Episode Transcript
[00:00:09] Speaker A: Hi, guys. Welcome once again to the Rajpool podcast. And for those who, who are watching on YouTube, you're probably not wondering, why has Raj got a much a mustache? I'm doing more member this month, so if you very kindly just head off to my Instagram link and Instagram page and just, just hit, hit the a link on there and just, just sponsor us because it's for a good cause. It's for men's suicide rates, so we want to bring those down.
So it's for a good cause. Anyway, well, back to the podcast. I've got a very, very special guest. I've been a fan of this, this, this singer since probably since I was a kid, really. I think probably not. Not to say he's really old because he looks young as anything, but he's Sahara.
How you doing, bro?
[00:00:56] Speaker B: Right? I'm very good, mate. I'm very good. I'm all good. How are you guys?
[00:01:01] Speaker A: I'm very good. Me and Ruby are good as well. We're doing well. We, we just.
Just enjoying the podcast, enjoying guests like you and it's such a privilege having you on here.
[00:01:12] Speaker B: Thank you. Thank you for inviting me on. I know I've been super hectic for the last month or so, but, yeah.
[00:01:21] Speaker A: I know because when I check yours, touring in Pakistan or somewhere else, and.
[00:01:25] Speaker B: Yeah, with God's grace. Yeah, we've been in the game for a fair while now and we're at a position where we have a huge following in, you know, South Asia and India, Pakistan and, you know, Dubai. And so, yeah, just all God's grace here.
[00:01:45] Speaker A: Yeah, it's absolutely amazing. So, as you know, this podcast is. Is about musical excellence and I, I enjoy learning about music. I'm constantly learning instruments, music, so. But I want to sort of talk about, before we get into that side of it, talk about a bit about your background and if I'm correct, did you start in the early 90s?
[00:02:04] Speaker B: Yes, yes, we started in the early 90s with an album called In Temptation.
It came on the Roma Records label and it was 93 to be exact.
And I think about six months before it came out, my voice had just broken.
I remember very young.
[00:02:31] Speaker A: I think I remember because I got told up. I used to go Punjabi school in the Gurdoriana, and I shouldn't be doing this in the Gurdwara Punjabi school, but I'd go there and I'll be singing your song.
[00:02:41] Speaker B: All right.
[00:02:42] Speaker A: Like, if I remember correctly, I can't remember what song it was, but I. It was about that time and obviously you're gonna get told off, aren't you?
Yeah, so yeah, so I've got fond memories of.
Of that. Yeah, it's really good. So how did you get into music from that, that side?
[00:03:00] Speaker B: Okay. So basically my, my parents are like first generation over here.
So you know like everybody's most parents are and I'm. I'm born and bred here, me and my brothers and apart from one brother who's older than me, he was born in India but I, I was the first one out the whole family born over in England.
And so you know, like I said, my parents very much Punjabi speaking in our house. My dad was into music. Not, not literally not a musician or anything or a singer, but he liked poet poems and poetry and good stuff. And so in our house we know the Bollywood films, the you know, the Sunday jacket watching. Yeah. And so it's been very, very in our house the, the music's kind of always been around and at the age of three or four I was singing like, you know. Yeah.
And so you know my dad always pushed us. We joined. I, he. He took us to a bang rapunjab in Bradford. We was a born and bred in Bradford and took us to rehearsals. A team of Pangra dancers were dancing called Nachidapanjab and we were the leaders of the junior team, me and my brother Kully and. And we became leaders of the. The Bangladesh team, junior and then Gerbs the other brother, he joined as well. And we did that for a number of years. We did that for a number of years on the sideline, you know, like, you know, every Asian party, you know, like everybody mates would come around on a weekend, you know. I mean.
[00:04:58] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:59] Speaker B: So I used to hate it like, but I used to say oh God, dad, please, you know, I mean what.
[00:05:04] Speaker A: Song did they used to ask you to sing?
[00:05:06] Speaker B: Well, it was quite a few songs. It was like usually mom like you know like were the ones that hits at the time then.
[00:05:12] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:05:13] Speaker B: And it was like mom, I've always been a huge fan of Alarm all I've loved all of a lot songs. I said like a lot of it sounds or something like that, you know. And so yeah, so from then like singing at parties and stuff like that and my dad. So we were. One time we were rehearsing in a. In the Bradford it was Common center with Nachida Punjab and we've done our rehearsals and there were a music band rehearsing in the next room. And I was 9 or 10 year old, right. And my dad took me, we went in and we watched this band rehearsing and my dad says to them right and. And they said really? And sanger song and they really really liked it. And basically cutting a long story short, I started performing with the band and they took me as a novelty singer like a nine, ten year old boy.
[00:06:19] Speaker A: Like a Charles saw sort of thing in it.
[00:06:21] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Took me on and you know and most of the the performance I'd be playing the bongos or the triangle or not triangle, the tambourine on the bongos or something. But then I, I was like a Punjabi singer and I'd sing you know a larp song or Mamla G or something and I used to get a huge, huge response like a nine year old boy. Singing music had become very popular with the, with the you know with like band like a and a and you know all that. So yeah, and that's how I started and never looked back.
[00:07:00] Speaker A: That's crazy. So how did you from there. So you're about 10 was it? Was it 10? Was you?
[00:07:06] Speaker B: Yeah, so I started at 10 and then.
[00:07:10] Speaker A: So did you have any training at that time or just was it just.
[00:07:12] Speaker B: No, not really. I was nurtured by the band. To be truthful with you. I wasn't 10, 11 year old. I would nurtured by the band when I'm in nur literally if I was singing out aur they would shout at me and I would cry.
I would literally cry there. You know, 10 year old boy would cry. But you know what it's like and it's the best thing they did because if I couldn't sing in tune they said the one of the guys would really get angry. So you're not singing in tune, you're not singing in key or singing in beat. Sing it properly. And he'd make me do it again and I was like. It used to, you know like being shouted out in front of seven or eight men or guys. It used to, you know I used to literally start crying and. But I got it, I got it.
[00:08:00] Speaker A: No, but that's, that's S itself, isn't it?
[00:08:03] Speaker B: H. Yeah, yeah, I understood what yeah and S was you know. You know and I'm not saying that I'm like 100% yet but I kind of gathered a little bit about and sor.
[00:08:16] Speaker A: Because that's what, what I find is that that's actually when you real singing is when you're performing live because you can learn all you want from behind the scenes. If you can't Sing on stage live.
[00:08:28] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's so from the age of nine, 10, I was, you know, whether there's a crowd of 50 people or 500 people, just to have the nerves to go there and sing is a great education on, you know, to learn. It's amazing. And that's where my confidence built from. And once you've got that, obviously it's important to learn the trade as well, but just to have the confidence, okay, you could be the best singer in the world, but if you haven't got the confidence to go on stage and sing in front of people, then it's like.
But so I. Luckily for me.
[00:09:15] Speaker A: I.
[00:09:16] Speaker B: Got that experience from this band to go on stage and just thing in front of 300 people, 400 people and. Yeah, so that's where my train. And that was the idea. At the age of 10, 11, something like that.
[00:09:29] Speaker A: Yeah, that's just, just amazing. I remember this. Is this one of the kid I. I used to know. He used to do that. He was one of the Birmingham bands here, the. The Pong Lancer bands, you know, so he was like that. He was a great singer as always. Single, Deep Monarch. He's brilliant. But anyway, so how did you. How did you. From there. How did you get into. How did you form Sahara from there?
[00:09:53] Speaker B: Okay, so I then with the same band I was from like the age of 10 to 15 or 16, I was playing on the keyboard with them. I were doing, you know, I was producing the music for them and I did some music on the. And I was playing keyboard.
[00:10:08] Speaker A: So we got to go back now because this. You've just opened up a bomb shower here. So you're playing keys for them, you're producing music for them. So how did you. Before we even get into your Sahara, how did you get into that?
[00:10:20] Speaker B: So I. At the age of 9, 10 years, my dad bought me a badger. And I was then just picking.
Learning how to play the keyboards and stuff like that. And Beverly Hills, that tuned Beverly Hills, that Beverly Hills one. He goes.
[00:10:44] Speaker A: Yeah, that's the one. Yeah.
[00:10:46] Speaker B: One day I was just. And from the. Listening to the. I just started playing the keys and. And then from there I just kept practicing, practicing and I became okay on the keyboard, you know, and I could, I would. And especially doing like. Then I started doing also shovels in the Gurdwara as well.
[00:11:02] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:11:02] Speaker B: So I could play the badger and I could, you know, and then I started getting a bit more confidence, started playing the Bad Jack in the Gurdwari, doing Shabbat's on a night playing keyboard for this band. And I was learning, so it was a whole. And I had the fire. I had the fire to learn. And I just, you know, I was. I was kind of. Kind of mesmerized by the keyboard and what. And then, of course, listen to all the UK bands and picking the tunes up and doing all that. And. Yeah, so I then, for the same band, started playing keyboards. I went onto the keyboards for them and then, you know, like when I was singing, I was singing when I was playing the keyboard. Keyboard for a mustache playing, you know, so, well, like that at the same event, some songs I'll be playing keyboard, sometimes I'd be singing. And at the age of 14, I kind of. I did some that they were recording an album and they were recording an album. I did some studio work. I played all the keys in them. There's some footage around as well on the Internet of me playing keyboards at the dorm. It was like the pop contest or whatever.
[00:12:13] Speaker A: In Birmingham.
[00:12:14] Speaker B: Yeah. Not at Birmingham. Yeah.
And there's a footage of me playing keyboards for this band and I was. I don't. I was like making the music up for them. We recorded some of the stuff where I played all the keyboards in it. And then we moved cities and I kind of left the band at the age of 15.
We moved from where we were and I kind of found it hard to go and practice with them and this and that. So the album came out, they did what they had to do. And where I'm living now, I made a little kind of a.
A band with me on the vocals, my brother Cully on the do Tabla G, a backing vocalist. And then we had some members and a few. A few months later, a very good friend, a keyboard player called Suki Kayla from Scuntop, joined and then we had some session musicians joining in and doing the music. And yeah, we. We made a tight band.
We made a tight band and in 1991, we said, Guys, we. We're all right. The music's really coming. Got good. We're tight. On stage we had a.
A guy called Chris. He was like a proper hippie type. And. But once he came with a bass, it all made sense. With a live band, it just. The whole band just became really tight.
[00:13:42] Speaker A: It gels everything together, doesn't it?
[00:13:44] Speaker B: It gel. It's a very important. For about a year we've done no bass. And it was just like, yeah, it's all good, but it's still empty.
The music's empty on stage. And When Chris came in with the bass, well, it was just a different game changer. It was. And we started.
We then started working on an album. We went to.
I did a song and we recorded in the locals Yorkshire Studios. And we'd been all. All night and recorded it and the next morning. I mean at that time it sounded really good and heard it the next day and it would just pants.
It sounded fantastic in the studio. Heard it next day and it says nice. It's. It's not going to work this. And a few months later I got in contact with a guy called Pete Ware.
[00:14:34] Speaker A: Yeah, I know Pete.
[00:14:35] Speaker B: Where is the legend of the industry? He's done all the suffering albums. And I thought, right, you know, let's go to the Pangra legend. Let's go to the guy who can make Bangrab music or engineer B music at least.
[00:14:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:14:52] Speaker B: How much to have the pole key, how to bring the sounds out. So we. In 91, 92, we record. We went and recorded, started recording this album called In Temptation. And the first song we recorded was Dil Mangi. And it was a game changer for us certainly because we first time and wow, this sounds sick. This is now. This sounds like a band. We now sound like a band even with the music, stuff like that.
[00:15:21] Speaker A: So what was the difference between like what you did up north and what you did in Bengal?
[00:15:25] Speaker B: What it was. I don't think they kind of knew what Pangram music was. Well, that, you know, the. The level of how to bring the do.
[00:15:34] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:15:37] Speaker B: You know, like the whole general feeling like the guitar chords were more louder than that and the. The vocals were just sitting on top of the, like. So was it.
[00:15:46] Speaker A: So was it the mix that was wrong?
[00:15:48] Speaker B: I think it was a mix and I think a lot of it was the. Yeah, just.
Yeah, I think the mix was wrong and.
Yeah. And we were kind of relying too much on the engineer, I think.
And. Yeah, and it didn't sound great. So we knew it a good song. But then we. When we took it to Pete, it was a different song. It was so good that it actually became the first track on the album in temptation 93. And then from there we just started basically Candy and I like. Then we got Tub Z involved. He did all the legend. Yeah, yeah. Well, when you got people like Pete wear on an album Tubsy and you know. Wow. It's just a recipe for succession.
[00:16:35] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.
[00:16:39] Speaker B: And when we. Then we recorded the whole album.
Fantastic. We loved it. Right.
What should we do with it? Right. We need to release it right, let's go to Roma, let's go to Natural, let's go to few labels but we went, we went to the first and we didn't actually even shop around. We just went to Natural Record. Sorry, I beg your pardon, Roma Records and God rest his soul, Prit Ball. But he was there and he gives it. They heard the song and I remember Viv were there from China but Envy. And they listened to the songs and they put it on and they give it done. We'll have it. Love the album, hate the name because we were called Punchy, you know, I mean. And so they said, we love the album but hate the name. Banshee is not going to work. Okay. So they said rangers a few days because it right, we're going to release this album and it's going to be called. You're going to be called Sahara.
And we said, okay, fantastic, you know, like 15, 16 year old boy. You're excited about it, you know. So. Yeah. All right, amazing. And. And that's been with us all the up to now. So big, big thank you to Roma party.
[00:17:56] Speaker A: Hi guys, this is Raj Khul. Thanks so much for listening to the podcast. If you want to support the rest of. If you could go and check me out on Spotify or Lap of Music and add my songs to your playlists if you like them. Thank you.
That's crazy. So how did you, you know, when you were up north, what was the Bangladesh scene like there?
[00:18:35] Speaker B: Because non existent. Yeah, it was non existent. The gigs were happening. The gigs were happening. There's a club called Maestros which was one of the best clubs in the whole country. So you used to get four bands, you know, larp. Yeah, but they see or you know.
[00:18:52] Speaker A: Like hero and stuff.
[00:18:53] Speaker B: Yeah, you know the big, the old, the old YONI events.
[00:18:57] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:18:58] Speaker B: And they were amazing. Amazing. But there were no production. There were no like musicians. There was, there was like. But the role kind of the old school, like wasn't on that new wave length of music.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Playing the badger on the keyboard, you know, that's it. Yeah, yeah. And no guitar or bass or anything like that.
And it was that kind of vibe.
[00:19:28] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:19:29] Speaker B: In a pub on a night sometimes, you know.
[00:19:30] Speaker A: Yeah, gotcha.
[00:19:31] Speaker B: Yeah.
And so it wasn't really, it was kind of non existent. But so we then when Suki came into the band, he were a good keyboard player.
Kully, my brother, he. He was on the tabla for a bit and then he went on the Toll. But. And then we had a good drummer we got a good drummer from Nottingham. We kind of put the whole band together. But so some members were from Manchester, someone's from, like, Lead, someone from, like, Scunthorpe, somebody, like, from Nottingham. So. But we used to rehearse in and we got the sound going and we got the. The platform of the sound. It's all about sound. And the best thing about it was what we performed on album. We could perform live.
Yeah, that was a really, really big thing, you know, 90s, 93, 94.
When we released In Temptation, it kind of from. It took us from a local band to a national band and people really liked it. And then Untouchables, Tony, he put us on one of his gigs. So we had us suffering the four uplassing heat and a lap of one of the events in Manchester. And he said, right, I knew Tony as well from back in the days. He said, right, Herbie, this gig, you're going to open it up, Mike, okay? And as it happens that when we open that gig up, we absolutely, you know, smashed it. It was really, really great experience for us. Crowd loved it. Tony was well impressed. He said, wow, amazing that you really smashed it. And. And then after that, we were just playing most of his gigs. We just played all the maestro gigs. We were opening up and then we had the big bands and all. But at the same time, our music was gelling really good. Album. Album had released. It was doing well nationally and now not just in Bradford. We were playing up and down the countries at the university events. So we were now. Now basically Nashville. And. And the best, like I said, best thing about it was we were very tight band. Very tight band indeed.
[00:21:42] Speaker A: How did you get the baton? Like, was it Bradford? You were based at that time, so how did you get. Because you said, like, everyone's from Nottingham and Scunthorpe. How did you all get together and rehearse?
[00:21:52] Speaker B: We used to rehearse in the middle. So, like a place called Doncaster, where I live, I live in Doncaster. I used to live in Bradford. We moved to Doncaster. So everybody should come to Doncaster to rehearse once or twice a month.
[00:22:07] Speaker A: That's crazy.
[00:22:10] Speaker B: And then. Yeah, but then once the album came out, we started getting a lot of inquiries and bookings and events, you know, like, at the big university. So we got the. We got the.
We got the fire for it. We got the fire. We just absolutely loved performing live and we, you know, we were getting better and better and better every year.
[00:22:32] Speaker A: That's a lot of commitment, isn't it? Like, all of you comment Coming together, driving from all around the country. Huh?
[00:22:39] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah bro, I'm telling you we, I, I, you know, it was hard, you know like everybody used to drive to Doncaster where I live. Well, I used to hide the van. Well not me personally used to hide a van, drive pick him up from there, pick him up from there, do the gig, come back, come back about six, seven o'clock in the morning, drop the van or whatever. And honestly for it wasn't about money, it was just about the love of it. And then either most of lads used to go to work work or uni or wherever they used to go.
[00:23:18] Speaker A: That's crazy love of the music.
[00:23:21] Speaker B: You know we just love bringing the whole.
[00:23:25] Speaker A: Yeah, we, we interesting. We, we talked to.
Because we're doing this other project called the Ukraine Museum and we talked to Pujangi, he used to, he used to work all like, like full tattoo shift, then come and do music.
[00:23:40] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean to be true, the music never paid for anything, you know, like especially it wasn't a financial gain where you could live off it.
[00:23:54] Speaker A: No.
[00:23:54] Speaker B: You know, you used to get one gig a week, you know, gig on a Saturday or a Sunday. You couldn't literally live off it. So you had to have either education or something or some kind of business or out, you know. Yeah. So and I think most bands were like that most band, a few of the bands that were fully booked there, you know, they didn't need to be working because they had to have a commitment and but yeah, all the most of the bands people are, you know, garment, you know, come back from work at 5, 6 o'clock or uni or whatever you are and then go to an event and then come back about 5:00 in the morning and then go back to what you're doing. So yeah it was and it was like that for a number of years because I, for me it started off as a hobby and I always treated it as a hobby and in the last 15 years is where it, it become a profession and I, you know, with God's grace I can make earn a living out of it.
[00:24:47] Speaker A: But you know, the music musically it showed those, you know, the era of that band's like 80s and 90s. Like if you look at, if you look at music now, I'm not saying that, that it's not good but it sounds like oh, I've heard that the love before. I heard that do before. But when it was your days like that everything, every band sounded unique, every beat sounded unique, every double up beat sounded unique. Every Tokey beat sounded unique ab because it all.
[00:25:15] Speaker B: It was all freshly played for that track. You know, obviously we use people like Tub Z Sunil Kan Shinda, buddy. They all played for them certain tracks, you know, every ticket was for that track. Not yeah, a copy and pasted one. It was for them tracks, you know. And, and yeah, it like, you know, the tuning of the tabla and everything was, you know, played in and it sounded like a band. So when we performed on stage it was exactly the same music what was on played on the album.
[00:25:57] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:25:57] Speaker B: And. And I think that that come from a lot of the senior bands as well, where we used to. I just used to mesmerize by a lot Hida, you know. But this dcs all because when they used to perform live, it just used to give you such an energy.
Yeah. Goosebumps, honestly. Goosebumps. And it used to. Wow. Where are these guys getting these sound from? You know?
Wow. They were like just too thick.
[00:26:25] Speaker A: They want another level when they saw level, bro.
[00:26:27] Speaker B: And I'm from that gen. I'm so glad I'm from that generation where I've witnessed that. I saw that error and we just like, you know, I mean, I feel sorry for the generation now.
[00:26:39] Speaker A: Honestly. I totally agree. I don't want to take this podcast sort of too far away from you, but what else? The music? Gosh. The like Sahota st all the band. You said Excellency.
[00:26:49] Speaker B: Gosh, yeah, Excellency, of course, yeah. Excellency.
[00:26:52] Speaker A: Yeah.
And yourselves.
[00:26:54] Speaker B: I mean there wasn't. But there wasn't a bad band. Everybody was. Everybody was too good, you know, from Hira to Premy to Alarm to Dandy over Pradeshi Achanik. How good were a chanic?
[00:27:08] Speaker A: Amazing. Yeah.
[00:27:09] Speaker B: And. And what you heard on cassette or cd, that, that thing, it live exactly the same. I think, you know, we. I mean it might be for another day but where it all went wrong was from the live. It was when the DJ started becoming music producers and that's where it all went a bit.
[00:27:30] Speaker A: Yeah, a bit, A bit pear shaped.
[00:27:33] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
When the DJ started becoming music producers and then there'd be ghost producers coming in and they'd use the same beats and he'd use the same things and he, he, you know, and everything just started sounding same.
[00:27:48] Speaker A: Yeah, it's still like that to a certain extent now. It's just moved to Canada, isn't it? But it's still the same sounds.
[00:27:54] Speaker B: I think. What happened? To be truthful, Vi, I think people got bored of the UK sound Yeah, they did sounding same. They were get Mid Leber Miss Puja. That would be on 20 people's albums.
[00:28:07] Speaker A: Yeah, so true.
[00:28:09] Speaker B: And it be done by the same ghost producer that's done XYZ's album and he's done XYZ's album and there were nothing.
You know, like it was just all the same.
[00:28:19] Speaker A: Yeah. They become frantic or Suki Chan.
[00:28:22] Speaker B: Yeah, well, exactly. All. All them. I mean, I'm not gonna name which ghost. They know who they are, but just all sounding the same. And I think people just know the DJs were getting. And that's where the DJ started becoming. And the live band started coming down a little bit. Down a little bit. And. And I think that was a great, great. Because UK Bhangra was the biggest outside of India or in the world.
[00:28:46] Speaker A: Oh, we invented it really.
[00:28:47] Speaker B: Because.
[00:28:48] Speaker A: Because you had folk in. In Punjab, but Bhangra was invented.
[00:28:53] Speaker B: I mean, Allah gave a different kind of a sound to Bangra. You couldn't even imagine before. It was all a bit doomy and a bit doy and, you know, like all the G Tend songs and all that. Right?
[00:29:03] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:29:03] Speaker B: Allah give this music a drum beat and stuff like that. And you know, it was like, amazing. But yeah, I think sadly, where we are now, it's all gone to North America, America and all these.
[00:29:18] Speaker A: Even now you listen to it. Like, I did this song, I was saying in one of my podcasts, I did the garage song and the producer produced it. Great song. But few like a month, a few months later, I had the same sample in someone else's garage song, so. And then I realized he just taking off. Off Splice. You have yet a splice?
[00:29:40] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:29:42] Speaker A: You're just taking off Splice. It's like a sample generator.
[00:29:44] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, sad loops and all that, bro. There.
[00:29:48] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:29:49] Speaker B: All the bulky beats and all that. It would just. And I think that ruined for the British, you know, British lovers of bands. When. I mean, when you. Bro, I'm from an era where if a DCS album or a lapse album's coming out and we used to know about it coming out, used to go. Go to the shop Friday. Okay, no problem. Go back on Friday, listen to it, read all the inlay, what you want, right? Then listen to the album. Wow. Used to be like, fantastic. Yeah.
[00:30:25] Speaker A: Amazing.
[00:30:26] Speaker B: Listen to now, though, Rod, right. Have you noticed, right? And some of the stuff that people are going crazy about now. Well, there were bands that were doing that in the.
[00:30:38] Speaker A: Absolutely.
Look, I'm gonna be controversial here. I'M gonna say. I'm not gonna let you say. Because I don't want people to come after you. They come after me.
Truth is, right, all these artists are saying, we've got here. We've got here the UK bang bands were doing this in the 80s and 90s. They were in generation game. They were mainstream TV, everywhere. They were, yeah.
[00:31:04] Speaker B: Some of the stuff on the early albums, I mean, just take Def Jam or something like that. Some of the stuff on that album was phenomenal. The beats, the music, you know, even up now Dark and Dangerous by Bali Jackpot and stuff like that, you know, great stuff. Now we listen to some of the, you know, hear some of the stuff. I'm not being a hater. I respect what everybody's going, and I respect every artist, what they're doing. And they've got literally just a beat and a bit of chords and a bit of baseline, and that's it. They're gonna. You know. And I think. You know what, mate? The. The. In the 80s, the 90s, music were better than this.
[00:31:43] Speaker A: I like to call it McDonald's music.
[00:31:45] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:31:46] Speaker A: It's fast food, isn't it? Huh?
[00:31:47] Speaker B: Have you noticed, all right, Raj, on a wedding.
[00:32:00] Speaker A: What they have to do, they have to speed the song up and put a doll beat to it. Yeah.
[00:32:08] Speaker B: Speed it up to get some kind of reaction.
[00:32:11] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:32:12] Speaker B: And you play the old school song, any school, you know, like Leonard's Bully or anything like that. That's the songs that kill it on the dance floor.
[00:32:19] Speaker A: Yeah, it's crazy, bro. Anyway, let's get back to you. That's a rant over for now in it.
But okay, so after. After the. The first album you did. Because I want to talk about. I want to get to the Undisputed album, but before we got that, let's bridge the gap between there, because that's my favorite album of yours, the Undisputed album. And it wasn't. Well, we'll talk about that when we get there. Anyway, so what did you do after that?
[00:32:46] Speaker B: Obviously, with the success of In Temptation, it was great. We'd become a national band where we were actually now doing weddings, but not just where we live, or Safarisha, like, oh, Mary, you know, wedding or something.
We were actually going. Being booked.
[00:33:05] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:33:05] Speaker B: And we've seen a bit of money coming as well. All right, so. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You were getting, you know, I think £500 for a live band from them days was all right for us. You know, it was like, grateful.
And we did okay that year. We did good within Temptation. And then Roma says to me, very good, very good.
So I said, okay, buddy. And he said, but I'm going. I want you to do it with Taz. Stereo Nation. Johnny Z. Yeah. Okay. You know, I got really excited. Johnny Z, you know, I mean, with the. He was kind of with his.
Yeah, you know. Johnny Z. Yeah.
[00:33:49] Speaker A: Unbelievable.
[00:33:50] Speaker B: Johnny Z. Yeah. I thought, wow, Johnny Z. Brilliant. So I. I recorded an album with Johnny Z in Planet Studios and that released in 95. But that night four. Think night four, the year after. But I think for what it was, it was a great album, but I think it was ahead of its time. I think maybe using Johnny Z wasn't the right move for us. But I was asked to. We was asked to do it by Roma.
[00:34:17] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:34:18] Speaker B: So it had Sunil Kalyan. Sunil Kalyan smashed it with a tabla.
And it was. I think it was ahead of its time because at that time Daisy Music was coming.
So we released that. But it did well. We had some great bolia in there. It had some great tracks in there and it did okay for us. And plus Johnny Z had produced it. So that did well for us. But by this time we. Like I said, I keep emphasizing we'd become a live band. So we were still doing the weddings up and down the country after that. We did. We had two or three years where we're just gigging. 97 we recorded. It was 96 we started recording an album called Blueprint and that was on the Natural Records album that was produced by Cam.
Some of the songs were. Most of the production were done by ourselves and Suki Kayla because Suki Kayla was a keyboard playing the band. So it just made sense that he produces the album.
[00:35:18] Speaker A: Yeah, makes sense.
[00:35:19] Speaker B: Some of the tracks in there were done by Camp Frantic. Some were done by Pete, where some even. Yeah. Shinda played Tabla Key on two or three of the tracks that did well. That came on the Natural Records album.
So that was around then. But again, we wasn't. You know, we were still nationally doing events and gigs and Melee. Melee and stuff like that.
Then I released a track on an album called Mavericks, which were Tuppy and this Tupper at the time, we didn't realize, but it really worked well for us. It was just. It was on a compilation album, but it really did well for us and a lot of people started taking notice of that track.
So we released that and that song really did well for me. Really, really did well. It did that well that other bands copied it.
[00:36:42] Speaker A: The Surinder one was it was a.
[00:36:45] Speaker B: Bit after that, they just literally ripped the whole tune up. You know, they just. God.
[00:36:55] Speaker A: I didn't know that. Yeah, I didn't know they took it. You copied it straight.
[00:37:00] Speaker B: Oh, bro, no, I'm. I'm like in my music room upstairs, I have a keyboard. I have a. It takes time to make, you know, the biggest thing is, yeah, arrangement, vocal, Tachalo vocal, The bad, which we are, right, you record it vocally, sound. But the biggest thing for any song is the tarj. And if the taraj isn't right, then the song can't work. So the composition of the song needs to be made right.
And for me, I took ages to compose. You know, everybody was doing tapir, but I said, no, I want to do tape, but I want to do something different with Easter. So this topic was completely my composition, arrangement, everything we recorded, it did really well. And for me, it gives the band another kind of lease of life.
And then we actually recorded it. I think it came out again by Natural Records on a album called Pure Natural 7. And we put. Then I got Mange from RDB. Man music from RDB. They were upcoming then in 1999 or 90. Yeah, 2000, they were upcoming. So RDB was on the club circuit. They were now gigging and they were becoming kind of a big name. Yeah, Circuit. And man became a very good friend of mine. And he said. I said, listen, they all love this track. And he said, let me remix it. So he remixed it, give it to Natural Records. They put it on an album, purely Natural. So he remixed it into like a. A garage beat. And garage was just taking off then as well. And. Yeah, so then other songs like, you know, over garage tracks were coming out as well.
And because of the success of that truck, me and Manchester working on another truck after. On the success of this maverick Toppe. And that track was Sony. Any Sony. Giovanni Terirangali.
So man did that track. And he. And believe me, so I went to man, just a Man, you've done an amazing job on that topic. Can you do this track? And he said, buddy, I love it, but I don't know the chords or keyboards.
And if you ever talk to man, and you said to him, man, who taught you the keyboards, he'll tell you, Herbie Budgie. He taught me the three vital chords and I made 20,000 songs out of them.
I taught him the three or four vital cards for the song. This is the song. Let's make it into a garage track.
Well, he came back with. Although we're All a bit naughty. Everybody in the industry was a bit naughty. We the huge samples from the original songs as well. You're not really like.
[00:39:56] Speaker A: So yeah, I got you. Yeah, it was all.
[00:40:00] Speaker B: It was okay then. It was okay. It became an issue afterwards. But at that time it was all right. You know everybody, people did it, didn't they?
[00:40:08] Speaker A: So the hip hop people were ripping off of old songs like blues and pop and rock. So they take the sample from there.
[00:40:15] Speaker B: Then I think it all went a bit pear shaped when Bobby Larry or somebody or somebody sung one of the.
The hip hop artists use it.
[00:40:26] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:40:31] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And India came up and said look, we're gonna do this, do that. And then, then it became a bit. Right, okay. What about the hundreds and Indian Punjabi songs that have been going around?
[00:40:43] Speaker A: Exactly, yeah.
[00:40:44] Speaker B: With English beats on it and the hip hop beats on them.
[00:40:49] Speaker A: Hi guys, this is Raj Kul. Thanks so much for listening to the podcast. If you want to support the rest of my music, if you could go and check me out on Spotify or Napa Music and add my songs to your playlists if you like them. Thank you.
[00:41:18] Speaker B: But anyway, this only Sony showed it to natural and he absolutely loved it because this is going to be something else today, bro.
[00:41:29] Speaker A: Honestly, that's every.
[00:41:32] Speaker B: Every wedding we do, every album, every event we do, we have to sing it sometimes twice, sometimes three times. And you know, a lot of people say, well that's not your tune. You, you stole it off Shakti.
I said, I'll be truthful with you. I didn't. I did. I was inspired by it. But the truck I was inspired by was a guy called K.S. kunar. Right. And the song was.
That's the song. I took it off. Not yeah, yeah, but I took it off KS Kundra. Anyway, quite a long story short, they're also great tracks in that album. Produced by Camp Frantic, produced by Suki Kayla and Mange produced a couple of tracks but the, the rest of the tracks were great tracks but Sony and Sony just stole the show that just nobody went beyond that track and it would. And then that took us to another level, Raj. That then took us not just to UK but I, I'd seen obviously it didn't. Success didn't get to my head like that because I'd seen the struggles as well. And when you've struggled from day one in the last 10, 15 years. So when your song is being played on every radio station, being playing in Green Street, South Hall, Broadway leads all the men and the. The guys are pumping Your song like Sony New Sonia, left, right and center in the cars and you're hearing it. I mean, I'm just in London walking and every five minutes Sony and his son is playing in the car and I'm.
And people saying to me, how do you feel? Well, I said, you know, I feel I'm really grateful to the Almighty. But it, you know, it's just.
[00:43:27] Speaker A: It's surreal, isn't it?
[00:43:28] Speaker B: It's surreal. But it didn't, you know, like K.
You know what I mean?
It didn't. It wasn't like that at all. It wasn't like that at all. I was still very, very grateful.
[00:43:42] Speaker A: But you can tell by the conversation we're having, brother, you know, it's still humble. Humble lesson there, you know.
[00:43:51] Speaker B: But I. Yeah. So the songs, the song were being played left, right and center. A radio station kidnapped he. Can you do this interview? Can you do this interview? Anyway, Sony and Sony became. And they were. I'll tell you, the competition. Well, I wouldn't say competition, but I'd say it was there, you know, there were great tracks. Was told Jagiro, that came the same year. Yeah, Albio Escrow came the same year and they all came at the same time.
But what, what our trap was because it wasn't dc, it was a bit.
[00:44:25] Speaker A: More funky in it. A bit more funky.
[00:44:28] Speaker B: Well, it attracted all the.
Whether you were Bangladeshi, Gujarati, Punjabi, you were loving that track and they sound. It started the garage kind of scene off as well. So it's. Everybody were listening. You didn't have to be Punjabi to enjoy that track. Yeah, it became, it became like that. And after about six months we started getting international calls, international calls to Kenya, Pakistan and I'm wondering, Kidab Yan, how are we getting. Nobody's distributing this album over there. How's it going out there? And realized afterwards, obviously piracy for us, piracy was a godsend blessing. It was disaster.
But for us it was amazing because now our music is being played in places we've never heard of like Malaysia, Kenya, Pakistan all. And the Sony. And Sony is big because they started a new kind of genre of music off in Pakistan where the kids have learned what a basement is. The back of the car, they're pumping the song, they're driving around. It's just started a whole new genre of music of bhangra for that kind of taking on this, this, this is a pang that we love. And yeah, I remember going to Kenya the first time and the big posters everywhere of us, me, colleague Gertz and performing first time At Carnival in Kenya.
We went to the. There's like in Nairobi, there's like a diamond bazaar. I think they call it like a very dizzy kind of thing, bro. It had Please do not ask for any Sahara albums sold out. They had signs in all the shops. There were no albums left.
[00:46:13] Speaker A: Crazy.
[00:46:14] Speaker B: There was no albums to buy and wow, that hit me. Then more I thought, wow. First and foremost I've gone done an international gig but I've seen posters all over Nairobi of us, me and my brothers. Then we've gone into the shops. No Sahara albums left. Please do not ask.
[00:46:30] Speaker A: You know, international. International.
[00:46:37] Speaker B: Yeah. And I think the same year we went to. I think as a whole team we went to. No, that was a couple of years later. Anyway, so the success of Access all areas really, really now started taking as international events as well. And then I also featured on rdb had just released their album, the debut album which was another phenomenal album.
[00:47:04] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:47:07] Speaker B: I've become really, really manj and the body.
[00:47:10] Speaker A: We'll talk about that in a second when we get to the other, other bits because I want to talk about.
[00:47:14] Speaker B: Just, just I'm like a record and I'm a bully on that.
[00:47:17] Speaker A: No, no, it's. It's great content because all this is going to go viral on, on social media. I'm going to tag you in and it's all going to go viral. Your clips are.
So I want to ask you. So during this time were you.
[00:47:31] Speaker B: Were you.
[00:47:32] Speaker A: Was your riyaz at that time, was it still practice just on the go as you're singing, you're practicing or did you, did you take anything else on.
[00:47:40] Speaker B: Technically before all this? I, you know, when I said I started singing well, I'd learn of a raggi. Well, when I said learn, I. I learned how to play a badger, how to use the fingers, how to sari gamma, pada nisa obviously.
So I start, you know, all that. Started singing in Gurdwaras.
After In Temptation and Let Loose, I went to India for about eight months.
[00:48:14] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:48:15] Speaker B: And I. Yeah, yeah. And I, I became a shagird of.
Back in the days in India there was a Doordarshan television and there was a music producer there called Pandit Chote Lal and he was from Delhi and my family come from Delhi as well and we have a neighbor.
So first thing, Pandit Lal said to me, why do you want to learn music? Is it for the money or is it for the love of the music? Do you want to become big and famous or do you want to just music? I said Music, just me. I'm not going to become famous. I just want music. I just want to learn how to sing and Andy is it. That's all I wanted to hear.
We did all the, you know, the share and all that. You know we did the. I became a shagir so I for eight months was like learning all the sari gamma padani, all the sargams and all this and that. And then when I came back to England I was still learning of them but it was become hard because you know, you need to be. Yeah, but I still learned. He'd send me stuff over and I've been by them days. If there was no emails or anything it was by post and you know, there was nothing and I ring him on the phone and you know, dad would be shouting at me the back of basket. They've been a form built by you.
I wish this technology was back then.
[00:49:51] Speaker A: Yeah. You know because my singing teachers in based in India now. Andy, my vocal teacher is based and we do over zoom.
[00:49:59] Speaker B: Over zoom. You can learn, you know. I wish this technology now.
[00:50:02] Speaker A: Exactly, yeah.
[00:50:03] Speaker B: And then. Yeah, so I learned like that. I mean when I say I learned, I didn't learn. I shouldn't say that. I mean I tried to learn and what happened was. Yeah, so we did that for about three, four years but at the same time were recording albums and doing this and that and now suddenly God dressed as all he's passed away and. Yeah, but I never kind of, you know, I just. I become so busy in the music as well. I mean I do local Riyadh, you know, sitting at home. Sorry, I'm up. You know all that. I do my Riyaz for myself or learning songs but I don't. I haven't got as of now.
[00:50:38] Speaker A: Yeah, of course. Yeah, yeah. So yeah. So when you were doing Riyaz, what was it? Was it. Was it classical? Like classical or just. Or was it just this sar.
[00:50:48] Speaker B: It were mostly circums just to get the, you know, the rakes and her, you know, the, you know, all the.
[00:50:54] Speaker A: Comic mean.
[00:50:57] Speaker B: You know, the whole portions of Riyaz and doing this, you know, and that's what it was. And to be truthful with you, I think a lot of the time it got spoiled because we were singing on stage as well, you see. So like there's no real, you know when you do weddings.
[00:51:16] Speaker A: No, but it is because. Because you know what that brings you when you're doing your birthday. That actually builds your muscle.
[00:51:22] Speaker B: Build your muscle doing. Yeah, so I could. We were doing Gigs. We were doing weddings, like for two and a half hours, singing on stage, you know, and we was doing that and we was, you know, gave me a basic. A better knowledge of how to sing in beat or how could that sort of.
You know what I mean? So I had a complete knowledge. Not so great on like surgams or not like rags or anything like that. I'll be truthful with you, you know, not. But yeah, just, you know, and it. And it's pretty much stayed like that. And I think that was effective because of A, they passed away and B, we were in different time zones, countries, technology wasn't there.
[00:52:06] Speaker A: Well, I'm going to disagree with you in a bit in a second because let's go to the Undisputed album. You did a song with the in there.
You sang so well on there, bro.
[00:52:19] Speaker B: Thank you. Thank you.
[00:52:19] Speaker A: Honestly. So that. That song was my favorite from that album.
[00:52:23] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. See that track. It's not because I learned music or anything. It's just I had the experience of. Yeah, I wanted to hear what I've. Yeah, I think, you know, so time gives you a good experience.
[00:52:34] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:52:35] Speaker B: With that, you know, I'd been singing quite a while now, you know, and I knew that it had that like.
[00:52:41] Speaker A: Classical touch to it.
[00:52:42] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it did. And that's what we wanted to give.
[00:52:45] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:52:45] Speaker B: That time, you know, there were all kinds of, you know, garage and hip hop and all this music. And I just wanted to give, you know what, let's just. Because it was 1212 track album, every song can't sound the same. So just let's put us all. I got involved.
I said to Tony, by the time now this album had become with Tony Untouchables. And I said to Tony, Tony, I want to give. I want a Kali band. See what you mean. I said, I want to give this song a really quality touch where I want the whole band there clapping, singing, and I want to sing it like that. And he like, yeah, okay. So back at the time then there was a.
So hail Salamat and their team. They were touring England. So four or five of them brothers came to the studio.
I had composed a song and they absolutely loved it. They give a, you know, like a pack. All we have to do is a pat on the back, bro.
And they love the. The melody of it. And they give me this share in front. They said.
And they said, let's sing this. I said, fantastic. So then that was all made by. The whole composition was made by me. The whole arrangements were made by me. Even the Baja in the song.
And then we got Dev Rajya Saloni. The song were written by Sarabji Sidhu, who's a great, great guy. I think he's a singer now as well. In the Midland.
Yeah. And that was a great track. But the problem what happened on that album, every song was overshadowed by.
[00:54:38] Speaker A: Yeah, that wasn't my favorite song, bro.
[00:54:41] Speaker B: You know what? It was just one of them things normally went past the first track.
[00:54:48] Speaker A: Because that song's still going, isn't it?
[00:54:49] Speaker B: Like, even today I prayed for dignities. I played around the world. I was born booked.
I did one wedding Ramadan story, right? So we got this invite. It was a. It was a Thursday. It was a Thursday. Get a phone call, right? And we. There's a team that we got an event for you. I said, oh, okay. Where? Pakistan. Okay. Oh, wow. Okay, good. He did it first day today, not tomorrow. Day after you fly. And the wedding's on Sunday. Okay. Joking. Are you taking a mick? Okay. No, no, no, no. I said, buddy, haven't. We need stuff like visas, we need ticket, we need. You know, everything will be done.
All right. A bit strange. So this is not Friday now, right? And nothing had. They ring me on Friday, right? Tomorrow, Saturday, yeah. I'm only outside the embassy in Bradford.
Pakistani Embassy. And bring your passports. You and your fellow friends. I said, are you. Are you having me on Mecca? Which embassy is opened on a Saturday? The. The package that I know the Monday to Friday north. They give it. You leave that to us. Got there, get my passports. The man went inside, put the visas on bottom back to me. Hello. All done with 30 minutes. I'm just sat in the car.
[00:56:22] Speaker A: Is that one. Is that in Hockley?
[00:56:26] Speaker B: Sorry, people in Bradford.
[00:56:29] Speaker A: It's a Bradford.
[00:56:30] Speaker B: I live in York City, so Bradford was the closest one for me, okay? And I went, wow. Next day we caught a flight, got off this fly. I've got about six or seven army guys saying, buddy, give us your passports right now. We the three people with me. I know we got. Oh, wow, what's going on? As we come escorted off, sat in a car, sat in a VIP lounge. Our next flight was about two hours later, but they put us on a flight before we went to Lahore.
And we found out that it was the Prime Minister of Pakistan's son's wedding.
[00:57:04] Speaker A: My gosh.
[00:57:06] Speaker B: Right. So we had all the five star everything, all this security, all this patrol, you know, like cars, police could be up a chair and like. And that's where we. We got kind of bit scared.
[00:57:17] Speaker A: Of course you would.
[00:57:19] Speaker B: Yeah. And we were like passport. You know, you don't worry your passport. So you're here.
Anyway we got to you know all these hotels and everything. Found out it was a Pakistan's Prime Minister. His son or daughter was a big, big, big fan of us. Right. And they loved the song and they just waited that band. So we went there and Raj honestly Lal Kagra was sunk six times that day.
I promise you I won't say. Then on the fourth time I thought, you know what I mean? I'm not messing about with the Prime Minister. You know what I mean?
[00:58:01] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:58:03] Speaker B: He can hear it as many times as he wants.
[00:58:11] Speaker A: That's crazy. So I'm gonna have you got a bit more to tell about that story because otherwise I'm going to go back to Undisputed.
[00:58:19] Speaker B: No, no, that's it. And that's it. I'm sorry that we. We started from. We were on and that track. That song took us to crazy, crazy places all over the world.
[00:58:31] Speaker A: I remember this video with you and one of the RDB guys. He's playing keys and you're singing Prior tv.
[00:58:50] Speaker B: RDB tv. Yeah.
[00:58:52] Speaker A: It was on there. Yes, yes, yes.
[00:58:54] Speaker B: And what he could. God rest his soul. What a great guy.
[00:58:57] Speaker A: He amazing. Yeah.
[00:58:58] Speaker B: He was the brains behind the whole outfit. He was really, really super, super talented.
He came to my house and we did a like. Just like a live.
Yeah. And we just. I play key. But we didn't. We did a bit of songs live and all that. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, that was from the CPR was a track from Undistributed as well. Which never. There was loads of tracks. Undisputed. There was a track that you. Maya. There was a track.
[00:59:31] Speaker A: Yeah. Another great, great song.
That was a great album, bro. Honestly, hats off. That was a great album.
[00:59:38] Speaker B: Yeah. Then there was a quality and there were pr. There were loads of tracks on the album like I said. But then that Lal. Both naughty, bro.
[00:59:49] Speaker A: We've done 55 minutes crazy in it. So how did Undisputed come to come together?
[00:59:58] Speaker B: The whole album after. After we recorded which girl albums. Yeah. Access Hilarious. We saw the success of the album and that went crazy. That went crazy in England. Worldwide.
[01:00:14] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:00:15] Speaker B: And I remember I even was it. Yeah. Natural Records give us for your outstanding field worldwide of the album. It didn't like 30, 40000 sales. Right. And on Natural Records and they're quite a long story short. We thought right, that's it. Put into the money and this and that and actual records it didn't work out. And so that's another story. So it didn't work out and we said, okay, we're leaving. So we were left Natural Records and I went with Tony. But what it was the Untouchables. They were really up and coming and they had the crew, they had the team. I was so close with them anyway, so I like their team, but on a different label. Right. So I mean I'd be. Record did a lot of tracks because they were not.
[01:01:01] Speaker A: Were they?
[01:01:02] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Even managers even said it. Even some of the tracks was. A lot of. A lot of songs were composed. I did a lot of composition for them.
Aja Mahi, the chorus was partly written by me as well.
You know, Manj actually said, there you go, guys.
[01:01:20] Speaker A: You got it on record.
[01:01:21] Speaker B: Yeah, got it on record. And you know, so lots of stuff. Lots of stuff I've done behind the scenes what people don't even know of. You know, some lyrics I've written or the keyboard or something like that.
So then Tony said, look, bro, I want this track. I'm not bothered what you do, how you do, where you do it. I want this track. I'm going to release that track. I'm not bothered. So then we left Natural Records and we came on to. Well, we had a bit of a disagreement with Natural Records, to be truthful. And so we came with Tony.
Bear in mind, we signed contracts when we didn't know what contracts were exactly.
Yeah, we just did it last time. Yeah, we didn't realize what we were signing. You know what I mean? We couldn't afford music lawyers then we just like anything like. And so we just signed it and you know, whatever. Hope for the best. But when it. When it really dawned on us when the success of the album and then we realized what a signature can do and what it means. Yeah, we realized that PRs. We realized that published. We realize all these little things. Wow.
Not just being album paper and all that. And then I went with. We released. We recorded all the tracks for Undisputed and released it on Tony's label, Untouchables. And it was produced by Untouchable music by Kully from rdb. But he would then work it for Tony.
Tony as a music producer for the company and. Yeah, well, then that just kind of for 10 years, Raj, I didn't need to release anything else because the success of Lal Kugla would just year by year by year, just growing, growing and growing and taking us to Thailand, Malaysia, Kenya, Pakistan. Well, Pakistan became a second home. They Just won't let us go, you know. Yeah. In one year we did 45 shows. Crazy one tall, one tour all up Punjab. 45 shows we did for Punjab College and I think we made history then, you know.
[01:03:38] Speaker A: Unbelievable. So join I went to Bollywood in goodness. Did you have anything to do with that or was it.
[01:03:45] Speaker B: Well I. Because I. I wrote the lyrics so part wrote the lyrics and I a composition. I had to sign an NOC where you give rights to the. The Bollywood now they don't take no rubbish.
[01:03:58] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:03:58] Speaker B: They want song. They need the writer, they need the lyricist. Sorry the. The singer, the arranger. They need everything and they need all the no seeds to give it. And they give good money, don't get me wrong. They pay but they want all them in place first. If you provide that they would have touch it because like they've got burnt, haven't they?
[01:04:18] Speaker A: They've got burnt, yeah.
[01:04:20] Speaker B: They lose thousands, bro. Then when they're put on YouTube say for example, if they hadn't taken my rights or my, you know signatures, they put it up on their T series label or wherever it came out, Z Music's label and it's got 2 million or 4 million or 50 million views. And I put a strike on it because hey, they haven't asked me. It's my arrangement, my lyric. I'm putting a strike on it. They lose loads of money. They lose the whole film can be affected by the ticket, you know. So they do everything by the book. So there. So I had to sign an NOC for not just me, even my brother.
[01:05:01] Speaker A: What does NOC mean Sorry for.
[01:05:03] Speaker B: For the audience so that basically they can use every. So when. When we're not going to put a notice in or anything like that.
[01:05:10] Speaker A: Yeah, gotcha.
[01:05:11] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. So.
So we. We give that. We. We gave them that. Not just me, my whole band was on indisputable. Give their right sign, they sign that do everything.
Yeah there was good money, don't get me wrong. But it that song. But for me what it was. What are my conditions was looked right it's my baby this and it's been out nearly 20 years now.
What's. What's the worst can happen? Yeah, it's going to. Yeah. I found out that actually has loved that track and he's written it beforehand as well for about three or four films but it never worked out. I want it Houseful 2 or Houseful Free. Yeah and a few other films. But for Lal Kagla they actually wrote the whole part for this song that wrote the Lordy part. And it's the only. One of the only songs that's been in a Bollywood film where the actress and actor dancing to it. And it's in part.
It comes on the end of the film. The end.
Yeah. But this actually coming in the phone itself, the whole song. And my condition was get. But look, it's my baby. I've worked hard with it.
I want to be the singer.
I don't want to be changing it to next man. And, you know, I'll sing it and then I'll sign it. And then they said, yeah, yeah, you'll be the singer. We're going to change the lyrics a little bit on the further thing here, but you'll be the singer. The chorus is yours. Whatever you've sung, that'll be yours. And that's how it worked. And it did well. It did well. It took it to a different dimension. But I still say, you see, Lal Gagra was already a big song.
[01:06:44] Speaker A: Absolutely, yeah.
[01:06:45] Speaker B: Around the world already. Everybody knew it. And if anything, people were getting angry with it.
[01:06:51] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, this is not the same. Yeah.
[01:06:53] Speaker B: Bollywood taken this Punjabi truck for why the cop. You know, it's. It had a reverse effect on them.
[01:06:59] Speaker A: Yeah. That happened even now.
[01:07:02] Speaker B: It happened now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But for me, from my point of view, it was harmless because it was just. It may be taken into another territory.
[01:07:09] Speaker A: Absolutely. Yeah.
[01:07:10] Speaker B: It just, you know, and plus, for me, it was a great honor that. To see your song being played on big screen and Akshay and Karina dancing to it.
[01:07:19] Speaker A: Exactly.
Yeah.
[01:07:22] Speaker B: It's like a tick on the box.
[01:07:24] Speaker A: Yeah. We'll be watching since the 90s, like all that.
[01:07:28] Speaker B: Yeah. It's like, he'll take it to me. Daddy.
[01:07:35] Speaker A: Sat, bro. Well, it's your hours done, so I'm gonna respect that. So thank you so much. It's absolute privilege chatting with you and it's been a good laugh, to be fair.
[01:07:48] Speaker B: Well, thank you very much. I'm sorry I've been busy here this and that, but no, it's been a pleasure. Really enjoyed it.
A respect to you as well. You're the artist who promotes over artists. And, you know, hats off to you as well, Raj. You're a great, amazing singer as well, bro. And I wish you all the best.
[01:08:07] Speaker A: Oh, thank you so much, bro, for the love of music and constantly learning.
[01:08:14] Speaker B: I love it. And we need people like you. We need people like you who to push. There's a very, very few people in this industry who get a dil safer who push everybody, you know, I mean, because some of these, you know, like, if they're not so popular, if they haven't got a million views, even the radio stations don't push them. You know what I mean? And it's quite sad.
[01:08:34] Speaker A: That's.
I think that's an affair conversation.
[01:08:37] Speaker B: Yeah, no, definitely. And it makes me angry sometimes. Right. Honestly, it really does. Because I know great singers who release tracks and because they don't fit in their criteria of a certain.
[01:08:49] Speaker A: I'll tell you a little story before we go. Audience can hear this. So I went to this massive radio peep station and we had a song called a cricket song called Home India. Right. It was like a Bollywood style song, but it was a rock song, like heavy, you know, like a Nickelback power chords on there. So we had a band at that time. We took. We took it and we were this big radio station.
Everyone knows who I'm talking about, but I'm not gonna say the same thing. Big radio station. And they had the guys running it and we won that thing just promoting a track. So it was like a conference thing where they call you in to showcase your music, show the music. You know what they said to me? They said, oh, what's British about this?
[01:09:32] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:09:32] Speaker A: And I says, well, it's a rock track. Rock is Beatles. And you know, some of the biggest rock bands come for thingy. What they want, what they thought was British music was if I was. If we were rapping and doing grime and things like that, that was in their head. That's all they wanted.
[01:09:48] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. A lot of the radio stations become ageist of bands and favorite. The, the favorites, you know, it's, you know, but respect went out to yourself. Yeah.
Artist. And, you know, there's a couple of people that do that in the industry.
Really good guy. And yourselves and a lot of people. So hats off to you guys, man.
[01:10:10] Speaker A: If you're ever down Birmingham, make sure you. Make sure you come down and we'll have your stuff. I'm going to stop the podcast and then we'll carry on the conversation afterwards. So, guys, that Herbie Sahara, what a privilege it was. It's probably one of my.
I think I say this about every artist, but all the artists get better and better and better. And so guys, please leave a comment, leave a review, leave. If it's positive, leave it for Herbie.
[01:10:44] Speaker B: Negative. When we used to be, you know, back in the day, times that Punjab 2000, they're bored.
[01:10:51] Speaker A: Oh, gosh.
[01:10:55] Speaker B: The worst thing about it, it all used to be the industry people gosh.
[01:10:59] Speaker A: You know, like, at that time, I remember I released my first song in 2008. Man, I felt really disheartened because the song did really well. But, you know, you get really disheartened.
[01:11:11] Speaker B: All it was with the jealous industry people that couldn't get what you were doing, you know?
[01:11:15] Speaker A: Yeah. Anyway, guys, so make sure you leave a review. Make sure you, you comment. And if you, if you've seen this on a clip, I want to hear this clip. Make sure you share, like, comment and check out Heavy, Heavy. Before we go, where can we catch you on your socials?
[01:11:31] Speaker B: Also Sahara Music uk, Instagram, Snapchat, Sahara Music uk, and Baki. The Sahara music is all Sahara Music UK on all the social, bro.
[01:11:42] Speaker A: And thank you so much once again. So keep listening until we meet again. Thank you.
