[Spot Light: Omar Bilal Akhtar]
By
Complexes: My friends think I’m always getting myself into self righteous arguments and making speeches.
What turns me on: A great sense of humor, and great taste in music without being pretentious
What turns me off: Someone who says ‘like‘ too much
Philosophy of life: Nothing in life worth having ever comes easy.
Secret Ambitions: I want to have a book on the New York Times bestsellers list.
Biggest Crush: Changes all the time, right now it’s Rachel Bilson.
Favorite Musicians: Changes all the time! But right now it’s a band called Arcade Fire
I would love to perform with: Rahat Fateh Ali Khan.
I would love to see my country: As a tourist destination. There are so many incredible places right here in Pakistan and I wish the world new about them, it would keep us in the news for all the right reasons.
Favorite Car: I’m not really a fan of cars: give me a horse any day!
Three things that I hate about music channels: Oh God, I wrote a whole article on this. I guess to summarize it would be: They promote anti-intellectualism, they rarely promote new bands and they have killed any sort of ambition to make quality programming.
Three things that I dislike about morning shows: The lack of genuine interest shown by the hosts, the interview techniques where the hosts talks more than the guests, the same old tired format being peddled across all the channels.
Favorite Dress: I like dressing up, so I’m a fan of wearing suits and ties, the whole deal.
Favorite place to hang out: The beach, I don’t ever want to be in a city that doesn’t have one.
Favorite Movie: There are so many, but it’s probably a tie between ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ and ‘Almost Famous’.
Favorite Actors: Ed Norton & Christian Bale.
Characteristics that attract me as person: I love people who can laugh at themselves and really appreciate a good teasing. Being smart is also attractive. I’m a talker so the most attractive thing for me is someone who I can have a great conversation with.
Three Things I hate to do: Transporting musical equipment, doing TV interviews and dealing with sound guys.
As a kid I was: Always sick or injured.
What I always put off until tomorrow: Writing articles: Whether for my blog or for The Express Tribune.
My Craziest Fan: Luckily don’t have any really crazy fans, occasionally get a couple of stalkers, both male and female online but then again, who doesn’t?
Experience with Coke Studio: Incredible, overwhelming and hard to describe in a few words. But I think for us it made us feel like we’d finally done something worthwhile in the music industry and all our hard work finally paid off and got us the mass acceptance we’d been craving.
Success to me is: Finding one person out there who’s listening to my song and smiling.
Question I hate: Ugh…every question about the name “Aunty Disco Project”. It’s been 4 years. Starting an interview with that question is just lazy.
Question I love: Anything to do with my song, its composition, inspiration and effect.
Food that makes me crazy: Chinese & Desi food.
Biggest Asset: My vocabulary: I can either impress people or confuse the hell out of them. Both results are good.
Music for me is like: Literature, or a painting, timeless and one of the few things truly human.
I define Music as: The way we were meant to communicate before words got in the way.
A moment in life that was truly romantic: Hah! I cannot reveal this. Let’s just say there was a beach and a full moon involved.
My most prized possession: My guitar; seriously imagining life without it gives me crippling depression.
What is the real me like: Pretty shy and constantly over-analyzing.
My idea of perfect happiness: Being on a beach with the girl I love, somebody playing an acoustic guitar in the background and drinking something fruity with a little umbrella in it.
Three things that I like about myself: My sense of humor, my ability to grow facial hair really quickly and penchant for hardcore Bhangra dancing.
Three things that I dislike about myself: My tendency to over think things, my impulsiveness and my inability to say ‘no’ to people.
Biggest Regret: Not learning how to read music at an early age.
Inspiration: My heroes, Led Zeppelin, The Who, The Cure, Black Sabbat, Eric Clapton.
Motivation: My need to be accepted as a credible artist.
First instrument I learnt playing: The guitar, definitely.
Favorite Hero: Superman: I actually identified more with Clark Kent so I always dreamed of having that powerful other personality.
Favorite Quote: “God wisely designed the human body so that we can neither pat our own backs nor kick ourselves too easily. “
Biggest Passion: Definitely music by a long shot, but cricket or literature might be a close second.
Biggest Desire: To win an Oscar for Best Song in a Movie.
Biggest Expectation: Being as big as Junoon.
Favorite Pastime: Reading or watching DVDs, usually while eating something unhealthy.
Favorite Song: Aww! You can’t ask me that question, the list is too long.
Most Memorable Moment: Life is a series of memorable moments so it’s hard to pick one, isn’t it? I suppose the most recent one would be the day our performance of Coke Studio aired.
Source of Learning: There isn’t a single source, and mine probably isn’t different from anyone else. (But it’s usually Wikipedia!)
I hate people who: Have nothing positive to say about anything and are constant pessimists.
Favorite Season: Definitely winter in Karachi but not anywhere else.
Favorite Travel Resorts: Any place tropical with sandy beaches.
Zodiac Sign: Virgo
Biggest Weakness: Being too nice to people means I get taken advantage of quite a lot.
Biggest Strength: My speaking skills.
The biggest hurdle in my way: Myself, and my own self doubt.
I see the future of Pakistani music as: Pakistani music itself will always be great, but I can’t say the same about the people who listen to Pakistani music.
My message to readers: Support upcoming bands, make an effort to find new music and actively tell your friends about it. It’s an exciting time to be a listener and fan of music, so be part of the movement instead of a bystander.
[ Image Courtesy: Forward Media ]
