In the last 48 hours, I have spoken to singer-songwriter Hassan Jamil Khan, more commonly known as Jimmy Khan, twice. Between shooting a new music video (accompanied by a brand new single) that is scheduled to come out next week and engaging in a series of interviews with various individuals, Khan has his dance card full.
MusicMix
The singer-songwriter talks to Instep about ‘Madam’, his upcoming single (and music video) that arrives next week and the art of songwriting.
In the last 48 hours, I have spoken to singer-songwriter Hassan Jamil Khan, more commonly known as Jimmy Khan, twice. Between shooting a new music video (accompanied by a brand new single) that is scheduled to come out next week and engaging in a series of interviews with various individuals, Khan has his dance card full. With plans of flying out of the country by next week, he is doing everything he can to give his upcoming song, ‘Madam’ the push it needs to register with fans and industry insiders alike.
Some recognize Jimmy Khan from his Coke Studio appearances, others know him from the songs he’s done for films like Ho Mann Jahaan and Dobara Phir Se. Those who have been paying close attention to his work know that he’s got a terrific repertoire of songs to his credit such as ‘Pehla Pyar’ and ‘Aisay Kaisay’.
Based in Lahore and one of the more inventive musicians to have emerged out of the indie music scene, Jimmy has not allowed the success of his music and growing star power to go to his head and remains as grounded as ever. The amount of passion he feels for the music he puts out is palpable throughout our conversation. In fact, the upcoming ‘Madam’ is the perfect example of that passion.
“It was something that was composed like a year ago,” began Jimmy. “Daniyal Malik from Beygairat Brigade is a good friend of mine, and we were writing some things together and this was one of them. ‘Madam’ was initially a song called ‘Teyn Teyn’. It was shelved for like a year and I had recorded it but it was a very different version, very organic and similar to my sound. When it went into the studio, Zain Ahsan was producing it and he came up with a new orchestration and arrangement. The idea was to keep the same rhythm structure but going electric with it. I don’t think this sound was expected out of me, especially at this point. I wasn’t too sure in the beginning but eventually I really started enjoying it and we went all out with it, the guitars and drums. It’s hardcore, its madness.”
Apart from a significant, unexpected sound evolution that will be heard on ‘Madam’ when it releases, the origin story of video is equally riveting and fairly moving.
“Once I had the general direction of the song in front of me, then I was thinking visually about it, I just saw transgender(s),” confesses Jimmy. “It wasn’t intentional to do it the way we ended up executing it. I started reading up on them, especially in the Subcontinent. I watched some documentaries and that stuck with me and I really wanted to do something with it. Around that time, somebody I hadn’t met ever, Sana Jafri walked into my house with Zain (Ahsan). She’s a friend of Zain and we started talking and I was telling her about the image in my head and she turned out be an actor and director who is about to graduate from NCA. She told me that she had already worked with transgenders in theatre so she had a lot of friends in the community. She got really excited about the idea. It’s actually, the sadness and reality to which we kind of turn a blind eye to, to all this, really stuck with me. We came up with a storyboard and it’s satire and it’s comical. It has an undertone of realism and of the sad reality we live in and what the lives of transgenders are like in this country especially. I don’t want it to come across as a public service message, I don’t know, it’s just a mirror I guess.”
Having delivered a smash hit in the shape of the song, ‘Baarish’ that firmly placed Jimmy in a much bigger spotlight and earned him an LSA nod, the singer-songwriter is not looking back and certainly has no plans of delivering the same kind of songs.
“To be honest, however one may define the success of a song or not and I know that ‘Baarish’ did really well but the reality is that before ‘Baarish’ came out and became something, it had been written like a year before that so I was over that process. When it came out, it started doing well and was appreciated. But with the release of ‘Madam’, you’ll realize once you listen to the song that it’s got nothing to do with the previous stuff that I’ve put out. So that way I don’t think I’m making a conscious effort of making myself sound a certain way just because I have gotten one or two hit songs of a particular kind. Right now I can say that it isn’t really influencing me. Having said that, there is something in my head about the kind of songwriting (‘Baarish’) is and I definitely want to continue doing that as well.”
As the conversation is coming to a close, I ask Jimmy to tell me about the supergroup of musicians who make up Jimmy Khan and the Big Ears and he says thoughtfully, “Jimmy Khan and the Big Ears was a lineup that included Raavail Sattar, Sameer Ahmed, Zain Ahsan and myself in a live setup and then we started recording live performances but over the past two years I’ve just been doing a lot of my own solo work and I’ve not continued the brand identity of the Big Ears because it was never permanent in the capacity of performance or even recording even though I have worked with Zain Ahsan on ‘Madam’, who has produced it and Sameer Ahmed, who is on the bass. But this is Jimmy Khan and I think that will remain because I don’t want to further confuse the audience.”
