The New Cue #435 November 4: Arooj Aftab
The New Cue #435 November 4: Arooj Aftab
“Butterflies freak me out. Have you seen their face? It's very scary.”
Hello there,
Niall here, hope all is fine and dandy with you this morning. But maybe you’re not a morning person, which is fine, because Arooj Aftab is not much of a morning person either. Nope, the Grammy Award-winning Arooj is all about the night. It’s why she called her latest album, released earlier this year, Night Reign. Rooted in a state of hazy, nocturnal tranquility, it’s a record that blends jazz, ambient folk, bass-y grooves and airy ballads that build around Arooj’s mesmeric vocals, delivered in a mix of English and Urdu.
It was not night when we spoke on Friday. It was mid-afternoon and Arooj was backstage in Bristol, the latest stop on an extensive tour that this week will stop off at London’s Roundhouse as part of the Pitchfork Music Festival. Shockingly, there are still some tickets left – head here for more details. The shows have been throwing up some surprises, Arooj said, including a moment recently where the crowd started singing along to her song Whiskey. “That’s never happened before,” she said. “I don’t really play songs that an entire crowd can sing along to, it’s not like we’re Coldplay. It was really shocking, I got really freaked out, I almost started sobbing.”
She managed to hold it together, though, and she also remained calm and composed in the process of facing our Life & Times questionnaire, the first artist to take part who has turned down the opportunity of time travel. Arooj the artist makes music that’s emotional and weighty and moving but Arooj the person is very funny. Let’s get stuck in, but before we do here’s your weekly reminder that today’s edition is free but if you’d like to support our fine work then you can become a paying subscriber right here for just £5 a month:
Enjoy the edition, see you on Wednesday.
Ted and Niall
The Life & Times Of… Arooj Aftab
What was the first record you loved?
It was probably Michael Jackson’s Bad, which came out around the time I was born and when I was five years old I was jamming out to it. I've loved him and all his songs and all his work ever since.
And the last?
I was listening to Silvia Perez Cruz's Toda la vida, un día for the first time yesterday on the plane, and it's awesome.
What's your earliest memory?
Being five or six and circling my dad's legs, looking for chewing gum in his pockets when he would come home from work. It’s a great memory that I remember that is not in photos, because those memories are not actual memories.
What is your daily domestic routine?
Because I've been on tour for almost the whole year, I have no domestic life whatsoever. It doesn’t matter what time zone we're in, it's sleep whenever you can, have your meal in that one-hour window, then soundcheck, show, travel. But I do skincare. That’s kind of boring and lame but I try to stay hydrated and I try to keep my skin hydrated as well, which is a little creepy. I put on a face mask every day. The reason why the camera is off is because I have one on right now.
Who or what is the love of your life?
It's been music for a really long time. I realised that I just don't care about anything else.
What's your worst habit?
There's so many. It's less now, but I do smoke cigarettes. People get really freaked out, they're like, ‘But you're a singer!’.
When were you most creatively satisfied?
I think recently, when the song Aey Nehin came together, I was like, ‘Oh, this is so good, it sounds like what it sounds like in my head’. I felt really accomplished and good.
Has anyone you've met ever made you feel starstruck?
I used to work at a music media company called Genius and we had all the celebrities coming in through the door every day. I also used to work at MTV, so I've worked in the entertainment industry and so I’m very used to being professional and seeing celebrities and not freaking out. But recently I was in a situation where I was at a thing where Jon Hamm was there. I'm such a fan of his character in Mad Men, the whiskey-drinking, cigarette-smoking, brilliant creative, all the girls are obsessed with him and he's really fine and smooth and depressed, it's an amazing character. And so he was there and I was like, ‘Oh my god, I love this guy’ and then he came up to me and asked for a cigarette. I was like, ‘This is just fantastic’. The starstruck moment kind of went away because he's so friendly and nice and now we are friends. Smoking cigarettes is definitely a way out of social situations that are weird, because you can be like, ‘I'm gonna go have a smoke’, and then it's also a weird bond in certain instances like this, where it's like, ‘Jon Hamm wants to bum a cigarette and I have them’.
What would people be surprised to learn about you?
I guess people don't know that I am really bad at film. I watch action movies and things about space, I'm not developed, I don't watch good movies. I watched Men In Black: International recently and I was like, ‘Oh, this is such a good movie, why doesn't anyone talk about it?’ and then my friends were like, ‘Don't say that out loud’.
Who or what is the greatest influence on your work?
So many things. I like trees, I like birds, nature, sadness, love. Love is so heartbreaking and it's such a crazy thing. I feel like the greatest inspiration is love. People think that my music is about something ancient, like the Quran or something, some religious stuff, and it's just all about love and how tragic it is and how beautiful it is and how powerful it is. I'm always restating that my music is about love and not all this other stuff.
What do you wish the 18-year-old you knew?
Probably nothing. The 18-year-old me was doing just fine.
What's the best advice you've ever been given?
I was told by Riz Ahmed not too long ago that I should just throw away my phone and not be on social media. I was like, ‘That's weird, I like Instagram’, but I'm now realising that it's pretty intense and can mess with your head. He was right, so that was a good piece of advice, but one that I'm not following.
What was the home you grew up in like?
There’s a massive garden, there's a mango tree. My room is on the second floor and has a balcony that's really beautiful, it's all red brick. It’s the house that my mom wanted to build, and she still lives there. She poured her whole soul into what it looked like and what it felt like, her whole aesthetic is through that home. It's very beautiful and it's very delicate and it's also massive. She just built this massive house for no reason. It's in Lahore, it's a romantic place, very green, very airy, it's got a lot of windows. It's very sunny, it’s very open. It's a really beautiful place to be and I'm so lucky that we still have it. A lot of people get older and lose their childhood home but somehow we still have ours, which is awesome.
Do you mind getting older?
I was definitely having a complete breakdown last year, I was just like, ‘We're hurtling to our deaths, guys!’. I was kind of having a freak out because I'm not surrounded by anyone who's my age, people are a little bit younger or older and so no-one understands what is happening but now I'm good. Everything's fine.
What's your greatest regret?
From time to time, I feel bad that I left home so early and never went back, that was the sacrifice that I made in order to pursue my dreams. Sometimes I feel weird about it, I wish I had spent more time with my family and my dog.
What one book would you recommend we read?
So, I am post-literate, I don't read books anymore, but I listened to Viola Davis's book recently and it's amazing. It's very empowering. She talks about everything that one has to go through as a woman, in her case, as a black woman in Hollywood and in the acting industry, and how shitty and insane everything is and how hard it is to build who you are in that environment. She’s one of my favourite actors and hearing her articulate the whole thing and seeing how successful she is, despite the odds, it’s good to hear that.
What's your favourite film and why?
Tessa Thompson is a friend of mine and I'm also a fan of her work. I watch all her movies, everything that Tessa Thompson has been in is good. And then there's this other actress, her name is Golshifteh Farahani and she was in this film that's quite old called About Elly. That film really struck me and it's very beautiful.
What do you think the secret is to a happy relationship?
I haven't really figured it out yet, even though I am having a happy relationship. You’ve just got to keep being honest.
Where and when were you happiest?
I was definitely happy when I was in high school, which is weird because a lot of people were super unhappy in high school, but I was having a lot of fun and didn't really have responsibilities. I was also happy in college, and I'm really happy now as my career is blossoming and everybody is celebrating these little songs that I write and we get to play them live every night. It's amazing.
If you could time travel, where would you go?
No. It was bad before and it's bad now and the future seems really bleak as well, so I don’t want to. I should just stay here in this time zone. I would like to time travel to some alternative timelines but otherwise, I think this timeline is going just as it can and whether you go back or forward, it's just all going to suck.
Do you have any phobias?
I’m really afraid of insects and it's so immature and I don't know what to do about it. People think it's not real and I'm just being a baby but I'm not, I really freak out when there's a bee and things like that. Even butterflies freak me out. Have you seen their face? It's very scary.
Can you cook? What's your signature dish?
I can cook because my mom is a great cook, she’s like a food artist and we watched her doing that all our lives. I can kind of make anything and it turns out good because I have that that kind of natural aesthetic, or how things go together, because I've watched her do it so naturally. I make dhal. I can make stuff, but I don't really have a specific thing. I can make burgers, I can make pasta.
What talent would you most like to have?
I feel like I would be cooler and more attractive if I knew how to dance properly, not like ballet or whatever but in the club. I'm so bad and it's so off-putting to see. I wish I could have that dance swag, which I don't.
How do you spark creativity?
I look for it in people and in interactions and then I overthink them and I create fantasies, I build on things that have taken place or people that I've met and then I make some stories, make some tragedies, and sometimes things actually happen that are very moving and very inspiring and all of that comes together and sparks creativity.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
This I think, there’s a lot of really incredible musicians out there in the world and they're all making really great music and not all of it is seen, so I will never take for granted that my music broke through a couple of years ago and is being seen and is being supported and is being asked for. I think that is a great achievement in this world right now.