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The heartbreaking split…
Shallum: It was Emu and I who came up with Fuzon. It was our brainchild. Even now after all that has happened, Fuzon is there. We obviously wanted things to happen with the pervious band but Shafqat was not interested, so we had to move on. Now we are back with a new sound. Fuzon is back and we have finished our second album. We are musicians and this is what we want to do for the rest of our lives.
Emu: We are team players even though we do our own separate projects. But when we talk about Fuzon, we talk about Fuzon, the band. As a band, all three of us are not a separate entity but one. No doubt that Shafqat bhai will be missed by his admirers but Fuzon has its fans and they will come to listen regardless of who is there and who is not.
Missing the old Fuzon
Shallum: We have just done a very successful tour of India and performed in front of 8000 people in Ahmadabad and they were singing to each and every song that we were performing — even the new songs that they hadn’t heard before.
Emu: Good or bad, whatever happens, we will take it as a challenge. I’ll give you an example of Van Hallan, the greatest guitarist. He compiled six albums with David Lee Rock. Eventually, David decided to go solo. He did two solo albums, and then went into oblivion. But as for Van Hallan, he is still there and has been there for the past 20 years. Rameez will be with us from now on, so when people will listen to us, they will obviously miss Shafqat for a while. That is bound to happen. We are prepared for that.
Rameez: As Shallum said, we had a successful tour of India. It was like a promotional tour along with an interview session with MTV. It is true that people want to listen to Fuzon. I felt at home even though I am the new face in Fuzon. This proves that people want to listen to the band rather than an individual.
Who is Rameez?
Emu: To be honest, there were many singers who approached us and we respect that. If not Rameez, it would have been someone else. We have always taken up challenges. When we were coming up with Fuzon for the first time, the overall sound was different. Same is the case with Rameez. He is a friend and he had sung many of my jingles. Secondly, he is a cultured man with his values intact and that is what we needed. He is someone with whom we can gel perfectly.
Rameez: My singing debut was with Sohail Rana. I never pursued singing as a career though I wanted to. After finishing my studies abroad, I did try to take up music but did not find it an easy road. I have known Emu and Shallum for quite a while as friends and now they are my professional partners. Since I had a rapport with them, these two were very supportive. I did not have to go through the process of understanding them. Our frequency is well-adjusted. I always wanted to form a band but I was hot vying for Fuzon. Having said that, it has been like a dream come true. When you have the talent, you want to show it to people. So God has given me an opportunity to be their vocalist.
Emu: Now as far as our new vocalist Rameez goes, yes, he has the basic training but not the kind Shafqat had. Rameez has his own individual style which is completely different and he is, no doubt, a superb vocalist. With Shafqat that was good then and now we are taking it a step further. As producers, musicians and composers, it is our duty to do so.
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The new album
Emu: We started working on the new album last January and honestly speaking, it took us four to five months to compile. Some compositions were already made when we were in the process of compiling the second album with Shafqat. But with a new singer, we had to drop that. So we were starting from the scratch. We had a lot of fun recording it in my studio. The new album is titled Journey which one can take in the literal sense. Compiled by different lyricists — Anwar Maqsood, Ali Noon, Sajjad Ali and others — the album has 11 songs in the Pakistani version to be released by Musik Records ARY. However, the album that we will release in India has 10 songs as we have given one song to the soon-to-be released Bollywood film Mumbai Cutting. Our song Lagey Na Jiya was appreciated a lot by them. It is the promotional song of the movie.
What looms in the future?
Emu: Concerts and interviews. Then we have to introduce the new singer properly to the masses. By now people know who Rameez is and what he is up to. Trailers are on and the videos of three songs are in the making. Neend Na Aay Teray Bina is directed by Mazhar Raza and Nigel and another video is being made by Sohail Javed. The Bollywood song’s video has been shot in India. So our homework is done, as far as introducing the new album is concerned.
Shallum: We are very positive and sure of ourselves. If 10,000 people came to listen to us in India, 20,000 will come in Pakistan. We got our identity here; we belong to this country and have earned a lot of love and respect. These are the people who will take us to a higher level. Fuzon is our voice to the world. That is who we are and this is what we want to do. We have been to festivals, collaborated with international bands in and around the world, so we know our ground, our worth and we know where we are going. There is a lot to experiment in the future, rock or perhaps writing some songs in English. So yes, we are very confident as musicians that the kind of music we do is bound to go places. |
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