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On a more serious note
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Rabbi Shergill is back with his second album after four long years
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Four years is a long break to take between two music albums, especially if your last album was a chartbuster. But Rabbi Shergill is unperturbed. Time doesn’t bind him in any way. “I don’t consider time to be a linear entity, it is s
omething cyclic. I cannot write or compose a song until it comes naturally to me,” he is quick to remark.
What kept him busy all this while is a question, the otherwise articulate, Rabbi struggles to answer. “Actually… I haven’t been doing much. It is a skill I have been honing for few years now,” quips the Delhi boy, but adds as an afterthought, “I have been travelling extensively, exploring new places and listening to different music.”
But the wait was worth it. His second album Avengi Ja Nahi, to be launched by Yash Raj Music next month, is as soul-stirring and melodic as the first album Rabbi. Recorded in Italy, Shergill has introduced different world instruments into the music. The sounds are more western but the soul is pure Indian.
Real experiences
The lyrics, also penned by Shergill, stem from real life experiences, his thoughts and opinions. Seven songs are in Punjabi, one in Hindi and English each. If Rabbi spoke about the philosophy of life, the nine songs in Avengi… echo issues like communal violence and social responsibility. “Bilqis”, for example, talks about the long-drawn Bilkis Bano case.
Call him a thinking musician and he smiles, but in disagreement. “I don’t think. I just live. When you see something unpleasant in front of you, you are bound to have an opinion about it. I don’t think a person can stay away from issues that have social implications, be it Bilkis, Manjunath or Satyendra Dubey. I didn’t take up the cause for, the issues just stood in front of me and I couldn’t ignore them,” explains Rabbi at the launch of his latest album on Nokia Nseries phone.
Sufi tag
Ever since “Bulla Ke Jaana”, the sufi tag continues to shadow him. But Rabbi insists his music cannot be classified. “I don’t know what Sufi is. When John Lennon says “All I Need Is Love”, even that is sufi for me. I don’t like my music to be categorised. I listen to different kinds of music and imbibe them in mine,” says the urban balladeer with a soaring voice.
Bollywood and Rabbi haven’t really struck the chords, and he confesses that it is “not a natural love story”. His solo song for Waisa Bhi Hota Hain 2 didn’t click, and his debut music directorial venture Delhi Heights drowned along with the film.
“No Bollywood for now. Even in future it has to be an arranged marriage,” he concludes.
MANGALA RAMAMOORTHY
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