Recently, Sidhu of Dholaholic Inc, had the pleasure of interviewing one of the best up and coming stars on the desi music scene at the moment, namely 'Nav Sarao.' He has recently released his brand new album entitled 'Fast And Furious' in the UK which is known as 'Pushing Limits' in USA/Canada.

1) Since this was your debut release all over, do you think it was successful for you? Did you achieve what you expected?

As well as being a successful album in terms of sales, this was definitely a successful album for me on a personal level. My main goal for this album wasn't to make the big bucks; it was to let the world out there know that I exist, and this is what I can do. In that prospective, I couldn't have asked for greater success.

2) Do you have any personal favourite track from your own album? That would have to be 'Mit Kise De Naa.' It came out exactly as I intended in terms of the 'feel' of the song. Amarjit Sandhu did a fantastic job on the vocals. 3) As an artist is can be influenced by someone, either it's someone in family or its someone whom they have admired the most! What about you? How did you get influenced in becoming an artist in music? It has to be one of the originators, Bally Sagoo. He got the ball rolling in the late 80's and early 90's and its been a snowball effect ever since. He made way for so many of the artists you see now like Punjabi MC, Bally Jagpal, Aman Hayer, and Sukhshinder Shinda. Here in Canada, artists like Pama Sarai,

Nav Sarao

DJ Jiten and Earl Ferns have had a pretty big impact on the Toronto scene.

4) What was it like working with the Punjabi Hit Squad, Mc Trix & Trix Mc? Will you work with them again?

Panjabi Hit Squad and MC's Metz and Trix are a great bunch of guys. They took a chance on me when they decided to distribute my music across Europe. They did an awesome job on the remixes of my songs. No doubt I will work with them again because their promotion was excellent and their attitudes were positive all through out the project.

5) Now-a-days many DJs, producers, are using hip-hop, garage samples over the bhangra tunes, what's your opinion on that?

Although I prefer not to use samples in the songs that I produce, I feel that as long as the producers who use samples from the mainstream have the rights to the sample, it is ok to use them to some extent. Some producers take the original sample and do nothing except put vocals over it, and I'm totally against that. Essentially what they are doing is nothing except using a cookie cutter to make a new song. Samples, given that the producer has the rights, should only be used to add to a Bhangra song, not to make the song.

6) What's your opinion over the E.P's, which have only like 4-5 tracks but are priced the same as albums?

This totally depends on the quality of the material. If all 5 tracks on the album were good, I wouldn't mind paying the same price as an album, which has twice as many tracks but only half as many good songs. It will be the public who will decide whether or not this trend continues by how much support they show. If you don't like it, don't support it. Listen to the music before you shell out your hard earned bucks.

Nav Sarao	7) Why did you have different names for the album? It's called Pushing Limits in North America and Fast And Furious in the UK? Whose idea was this and what is the reasoning behind it? The markets on the two continents are very different. What works on one side of the Atlantic may not work on the other. The main reason that the titles were different was so that there is not pirating of either album in areas where it shouldn't be. Fast n Furious has 4 bonus tracks on it and the marketing strategy was different. It may have created some confusion, but for the next album, the whole globe will be getting the same album, under the same name, and with exactly the same content. 8) The album had all the flavour of the western style, but will you do something that will also work in India? Like Sukshinder Shinda does i.e. more original? I mean will you do something that will get you a worldwide image including the main India?
Sukshinder Shinda is in a class of his own. This is where experience and knowledge pay off. At this time I don't see myself gearing my stuff towards the Indian market. In the future, when I feel I am ready, I will be sure to consider expanding into South Asian market.

9) Are there any artists with whom you would really like to work with?

Kuldip Manak!

10) What should we expect from Nav Sarao in the near future?

You can expect the next album to have a totally different feel. Producers must be able to change with time and not churn out the same type of stuff over and over. What you saw in my first album is not what you will see in my second. Right now we are working on the videos for the next album. It's slated for release in October/November of 2002. You will not be disappointed.

11) Do you have a final message for the thousands of desitunes4u.com visitors all over the world?

Much respect goes out to all the people who supported me through this project. All this success would not have been possible with out you.

That concludes the interview, firstly a big thanks to Nav for taking some time out to do the interview. Don't forget to check out his own site at www.navsarao.com now which includes the video for one of the tracks of the album available to download plus a whole lot more. I am sure we will be seeing alot more of this guy in the future so watch this space as they say!