In true colour

He is the gentle giant of the music industry. One third of one of the first bands to come out in the second pop industry boom, Fuzon, Shallum lacks the outgoing-on-all-occasions persona predominant in most well-known musicians in the industry, neither is he the kind to sit back and slip into the shadows. Perhaps the best way to describe him would be to say that he isn’t a ‘crowd’ person.

Shallum chose to expand his music in Norway when an opportunity presented itself some three odd years ago. A Norwegian telecommunications company brought Fryd, a popular Norwegian band, to Pakistan and together with Fuzon, they performed at the anniversary of the telecommunications company. Fuzon was then invited to perform in Norway later that same year and following that, Shallum and drummer Gumby went on to perform in a Norwegian music festival last year as well.“It was a great experience,” said Shallum talking about the festival, “I did a few recordings there as well.”

The Norwegians seem to have taken a liking to Shallum as he has been invited to perform with a symphony orchestra some time in September. He has also been asked to form and compose a 15-minute musical track and, according to him, “assemble a team of performers to represent Pakistan.”

Speaking about his team, he says, “I will be teaming up with Jawaid Bashir (the vocalist of the Meekal Hasan Band), Pappu (the flute player from the Meekal Hasan Band), Ammr Vandal, a Kathak dancer originally from Pakistan but currently studying in New York these days, Ingrid Kindem (the keyboardist from the Norwegian band Fryd) and Jai Shankar, a noted tabla player.” It is interesting to note that Jai Shankar has recently won an accolade from both Norway and India for his skills on the tabla.

Shallum has, for the longest time, been talking about recording his own solo instrumental album. Now that he has begun to work on music for it and with his Norwegian-related activities taking place around the corner, is Fryd going to be a part of his solo venture? “I’ll be collaborating with Ingrid Kindem the keyboard player from Fryd and the musicians just mentioned”, he replied, “but Fryd (on a whole) is not a part of this project”

Out of his individual work, one instrumental, My Guardian Angel, was released via the CD that the World Music Magazine (headed by Arshad Mahmood) gives out with every issue. Is it going to be a part of the upcoming album? “I’m not sure if that’s going to be the title track of the album. I am working on some tracks and ideas but I’m not sure whether I’ll be coming out with the album this year,” he said.

Not content with simply being just a musician, Shallum has decided to dip his hands into the production side of music as well. “I have been producing new upcoming artistes and I really enjoying the experience of working on each and every aspect of the process of making music,” he replies enthusiastically. “Some of these talented individuals will be releasing their music pretty soon.”

Notwithstanding the band he started out with, Shallum mentions that “Fuzon is releasing their first video from the second album, titled Suna Suna, in August. The video has been directed by Sohail Javed.” What about the launch of the album itself? “Fuzon’s second album is going to be out in August so there are quite a few things to look forward to. We have some concerts planned here in Pakistan and we have a tour of India in a few months as well,” he concludes.

Photography by Fayyaz Ahmed

First Published:
Images
July 29, 2007