From David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust to Beyonce’s Sasha Fierce, Eminem’s Slim Shady, and Paul MacCartney’s Percy Thrillington, many popular musicians have embodied alternate personas as a means of artistic expression, often to explore different sounds or take their art into creative new directions.

Haroon is now following in their footsteps. Since last year, the Islamabad-based singer has been releasing songs as Freddie Fiction, a project that allows him to expand his musical horizons.

“With Freddie Fiction, I have created an alter ego that can have its own separate trajectory from Awaz or Haroon,” the singer tells Instep. “I get to explore a totally different musical side focused on fans of English songs.”

The artist explains that he doesn’t want to alienate Haroon fans with the “sometimes experimental, non-commercial Freddie Fiction music”, and releasing songs under a moniker gives him the freedom to be more inventive. “Haroon’s music is rooted in a traditional Pakistani pop sound with elements of Pakistani folk, pop, and rock,” he elaborates. “Songs like ‘Mehndi’, ‘Ay Jawan’, ‘Jadoo Ka Charagh’, ‘Mahbooba’, ‘Yara’, ‘Dil Se Pakistan’, etcetera have a particular sound. I’m super proud of the Haroon and Awaz catalogue. We had a lot of success.

“As Freddie Fiction, I am starting from scratch and a blank slate, which is something I am finding quite fun and liberating. I can try anything and not worry about pleasing a fan base or having a hit. What’s even more interesting is that the countries with the most Freddie Fiction Spotify streams are Mexico and Turkey, with very few streams from Pakistan.”

The goal, Haroon says, is to push the boundaries of his song writing and production skills and touch on topics that address global social issues. “The other goal,” he continues, “is to work with people around the world.” On his latest song, ‘Lie to Me’, the singer collaborated with Grammy Award-winning producer and mixing engineer Bob Horn. “It was a real treat spending time working on songs at his high-end studio in Los Angeles,” he gushes. “One learns so much.”

Haroon initially came up with the Freddie Fiction concept 15 years ago while working on his Haroon Ka Nasha album. “Originally the idea was that it would be an animated cartoon band, kind of like the Gorillaz,” he recalls. “But over the years I realised Freddie Fiction is a solo act. I get many ideas, but I can’t do them all because unfortunately you only have so much time in the day. Sometimes they sit on the shelf for years, like this one.”

And where did the name “Freddie Fiction” come from? “I had a lot of fun coming up with the name,” Haroon replies. “I wanted something that paid homage to many of the crazy and cool names in rock ‘n’ roll history, such as Billy Idol, Bono, Sting, Kid Rock, Slash, Iggy Pop, The Edge, Ziggy Stardust, etcetera. I chose the name “Freddie” as a tribute to one of my favourites, Freddie Mercury, and “Fiction” because this is a fictional alter ego of sorts.”

Freddie Fiction’s journey is, so far, four songs deep. The first single, ‘Just Let Me Breathe’, was “a pop rock song with elements of soul and quite hard-hitting political lyrics that touch on the Black Lives Matter movement,” written as a direct response to the George Floyd murder. Then came ‘I Don’t Love You’, the subsequent single, “an anti-love song that really is a love song”, which was then followed by ‘Avenger’, a “tribute to the strong women in one’s life [that made] use of superhero metaphors in the lyrics.”

And now we arrive at his latest track, ‘Lie to Me’. “[The new song] is a departure from the other Freddie Fiction songs which had social messages behind them. ‘Lie to Me’ is a straight up romantic song with an extremely catchy hook in the chorus. The song is interesting because the chorus is upbeat and positive and makes you want to dance, yet the lyrics are melancholy, where the singer is saying please lie to me because I don’t want to face the painful truth. So it produces an interesting result for the listener.”

All these songs will hopefully find their way on Freddie Fiction’s first album. The aim, Haroon says, is to release at least six to eight singles before he can start thinking about an album. And what about a new Haroon album? Why hasn’t there been one in nearly a decade and a half? “I think the whole concept of the album died a few years ago,” he responds. “How many of the good old Pakistani pop stars are releasing albums? Almost none. Now the goal is to just release singles and as the singles accumulate that becomes a collection of songs or an album of sorts.”

There is a lot more in store for fans of both Haroon and Freddie Fiction, the artist promises, and we can’t wait to see where his musical journey takes him next.