Rabbi Shergill's Interview - I might have to do Bollywood

"I might have to do Bollywood". 

I feel it can be stated that very few artists today think about these things and see the world the way Mr. Rabbi Shergill does. I wish him luck and hope he never has to do something he does not want to and keeps producing extraordinary music the way he has been. 

Some excerpts from the interview are below.

I do this because I love this. I don't do this because I really need to become busy, or prove a point. I have to prove no point. What I really want to do is figure out if there are enough songs that I want to put out there. It has to come from within. I need to take my time, I need to do things that I enjoy because that's what gives me my music. I am only as good as the experiences I've had and I want to have real experiences. I don't want to sit in a studio and do assembly line work for some film director or producer and keep out churning empty hits. It was never about that for me.
...
Because the album is just so random, it talks about different things. Even my last album was all over the place. I don't like to have a unifying thread. Tomorrow I might say that I want to do a rock opera so that might be different. But right now, I don't feel the need to have a unifying theme. So the only unifying theme is this peripatetic quality, this thing that I do. Randomness. There's not a single song I could pick out to represent the entire album but if I really had to then I would say Challa. It sets the tone.
...
I don't know. It looks very bleak now because from the way I see it you're going to have to do Bollywood to survive. There's no channel playing independent pop as compared to the early to mid 90s when you had a lot more air time to do independent pop. That today is virtually nil. So if you ask me – I don’t know what's going to happen. I've been able to hold out and I don’t know for how much longer. Maybe tomorrow I'm just going to have to go to a producer and say, 'Okay you want me to do music? Ill do it.' I don't know. But it doesn't look good especially for a young kid who says that he doesn't want to do films, just independent music. The future is not very bright for him.

Exclusive: Rabbi Shergill's new album

UPDATE: Our readers have confirmed (Thanks guys!) that Rabbi is indeed releasing his new album. It seems the album is going to be released on Nokia Nseries phones first at the end of March and it will be followed by his album launch in April. We'll be covering the new songs as and when they are released.

With the increasing popularity of this blog (Its a first-page return for a google search of "Rabbi Shergill"), its increasingly becoming possible that Rabbi himself might be visiting this site. While KD has tried to contact Rabbi in person before, he hasn't been very successful. However, day before yesterday, we received a comment to one of our posts that claims to be from the man himself. So, assuming good faith, we are replicating the information from that comment here.

According to the comment, Rabbi is coming out with a new album in April. It has been produced by Italian music composer Mauro Pagani. One of the first songs to be released is titled 'Bilqis'. Here is one of its verses:

Mera naam Bilqis Yakoob Rasool
Mujhse hui bas ek hi bhool
ki jab dhoondte the vo Ram ko
To main kharhi thi raah mein
Pehle ek ne poochha na mujhe kuch pata tha
Duje ko bhi mera yehi javab tha
Itno ne poochha ki mera ab saval hai
(Ki)jinhe naaz hai hind par vo kahan the
Jinhe naaz hai vo kahaan hai

We're all excited by the prospect of a new Rabbi Shergill album, and we're sure that our visitors will be too. So here's wishing him the best for this new venture.

And just to give you a taste of what the Rabbi-Mauro combination might sound like, here is a video of Mauro Pagani performing live:

Meeting With Rabbi Shergill - Thanx Rediff

SOME UNFINISHED BUSINESS WAS LEFT>> About Rabbi <<

Bulla I know not who I am…
Nor did I create the difference of faith
Nor did I create Adam and Eve
Nor did I name myself

English translations of 18th century Sufi poet Bulla Shah's words seem unlikely on a chart-topping Indipop debut album sleeve. But then, everything about Rabbi Shergill is unlikely.

The broadest classification possible for his music is rock, his lyrics Punjabi, his video bereft of belly buttons. His songs flit from Bryan Adams-ish light to Leonard Cohen-esque darkness. He sings Simon and Garfunkel in an autorickshaw, and says, "Chhod yaar [let it be, man]" when you ask him his age.

He even comes walking to the neighbourhood coffee shop with his guitar if you ask him to.
September 30, 1988, Bruce Springsteen (Amnesty's Human Rights Now) concert. That was when the man, whose album has got the pundits and proletariat rooting for it in unison, decided music was it for him. "The sheer power of what rock could do, to be accepted and respected by such a lot of people," he says.
"Those were the wander years. So I wandered. I did that for a long time," he says of the period in Khalsa College, Delhi. He taught himself guitar, "got into hard rock. Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith," idolised Jimmy Page, hung out, wore his hair long rockstar style, saw the world through LSD-coloured glasses.

Why sing in Punjabi then? "Why not?"
"We Jat Sikhs are very proud people. I could never get it out of me. To start thinking in any other language would mean acknowledging its superiority. I would become a poor version of a Western rocker, a wannabe. I can't forget who I am," he says.

Rabbi's father was a Sikh preacher and his mother, a college principal, loved Gurbani kirtan. Rabbi was "very, very influenced by Sikh literature. I grew up reading Gyani Gyan Singh, Kabir's dohas, Shiv Bata... We would have long discussions on poetry. I was listening to rock music and Punjabi spiritual music. It all combusts man. It's the great reality of urban India."

Is that what combusted with his album as well? Is that why it worked?
"I think [it worked] because I was talking about myself, which is a rarity," he says. "Generally somebody else writes the songs for the artists. The artist comes to the studio and tries to pretend in those two minutes. It's the saddest thing."
Rabbi wrote his own songs, and began recording them when he was not making advertising jingles -- "lots of them for Yamaha, Times FM…"

His first demo impressed world music producer Jawahar Wattal. Sony Music wanted to sign him on. "I had differences with Jawahar. I told Sony. They put me on to K J Singh," the man who would produce his debut eponymous album. The two worked on a new demo.

Sony backed out. Knocking on doors began again. Rabbi met Minty Tejpal, brother and business partner of Tehelka editor in chief Tarun Tejpal. The first meeting, Rabbi got drunk and banged his car. Minty helped him out. It was instant chemistry.

"I signed a contract with Tehelka, and started working on my album. Just when the recording was finished, they [tehelka.com] broke the story [of Westend, a sting operation which claimed to expose corruption in defense deals]. All hell broke loose."

Tehelka ran out of money. Rabbi's album was unfinished. Why didn't he approach others? "I'm a lazy bum," Rabbi says, munching on a chocolate almond cake. "I liked Tehelka's maverick way of doing things. I just kept writing more songs, playing more guitar, surfing the Net.
"Struggle is a big word, I didn't have to break my b***s or anything like that," he says. That honesty shone through in his demo. Amitabh Bachchan was one of the first people outside Rabbi's circle of friends to be given a copy, Nobel Laureate Sir V S Naipaul heard him in a car. Rabbi performed at the launch of the Tehelka weekly newspaper.

The demo eventually reached Anand Surapur of Phat Phish records, who signed him on. "I think he (Anand) is also instinctively attracted to de-glamorised real people. That's why we hit it off."

Has glamour changed him? Has his album, being a hit, altered his life?
Not much, he says. Except "my mother, who was very anxious [about his future]. She wanted me to succeed, whatever that means. In her eyes, I am successful. I feel rested."

Rabbi rattles off more unlikely answers. He insists he is "not in the danger of becoming a Bombayite." He considers silence the biggest compliment. "Silence when the other person understands."
Next album? A little way off, he says, "though we have material ready for two more." He wants to play live, and trip on his creative dope — travel.

"Inspiration is a big word. For me, it's the need to write. Solitude is what I require. I get 'stoned' when I go to a new city. It somehow all falls together."

Can honest songwriting jostle for space with the remix rage and overproduced opuscula? Yes, he says. "Record companies need to have conviction. Not go so far away from art."

Thanx to Rediff.com Specials

Rabbism Cant stay without Rabbi himself

How can rabbism be without mr rabbi himself.