Posted:
Radical rock
Rajiv Vijayakar
Posted online: Friday, April 28, 2006 at 0000 hours IST
He is Salman Ahmad, the songwriter and lead guitarist of the top-selling Pakistani band Junoon. And he is back - with his first solo album Infiniti. After more than a decade of leading Junoon, Salman, who calls hismelf a musical junooni decided to follow a personal calling and carry on the musical mission of his erstwhile band. With his passion for peace, love for rock music and the alchemic belief that "When you seek out your own personal legend the universe conspires to help you along the way". Salman wants to sing songs of freedom, love and hope in a world wrought with poverty, violence and religious extremism.
Born in Lahore, Salman is a doctor by training. When his father's job took him to live in the United States at the age of 11, Salman completed High School but trailed behind school bands, discovered Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, and bought his first guitar. It was an event that was to define his later life.
Sent back home for college, Salman got his medical degree from King Edward Medical College in Lahore. While in medical college, he became a member of Pakistan's first pop band,Vital Signs (note the medical term) whose debut album sold a million copies and included the mega-hit 'Dil dil Pakistan...'. And the stethoscope gave way to the guitar.
In 1990 Salman left Vital Signs and founded South Asia's biggest rock band, Junoon, which has sold over 25 million albums worldwide. With its new and distinctive sound of electric rock fused with Pakistani folk music, and lyrics that drew on Sufi poets like Rumi and Baba Bulleshah, it included the clt song 'Sayonee...' in the 1998 album Azadi, which stormed the Indian music charts and won the band the Channel [V] award for Best International Group.In 2001, Junoon became the first rock band ever to perform for the United Nations General Assembly by the personal invitation of the U.N. secretary-general, Kofi Annan. Typically, Salman had requested that Indian band Euphoria (headed by another doctor-turned-singer, Palash Sen) also perform with them on the same platform.An iconic figure for young people in Pakistan, Salman was chosen to be a United Nations goodwill ambassador for HIV/AIDS in 2002.
Post 9/11, as the world got polarized between Islam and the West, Salman felt a responsibility to bridge the widening chasm between the community of his birth and the culture he grew up in. Junoon paid a special tribute to the 9/11 victims with their song No more...'. As a pivotal figure between moderate and extremist Islam, Salman appeared in two noteworthy documentary films, 'It's My Country Too, which looks at Muslim-Americans post 9/11, and The Rockstar And The Mullahs, a SAJA award-winner film that brings him together with fundamentalist religious leaders to discuss the meaning of Islam. Both films have been broadcast worldwide on PBS and the BBC.
And so, Salman's music has an agenda - of fostering world peace. Screen talks to the musician in a rapidfire chat. Excerpts. What was your contribution to Junoon? And why was it disbanded?
I would generally write the basic melody and contribute to the lyrics, besides being the lead guitarist. Now Ali Azmat continues to work alone in Pakistan, while Brian, our third and Amerian member, left in 2002 for personal reasons. So you are now based in America?
Yes. I work alone, and I am also playing with different musicians in New York. In the last 12 months I have performed in Harvard, Stanford and Princeton. What is the concept in Infiniti?
Infiniti is a guitar heavy album and cannot be slotted into any category. 'Nachoongi...' blends the common folk's dhol rhythms and a New York City nightclub-cum- fast rave dance sound. The song is a tribute to Sufi poets and their surrender to God, with dance as a celebration of life, love and passion. I use the rock concert format since most of my audiences are non-Asians. I want to promote peace . In today's world peace is something for which you have to fight, you do not get it passively. In my song 'Ghoom tana...' I celebrate the realization of peace between India and Pakistan. Another track, 'Yaar main nachoongi...' celebrates abandon and freedom. 'Sayyoni...' in 1998 was in itself a peak, so I needed to go to a deeper plane now. I am a very emotional guy like most of us South Asians. So another track, 'Alvida...' was inspired by a courageous lady from Lahore whose husband died of AIDS, so her neighbours wanted to destroy her happiness and kick her out. She fought instead and at just 30-plus, she became the first-ever AIDS activist in Pakistan. How do you compose your music?
My songs are based on my experiences, like my travels. Many of my songs are written while in an aeroplane, and inspired by being away from loved ones and living all alone in hotel rooms. Your life underwent a major change after 9/11.
Yes. I thought a lot about the tragedy, and so there I was, going back to USA when Muslims were actually leaving America out of fear. I even spoke about peace there, and so Junoon got banned in Pakistan then. But I firmly believe that politics demonizes while culture humanizes. I therefore made my two short films.
You also crusaded for peace on the Indian subcontinent.
For me, peace is paramount.The love we got from India whe Junoon first came here as a band in 1998 and the similar affection shown to Indian cricketers in 2004 when they played a Test series in Pakistan shows clearly what Indian and Pakistani people feel about each other.
'Ghoom tana...' is to celebrate the realization of my longtime dream of harmony between India and Pakistan. My songs of peace had resounded equally on stage and street way back in 1998, long before peace became a fashionable word between the two neighbours. At the first opportunity, two years ago,I had rushed to Bassi Pathana, a village near Patiala, which my mother had left as a little girl during Partition. So warm was the welcome that I got there that my determination to bring the two countries closer became even stronger and I sought to express it in the best way I could: through music. I have collaborated with Shubha Mudgal-ji on the song and with Nandita Das on this video. Even the video crew had both Indians and Pakistanis. Besides rock, what have been your musical influences?
I was very lucky to have studied the qawwali with Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan for two years. He is a major influence because in his music modernity and Sufi tradition blended perfectly.
Another major influence is R.D.Burman, yet another is A.R.Rahman. These music makers were way ahead of their times and seamlessly amalgmated different cultures.
Rajiv Vijayakar
Posted online: Friday, April 28, 2006 at 0000 hours IST
Born in Lahore, Salman is a doctor by training. When his father's job took him to live in the United States at the age of 11, Salman completed High School but trailed behind school bands, discovered Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, and bought his first guitar. It was an event that was to define his later life.
Sent back home for college, Salman got his medical degree from King Edward Medical College in Lahore. While in medical college, he became a member of Pakistan's first pop band,Vital Signs (note the medical term) whose debut album sold a million copies and included the mega-hit 'Dil dil Pakistan...'. And the stethoscope gave way to the guitar.
In 1990 Salman left Vital Signs and founded South Asia's biggest rock band, Junoon, which has sold over 25 million albums worldwide. With its new and distinctive sound of electric rock fused with Pakistani folk music, and lyrics that drew on Sufi poets like Rumi and Baba Bulleshah, it included the clt song 'Sayonee...' in the 1998 album Azadi, which stormed the Indian music charts and won the band the Channel [V] award for Best International Group.In 2001, Junoon became the first rock band ever to perform for the United Nations General Assembly by the personal invitation of the U.N. secretary-general, Kofi Annan. Typically, Salman had requested that Indian band Euphoria (headed by another doctor-turned-singer, Palash Sen) also perform with them on the same platform.An iconic figure for young people in Pakistan, Salman was chosen to be a United Nations goodwill ambassador for HIV/AIDS in 2002.
Post 9/11, as the world got polarized between Islam and the West, Salman felt a responsibility to bridge the widening chasm between the community of his birth and the culture he grew up in. Junoon paid a special tribute to the 9/11 victims with their song No more...'. As a pivotal figure between moderate and extremist Islam, Salman appeared in two noteworthy documentary films, 'It's My Country Too, which looks at Muslim-Americans post 9/11, and The Rockstar And The Mullahs, a SAJA award-winner film that brings him together with fundamentalist religious leaders to discuss the meaning of Islam. Both films have been broadcast worldwide on PBS and the BBC.
And so, Salman's music has an agenda - of fostering world peace. Screen talks to the musician in a rapidfire chat. Excerpts. What was your contribution to Junoon? And why was it disbanded?
I would generally write the basic melody and contribute to the lyrics, besides being the lead guitarist. Now Ali Azmat continues to work alone in Pakistan, while Brian, our third and Amerian member, left in 2002 for personal reasons. So you are now based in America?
Yes. I work alone, and I am also playing with different musicians in New York. In the last 12 months I have performed in Harvard, Stanford and Princeton. What is the concept in Infiniti?
Infiniti is a guitar heavy album and cannot be slotted into any category. 'Nachoongi...' blends the common folk's dhol rhythms and a New York City nightclub-cum- fast rave dance sound. The song is a tribute to Sufi poets and their surrender to God, with dance as a celebration of life, love and passion. I use the rock concert format since most of my audiences are non-Asians. I want to promote peace . In today's world peace is something for which you have to fight, you do not get it passively. In my song 'Ghoom tana...' I celebrate the realization of peace between India and Pakistan. Another track, 'Yaar main nachoongi...' celebrates abandon and freedom. 'Sayyoni...' in 1998 was in itself a peak, so I needed to go to a deeper plane now. I am a very emotional guy like most of us South Asians. So another track, 'Alvida...' was inspired by a courageous lady from Lahore whose husband died of AIDS, so her neighbours wanted to destroy her happiness and kick her out. She fought instead and at just 30-plus, she became the first-ever AIDS activist in Pakistan. How do you compose your music?
My songs are based on my experiences, like my travels. Many of my songs are written while in an aeroplane, and inspired by being away from loved ones and living all alone in hotel rooms. Your life underwent a major change after 9/11.
Yes. I thought a lot about the tragedy, and so there I was, going back to USA when Muslims were actually leaving America out of fear. I even spoke about peace there, and so Junoon got banned in Pakistan then. But I firmly believe that politics demonizes while culture humanizes. I therefore made my two short films.
For me, peace is paramount.The love we got from India whe Junoon first came here as a band in 1998 and the similar affection shown to Indian cricketers in 2004 when they played a Test series in Pakistan shows clearly what Indian and Pakistani people feel about each other.
'Ghoom tana...' is to celebrate the realization of my longtime dream of harmony between India and Pakistan. My songs of peace had resounded equally on stage and street way back in 1998, long before peace became a fashionable word between the two neighbours. At the first opportunity, two years ago,I had rushed to Bassi Pathana, a village near Patiala, which my mother had left as a little girl during Partition. So warm was the welcome that I got there that my determination to bring the two countries closer became even stronger and I sought to express it in the best way I could: through music. I have collaborated with Shubha Mudgal-ji on the song and with Nandita Das on this video. Even the video crew had both Indians and Pakistanis. Besides rock, what have been your musical influences?
I was very lucky to have studied the qawwali with Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan for two years. He is a major influence because in his music modernity and Sufi tradition blended perfectly.
Another major influence is R.D.Burman, yet another is A.R.Rahman. These music makers were way ahead of their times and seamlessly amalgmated different cultures.
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