Kashmiri singer-songwriter Alif aka Mohammad Muneem Nazir speaks with us from Milwaukee forward of his new single “Zu Ha Wandai,” an intimate, anguished tune that’s based mostly round desirous to share one’s soul with one other.
Muneem says, “It’s when one human being is speaking to a different and saying how, within the transaction of something between two individuals, what’s it that stays? Generally, even the act of kissing the brow simply shapes the factor.” Together with his vocals, the artist took an deliberately decrease register for the lyrics we hear at first of the tune, to suggest how “it’s the straightforward a part of the dialog” whereas the high-pitched vocals seem within the second a part of the dialog within the lyrics.
Produced by Alif’s longtime collaborator Aman Moroney, he says the way in which “Zu Ha Wandai” got here collectively instrumentally was an consequence of “years and years” belief that the 2 have constructed. “It was fairly unbelievable how typically you don’t have to clarify your self, you simply go together with the vibe of it,” Muneem says. Drawn to together with strings (“due to what they make you’re feeling,” he says), the tune closes with some of the evocative characterizations of solitude and loneliness. He says, “I wished to have a little bit feeling of the redundancy of emotion. Like how do you’re feeling much less lonely, a little bit bit extra longer, for it to change into a solitude?”
The one follows Alif’s collaborative EP with veteran singer Rekha Bhardwaj from 2024, referred to as Ab Mujhe Ishq Karna Aata Hai. Made with lyrics by Siddharth Pandit, Muneem mentioned in an earlier interview that he was “completely humbled” to work with Bhardwaj. Within the works over the span of 4 years, Muneem says the EP was all about “how songs and poetry saved me” and was “written out of desperation with the intention to keep afloat emotionally.”
Muneem factors out amid releasing this predominantly Urdu and Hindi language EP, the tune “Mirror Mirror On The Wall” had a gap part that includes Kashmiri language, which introduced him again to consider releasing “Zu Ha Wandai,” a tune in his native language. “The language that you simply assume in, the language that you simply cry in or really feel feelings, is the closest to your coronary heart,” he says.
Alif had one present in New York, however says his journey to the U.S. can be as a result of there’s been some curiosity in his catalog from labels in that a part of the world. He’s conscious that it is probably not essentially guided by anybody’s curiosity in Kashmiri poetry (“This language turns into an instrument, like a saxophone or trumpet or cello solo to [people here],” he says with fun), however desires to gauge individuals’s reactions. There have additionally been exhibits in Los Angeles and a profit live performance in Milwaukee – all below the moniker Alif Faqat, which signifies a solo set. “That is thrilling for me. I’ve at all times loved songs very intimately, as a result of that’s how they’re made – we choose up a guitar and play and that’s how songs get made after which dressed up. That’s the true type of a tune,” he says.
As soon as he’s again in India, Alif is planning an EP tour for Ab Mujhe Ishq Karna Aata Hai with Bhardwaj. “We wish to take the songs to the bottom and see what occurs there. It’s nice occasions,” Muneem provides.
