entity Paradigm, made the most of it.
Xulfi broke into Bollywood with ‘Laaree Chootee’ from Ek Chalis Ki Last Local, and has composed music for four Bollywood movies since. The founder of the band Call, and a rebel at heart, Xulfi is excited about releasing Call’s album Dhoom, working in Bollywood and wishing for a collaboration with Linkin Park.
From Jilawatan’s metal rock to Aao Wish Karein’s essentially pop rock, has Bollywood been constraining your music or do you have the freedom of composition?
Bollywood hasn’t constrained my music at all! Since I started listening to music, I have heard and appreciated music of every kind. Yes, I am wild on stage. I want to rock on stage. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t want to express softly as well. With the kind of varied listening I have, it’s actually pretty natural for me to do all kinds of music. I even did a dance remix for my own song – ‘Yeh Pal’ from the movie Aasma – along with my friend Sami; I love listening to it every time I am out on a long drive.
Yes, most of my released work is rock. Most of that happened pretty early in my music career. It was a maturing phase in my life and I used to believe that the guitar is made to sound heavy. I am a rebel by nature. But that rebel has understood that a certain kind of music (in this case, rock) should not constraint me from expressing what I want to express and how I want to express it. I won’t be a rebel if I am constrained, right (smiles)?
With Aao Wish Karein, you have branched out into a solo career. What kind of effort went into composing, writing and recording for the movie?
It was lovely creating these songs. Both ‘Kuch Aisa’ and ‘Reh Jaane Do’ happen to be my most cherished compositions to date, and both are of paramount emotional importance to me. I never knew I am making songs for a movie while I was making them! I got to know Aftab long after I was done with these songs. It was pretty surprising to see the songs relating quite well to the situations they were to be placed in, in the movie.
I cannot ever write without feeling what I am trying to express through words. If you make me sit and tell me to write for a certain situation, I would take years. But if I end up feeling the emotion in my life, then it will take me less than an hour! I wrote ‘Reh Jaane Do’s initial verses two and a half years back. It took me one and a half more years to feel the same in order to complete it. Also, ‘Reh Jaane Do’ was a difficult song to sing, as it creates a melancholy mood, which ended up affecting me quite intensely when I was rendering its vocals.
On the other hand, ‘Kuch Aisa’ was written in one (wonderful) night. And yes, recording the songs was a lot of fun too. ‘Kuch Aisa’ has a very interesting instrumentation with violin, cello, and duff, coupled with live drums and acoustic guitars. All of this actually created a very new sound, which gave ‘Kuch Aisa’ a certain fresher edge against other love songs in the same category.
