Head back in time with 'Mera Sara Tu'

Diving into the bittersweet longing of unrequited love, Abbas Ali Khan's deep, alluring voice is back. Not with a bang, exactly, since a bang is hardly the prerogative of longing of any kind, bittersweet or otherwise. But definitely with something. Something that keeps you hitting that replay button over and over until you, too, have committed the song to memory. Welcome to Mera Sara Tu, Abbas's latest collaboration with Sohail Javed and Naad e Ali Zaidi.

A sneak peek

With lyrics by Sohail and music by Abbas, Mera Sara Tu does what any piece of music worth its salt ought to do: work as a time machine to pull you into years long past. In this case, the '90s, thanks to that drumbeat, and a hint of an '80s-esque synthesiser.

The song marks Abbas's return to music after "many years" (his own words), and his deep, alluring voice is not the only treat lying in wait for you. What is the only thing that is better than a deep, alluring voice? The answer, obviously, is two deep, alluring voices. Standing hand-in-hand with Abbas's vocals is the irresistible baritone of none other than Naad e Ali. For five wonderful minutes, we are serenaded by these two velvety voices enunciating ever so clearly the pain of lost love, with the most beautiful melody meandering against the backdrop of a haunting synthesiser-fuelled harmony. The string-like harmony amplifies the longing radiated by the two very solid male voices pulling the melody along. Every word is spelt out with loving diction, with the clean production reminding you that despite that '80s melancholy feel, you are very much in the present day.

"Vital Signs, A-Ha, Awaz, and Phil Collins – these were all my heroes," confesses Abbas to The Express Tribune, for anyone wondering what business that synthesiser has in the twenty-first century. "It's no coincidence."

The whisper of the '80s and Abbas's heroes from the days of yore is tantalisingly evident in the harmonies threading through Mera Sara Tu. Thanks to his 10 years of classical vocal training, however, Abbas is armed with the commanding vocal mastery that eluded Junaid Jamshed and his ilk. So just what goes into writing a five-minute song about unrequited love?

Crafting a song

"When I sit and write a song, I write the composition first," says the 46-year-old musician, giving an insight into how a songwriter's mind ticks. "I write on two different instruments, either on the guitar or the piano – although I wrote this one on piano. The melody comes first. And then I just sing gibberish over it with syllables that make no sense – but those syllables give me a metre to write my song."

In the case of Mera Sara Tu, matters were slightly different, as Sohail had already given Abbas had already been given the words on which to base his melody.

"He gave me those first two sentences, and I started composing," recalls Abbas. "You hear that 'mera SARA tu'? I already had the words, so I knew the rhythm. All I had to do was write the music. While I was composing, he gave me the next two lines. And so on."

After two days with his keyboard, Abbas had churned out the melody. Within five, he had the scratch track all set to go, which is what ended up being used to film the video. That synthesiser we hear throughout Mera Sara Tu is a particular favourite of Abbas', transporting him back in time to when he first fell in love with music as a child.

"A synthesiser reminds me of my childhood and the good old days when I started doing music," says Abbas fervently. "It takes me down memory lane. I can't explain the feeling. I just get all these good vibes."

A quick turnaround

Abbas recalls how the song fell into his lap almost by chance, with Sohail approaching him in the gym to ask if he would be interested in putting his words to music.

"When he sent me the lines I instantly got inspired," says Abbas. "I went home, sat at my keyboard and started composing. The tune just came to me."

It was not difficult to bring on board Naad e Ali, whom Abbas has known for some time due to their shared work over voice-overs in advertisements.

"When he first came on, I removed the vocals of this really cheesy Indian song as a prank and asked Naad e Ali what he thought," says Abbas with a chuckle. "I just sat there looking at his expression. And he just went, 'Um, sir, I'm not against it…'"

To put Naad e Ali out of his misery over this forced politeness, Abbas then played the track that eventually sits before us. "They both got hooked and said they loved it," Abbas says of his two collaborators. He also credits the song's quick turnaround on their presence and instant feedback. Having two others on board relying on him, it transpires, kept the dreaded procrastination at bay, prone to plaguing any creative artist working solo.

"When I'm working by myself, it can take me anywhere from – oh, I don't know – 10 to 12 days or even four months!" says Abbas, laughing. "I have a lot of songs that are unfinished and just lying there, and then I eventually get to them."

Abbas' fans will be happy to know that Mera Sara Tu is not a lone crumb thrown their way to keep them appeased for the next few years. "I have a couple of tracks in the pipeline," he confides. "I'm working with Ahsan Parvaiz [Mehdi] – we wrote a song called Khamoshi about 14 or 15 years ago, and he called me up to ask if we should do something with it, so…"

Abbas leaves his words hanging, but the message is clear: keep your eyes peeled and your ears pricked. Until then, keep doing what the Mera Sara Tu fandom is doing on YouTube: listen to the song on repeat until something new comes along to join the ranks.

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