MUMBAI: After enthralling music aficionados with several concerts across the globe, Pakistani group Raga Boyz is all set to make their mark in India. Apart from their bollywood debut, the classical rock band is ready to release its first album in the country.
Titled ‘Zindagi’, the album comprises of 12 tracks ranging across genres like R&B, rock, pop-rock, fusion, bhangra and romance amongst others. It has been penned and composed by band members – Wali Hamid Ali Khan (lead vocals, pop/rock and light classical singer), Nayab Ali Khan (semi & pure classical singer) and Inam Ali Khan (pure classical singer).
The members belong to the seventh generation of Patiala’s royal gharana. Carrying on the legacy, they have recreated and reproduced traditional thumris from their ancestral family namely ‘Pooriya Dhanasari’ and ‘Kab Aaoge’ in the album. The album is slated to release in August this year, while the group has already released the music videos of two songs on YouTube.
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Lead vocalist Wali says, “This is actually our second album, but it will be our first release in India. Our first album had released in Pakistan four years ago. With this album, we aim to incorporate world music and sounds along with featuring raagas and thumris from our family. We are also currently in talks with a number of labels and it should be finalized soon.”
Being their debut album in the country, the band has also planned a promotional tour beginning around 10 September. The trio will perform 18-19 concerts in colleges all over the country. “India is a very big market for all genres of music. There are many youth today who do not listen to classical music, but we have got a good response when we performed in Mumbai. So, we are hoping for a similar response this time too,” he states. They last performed in the country at the Kala Ghoda Fest and at Bandra fort in February.
Apart from the album, the group is also in talks to collaborate with international R&B singer Rihanna for a single. They will render a classical song for the singer’s upcoming album. “We had performed at a concert with Shakira in 2009 and that is where we met Rihanna. Our respective companies are in talks to incorporate a new track for her upcoming album. We will travel to America in the end of September for a concert and hope to meet her there and record the track.”
The band has recently debuted in bollywood with the film ‘Maximum’. Their track ‘Mann Kunto Maula’ from ‘Zindagi’ has been used in the film along with the music video featuring the trio. The song has been composed by Wali and penned by Nasir Ali. Claiming that it was an unplanned move, the band is happy to have made their entry with the film. “This was totally unplanned. We met Sonu Sood, who heard the track and loved it. Even after all the songs were finalized they included the song in the final track listing. Earlier we had received a lot of offers from bollywood but as we were busy with our tours it did not work out. But we are glad to have made our debut with this film. We visited Surat last week for promotions and were overwhelmed by the response we received there,” he shares.
They will also render for other projects like ‘Lucky Unlucky’ and an untitled film with Anubhav Sinha.
Talking about the current music scenario in India, Wali states, “Bollywood has a lot of item numbers which are very nice. But these days the kind of item songs being heard does not make any sense. Maybe it’s a different style but we do not understand it. If we ever get a chance to sing an item number, we would not refuse. But in a lot of ways, bollywood has taken over Pakistan. People there enjoy listening to music by composers like Salim-Sulaiman, Pritam, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy and Sajid-Wajid. But I feel that there is no pop industry in India. Like Pakistan has fusion music, India has bollywood music.”
Being a true bred classical singer from the royal gharana, Wali concludes with the fact that many new singers are not true to their art and are not well versed in the art. “We have shows like Coke Studio amongst others which are created for the upcoming breed of singers and they achieve fame because of that. Mostly singers these days do not want to do anything apart from bollywood. The new generation has gone away from classical music. They are not even well versed with the raagas. I just want to say to them that singing is not a joke. They should have enough knowledge about the genres of music,” he expresses.
