Streaming: Mooroo releases ‘Pehli’ album

Record features nine new tracks and collaborations with various artists

KARACHI: Taimoor Salahuddin — or Mooroo, as his fans call him — has been making quite a name for himself ever since bursting onto the music scene back in 2011. In fact, his song Mariam recently won an award at the Lux Style Awards — a win Mooroo seems to have followed up with the release of his first complete album, Pehli.

The new record was released on music-streaming website Patari on November 12. While the title of the album is fairly self-explanatory, Mooroo revealed that it features nine new tracks and a bunch of collaborations with other artists such as Shamoon Ismail, Sunny Khan Durrani, Jasir Abro and Abdul Aziz Kazi. “Most of the tracks are driven from my personal experiences. Some of them are about love, and then there are some questions about life and existence,” he shared. “Some romantic queries, some thoughts that have preoccupied my mind over the past two years have led to these songs. One of them is a socio-political track, while the rest of them are all fairly intimate personal songs.”



The singer said the fans can expect only one thing from his album: artistic merit. “I think the closest thing to me is my music; the fans can expect the music to be ‘Mooroo’.” According to him, one should listen to his music with an open mind. “Sometimes, people take a while to figure out if they like something. Like in my case, there’s been a slow accumulation of fans…Not overnight success.”

Praising digital music platforms, the Mariam hit-maker said his success would not have been possible without the internet. “I have everything because of the internet. The digital platform allows for niche audiences to come together unlike television, which is a very mass driven medium,” explained Mooroo. “But on the internet, it has a democratising effect and so, it’s very self-empowering.”

Nonetheless, the musician noted there are some drawbacks to online music streaming as well. “You have to be entrepreneurial about your work. And it’s also the way that internet filters good things from bad things. If your content is not up to par, the internet will be the reality check for you,” he said.

When asked if he has plans to venture into film music, Mooroo replied in the negative. “I’m not necessarily interested because it’s not my own personal expression that I’ll be serving. I don’t know how much freedom I’d be given and I, for one, like to experiment.”

The musician added that the album is very experimental and delves into many different genres. “I like my musical landscape to grow and evolve,” said Mooroo. “With film music, it’s a very standard orchestral setup. They have particular Bollywood or Hollywood references that they always bring up and I like unconventional type of music.”

Unwilling to compromise on his creative freedom, Mooroo said music is one thing that’s not driven by money in his life. However, 75% of his songs have been sold for feature films. “I like that process because that way, you are not directed. You are your own director and you express yourself. And I don’t want my music to suffer from that in any way.”

Published in The Express Tribune, November 16^th, 2016.

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