Saad Shehzad is a bold new voice in the region’s music scene, as well as an award-winning filmmaker. He recently released Epilogue – a three-track EP exploring some of his deep-rooted emotions in his first foray as a solo artist – right in the middle of the lockdown. In this, the first and pilot episode of That's Imnahtainment, Saad exclusively shares part of his journey from guitarist to singer song-writer.
Saad’s work can be viewed via his YouTube channel, here [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_Y6meiS6nYH7u4xI52464w]
Saad Shehzad is a bold new voice in the region’s music scene, as well as an award-winning filmmaker. He recently released Epilogue – a three-track EP exploring some of his deep-rooted emotions in his first foray as a solo artist – right in the middle of the lockdown. In this, the first and pilot episode of That's Imnahtainment, Saad exclusively shares part of his journey from guitarist to singer song-writer.
Saad’s work can be viewed via his YouTube channel, here [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_Y6meiS6nYH7u4xI52464w]
Cool, I guess it is Imnahtainment, after all.
Saad :It is all on you now..
Imnah :Alright, shall we begin?
Saad :Yeah.
Imnah :Hello and welcome to the first ever episode of that's Imnhatainment, I'm your host Imnah Verghase and with me is the award winning filmmaker and talented musician Saad Shehzad, a big welcome to you Saad, it is so exciting to have you.
Saad :Hey, thanks for having me. Yeah, it's it's, it's an honour to be on the Imnahtainment show. You know, I've been a huge fan during those first episodes...
Imnah :It's the first epsidoe, and we're already having critiques.
Saad :Because it's the name you know, it just gets your attention. That's Imnahtainment thing. I want to be part of it.
Imnah :All right, let's get right down to it. So I was listening to your track the other day "Winds" and I had chills all aware I absolutely loved the song.
Saad :Singing "WIND"
Imnah :But for those of us that don't know the track and are completely missing out, why don't you tell us a little bit about the track? Maybe your thoughts going into it as you were writing it. What really brought the inspiration for the song?
Saad :Ah, so this is from an EP I wrote with three tracks called Epilogue, "Winds" was the first track on that EP and those two others called "Bouyant" and "Paper Boats". And all these songs were written, I think quite a long back now, like, I know, put it out now during lockdown, which is like the best time I chose... I wrote them I think maybe two years ago, but they were in constant... you know... like, there was a lot of changes, and, you know, you grow. And if you sit on something for too long, right, you keep changing and you keep, like, evolving. And so these songs evolved quite a lot, especially like "Winds" I think "Winds" was, at one point in 2018, we recorded completely in the studio, everything mixed up, I was ready to go in. But then we re recorded it, like maybe four months or five months later. And so yeah, the lyrics sort of, I think lost meaning somewhere, but then they've got found again, but the core of it was always the same. About, you know, change and it's like the it was initially going to be called "winds of change", but people already used that name, I don't want people to think of the Scorpions and when I say "Winds of Change", so, yeah, but that was the whole concept behind it to have, you know, a song where we were going to talk about, like, you know, bad, bad phases, you know, difficult times and then trying to find strength to you know, get forward or get through it or yeah, just accept it knowing that you know, it's not just you alone in it. [Singing WIND] There's always people you know, neglect or whatever and you don't, because you often have that thing, you know, where you when I went through like a rough patch, whatever, a relationship ends, when I got out of it I was, you know, I felt like oh, you know, it's the end of the world and you know, the usual dumb stuff and I know it's like, it's the end of the world and that, but you know, you come out stronger when you obviously look around you're like, Hey man, I'm alone, just because you have a break up doesn't mean you're alone in so many people you have so many things and you kind of get inspired by that to do more in and I did that and that was a major turning point in my life where I sort of got things together and like, okay, I did this because I've got out of it because I want to do things and I want to be you know, look after the people around me and look after myself. Yeah, so that I think that's what "Winds" is sort of about here. But gifts Tomorrow maybe "Winds" could be about 80s dance.
Imnah :Well thanks for that. You mentioned that you started writing the song in about 2018. So was songwriting something that just came to you and actually, where did all really begin? How did that journey sort of start?
Saad :So I started writing. I've been playing guitar for a while, since 2009. That's 11 years, but I wasn't writing songs because I wasn't a singer. I started singing only in 2016. And up until 2016, I wasn't writing anything because I wasn't singing songs like I'm just gonna do my guitar parts and stay in play here and there. bands or small bands, cool bands and, you know, or would collaborate with some good friends who sing and so it was always just covers. But, the moment I started singing one time I thought of.. you know, and that was also an accident and I was because I was one of those guys, you know, like I wasn't I'm not just saying I didn't sing. I didn't sing at all. Like I was frightened of singing. I wouldn't go to karaoke bars or anything I wouldn't. If I'm like humming on the guitar as someone comes in the room, I would just shut up and I wouldn't say anything else. I wasn't singing. I just had this fear of singing you know.. [Singing WINDs] How it happened was, there was one really, really bad experimental track I had, where I was like, Oh my god, this is gonna be like Radiohead, and I'm going to try some new things, you know, and it's really bad. Now that I think about it, but. But yeah, on that one, I was like, oh, man, let me just try to put some vocals on this just for reference. So I know what the melody is, because I was writing by now. And I recorded and I left it on my laptop over night and the next morning I saw like my brother texted me from, like his work and he's like, oh my god I've heard your track and like who's singing on that? It's pretty amazing. And I was like, it's I think it's me. Yeah. Yeah, I'm just like, embarassed, like, I think that might be me. Just waiting, you know, for him to say what he thinks? Maybe Yeah, if you like it, it's me. Don't then dammit. Then he said, "Yeah, I love it and I don't believe this is you and this is perfect." [Saad singing] Then what he does is tells my family my whole family is over-adopting, extremely excited. So they get karaoke mikes out and songs and they're like Alright, let's do this everyone's gonna sing I'm like no, I just got you know like it's been 20 years and I haven't done any singing and you want me to stay in front of people on a karaoke mike like you know it's not happening but I did. So I did it and it was not too badand it was fun and family was enjoying it and said, You know what? You might be a singer here. Hey, nice! All right. And then I started writing more songs you know when I was like, Okay, I can do this and but obviously you know, because I started singing so late and another reason why "Winds" and stuff was... the album was delayed... is because obviously I wasn't that good. It takes time to find your style and you know, your comfort and if you haven't been singing for 20 odd years right you it's going to be hard to be comfortable with your own voice. So that's what took so long for this to sort of come out yet but yeah, it's a songwriting, it came, it did came naturally I just, you know, I just started writing everything I, because I wasn't very expressive in terms of emotions growing up. I just didn't you know, I prefer to bottle things up and not, you know, talk about going down or when I'm upset or whatever, I just like go with the flow, because I like to be laid back, you know, and but I started using that as a medium to, like, express whatever things I don't say don't discuss, you know, handle or whatever and, and that obviously helped. And as soon as I found that flow, I was it was, it started coming naturally because then I didn't have to think about the structuring or like, all you know what I'm going to write about this. I'm gonna write about that. No, I just came in, sat down. I'm like, Hey, what do you feel? Okay, I'm going to talk about this write down 123 in one go on. Yeah, it's not. It's not poetic. It's just straight up. What I feel in real No. And I'm still getting better, always can get better. So yeah.
Imnah :Looking forward to the future. What is it that keeps you going and where do you hope to see yourself with your music?
Saad :I would say mostly I just want to be at a place where I am completely okay, like happy with my sound of music and because I was still like discovering it But in lockdown, and now I've recorded have been recorded quite a lot right, quite a lot more than I have ever written, and this crew I've found, it's been, it's been really fun, you know, and the sound is quite far from what you heard earlier in these two other songs. And it's more upbeat and more, you know, it's more experimental and more funky and to stop that you can listen to. And yeah, you can tap your feet. And so I think that's my, that's going to be the main goal, you always finish working on a record or put it out and then you want to do a next one, which is a lot better, you know, and a lot and better in terms of just in my eyes as well, like I just want to be completely proud of it and completely listen to an go: "Yeah. And that's, you know, some good riffs and it's complex and it's it's different, you know"... just to be as unique as possible, you know, as which is so difficult now. There's so much music out there. Everything is like something that can never be completely original. But yeah, that and I think more listeners obviously will be which will come naturally no one would be Okay, it would be foolish to say I want it right now, because I've just put out three songs. But yeah, I think eventually it'd be nice to have more gigs as well. Yeah, I'd love to perform more gigs. I have to put a band together first, because these are recorded by me, but it'll be nice to have a live band who can play these songs, and maybe the next ones as well. So that's just so I'd like to be performing a lot more. And I think they'll be quite fun.
Imnah :We'll keep an eye out for that band.
Saad :Yeah. Oh, it's coming. Oh, it will definitely come soon. As soon as we are not in trouble. I don't think it'd be like a very good look on me. If I'm wearing a mask and singing on stage. It's not very rock and roll.
Imnah :True true. Maybe you can have like a dark mask with a lot of garage theme going on. But hey, Alright guys, and check out Saad's music and we really want to see that band happen. And keep us posted with how that goes. It was absolutely amazing to have you here for our first ever episode of That Imnahtainment. Thank you Saad. Thank you.
Saad :Thanks for having me. Awesome man. I wish you all the best in all the future episodes.