{"id":623323,"date":"2024-06-06T20:30:27","date_gmt":"2024-06-06T17:30:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/arooj-aftabs-constellations\/"},"modified":"2024-06-06T20:30:27","modified_gmt":"2024-06-06T17:30:27","slug":"arooj-aftabs-constellations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/arooj-aftabs-constellations\/","title":{"rendered":"#Arooj Aftab\u2019s constellations"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"content_blocks\">\n<style>\n #content_block-262016 {\n   background: ;\n   padding-bottom: 40px;\n }<\/p>\n<\/style>\n<style>\n<p> #content_block-262016 {\n   background: ;\n   margin-bottom: 60px;\n }<\/p>\n<p> article.custom .custom-title, article.custom .custom-<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">media<\/a> .caption {\n   color: #ffffff;\n }<\/p>\n<p> article.custom .custom-attribution, article.custom .custom-attribution a {\n   color: #ffffff;\n }<\/p>\n<p> article.custom .content_block blockquote.pull_quote {\n   color: #ffffff;\n }\n<\/style>\n<div id=\"content_block-262016\" class=\"content_block flush title center_align\">\n<div class=\"content_inner_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"custom-title\">\n      Arooj Aftab\u2019s constellations\n    <\/div>\n<div class=\"custom-description\">\n      The Pakistani singer discusses the far-flung foundations of her new album, <i>Night Reign<\/i>.\n    <\/div>\n<div class=\"custom-attribution\">\n<div class=\"author\">\n    <span><br \/>\n      By <span class=\"credit_name\">Raphael Helfand<\/span><br \/>\n  <\/span><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"custom-media\">\n<div class=\" image center_align\">\n<p>  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_1440,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/R0005960_cred.-Shreya-Dev-Dube_1_zfg0hy\/arooj-aftab-photo-by-a-target-_new-href-https-www-instagram-com-shredevdube-hl-en-shreya-dev-dube-a.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_220,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/R0005960_cred.-Shreya-Dev-Dube_1_zfg0hy\/arooj-aftab-photo-by-a-target-_new-href-https-www-instagram-com-shredevdube-hl-en-shreya-dev-dube-a.jpg 220w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_300,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/R0005960_cred.-Shreya-Dev-Dube_1_zfg0hy\/arooj-aftab-photo-by-a-target-_new-href-https-www-instagram-com-shredevdube-hl-en-shreya-dev-dube-a.jpg 300w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_400,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/R0005960_cred.-Shreya-Dev-Dube_1_zfg0hy\/arooj-aftab-photo-by-a-target-_new-href-https-www-instagram-com-shredevdube-hl-en-shreya-dev-dube-a.jpg 400w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/R0005960_cred.-Shreya-Dev-Dube_1_zfg0hy\/arooj-aftab-photo-by-a-target-_new-href-https-www-instagram-com-shredevdube-hl-en-shreya-dev-dube-a.jpg 600w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_750,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/R0005960_cred.-Shreya-Dev-Dube_1_zfg0hy\/arooj-aftab-photo-by-a-target-_new-href-https-www-instagram-com-shredevdube-hl-en-shreya-dev-dube-a.jpg 750w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_840,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/R0005960_cred.-Shreya-Dev-Dube_1_zfg0hy\/arooj-aftab-photo-by-a-target-_new-href-https-www-instagram-com-shredevdube-hl-en-shreya-dev-dube-a.jpg 840w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_960,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/R0005960_cred.-Shreya-Dev-Dube_1_zfg0hy\/arooj-aftab-photo-by-a-target-_new-href-https-www-instagram-com-shredevdube-hl-en-shreya-dev-dube-a.jpg 960w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_1260,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/R0005960_cred.-Shreya-Dev-Dube_1_zfg0hy\/arooj-aftab-photo-by-a-target-_new-href-https-www-instagram-com-shredevdube-hl-en-shreya-dev-dube-a.jpg 1260w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_1800,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/R0005960_cred.-Shreya-Dev-Dube_1_zfg0hy\/arooj-aftab-photo-by-a-target-_new-href-https-www-instagram-com-shredevdube-hl-en-shreya-dev-dube-a.jpg 1800w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_2400,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/R0005960_cred.-Shreya-Dev-Dube_1_zfg0hy\/arooj-aftab-photo-by-a-target-_new-href-https-www-instagram-com-shredevdube-hl-en-shreya-dev-dube-a.jpg 2400w,\" sizes=\"100vw\" alt=\"Arooj Aftab\u2019s constellations\"><span class=\"img_caption\"><\/p>\n<p>    <span class=\"caption\"><br \/>\n      Arooj Aftab. Photo by <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/shredevdube\/?hl=en\">Shreya Dev Dube<\/a>.<br \/>\n    <\/span><\/p>\n<p>  <span class=\"credit\"><br \/>\n      \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>  <\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"custom_share_buttons_top \" style=\"\">\n<div id=\"new_socials_bottom\" class=\"new_socials_footer  \">\n<p>      <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" width=\"40\" height=\"40\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thefader.com\/assets\/FDR_SocialSharing_Facebook-747312c39722d47504a80f02500b8d4ad2e36acf922bad1c83799db1bc77f605.png\"><!-- <span>Share<\/span> --><\/p>\n<p>  <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thefader.com%2F2024%2F06%2F06%2Farooj-aftabs-night-reign-interview%3Futm_source%3Df%26utm_medium%3Dtw%26utm_campaign%3Dshare&amp;text=Arooj%20Aftab%E2%80%99s%20constellations&amp;via=thefader\" class=\"new_social_footer_button twitter new_social_share_button\" data-ga-event-category=\"Social Share\" data-ga-event-label=\"Twitter\" data-ga-on=\"click\" data-ga-event-action=\"cilck\"><\/p>\n<p>    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" width=\"40\" height=\"40\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thefader.com\/assets\/FDR_SocialSharing_Twitter-8d78f695280aa3f8a4461702c68e9fcbfd6042af1600c62d49fdec4b735fb57a.png\"><!-- <span>Tweet<\/span> --><\/a><\/p>\n<p>        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" width=\"20\" height=\"20\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thefader.com\/assets\/logo-snapchat-5f1563935ac089d0cf1773f642ddbfb6cdb16e8c4ac14fec95a3c11b6f963389.svg\"><!-- <span>Snap<\/span> --><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<style>\n<p> #content_block-262017,  #content_block-262017 blockquote.pull_quote, #content_block-262017 .img_caption .caption {\n   color: #ffffff;\n }\n<\/style>\n<div id=\"content_block-262017\" class=\"content_block paragraph text triple_gutter_right triple_gutter_left center_align\">\n<div class=\"content_inner_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"paragraph_wrapper center_align\">\n<p>            Arooj Aftab is a nocturnal creature by preference. It\u2019s a sunny Sunday afternoon \u2014 Aftab is dressed in black and wears dark sunglasses \u2014 and we\u2019re sitting outside a caf\u00e9 on the BedStuy-Bushwick border, not far from our respective homes. The rumble of the J train overhead and the occasional siren whizzing down Broadway punctuate our discussion of <i>Night Reign<\/i>, the Pakistani singer\u2019s newest album.<\/p>\n<div class=\"\" style=\"padding-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; text-align: left;\">\n<\/div>\n<p>            <i>Night Reign<\/i> is a celebration of the moonlit hours Aftab loves best. Whereas her last solo record, 2022\u2019s Grammy-winning <i>Vulture Prince<\/i>, was recorded in the wake of her brother\u2019s passing, the new project arose from a h<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>ier period, as the pandemic waned, the city reopened, and nighttime returned to its place of primacy over day. Among several novel elements, the addition of flirtatious percussion grounds us most immediately in this dark, exciting world.<\/p>\n<p>            Songs such as \u201cWhiskey,\u201d with its silky R&amp;B intro, and \u201cRaat Ki Rani,\u201d with its groovy drumline, push Aftab\u2019s sound in new directions, while tracks like \u201cNa Gul\u201d and \u201cSaaqi,\u201d in which she sets the work of the poet Mah Laqa Bai Chanda to song for the first time, find her diving deeper into the sumptuous territory she knows so well. In addition to her common core of collaborators \u2014 harpist Maeve Gilchrist, guitarist Gyan Riley, violinist Darien Donovan Thomas, bassist Petros Klampanis \u2014 fresh faces including Kaki King, Cautious Clay, Moor Mother, and Marc Anthony Thompson (Chocolate Genius) add new life to the mix, not to mention a Wurlitzer cameo from Elvis Costello.<\/p>\n<div class=\"\" style=\"padding-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; text-align: left;\">\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<style>\n<\/style>\n<div id=\"content_block-262019\" class=\"content_block breaker triple_gutter_right triple_gutter_left video\">\n<div class=\"media_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"video_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"fluid-width-video-wrapper\" style=\"padding-top: 56.25%;\">\n<p>    <iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Arooj Aftab - Raat Ki Rani (Official Music Video)\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Y5IOeXg1jJY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><script>\n \/\/trackYouTubeVideo('262019');\n<\/script><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<style>\n<p> #content_block-262018,  #content_block-262018 blockquote.pull_quote, #content_block-262018 .img_caption .caption {\n   color: #ffffff;\n }\n<\/style>\n<div id=\"content_block-262018\" class=\"content_block paragraph text triple_gutter_right triple_gutter_left center_align\">\n<div class=\"content_inner_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"paragraph_wrapper center_align\">\n<p>            Aftab credits her ability to transcend stylistic and social divides partly to her experience as a lifelong outsider. She spent her earliest years as a compound kid, the child of liberal economists in ultraconservative late-\u201980s Saudi Arabia; moved to Lahore, her parents\u2019 hometown, as a preteen; and attended Boston\u2019s prestigious Berklee College of Music. After graduating, she moved to Brooklyn, where she\u2019s since settled, developing a singular sound across four studio albums and several collaborative works.<\/p>\n<div class=\"\" style=\"padding-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; text-align: left;\">\n<\/div>\n<p>            \u201cIf you move around a lot, you have this nomadic [lack of] attachment to one thing as your sense of self,\u201d she tells me. \u201cYour grounding isn\u2019t very firm, and that sets you free and makes you the type of person a bunch of different groups can relate to.\u201d This mindset sits at the core of <i>Night Reign<\/i>, a record that moves fluidly between diverse idioms \u2014 from Qawwalis to jazz standards to pop and neo soul \u2014 refusing to rest in one place too long.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<style>\n<p> #content_block-262020,  #content_block-262020 blockquote.pull_quote, #content_block-262020 .img_caption .caption {\n   color: #ffffff;\n }\n<\/style>\n<div id=\"content_block-262020\" class=\"content_block paragraph text triple_gutter_right triple_gutter_left center_align\">\n<div class=\"content_inner_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"paragraph_wrapper center_align\">\n<p>            <b>In a <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#cccccc\" href=\"https:\/\/thequietus.com\/interviews\/arooj-aftab-night-reign-interview\/\">recent interview<\/a>, you called jazz a \u201cdeeply resistant music.\u201d When was the first time you experienced it that way?<\/b><\/p>\n<div class=\"\" style=\"padding-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; text-align: left;\">\n<\/div>\n<p>            <span style=\"color:#fcfcfc\">It\u2019s not a resistant music; it\u2019s a resistance music. It\u2019s of the resistance. It\u2019s what Black people played during the Civil Rights movement and before. It\u2019s what brought them together. It\u2019s a protest music. It was called jazz, but I started to understand what it was. Like, you can say I studied jazz theory at Berklee, but what does that actually mean? I studied the theory, but that\u2019s the only thing I studied. It\u2019s at the core of all my music writing, but then what is it about? Who are these people? What did they do? Why did this happen?<br \/>\n          <\/span><\/p>\n<p>            I started to learn why it has such a collaborative, improvisational spirit, why it has a spirit at all. It\u2019s also extremely soulful and super modal. It has a kinship with South Asian classical music, and the resistance of Black Americans inspired all the other resistances that we\u2019ve ever had. It has inspired freedom. The concept of freedom comes from jazz.<\/p>\n<p>            When I say it\u2019s a resistance music, that\u2019s such a small thing compared to what I mean about the people in this idiom, like Miles and Billie. It\u2019s massive. It deserves a lot of respect, and people should know the history and honor it. It\u2019s important for me to know it in my bones because I\u2019m a part of the jazz scene, and I need to know what that means so I don\u2019t appropriate or enter some place without it being right.<\/p>\n<div class=\"\" style=\"padding-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; text-align: left;\">\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<style>\n<p> #content_block-262021,  #content_block-262021 blockquote.pull_quote, #content_block-262021 .img_caption .caption {\n   color: #ffffff;\n }\n<\/style>\n<div id=\"content_block-262021\" class=\"content_block breaker triple_gutter_right triple_gutter_left pull_quote\">\n<div class=\"media_wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"pull_quote\"><p>\u201cUrdu is very metaphoric, so you have to say very little to say a lot.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<style>\n<p> #content_block-262023,  #content_block-262023 blockquote.pull_quote, #content_block-262023 .img_caption .caption {\n   color: #ffffff;\n }\n<\/style>\n<div id=\"content_block-262023\" class=\"content_block paragraph text triple_gutter_right triple_gutter_left center_align\">\n<div class=\"content_inner_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"paragraph_wrapper center_align\">\n<p>            <b>Do you feel a connection to what some people are calling the \u201cspiritual jazz renaissance\u201d?<\/b><\/p>\n<div class=\"\" style=\"padding-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; text-align: left;\">\n<\/div>\n<p>            <span style=\"color:#fcfcfc\">South Asian music was never really talked about in a contemporary modern way until very recently, and I think I had a role in that cultural moment when <i>Vulture Prince<\/i> came out. That\u2019s really important to note: Nobody would\u2019ve known how to talk about this or understand it or digest it [three years ago], because it was very otherized. It was like, \u201cOh, Coltrane is kind of influenced by this,\u201d or whatever.<br \/>\n          <\/span><\/p>\n<p>            You have to teach a musical community what they\u2019re listening to for them to realize that it\u2019s part of a larger conversation. But you can\u2019t just teach that; you have to also give them a thing. You have to give them a body of work to reference, and that\u2019s what <i>Vulture Prince<\/i> did. I\u2019m glad about what\u2019s happening. All this crossover stuff is great, but it\u2019s happening because there was a ceiling that was shattered.<\/p>\n<p>            <b>Obviously, there were other artists that laid the foundations for what you\u2019re doing, too. You\u2019ve talked about Nusrat Fateh Ali Kahn and his influence on Jeff Buckley. There\u2019s also, from the Hindu tradition, Ravi Shankar, who broke ground with his work with the Beatles and George Harrison. What did you learn from the artists who crossed those cultural divides in the past?<\/b><\/p>\n<div class=\"\" style=\"padding-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; text-align: left;\">\n<\/div>\n<p>            <span style=\"color:#fcfcfc\">A lot. Those were the first building blocks of a real, organic blend of music that\u2019s not just fusion, not just tablas with saxophone on top. My thing has been, \u201cWhat\u2019s next? Where\u2019s the sound going from here?\u201d We share a lot of emotional language; how can people who play different genres come together and speak the same language a bit less crazily, in a way that isn\u2019t like, \u201cThese things are so starkly different, but let\u2019s put them together on the same recording.\u201d Where\u2019s the blending?<br \/>\n          <\/span><\/p>\n<p>            I respect everything these guys did. If they hadn\u2019t done that, we would be at square one right now. What  Ravi Shankar did to British pop music, how they became obsessed with South Asian classical music through him, was huge. And Nusrat was scratching the surface just before he died. That was about to be epic. He\u2019s a powerhouse qawwali singer, and he was signing every contract that was put in front of him. Besides the Jeff Buckley thing, he would sign everything without even talking to his lawyers. He was on so many different things, and then he fucking died when he was starting something that was about to be really cool.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"content_block paragraph triple_gutter_right triple_gutter_left\">\n<div class=\"content_inner_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"\" style=\"padding-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; text-align: left;\">\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<style>\n<\/style>\n<div id=\"content_block-262025\" class=\"content_block breaker triple_gutter_right triple_gutter_left image\">\n<div class=\"media_wrapper\">\n<p>  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_1440,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/WHISKEY_R0005992_cred.-Shreya-Dev-Dube_1_w88nom\/photo-by-shreya-dev-dube.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_220,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/WHISKEY_R0005992_cred.-Shreya-Dev-Dube_1_w88nom\/photo-by-shreya-dev-dube.jpg 220w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_300,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/WHISKEY_R0005992_cred.-Shreya-Dev-Dube_1_w88nom\/photo-by-shreya-dev-dube.jpg 300w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_400,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/WHISKEY_R0005992_cred.-Shreya-Dev-Dube_1_w88nom\/photo-by-shreya-dev-dube.jpg 400w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/WHISKEY_R0005992_cred.-Shreya-Dev-Dube_1_w88nom\/photo-by-shreya-dev-dube.jpg 600w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_750,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/WHISKEY_R0005992_cred.-Shreya-Dev-Dube_1_w88nom\/photo-by-shreya-dev-dube.jpg 750w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_840,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/WHISKEY_R0005992_cred.-Shreya-Dev-Dube_1_w88nom\/photo-by-shreya-dev-dube.jpg 840w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_960,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/WHISKEY_R0005992_cred.-Shreya-Dev-Dube_1_w88nom\/photo-by-shreya-dev-dube.jpg 960w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_1260,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/WHISKEY_R0005992_cred.-Shreya-Dev-Dube_1_w88nom\/photo-by-shreya-dev-dube.jpg 1260w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_1800,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/WHISKEY_R0005992_cred.-Shreya-Dev-Dube_1_w88nom\/photo-by-shreya-dev-dube.jpg 1800w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_2400,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/WHISKEY_R0005992_cred.-Shreya-Dev-Dube_1_w88nom\/photo-by-shreya-dev-dube.jpg 2400w,\" sizes=\"100vw\" alt=\"Arooj Aftab\u2019s constellations\"><span class=\"img_caption\"><\/p>\n<p>    <span class=\"caption\"><br \/>\n      Photo by Shreya Dev Dube.<br \/>\n    <\/span><\/p>\n<p>  <span class=\"credit\"><br \/>\n      \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>  <\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<style>\n<p> #content_block-262026,  #content_block-262026 blockquote.pull_quote, #content_block-262026 .img_caption .caption {\n   color: #ffffff;\n }\n<\/style>\n<div id=\"content_block-262026\" class=\"content_block paragraph text triple_gutter_right triple_gutter_left center_align\">\n<div class=\"content_inner_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"paragraph_wrapper center_align\">\n<p>            <b>\u201cLast Night\u201d is a bridge between <i>Vulture Prince<\/i> and <i>Night Reign<\/i>. It stands out as the most upbeat track on <i>Vulture Prince<\/i>, where it\u2019s arranged as a reggae song. Why did you decide to reprise that one here, with a totally different arrangement?<\/b><\/p>\n<p>            <span style=\"color:#fcfcfc\">We toured <i>Vulture Prince<\/i> for two years. We did more than 200 shows. We never played \u201cLast Night\u201d in that reggae style because you need a drum kit for that. But Petros [\u200b\u200bKlampanis] came up with that bassline [from the <i>Night Reign<\/i> version], and for the rest of the tour, we played it like that. I was like, \u201cWe need to record this. I can\u2019t just let it fly into the ether.\u201d<br \/>\n          <\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"\" style=\"padding-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; text-align: left;\">\n<\/div>\n<p>            It\u2019s similar to how <i>Bird Underwater<\/i> and <i>Vulture Prince<\/i> have two different versions of \u201cBaghon Main.\u201d I think I\u2019ll keep doing that: migrating a new version of one of the songs on the previous album to the next one so they\u2019re linked.<\/p>\n<p>            <b>What\u2019s your connection with the Rumi poem that song is based on?<\/b><\/p>\n<p>            <span style=\"color:#fcfcfc\">I love that poem. It\u2019s really short and really deep. A lot of my lyrics are like three phrases that repeat. Urdu is very metaphoric, so you have to say very little to say a lot. It works well for me because I don\u2019t want to tell a story. It\u2019s not a country song.<br \/>\n          <\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"\" style=\"padding-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; text-align: left;\">\n<\/div>\n<p>            [The Rumi poem] is originally in Farsi, but Farsi and Urdu have a kinship. Translated, it says so much in just two or three lines, and they\u2019re so beautiful, and repeating them each time gives them more meaning. I use another line from one of his poems in \u201cWhiskey\u201d: \u201cI\u2019m drunk and you\u2019re insane. Tell me how we will get home.\u201d I would never say that to anyone, but Rumi did.<\/p>\n<p>            <b>The moon, which figures heavily into \u201cLast Night,\u201d is a classic object of poetic lamentation, but you take a different stance on the moon, and nighttime in <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/general\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"3\" title=\"General\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">general<\/a>, on this album.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>            <span style=\"color:#fcfcfc\">The moon is such a big character of the night, and we\u2019ve talked about the moon so much in poetry and music and film, so I wanted to shift the focus to the major protagonist, the night. The moon is this powerful thing that reflects the light of the day. It ties us into the day. It makes us feel that we\u2019re not ignoring the day. We\u2019re not saying the day is less. The moon is there in the album through \u201cLast Night,\u201d but the night is actually the protagonist in question here. Not me, not my lover, not the moon: the night itself.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"\" style=\"padding-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; text-align: left;\">\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<style>\n<p> #content_block-262027,  #content_block-262027 blockquote.pull_quote, #content_block-262027 .img_caption .caption {\n   color: #ffffff;\n }\n<\/style>\n<div id=\"content_block-262027\" class=\"content_block breaker triple_gutter_right triple_gutter_left pull_quote\">\n<div class=\"media_wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"pull_quote\"><p>As artists, we\u2019re so emotionally connected to our work that it can completely erase us.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<style>\n<p> #content_block-262028,  #content_block-262028 blockquote.pull_quote, #content_block-262028 .img_caption .caption {\n   color: #ffffff;\n }\n<\/style>\n<div id=\"content_block-262028\" class=\"content_block paragraph text triple_gutter_right triple_gutter_left center_align\">\n<div class=\"content_inner_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"paragraph_wrapper center_align\">\n<p>            <b>Tell me about setting Mah Laqa Bai Chanda\u2019s poetry to music for the first time, and the thread you found between her and Chand Bibi.<\/b><\/p>\n<div class=\"\" style=\"padding-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; text-align: left;\">\n<\/div>\n<p>            <span style=\"color:#fcfcfc\">It\u2019s a fascinating corner of history that very little is known about. It came to me by chance, through a friend, and I\u2019ve spent seven or eight years going back to it and leaving it, trying to understand what\u2019s happening. At one point, I thought [Mah Laqa Bai Chanda and Chand Bibi] were the same person because their names and roles were similar.<br \/>\n          <\/span><\/p>\n<p>            I needed help to understand the poetry. It\u2019s never been set to music and doesn\u2019t have a lot of translations, and it\u2019s in a traditional Urdu that\u2019s out of my grasp of the language \u2014 mine is a bit more advanced than colloquial, at best. You can\u2019t just compose somebody\u2019s poems if you don\u2019t have a sense of who they are.<\/p>\n<p>            [Mah Laqa Bai Chanda] is the first female from South Asia to publish poetry in Urdu, so I had this nagging sense of connection to her, and connecting her to Chand Bibi \u2014 an actual 16th-century queen, and a warrior, and a feminist \u2014 helped me exaggerate the story so I could have more to feel and work with.<\/p>\n<div class=\"\" style=\"padding-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; text-align: left;\">\n<\/div>\n<p>            They\u2019re two centuries apart [(Mah Laqa Bai Chanda was alive in the 18th century)] so they couldn\u2019t have known each other, but their names are the same. Chanda is Chand, which is the moon, and Chand Bibi is literally Moon Lady.<\/p>\n<p>            I spent a lot of time with those two poems, \u201cSaaqi\u201d and \u201cNa Gul,\u201d and I had to rearrange some of the lyrics so that they could flow better in song. \u201cNa Gul\u201d feels very royal and stately. I communicated to Maeve that the courts of the Mughal Empire were very extra \u2014 silks and jewels and fountains and peacocks \u2014 so we needed to do something grand to give it that sense of royalty. It\u2019s in the titles: <i>Night Reign<\/i> and <i>Vulture Prince<\/i>. The thread of royalty continues to exist in the work.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"content_block paragraph triple_gutter_right triple_gutter_left\">\n<div class=\"content_inner_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"\" style=\"padding-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; text-align: left;\">\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<style>\n<\/style>\n<div id=\"content_block-262029\" class=\"content_block breaker triple_gutter_right triple_gutter_left image\">\n<div class=\"media_wrapper\">\n<p>  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_1440,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/117_Arooj_Aftab_Night_Reign_cred._Kate_Sterlin_eto5ho\/photo-by-a-target-_new-href-https-www-instagram-com-kate_sterlin-hl-en-kate-sterlin-a.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_220,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/117_Arooj_Aftab_Night_Reign_cred._Kate_Sterlin_eto5ho\/photo-by-a-target-_new-href-https-www-instagram-com-kate_sterlin-hl-en-kate-sterlin-a.jpg 220w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_300,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/117_Arooj_Aftab_Night_Reign_cred._Kate_Sterlin_eto5ho\/photo-by-a-target-_new-href-https-www-instagram-com-kate_sterlin-hl-en-kate-sterlin-a.jpg 300w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_400,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/117_Arooj_Aftab_Night_Reign_cred._Kate_Sterlin_eto5ho\/photo-by-a-target-_new-href-https-www-instagram-com-kate_sterlin-hl-en-kate-sterlin-a.jpg 400w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/117_Arooj_Aftab_Night_Reign_cred._Kate_Sterlin_eto5ho\/photo-by-a-target-_new-href-https-www-instagram-com-kate_sterlin-hl-en-kate-sterlin-a.jpg 600w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_750,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/117_Arooj_Aftab_Night_Reign_cred._Kate_Sterlin_eto5ho\/photo-by-a-target-_new-href-https-www-instagram-com-kate_sterlin-hl-en-kate-sterlin-a.jpg 750w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_840,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/117_Arooj_Aftab_Night_Reign_cred._Kate_Sterlin_eto5ho\/photo-by-a-target-_new-href-https-www-instagram-com-kate_sterlin-hl-en-kate-sterlin-a.jpg 840w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_960,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/117_Arooj_Aftab_Night_Reign_cred._Kate_Sterlin_eto5ho\/photo-by-a-target-_new-href-https-www-instagram-com-kate_sterlin-hl-en-kate-sterlin-a.jpg 960w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_1260,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/117_Arooj_Aftab_Night_Reign_cred._Kate_Sterlin_eto5ho\/photo-by-a-target-_new-href-https-www-instagram-com-kate_sterlin-hl-en-kate-sterlin-a.jpg 1260w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_1800,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/117_Arooj_Aftab_Night_Reign_cred._Kate_Sterlin_eto5ho\/photo-by-a-target-_new-href-https-www-instagram-com-kate_sterlin-hl-en-kate-sterlin-a.jpg 1800w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_2400,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/117_Arooj_Aftab_Night_Reign_cred._Kate_Sterlin_eto5ho\/photo-by-a-target-_new-href-https-www-instagram-com-kate_sterlin-hl-en-kate-sterlin-a.jpg 2400w,\" sizes=\"100vw\" alt=\"Arooj Aftab\u2019s constellations\"><span class=\"img_caption\"><\/p>\n<p>    <span class=\"caption\"><br \/>\n      Photo by <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/kate_sterlin\/?hl=en\">Kate Sterlin<\/a>.<br \/>\n    <\/span><\/p>\n<p>  <span class=\"credit\"><br \/>\n      \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>  <\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<style>\n<p> #content_block-262030,  #content_block-262030 blockquote.pull_quote, #content_block-262030 .img_caption .caption {\n   color: #ffffff;\n }\n<\/style>\n<div id=\"content_block-262030\" class=\"content_block paragraph text triple_gutter_right triple_gutter_left center_align\">\n<div class=\"content_inner_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"paragraph_wrapper center_align\">\n<p>            <b>Not all the Urdu tracks on the album are based on old poems. \u201cBolo Na\u201d is a song you started writing in high school but shelved because you thought it was too cheesy. What inspired you to recreate it here?<\/b><\/p>\n<p>            <span style=\"color:#fcfcfc\">It felt really important at the time, when I was experiencing this teenage heartbreak and confusion, like, \u201cWhat do we have? Is it love? Is it real? Can we give it a name?\u201d That\u2019s a very common teenage angst issue, but it\u2019s also a questioning song. It\u2019s like, \u201cTell me, do you love me or not?\u201d<br \/>\n          <\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"\" style=\"padding-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; text-align: left;\">\n<\/div>\n<p>            Now it exists in this iteration with Moor Mother on it as a resistance to the times. We know that the establishments don\u2019t care about us. They\u2019re lying to us. The marketing for every fucking thing, even the American healthcare industry, is like, \u201cWe care about you,\u201d but they don\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>            I was happy to change the meaning of this immature love song into something that reflects the time. I was very aware while writing the album that I\u2019m talking about being more joyful, about celebrating of life, about how grief has developed into this thing and how <i>Night Reign<\/i> is meant to be this kind of sassy, fun iteration of me where I\u2019m talking about whiskey and queens, and at the same time, the world is burning. There\u2019s a war going on. Everybody\u2019s getting fucking murdered. It doesn\u2019t make sense to put this out this way. It feels really tone deaf, and it doesn\u2019t feel honest.<\/p>\n<p>            But \u201cBolo Na\u201d emerged as this song that was able to channel how I felt, which is very betrayed by the systems that we\u2019re made to believe will take care of us. It felt really fitting to put Moor Mother on it because so much of her work is calling out all this nonsense. Her pen is so strong. She can articulate a thing like a knife covered in honey.<\/p>\n<div class=\"\" style=\"padding-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; text-align: left;\">\n<\/div>\n<p>            <b>Overall, though, this is still an album about finding joy in grief. Did making <i>Vulture Prince<\/i> and <i>Night Reign<\/i> help you process the loss of your brother and get to that place?<\/b><\/p>\n<p>            <span style=\"color:#fcfcfc\">For sure. It\u2019s been more than three years now, and grief is a crazy thing that has its phases. It\u2019s really complex, and it can be debilitating. There are artists who have experienced such an intense loss that they can no longer pursue their careers. As artists, we\u2019re so emotionally connected to our work that it can completely erase us.<br \/>\n          <\/span><\/p>\n<p>            I\u2019m lucky that I was able to inherit [grief] rather than be opposed to it. You can see that in the passing of the years, and the celebration here in <i>Night Reign<\/i> is because I\u2019m proud I was able to go through that. But I\u2019m still going to go through it. Anyone who has lost someone knows it\u2019s a lifelong process that will keep evolving; its meaning will keep changing. It\u2019s been nice for me to have that honestly and naturally reflected in my work.<\/p>\n<div class=\"\" style=\"padding-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; text-align: left;\">\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div class=\"author\">\n    <span><br \/>\n      By <span class=\"credit_name\">Raphael Helfand<\/span><br \/>\n  <\/span><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMN63nwsw68G3Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more Like this articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/social-media\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Social Media category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thefader.com\/2024\/06\/06\/arooj-aftabs-night-reign-interview\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Arooj Aftab\u2019s constellations The Pakistani singer discusses the far-flung foundations of her new album, Night Reign. By Raphael Helfand Arooj Aftab. Photo by Shreya Dev Dube. \u00a0 Arooj Aftab is a nocturnal creature by preference. It\u2019s a sunny Sunday afternoon \u2014 Aftab is dressed in black and wears dark sunglasses \u2014 and we\u2019re sitting outside&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":623324,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/c_limit,w_1024\/c_crop,h_533,w_1024,x_0,y_36,f_auto,q_auto:eco\/R0005960_cred.-Shreya-Dev-Dube_1_ntzns3\/R0005960_cred.-Shreya-Dev-Dube_1_ntzns3.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[28101,99550,87515,71136],"class_list":["post-623323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-mediaa","tag-pop","tag-arooj-aftab","tag-experimental","tag-jazz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=623323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/623324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=623323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=623323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=623323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}