{"id":10774,"date":"2007-06-06T16:55:59","date_gmt":"2007-06-06T16:55:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tat.reddaisytrading.co.uk\/index.php\/2007\/06\/06\/uk-bhangras-ultimate-warrior\/"},"modified":"2007-06-06T16:55:59","modified_gmt":"2007-06-06T16:55:59","slug":"uk-bhangras-ultimate-warrior","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/2007\/06\/06\/uk-bhangras-ultimate-warrior\/","title":{"rendered":"UK Bhangra’s \u2018Ultimate ‘Warrior’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Mehsopuria back on the Bhangra scene<\/h3>\n
\"\"According to Mehsopuria he’s never been away despite taking over a year to release his highly-anticipated third album ‘Warrior’. With previous albums having taken the <\/strong>UK<\/strong> bhangra industry by storm there is huge anticipation for his latest offering. Here we speak to the international superstar about ‘Warrior’ and just why his Punjabi roots are so important to him… <\/strong><\/div>\n

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Interview By Zakia Yousaf<\/em><\/strong><\/div>\n

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You\u2019re back on the music scene with your new album. Is it great to be back? <\/strong><\/div>\n

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It\u2019s good to be back Zakia with a new product in the market. Being back as an artist is good when you bring something new and not recycle your old sound, so in that sense it\u2019s great to be back. Talking about being back, I haven\u2019t really been away to be honest, just spent a long time on the album, making sure it was better than the debut and experimenting with different ideas to develop myself as a solo artist, which I think is evident in the product.<\/div>\n

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Tell me a bit about your new album \u2018Warrior\u2019. <\/strong><\/div>\n

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\u2018Warrior\u2019 is a 10 track album, which was recorded over almost 13\/14 months. During the process of recording, I had written over 40 songs and recorded in total around 20+ tracks, of which 10 were selected. The sound of the album is fresh and different to my previous album, also the selection of songs is better. I\u2019ve catered for my fans by delivering quite a few pure Bhangra tracks and the response from the fans has shown they love the album, which is what it\u2019s all about, the buying public.<\/div>\n

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\u2018Mehsopuria \u2013 The Album\u2019 was a great success for you. Was it difficult for you to come up with a selection of tracks for \u2018Warrior\u2019 which you thought would eclipse your previous albums? <\/strong><\/div>\n

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For me it wasn\u2019t difficult Zakia, as \u2018Mehsopuria The Album\u2019 was a debut and part of the learning process, I have matured as a singer, lyricist and become aware of what sort of songs my fans want, therefore it was more easier in the sense I was clear as to what they want and what I want to deliver, just needed to find the right balance in the album. The other thing with \u2018Warrior\u2019 was, I made a more conscious effort to send a message through at least one of the songs and that was song 6 Maapeh, which is about parents, I won\u2019t go on too much about it, apart from saying to my fans, listen to it and if you don\u2019t understand certain parts, have someone more fluent in Punjabi translate them for you. I\u2019m sure the listeners will appreciate this track very much.<\/div>\n

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Warrior has a certain sound that could actually lift it out of the niche Bhangra market. Is appealing to a non-Asian audience something that goes through your mind when putting an album together? <\/strong><\/div>\n

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I think your talking about the opening track \u2018Patna\u2019, that is more aimed towards non-Asians. To be frank, it\u2019s about showing non-Asians how versatile and rich our \u2018Punjabi\u2019 language\/music is. The track itself is Crunk (Hip-Hop) and we\u2019ve added Bhangra elements to it, with Punjabi singing\/rapping, thus creating a vibrant fusion of two popular genres of music, that fuse together so well. The idea is to bring non-Asians towards Bhangra music, a new appreciative audience, which we are achieving as some well known non-Asian presenters\/artists\/dj\u2019s have liked the track a lot. Overall most of the album is aimed for the Bhangra fans.<\/div>\n

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How do you rate the current Bhangra scene in the <\/strong>UK<\/strong>? <\/strong><\/div>\n

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I don\u2019t really sit here judging the scene, whether it\u2019s good or bad, I just do what I enjoy and deliver Bhangra tracks that I think my fans would enjoy. Assessing the scene is for others to do, I just feel blessed to be representing Punjabi music and honoured to write, compose and sing about our heritage, culture, language and the Punjabi way of life. I think the fans who actually buy, can asses the scene and pick and chose what they want to listen to.<\/div>\n

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You\u2019re own history and roots are very important to you when it comes to music. Why is this? <\/strong><\/div>\n

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I\u2019m proud of being Punjabi and not being born in Punjab, has meant that I\u2019ve had to find out more about our culture, country and language. The more I learnt as a kid, the more fondness I grew for Punjab and our mother tongue Punjabi. As a youngster I always felt I should hold on to our roots and history in my own way. The importance of Punjab\u2019s history carries great importance, as that is where my ancestors are from and thus it\u2019s a part of me too.<\/div>\n

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\"\"How difficult is it to try and come up with new sounds? <\/strong><\/div>\n

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You know it\u2019s probably difficult because so much new stuff has samples, which makes creating and developing a new sound more difficult. In terms of creating a new sound for percussion, that is difficult and as an artist you become more aware of it, as you record more and more percussion. In \u2018Warrior\u2019\u00a0I\u2019ve tried different sounds, most have worked and I\u2019ll continue to try different sound to see if I can develop my future tracks and not repeat the same sounds, creating your own sound and then developing the sound more takes time.<\/div>\n

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Finally, what are you passionate about other than music?<\/strong><\/div>\n

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Working out and staying fit, martial arts, football and some other sports. My team Liverpool Football Club, have always been my passion as a kid and always will be. I enjoy watching Boxing, Snooker, Tennis, Athletics and UFC too. I use to enjoy painting, which I still do but don\u2019t get time towards working on something creative as it requires patience and time.<\/div>\n

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‘Warrior’ is out now<\/em><\/div>\n

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Win a Signed Mehsopuria Album Catalogue!<\/a> <\/div>\n

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Mehsopuria back on the Bhangra scene According to Mehsopuria he’s never been away despite taking over a year to release his highly-anticipated third album ‘Warrior’. With previous albums having taken the UK bhangra industry by storm there is huge anticipation for his latest offering. Here we speak to the international superstar about ‘Warrior’ and just […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}