Jal's song "Aadat" first hit the airwaves a couple of years ago; it started at a party where Gohar, the founder of Jal sang the song to friends at a party. He then put the song on the internet, starting what became a big trend for new musicians in Pakistan. The song received tremendous response, with hundreds of downloads. From there started Jal's journey towards the top of Pakistani charts, subsequently reaching a much wider South Asian audience in India, Bangladesh, and gradually making its way to the far West.
We met with Jal on a recent visit to the DC Metro Area while on a tour of the US. Jal performed several concerts in major cities and were very happy with the response. We found them to be a very talented group of people with deep thoughts about their passion for music.
Below are highlights from our conversation with Jal.
How did Jal come to be?
Gohar composed Aadat when he was in college and entered it into a music competition. He won first prize. Later, he put the song on the internet and got a tremendous response. Around that time, there was a Battle of the Bands sponsored by Pepsi in Karachi. We wanted to enter, but didn't have a name for the band. So we thought of "Jal" - which means water - because water itself doesn't have any shape or form, it adapts to wherever it goes; 70% of our world is made up of water; and water is the most important thing for every person. And we hope that like water, our music will also spread all over the world, make its own place, and be significant!
What is the inspiration behind your music and lyrics?
All of our lyrics are very simple and based on words we hear and use every day, and people can relate to them. We are students and in and around campus we hear a lot of "ab to aadat si ho gaye hai" or "ik din aai gaa" so our inspiration comes from phrases from our daily life. We can relate to the mindset of the youth, being in student life ourselves, and we sing about things that are weighing on the minds of people of our age. "Wo lamhay" was a song that even the older generation enjoyed and they would sing with us at our concerts. But the rest of our songs are for the youth.
What comes first, the music or the lyrics?
It's completely whimsical. If you see the professionals, they write the lyrics first, then they make a melody which goes with the lyrics. We mostly do the music first and then the lyrics. We do a lot of our writing on road trips, when we go to Islamabad for example, we get a few hours on the road. So we first make the melody and then according to the mood of the melody we make the lyrics. Our first album was totally Gohar's work. As for our second album, it's more of a team effort; we have about eight songs of which I (Farhan) have made about two songs, one we all did together, Shazi made one or two, and Gohar has made the rest.
Do you have disagreements on lyrics or music?
No we don't disagree, we give suggestions (laughs all around). If we don't like something then we just walk away or say something subtle like I like the other one better. We are all very good friends and for us friendship comes before the band. On an individual level we are not professional musicians, we don't take Jal as a brand name, but as a group of friends producing music together.
So when is your next album coming out?
There is a lot of work to be done. We are working on videos and completing the songs. There isn't a set date yet.
What is this controversy with Atif; there are some songs in your album that are also in his album?
Atif was the vocalist when Jal was formed. Later, due to some disagreements, we parted ways. It was not amicable. There was a legal fight over the name "Jal" and the copyrights to the songs. Apparently, the copyright law is quite ambiguous in Pakistan - like if a person changes the name of the song, he/she can essentially sing it without your permission and you can't do much about it. In this case, there were further ambiguities because Atif sang a few of the songs, including Aadat, when the band was together. So he included those songs in his album as well. .
How did your song Wo Lamhay end up in Mahesh Bhatt's movie, Zeher, in Atif's voice?
Mahesh Bhatt had heard the song in India - people had heard our songs everywhere in the world. Even Sanjay Dutt came up to us on our trip to India and said he had heard our song in Denmark. But anyway, Mr. Bhatt decided he wanted that song in his movie. Some people who weren't aware of the Jal breakup with Atif, mistakenly put Mr. Bhatt in touch with Atif, who just went and performed that song without telling us. We don't fault Mr. Bhatt at all for this situation, because he wasn't aware of the issues. We met him in India and cleared up any misunderstandings caused by the media saying we had accused him of stealing our song. He's given us full credit for the song, and we are happy with however the situation was resolved.
How was your trip to and reception in India?
It was great. Initially, the media was all over us - there were a dozen cameras when we landed in India, and the press was asking us all kinds of questions about our intentions. They thought we were there to sue Mahesh Bhatt (laughs). But the experience was great. We were treated really well; there was a lot of advertising done for us with posters and welcome signs, and we felt very honored. The crowd was great in Mumbai. Not all of them knew our songs, but the first five of six rows were singing with us. In Pakistan the whole crowd sings with us and we find it hard to hear ourselves! The media in India is very professional. Our interviews were arranged in advance and our schedule was managed very professionally. We feel that the professional media is a big strength of the Indian industry.
What about the U.S. - how has the experience been here?
People aren't very familiar with Pakistani music here. It doesn't seem like it's a big deal to anyone that we've come here to perform. The turnout to concerts, even though the crowd was great fun and very supportive, was much smaller compared to Pakistan. We had about 800 people in Houston, a great crowd in Chicago, but in Connecticut the community is small, so we only had about 300 people. We were told from before not to expect too much. But we got a very good response from all our audiences and they sang along with us, enjoyed the performance and kept pushing for an encore.
Are there any formal music schools in Pakistan?
In Pakistan there is no such concept of music schools; some of the musicians like Mikaal Hassan and Aamir Zaki are giving guitar lessons to students but that's about it. If there were such institutes where young people could learn music, we are sure a lot of people would be interested.
What can be done to promote musical talent in Pakistan?
If music were to become a subject in schools and colleges then it would get more of a social status. Parents won't have any problems accepting this and the kids can bring their instruments home and practice. We are all self-taught in music; we did not have a chance to learn from any one. So we would really like to see music being taught as a subject because we don't know how to read or write music in its proper cryptic form.
you know i am very big not fan a c of jal😆
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