Interview with Faakhir Mehmood

After a Lingering Hiatus,

Interview by Sadaf Fayyaz
(Published in The Saturday Post, Issue 188)

After a Lingering Hiatus, Faakhir Speaks

“Sab Tun Sohniyeh” guy shares something new about him and speaks out now and is again ready to rock his fans after “Aatish”, “Sab Tun Sohniyeh” and “Mantra”. Full of energy and life, he never stops. His music deeply reflects his novelty and arty idiom. Filled with much more energy and charged with inimitable enthusiasm, crème de la crème of Pakistan Pop music with comprising sagacious peculiarities: that is Faakhir Mehmood.

It’s a long time after Mantra, nothing new from your side.

In fact, I am working on my upcoming album and just back from a concert at Toronto. I am still so exhausted and sleeping a lot. I feel like releasing it when things and conditions are a bit settled, when people are in a mood to enjoy good and colorful music. I like to give a gap of about two years in my albums. But it’s almost four years after “Mantra”, this gap is a bit longer.

Tell something about the Toronto Concert.

The Toronto concert went very well and it’s a great place to visit too. Since most of friends and fans are there, and the concert really went well, with almost an audience of two thousand plus. I enjoyed a lot and the trip was awesome. I am back now.

Share something about your song “Maula”. Whose theme it was? This idea came to my mind while I was doing some export of Sky-diving materials. I realized that time how difficult it was to do para jumping and sky diving. It’s quite difficult and dangerous to perform these acts. It requires a lot of courage to do so. So we just thought of making a song on it, with a message that nothing is difficult in the world. We shot this video in London, UK, and it was directed by me. It is in fact, not a part of any of my albums, but a single number. It depicts a very simple message.

Tell us something about your upcoming album.
Let’s see when it comes out. There will be about ten tracks in the album, depending upon me, if I add some more even. (Laughs) “Maula” may or may not be a part of it. I am currently working on the album. I may go for a video initially.
You have been appointed as a Goodwill Ambassador, tell us about that:

I have been appointed as AMBASSODOR FOR ‘WAR ON TOBACCO’ in Pakistan by the Federal Ministry of Health. Plus another appointment includes regarding health awareness. So I am serving as a Goodwill Ambassador for the Anti-Tobacco campaign.

What was your experience as a judge on “Pakistan Sangeet Icon”?

Well, it was a very nice experience and I was quite happy from my job as a judge. The greatest thing is that I was very fair, impartial and honest during the judgment. There were no personal favors and I didn’t know any of the contestants. My dealing with the participants was very fair and just. I also felt happy that after so much of hard work, I have come up to the judge level now. Shehzad Roy and Immu were the other two judges besides me. I am quite contented that I did a lot of justice with my job. 

How do you define music?

I think music cannot be explained or defined. Even if you write a whole book on it, with so many theories, and it doesn’t attract, it goes wasted. Good music can always be felt and listened to. So I would say that “Music cannot be explained or defined. It must be heard and felt”.

What was the first instrument you learnt playing?

During school days, I bought a mouth organ for 35 Rs. from a shop at super market, Islamabad. I learnt playing it in a day. I remember, as a child, I used to take it to school and play there. (laughs). Though, I intended to impress my class fellows a lot. So it was fun at that time.

How do you handle mistakes during a performance?

I get annoyed easily if some mishaps happen or if things do not occur as initially planned. Even after so much practice and work, if something goes wrong, I am irritated. The same happens when there is a sound problem or some other technical one. I usually look behind to my co-performers in order to avoid such things. At times I scold them too, but scolding makes them more nervous. Actually, things get covered even if something goes wrong. I demand perfectionism in everything that I do. Audience notices fault very rarely, but we know that something wrong has happened.

How do you balance out music with family?

It’s nothing special about us. We are just like other professionals who work “9-5” daily. Bankers, accountants, engineers, corporate level people, or doctors usually have such work timings. The way they balance out work with family, applies to me too. There is a lot of hard work, practice and jam sessions going on. Besides these, some promotional events, campaigns, video-making and marketing phases are also there: each one of these requires time and effort. Therefore, just like other professionals, we learn to manage it too.

What message does your music spread in the world?

I am a very fun-loving and jubilant kind of a person. I mostly do ballads and my compositions are quite romantic. I feel joyful to make people happy and believe in it. I believe in providing good entertainment to people with my music. I would never do a melancholic or highly depressing song that makes me distressing too. Instead, I would cherish making a lively, full-of-life and soulful composition, which is highly relished by everyone.

How have you come over your sinus problem?

Yes, I used to have a sinus problem in the beginning. For a singer, it’s killing to have this problem. But I worked quite hard on it and overcame it. After shows or tiring hectic days, I give a lot of rest to vocal cords. If you don’t give proper rest to these, this can cause meningitis too. After so much speaking and singing, your throat definitely needs some rest. I have overcome my sinus problem by taking proper voice rest, good sleep, taking steam without any crystal, and running (jogging). These four tips are very useful and I don’t miss my jogging even a single day. One of my friends suggested running as a remedy to overcome sinus problem.
What is the basic demand of this (music) profession?
(Thinks for a while) I think this profession requires core focus and hard work. Every profession requires struggle, though. Constant hard work and constant struggle are the two main demands of this profession, plus some innovation too. I believe in being creative and delivering something new every time. If I start composing something I was doing eight years back, that won’t be appreciated at all. Therefore, bringing novelty and more creativity to the work matters a lot. Every person in his life faces a stage where his creativity is almost negligible or nearly ending. This happens to every person and me too, so I believe in taking a break at that time, and coming back with striking ingenuity again.

Which musicians have inspired you and what are your favorite bands?

There are so many. Whatever I listened to during my formative years, is my inspiration now. My favorite band is Fusion, plus I like Sajjad Ali and Rahat Fateh Ali Khan. “Sab Tun Sohniyah” was a remake item. I just took the first words from the original song and worked on it, with an entirely different set of lyrics and music.

Lastly your message to the readers of The Saturday Post:

Believe in yourself and work hard to achieve anything. Constant success requires constant struggle and hard work. There is no end to hard work and struggle.