My solo tracks are short stories waiting to be told: Bilal Ali

Bilal Ali, the lead vocalist for Pakistani music band Kashmir, made a solo comeback with his single Dil just this month. The electronic track is a surprising drift from the singer-songwriter’s contributions to his alternative rock band. In an interview with The Express Tribune, Bilal began by speaking about the intent behind his newest release.

“Actually, this song just came to me,” he revealed. “With Kashmir, usually the songs are about things that the band is going through or something that’s prevalent in society and has more of a rebel cause. But as Bilal Ali, I write more about the things that are deeply personal to me, things that I’m feeling momentarily.”

Exceeding expectations

Championing versatility in his releases, it is evident that the singer doesn’t wish to limit himself to a singular sound. He emphasised on that fact at length, “People get confused once they hear a new sound. But the thing is, for an artist who writes and composes music, it mainly boils down to the melody and lyrics. Then it comes to the producer as well and how they want to treat the product.”

“Obviously an artist also has a vision, but I’ve never limited myself. As humans, we are ever-evolving, which is a philosophy I stick by. Yes, there are exceptions. For instance with Jeena Nahin, I didn’t want to give it an electronic touch. It had a specific charm that I wanted to maintain,” he said.

“Even Dil started off as an acoustic song, about two years ago. I produced it myself and set it aside for over a year, rarely going back,” he described. “I have this habit of only releasing songs after letting them marinate for a while. I live with them first before releasing them.”

Expanding on his creative process, he revealed, “I shared this song with Waleed Ahmed (Janoobi Khargosh), our friend of ours and Kashmir’s first musical producer. He absolutely loved Dil and expressed that he wanted to work on it with me. The final product blew me away. That’s what we decided to go with.”

On concerts and Kashmir

“I’ve gotten requests for solo concerts, but there’s a lot that’s yet to be released from my end. Once a fully fledged album is compiled with about 10-12 songs, then I think I’ll be comfortable doing a solo concert,” he mentioned.