Shiraz Uppal is everywhere these days, but Bollywood is keeping a firm hold on the artist with music projects ready to be released and a handful still in pipeline. Another astounding success has been his Indo-North American tour where he accompanied none other than the legendary A.R. Rehman.

Images on Sunday spoke to Shiraz Uppal about the experience of performing with A.R. and other projects.

Q. You have had a pretty busy year so far: giving music for 3 Bahadur, Bin Roye and Karachi Se Lahore to name just a few, besides touring abroad.

I think 2015 has been the best year of my musical journey so far. Each movie was a great experience and posed as an even greater challenge. In film music, the idea is to come up with the right song for the given situation and I am happy with the feedback. I feel that I have not disappointed the audience as well as the respective film directors.

All the film directors gave me full creative freedom and managed to get the best out of me. I love the fact that I got to introduce some fresh voices from Pakistan besides singing a couple of songs myself. Harshdeep Kaur was roped in from Bollywood to sing Ballay Ballay with me for Bin Roye whose title track has also been composed and sung by me.

Q. Was it a conscious decision on your part to work on OSTs and singles or was it by chance?

It was a totally conscious decision after doing four pop albums (Tu Hai Meri, Tera Te Mera, Jhuki Jhuki and Ankahi). I was in demand both in Bollywood and Lollywood after receiving the Indian Mirchi Music Award for Best Upcoming Music Director in 2010 for the song Rabba from the film Aashayein. 

Q. You’ve sung for films and drama serials. Which medium is more enjoyable?

Both have their charm. It depends upon the composition that I come up with according to the situation. Most of my drama OSTs become a part of a Bollywood movie eventually. I enjoy both.

Q. Your experience of touring the US with A.R. Rahman.

One of its kind. I had a chance to perform alongside the best musicians across the globe lead by the maestro A.R. Rahman. He has always had a large troupe of musicians in his concerts to bring out the sound that he produced in the records but this time he preferred experimenting with 12 skilled musicians/singers on stage that took his live setup to the next level. Besides singing my favourite songs, it was an additional pleasure for me to play the keyboards for his songs as well.

Officially titled the A.R. Rahman North America Intimate Tour, it started off by rehearsals in Chennai for 10 days and then we did our final rehearsals in Nashville, Tennessee where we tried to do our best and achieve the sound that A.R. had in mind. The tour kicked off from New York, rolling on to New Jersey, Toronto, Connecticut, Virginia, Chicago, Dallas, Austin, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Jose and finally ended in Seattle.

It was a new experience for me to be on a road tour where we travelled on specialised tour buses that the musicians use in the West.

Q. You have worked with A.R. earlier on Raanjhana and on other projects. How is the camaraderie maintaining?

It’s always been a great learning experience whenever I have worked with my guru — be it the title track of Raanjhana, Alahada from Lekar Hum Deewana Dil, Ayila from I or performing with him in concerts.

Q. You also met the legendary 27-time Grammy award-winner Quincy Jones. How did that go?

It was in Los Angeles, the hub of Hollywood celebs. Amongst the other invitees, Quincy was also invited by A.R. to attend the concert. I have always been a great admirer of Quincy Jones for being the producer of Michael Jackson’s hit albums and being a great jazz musician, so it was a dream come true.

The best part was when he appreciated my voice and I told him that I am from Pakistan. I was surprised by his photographic memory when he told me that he had visited Pakistan in 1956 and still managed to recall the name of the hotel he had stayed in (Metropole Hotel).

Q. What projects are in the pipeline?

I am producing two songs for a Bollywood film called Yeh Laal Rang directed by Syed Ahmed Afzal, the director of Youngistan which has two of my songs Daata Di Diwani and Mere Khuda. There are a couple of others which I will disclose when the time is right.

Q. Tell us about Bin Roye and Karachi Se Lahore.

I produced two songs for Bin Roye called Ballay Ballay and the title track. Then for Karachi se Lahore, the music is under a new entity called Sur Darvesh that is a set of three musicians put together (Shiraz Uppal, Ali Noor and Ali Hamza). This is an entirely new experience for me as I have never collaborated as a music director with anyone else. We all shared our music expertise to come up with a different sound which will be a treat for the listeners.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine July 12th, 2015

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