‘Bullah Ki Jaana’ singer Rabbi Shergill really enjoys travelling, so he says. Prior to his performance with Ankur Tiwari and the Ghalat family at the launch gig of Pepsi MTV Indies, Punjabi folk-rock singer-songwriter Rabbi Shergill got candid with Radioandmusic.com’s Disha Deshpande and shared his views about audience expectations from indies, his last track ‘Tun Milen’, what he wants to chase and how he cares about being undeniable.
Why have you focused more on independent music rather than Bollywood?
I have no idea. I do not know what it takes to publicise one’s music. One thing is very clear though; I am not going to go to the business; the business must come to me. I am a writer first and foremost. If I chase anything other than writing, my writing goes away. So I choose to chase the song.
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You are not very active on social networking sites. Why is that?
There is not logical reason. I am just a lazy guy! Whatever little posts that are put out on my Facebook page are put out by me. I do not have anyone else doing that for me; I like doing things myself. There are other things that I really like doing. I love travelling and for me, travelling is about chilled beer and scenery. Everything else is a footnote. I want to put out music only when I feel it is worthy. I do not want to put out stuff just to keep the home fire burning.
If you become out of sight, out of mind, do you feel you will lose your audience?
Me? Oh, I do not really care. There are so many people I like, MF Hussain for starters. He is not going out and giving interviews; he is dead. He was undeniable. I think I need to care more about being more undeniable.
The latest song you posted was ‘Tun Milen’-The Ghost of LSD. What is LSD?
LSD stands for Lal Singh Dil, who is one of Punjab’s most brilliant poets. The song, written by me, is almost as if it is a conversation with the long departed to the ghost of LSD. I read a lot of poetry and I happened to stumble upon his and they moved me to bits. I just decided to do something about it.
After ‘Tun Milen’, there have not been any more uploads. Have you written more Oh, plenty. And there will be lots more. Nobody cares about an album anymore; it is about single videos and stuff like that. So, I think there should be more of that. I am looking at releasing new music sometime in the next few months. I have worked on just a few songs so I am planning on putting them out first. After that if I am able to whip up 9 good songs, maybe I will compile it like an album and release it too.
With the Indies channel being one of its kinds in the Indian market, what kind of expectations do you think the audiences will have?
I do not think audiences really care. We are all so busy chasing the carrot that we do not really think about what we want. There are tonnes of entertainment out there and we do not really know what will happen with the channel, since it is not out yet. I have great expectations from the channel and I hope something truly spectacular happens with it because there is a lot of talent that wants to express itself only through independent music.
