My feature for my magazine

1. TAARA ZAMEEN PAR
January 17, 2016. The day Alisha Razdani -
ecstatic, she was, she recounts - got a job
as a graphic designer and thus officially
begun her life in the comfortable, safe and
unquestionable routine of going to work in
the mornings, working in a slightly too small
cubicle which could use a little more
privacy, making the same small talk with the
same coworkers who seem as forever as
does the job - yes, the charm wears off
sooner than you would believe yet the shiny
new overcoat of the monthly paycheck
paints over the feeling of stagnancy and
creates a strong enough feeling of
gratification that, now that you think of it, the
work was creatively fulfilling, your coworkers
weren’t a bunch of dinguses and you had
the best boss. So yes, she did get step into
the whirlpool of monotony - but did not get
sucked into it - because when the charm
wore off for the first time, it was the last time
as well. She had her mind made.
September 23, 2016. She was officially
unemployed. ‘Unemployed’ in the 9-5
sense; otherwise all her waking moments,
she tells, were spent crafting Taaray. And
the process was slow, laborious and long,
painfully so at times. “I would spend eight
hours straight working on the guitars and
not even realise it. And I would be so
absorbed I forgot that I exist, you know, until
the realisation hits you and you become not
a machine again” - she says this, now
seemingly at ease, her long dark hair loose
around her shoulders, her back slouched
into the seat and her fingers intertwined with
each other in a way that showed her
complete 180 from the robot like maniac
she became while recording her debut in
her one bedroom apartment.
I ask her what’s her favorite song on the
record, and I swear I see her dark eyes roll
for the tiniest second with a twinge of
annoyance so infinitesmally small that you
could blame it on something you ate - but it
was there. “Kya matlab favorite? Saray hi
favorite hain yaar! Album suna bhi hai?”
Indeed, suna hai. And so has everyone
else. Taaray, released on 14 November,
2019 has taken the nation by storm, every
publication, every channel, every person is
hearing it, listening to it or talking about it.
This kind of frenzy was so long unheard of it
felt impossible for it ever happen - yet here
we are, week 17 and Taaray is dominating
the charts. The album is as diverse as it is
sonically detailed - from a raging piano
number ‘Anguishicity’ to the medley of
jangly guitars on ‘Solo road’ to the 80s
inspired ‘Icey Blitz’, each song is made of
layers upo electic layers, every listen has
you discovering something you didn’t notice
before. “I had all these lyrics or melodies
written or recorded somwhere on my phone.
I was always creating something - I always
had my ears open because inspiration could
hit anywhere. And after I felt I had gathered
enough material, I sat down composing the
songs and that process itself took about five
months.” It paid off though, because the 12
track album has a 5/5 rating from most
major publications and has already been
hailed a classic.
About her decision to quit and do music full
time, she seems so nonchalant as if she
knew she had all this success in store. “I
mean, it was scary, yeah, quitting the job.
But I knew what I wanted to do and I knew
my heart wasn’t in it so it was never gonna
work for me, so I didnt see the point in
wasting my time when I could be putting in

2. all of my time and energy and focus into
something that actually meant something to
me. And I don’t know, this might sound silly,
but I’ve always believed that if you truly
honestly work really hard for something,
you will be successful, and so I just focused
on the quality of my work and I knew that if i
poured my heart into something like that, it
couldn’t be ignored.”
A little cliche, but you have to hand it to her,
it did work out that way. It almost seems too
story like to be true - a doe eyed 20
something graduate quits her job in the big
city, locks her self up and then a couple of
years, she emerges from the chrysalis, a
fully formed musician and instant icon,
ready to spread her wings and make
history. “The plan now, is to keep touring,
keep making notes, and composing little
bits. I’ve been tempted to do the same thing
as last time, but I want the results to be
different. So I’m going to try to write on the
road and maybe record in a studio this time.
I’ve been meeting producers and they all
have really cool ideas. I’m excited. And I
know I’m supposed to feel pressure, but I
don’t. I mean, seeing a new city everyday,
having thousands of people sing your songs
back to you? How could you not want to
recapture that? More like, my pleasure!”
Tickets for the Sitara tour can now be
bought through Ticketmaster and sale ends
on 12.59 February 7th, 2020 PST