Jassi Sidhu has come a long way since splitting from bhangra super group B21. After the success of 'Reality Check', the release of B21's greatest hits is upon us and the overly modest singer already has a second album in the pipeline. Richard sprung 'the voice of B21' at a charity event in aid of Cancer Research in Dudley recently.
Richard: The 'Greatest Hits' album is the latest project in motion, tell us a bit about what we can expect from it.
Jassi: The album is more or less finished and it's basically the old songs but with three new remixes by me. It's all set for India, but I'm not sure if it will come out in the UK, but even if it doesn't I'm sure the pirates will have it on their websites soon enough! Then, after that, there will be my new album which we're putting tracks together for now, and in September I'll take about four months off to get it ready.
Richard: When will the 'Greatest Hits' album be out in India?
Jassi: The stuff I've done, 'Chandigarh','Deor Da Viah' and 'Din Raath', is ready and will be out at the end of July.
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Richard: That's for definite; it won't get delayed like we've seen far too often this year?
Jassi: Yeah, end of July is for sure. I'm flying off to India next week to deliver 'Chandigarh'. You can't knock the artists you know, it's not for any false reasons that artists don't get an album out on time. People don't genuinely say 'I'm going to put an album out' and then not do it, there's a lot of stuff that goes on behind the scenes like printing, exposure, video shoots. You can't blame them. |
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Richard: Is it as frustrating for the artists as it is for the fans?
Jassi: Yeah, it is you know. Sometimes an artist gives a date and it's actually not ready so there are people out there not pulling their weight. You've got to accept it as far as our industry goes because unlike Western labels who can put dates down because they've got fifty thousand people working behind the scenes that can pick it up.
Richard: As time progresses, you're fast moving onto your second album while the rest of B21 is still in the starting blocks, it's a great start to your solo career.
Jassi: It's been everything and more than I ever expected. I picked up 'Best International Album' at the Panjabi Music Awards, and sold half a million copies worldwide…not bad for the fat guy from B21. All I can do is keep-making music and hopefully people will keep giving the respect they're giving me. The day people turn around and say, "you're boring, you're crap" then I'll give it up and call it a day. For me it's always going to be a hobby for me.
Richard: Hobby?
Jassi: Its always gonna be a hobby for me. Things are going well, I'm doing two tracks for Rishi Rich's new album and now I'm in charge and I can choose when I want to work and whom I want to work with. I'm a lot happier.
Richard: I guess having that independence from the band has been a breath of fresh air.
Jassi: You can say that but sometimes I miss the band. I was having the comfort of being able to drop back and having two guys behind me. But then again, everything I've done now I can say I've done on my own two feet and no one can take that away from me. Ninety per cent of people said I was going to fall flat on my face and I was with them! I thought: 'oh man, I'm f***ed here, I'm really in trouble here', but it's been a great learning curve and I've got through it. Now I tour the world and I can't walk the streets in India any more. With B21 that was something that we never had, we tried to have India and never cracked it. For me, it's their now and half a million albums speaks for itself. Its just amazing and I feel really wanted.
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Richard: There are a lot of people out there who say that you never really got away from the B21 sound, what would you say about that?
Jassi: What? You mean me singing? You know what, there are a lot of morons out there that keep saying 'he keeps making the same old song', but you know something, I've seen a lot of artists in the UK try and create the same sound. You can't do it, so don't criticise it. I hope that the next album that B21 release will be very well produced, but it won't be the sound you'll expect and people will realise that the B21 sound is just my voice over a dhol. That's all it is, a simple sound. People can criticise all they want but I say to them that they should do better. When the B21 album comes out it'll be brilliantly produced and they'll have some great vocalists on there but it wont have that sound it had for all those years. |
Richard: Do you feel that you're one of world bhangra's premier vocalists and in some respects leading the way?
Jassi: I ain't really a good singer, I ain't that good. I can barely sing in key but I've worked hard and now I can walk into a room with Gurdass Mann or Kulkdip Manak and the industry's other top, top singers at an awards ceremony and they know me. They're not like 'who the f*** is he?' they're like 'oh Jassi Sidhu, we know him' and they recognise me. They probably turn around when I'm not there and laugh saying 'he can't sing', but it's a great achievement for me because India is what America is to the English artists. You have got to break it out there and I'm so fortunate that it fell into place without me even touching the country. And the proof is in the pudding that you can be accepted in India when you do something right, because they've been laughing at this country for so long. We can't sing, and I'm with them, my Punjabi is so f***ing awful that my mum still laughs at me. My Punjabi is awful but something's gone right because now they sit up and look around this country which really annoys me because of the crap that comes out of this country when the whole world is looking at us and we're churning out garbage albums. We need to focus on what we're doing out there.
Richard: And finally, any words for all our readers out there?
Jassi: Oh this is an interview? [Laughs] Nicely put at the end their Richard…for everyone reading, I log on to Desitunes4u all the time. Thank you so much for everything that you've done for me, you're making me so happy and I can't do this without everyone. The day they hate my music I'll stop and go back to…I can't even remember what I was doing before. So thank you for supporting me and I hope I can keep making songs that you dance to. And Richard is white, he really is! White as white!
That concludes the interview, firstly a big thanks to Jassi for taking some time out to chat to us for the 3rd time. If you wish to contact Jassi yourself then you can e-mail him direct at jassi@jassisidhu.com now. You can also check his new updated website at www.jassisidhu.com. The 'Greatest Hits' album be out in India real soon so watch out for that.
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