INTERVIEW WITH JUNOON BAND - II

Who : Junoon
About : International Rock Band from Pakistan
Website: http://www.junoon.com

How it happened : Interview with Junoon
Interview Date: November,2000
Place: Bahrain
Pics: None

Nikhil Taneja (NT) : How would you define music ?
Salman Ahmad (SA) : Music for me, is an expression for me, is an expression for love and passion.
Brian O’ Conell (BC) : Music is an artistic expression of the soul.
Ali Azmat (AA) : Well, it’s better not to define music. Because, if we give it a definition, it loses its meaning. It has a different effect on different types of people, whichever way your perceive it. Our music is basically supposed to be fusion.

NT : You went to the United states and a choir to play the song Azadi. How was it like, to command over an entire choir of 42 people ?
SA : It was a great experience, because I always wanted to compose music for movies. And I might do that in the future too. And so, when I got the offer to compose the song for the movie, Jinnah, I realized that the movie is set in the year, 1947, or in the early 20^th Century, you can say. So, I wanted a very classical sound to it. So, I flew to the US and John Alec, after some discussion, suggested Paul Schwartz, who set up the orchestra. And when I played the melody to Paul Schwartz, it really started forming itself. It was a lot of fun, in all.

NT : Ali, how was it like to sing a duet with Samina Ahmed ?
AA : It was great.

NT : Salman, you played against the Pakistani team in an exhibition match called, ‘star wars in floodlight’. How was the experience ?
SA : Oh(Exclaims dreamily)! It was an unfulfilled dream, which came true, because I’ve always wanted to be a cricketer. I started playing cricket with Wasim Akram. Even if you give me a bat right now, I’ll start hitting. So anytime when I am playing cricket or music with anybody, I am just in their in the place.

NT : A lot of teenagers look up to Junoon as role models. Does Junoon consider itself as one ?
SA : There is a certain amount of responsibility which comes with being a celebrity. And I think, we understand our responsibility, and we try to publicly project a certain sort of image, that is good for young people.
BC : Well, if we are role models, we’d like to project our vision of hope and peace and harmony between nations. So, if that is being a role model, it’s great. But it’s quite a lot of responsibility when the kids do look up to you.
AA : I don’t know about that. We are just musicians, we are not trying to be role models here. If someone places us at that hot seat, I can’t really say anything about it. But, if the people look up to us, it must be because of the positive attitude that we give out. And it’s all about positive attitude. So, I am not sure about in what context, the kids take us as role models. So, I can’t really comment on this.

NT : A lot of people want artists like you to go to the west and record albums with western artists. So, do Junoon have any plans like this ?
BC : No, no, no. We have no intentions of doing that. If any other artists shows our musical vision, we’d consider collaborating, only if it was organic. Certainly not to get any sort of publicity or anything like that.

NT : Salman, you once said in an interview that, ‘The day I’d stop innovating, I’d stop playing music’. So, what’s next in innovation ?
SA : Well, I believe that, if I feel that I can’t compose new songs, I’ll just finish this whole business. But, with the grace of God, new compositions are creations keep coming in, and we are currently working in our studio, on our new album, which I am very very excited about, because, it has got new mood for the 21^st century.

NT : Your lyrics happen to be a bit tough for everyone to understand. Words like, ‘haq numa’, ‘raz-e-haq’, ‘dasht’, ‘kattan’, etc. are found only in albums of Junoon. Any plans of making them simpler ?
SA : I always believe that we should always leave something for the listener also. I mean, if you spoon-feed people, they get bored very easily. Everything becomes simple and does not last that long. It’s not that I make it difficult on purpose, but the song demands it. Like in the song, Sayonee, ‘Kaun mode mauhar’, is a symbol of a change in direction. We can very simply say that, ‘Yeh kis tarah badlein hum’, but it doesn’t have the same feeling, it doesn’t have the same intensity as, ‘Kaun mode mauhar’. And then people write to me, and send letter to each of us, and ask like, ‘What does this word mean?’. So it’s interesting for them. They get some homework to do.

NT : Ali, are you satisfied with the type of songs that you have sung throughout your career ?
AA : Yeah, pretty much, I guess. Because, if people respond to the songs, they must be the right type of songs to sing.

NT : Brian, you are not from Pakistan. So don’t you have problems understanding the lyrics ?
BC : No, I have been living in Karachi now, for 9 years. So, I have learnt the language, and there are no language barriers, for me anymore.

NT : Recently, you were invited to the Roskilde festival, where an unfortunate incident took place. What exactly happened ? And did you play or did they abandon the show because of the deaths ?
Mr. Shehryar Ahmad(Manager of the band – S-A) : Well, actually, we were invited to play over there. We could see that although the people could not understand anything we sang, they were really enjoying the show. What happened was, that the people, who were at the back, wanted to come in the front, to hear us better and see us clearer. And this resulted in a stampede, and the poor people in the front got crushed. It was really horrible. A terrible incident to happen ! We were almost about to finish our concert, when this incident took place.

NT : You claim to promote Sufism. But, do you think it is having any effect on the people ?
S-A : We don’t try to ‘promote’ Sufism. Actually, Sufism has had an effect on Salman. So when he writes the lyrics of any song, he feels good about writing songs and topics that influence him. I, as the manager of the band, can say that, I think that this has had a positive effect, generally. I mean, I don’t want to over-state our importance. But, like in the concert, we did recently with Sonu Nigam, in Dubai, we applied the same philosophy, not necessarily just of Sufism, but what Junoon believes in, and that is to bring people together. And, I think we did a great job in bringing people of India and Pakistan together, who, we believe, want peace, but the leaders don’t allow it to happen. So, even if it takes us a 100 years, we would still believe in spreading the message of piece, and Inshahallah, if God wills it, we think that soon in our lives, there will be peace. Like in last year, the Prime Minister of India came to Pakistan, and that was a historic time. I mean, since partition, it was the first time something like this has ever happened. And I, as a young person who was so excited, I and everybody in Pakistan, everybody prayed for it, everybody wanted it to happen.

NT : What inspired you to name the group as Junoon ?
S-A : Junoon, the word, came to Salman in a dream. An old, Ustad sort of guy, came to Salman and started shaking him up. Salman was wearing clothes like those of Rajas and Mughals, and that guy is shaking Salman out of his sleep and saying, ‘Tumhein Mosiqui Ka Junoon Hai…Junoon hai, Junoon hai’. And that is when Salman woke up. This was just in the days, when Salman had gotten together with Ali, and they were searching for a name for their band. So, he woke up Ali, who was in the same room, and said, ‘Ali, let’s name the album Junoon’. And Ali was like, ‘OK, whatever ! Now let me just go back to sleep.’ So that was how the band was named.

NT : When can fans expect your next album to come out, and what does your next album have in store for your fans ?
S-A : They are recording their album now, which is tentatively going to be titled either Ishq, which means Love, or Safar – e – Ishq, which means the Journey of Love. It should come out sometime around late January or in the beginning of February.
SA : We have got a special treat for the people in this album, because we are experimenting with a lot of rhythms of the world, different cultural rhythms of the world. Because, I feel that people all over the world are moved by rhythm. And since our music is meant for all types of people, we keep this in mind…to be able to move people.
BC : The album will be a logical progression of Junoon’s music, so far. It will be similar to Parvaaz, in the sense, that we’d be using a combination of western percussion and eastern influence.
AA : Well, you’ll have to wait and see, I guess. It’s different. Composition wise and music wise, it’s more rockish, but at the same time, very desi. So they’ll have to hear it for themselves and decide.

NT : By performing in India, during the time of the nuclear blasts, your band tried to create harmony between India and Pakistan. To what extent, do you think, that music can create harmony between two countries ?
S-A : I think, Music is the best way to promote peace because, till now, politicians have not been able to do it. People trust artists, more than they trust politicians. So, if artists speak about something, it has a better impact. Like, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan being popular in India, or for that matter, Junoon being popular in India, has for Pakistani people, created a love for India as well. For example, if I am a Pakistani and I see that a Pakistani artist goes to India, and Indian people give him love or respect, it will tell me that Indians are not my enemies. Similarly, I think Indian people will know this, but I will say it any way… Similarly, the most popular movie star in Pakistan is Shah Rukh Khan, and the second will be probably Salman Khan. And among my mother’s generation, or for that matter, among my generation, the most popular movie star was Amitabh Bachchan. So, that is another example, that Indian artists and celebrities are well respected in Pakistan. So that should be the biggest sign for everybody to realize, that we should stop fighting about all this. The people don’t have time for this. And on top of this, this is so important for our people, who are mostly very poor. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, etc can’t afford war. We can’t afford nuclear weapons, like America and Russia have. We are not that rich ! And our leaders should just stop trying to be world’s super-powers. They should first get roads built for the people. They should try to get education for our people, they should try to get health-care for our people. Think about war as LAST, or NEVER.(Laughs) I mean, that’s silly. We have got our priorities backwards. I mean, they try to tell each other, tell the people of stuff like, ‘Oh! We won’t survive unless we spend all this money on defence’. But, we won’t survive anyway. I mean, if you don’t feed the people, you don’t teach them how to read or write, you won’t survive anyway. So, what’s the point ? (Laughs)
SA : Well, we can take a recent example of the concert we did in Dubai, with Sonu Nigam. Apparently, by what people told me, this concert had the largest crowd and was the longest concert in the history of Dubai. And, the people there, were from different spokes of life. There were Pakistanis, there were Indians, there were Bangladeshis, and everybody was having such a great time. So, music, definitely, is a healer. I mean that, I used to be a doctor, and then I realized that I am also doing a healing role through music as well. So, music is a great healer, and it is very powerful.
BC : Well, I think, music like most arts, has the ability to reach into people’s souls, rather than any political speech, and it crosses cultural barriers, and language barriers, as well. So, I think, with that in mind, any message of celebrity music, goes right into the soul, and hopefully works better than speeches.

NT : Tell us something about your two international awards, the first one by UNESCO, and the other one by BBC.
S-A : UNESCO, happened last year in Paris. We were invited by UNESCO, to talk about peace, and to sing a song with an Indian singer, by the name of Yesudas. He is a very popular singer in South India. And he is also very outspoken about peace and well-respected in his genre. And like I told you, we always hop at such opportunities, because we think that it’s a struggle that everybody must believe in. And until every Indian and Pakistani does not force their leader to say, ‘We HAVE to have peace now’, they won’t do it. And so, at every chance we get, we try to promote peace. And this was the reason they gave us an award, which was for peace. It was music for peace. The concept was called, Music for Peace.
And we were at the BBC Asia Awards, last November. And they gave Junoon an award for culture, ‘Achievements in Asian Culture’. And that was at the Mega Mela, which is the biggest Asian sort of festival, outside South East Asia.
BC : It was nice to get recognized amongst people. Among the awards, the more special one to me was the UNESCO award, because we were recognized for our contributions towards peace, and not just music.
AA : UNESCO gave us an award for excellence in music, and trying to promote peace through music. And since we try to do that a lot, UNESCO gave us an award for it. BBC also gave us an award on similar grounds, for promoting peace, and bringing people together, and asking Indian and Pakistani audiences to shut down the differences, and go one with their lives.

NT : You got your first acknowledged hit in the form of Jazba-e-Junoon, which later went on to become the official song of the Pakistani Cricket Team, in the World Cup, 1996. Did you plan the song that way, or did it become the official song because of the patriotism in it ?
SA : Initially, the song was about my own struggles in my life. I was thinking that we, as Junoon, were working so hard for about 6 years, and we had very little success. So, these lines came to me, that ‘Hai Jazba Junoon’, which means, ‘Spirit of Passion’, and ‘To himmat na haar’, which means, don’t give up. The message of the song was not to give up. Because, he, who strives hard, touches the skies. So, when the world cup was there, the cricket team heard it, and they all went ga-ga over it. Wasim Akram said, ‘I love this song’. And Javed Miandad and all these others cricketers also liked it. So, when the PCB heard it, they said, ‘Yeah. We are going to make this the official song of the World Cup.’

NT : According to you, how are you different from other bands ?
SA : I think ,we are unique in the sense, that we use folk music, folk rhythms in a way, which I don’t think other bands or artists do. We take folk rhythms and use the power of rock, to make it really powerful. And, we have guitars there, and there are no keyboards in our music. There are hardly some keyboards in our music. So, it is entirely guitar-driven. The message, also, is very important in our music. It’s not just, tu-turu-tu-tara(He sings a particularly common tune that most people use in their music). I mean, those songs are also good, but our music has a certain message, we want to give out. So, it’s unique.
BC : We are different from other bands in the sense that although it is our only job, and our full-time job, we have never been in it for money. We’ve always been self focused, and I think that we should tribute most of the success of Junoon to that.
AA : We are just different, because we are different people. So we create music in our own perception, and as it’s our own style, I guess we are different from other bands, as it is only OUR music.

NT : Do you try to emphasize on any particular point or do you try to give any sort of message through your music ?
SA : The message of the celebration of life, is our message. Life is a beautiful gift, and it should be celebrated, in all its facets. Amongst all people on earth, there is a goodness. And music brings that goodness, that feeling, into the music. So when you hear a song like, ‘Yaaron, yehi dosti hai’, or ‘Khudi ko kar buland’ or ‘Jazba-e-Junoon’. These songs are about the celebration of the human spirit. That is what our music is about.
BC : Yes, we do. Our message is of peace and love across nations, and alliance and relationship with our higher power, God.

NT : Which foreign band would you compare yourself with ?
SA : I say, our music is, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan – meets U2 – meets Santana. So, if you put these three elements together, you get an idea of what Junoon might be.
BC : Santana itself is good enough. Certainly not any boy bands. They don’t have any soul. Apart from Santana and Sting, probably no one else

NT : What is each of yours passion, other than music ?
SA : Cricket has always been my passion.
BC : My family !(He says spontaneously)
AA : I don’t have any other passion, other than music.

NT : What do you have to say about the crowd in Bahrain ?
BC : They were wonderful. The Bahraini people are extremely warm and caring, and I think they had a great time in our show. I could see that ! (Laughs).
AA : It was great. We had a great time.

NT : What can the Junoonis now expect out of you ?
SA : I definitely would like our music to reach all four corners of the world. Not just South Asia. Our music should go to South America, Europe and all. So, they should expect us to keep on striving hard.
BC : I think we’d probably be continuing the same way we are going now. And hopefully we’ll be bringing our music to more foreign places, just to spread the good will. And that’s it. We’ll continue going the same way we are going now, but hopefully on a larger scale.
AA : I don’t really know what for them to expect out of us. It is really up to them.

NT : With name, fame and international, critically acclaimed awards, what is your aim in life now ?
SA : My aim is to go beyond the stars. Your aim is always so high, that you always keep on trying, and you never feel that, ‘Now I have done enough. Now it’s time to rest.’ Till the day you die, you always keep striving. You always keep aiming for the stars.

NT : Finally, what message would you like to give to your young fans, who will be reading this interview ?
BC : Well, firstly, I’d like to thank each and everyone of our Junooni fans, because without them, we’d not be where we are now. We are going to tribute all our success, simply, to our fans. And my message to the fans, besides thank you, is, follow your dreams, and get to know God better, because he guides your steps throughout life.
AA : I’ll be saying to them that be yourself, believe in yourself, because that’s pretty much the hardest thing to do.