Scotland is best known for it's beautiful mountains and men that dress in skirts - sorry kilts! It is also the home of the mighty super producers known as Tigerstyle. Now we have more desi talent coming through. The latest is a duo, Tarv and Lil' Dev, that go by the name of Northern Lights. They recently caught up with Irfan; this is what went down!!

The comments of each of them have been colour co-ordinated to help you distinguish who is saying what. The following key can be used as a guide to help you with this as well.

Irfan: For those that don't know who the Northern Lights are give us a quick intro!

Tarv: Northern Lights are the newest producers coming out of Scotland on VIP Records after the success of 'Partytime' by DJ VIPS. Northern Lights consists of Lil Dev and me and we have spent over a year working on our first album 'Sparked' set to release next week. We have been dj'ing and appearing in many events over Scotland for the past two years including hosting the official melas in Scotland and appearing at the BR-AMA UK club tour.

Irfan: You two co-present your own radio show on Radio Awaz [www.radioawaz.com] in Glasgow. Tell us more about that!

Lil' Dev: Well we have been doin radio for the past 2 years every Friday 10 to 1 on Scotland's only Asian radio station, we have 1 of the biggest desi/urban show on the radio station.

Tarv: It goes out on Radio Awaz and the show has given us a chance to analyze the current state of the industry and the music that was being released compared to the mark we wanted to make ourselves. We have also had the pleasure of interviewing many artists on the show who can offer us their own advice as well as the pros and cons of what happened when they launched. We are also the only show on the station that was able to host its first birthday party live from a club which was a huge success...this of course bringing huge thanks to the Awaz FM management who have backed us all the way.

Irfan: Having been on your show it is clear that you speak your mind about stuff. You even have a section on the show where you chuck an album in the bin 'live on air' if it is sub standard. What is the thinking behind that?

Tarv: Like we said through presenting the show we have been able to look at the current state of the industry and the releases coming out and although there have been decent albums dropping as well, we felt it wasn't fair for average or even crap albums coming out and trying to charge the same price as decent products. Even when we drop an album in the bin...it's after taking a lot of points into consideration, the biggest being of course our listener's opinions.

Lil' Dev: Yeh we are always hearing that people buy an album and they feel that it is a waste of money, so by us showpeicing the album on the radio, by itself, is letting people have their opinion about the album with also our views on it as well, for them to come with a better conclusion, whether to buy it or not.

Irfan: After asking me so many times to come up with a band name for you - you finally came up the name Northern Lights; explain the thinking behind the title.

Tarv: Northern Lights have many many meanings...lol We had a lot of influences when trying to think of a good name for ourselves...we had to take many factors into consideration, we had our families telling us not to forget we were bringing out a Punjabi product and we had to also remember we are based in Scotland. So we thought both of these places are up North in there respective countries hence 'Northern' and anything new or fresh is always bright...hence the name 'Lights' we had this name for a while before we went with it but another reason that finally made us decide was the fact the Northern Light is the brightest light in the Universe and we wanted something that had more than one meaning so Northern Lights was born.

Lil' Dev: We just wanted to convey the fact that we are from Scotland and that we are new, and fresh.

Irfan: You managed to link up with the legendary Gurdas Maan recently in Scotland. What did that mean to you? Lil' Dev: Definitely a memorable moment, because I had been listening to this guy since I was a little kid, but to have the pleasure to meet him was something else. My dad wasn't talkin to me for a while after it because he said to me, that was my dream to shake his hand and meet him. Tarv: it was an experience for us both.... to be honest Gurdas Maan

Northern Lights with Gurdas Maan

is one of the Dons when it comes to Punjabi music and to be able to meet him, chat to him and spend the day with him was unbelievable. It was a bit surreal in a sense coz we were both working, as the concert in Glasgow was organized by Radio Awaz the station we work on and we were involved in helping with the organization and running of the concert on the night so we just went with the flow of the day...we even took the whole of his band to Pizza Hut coz they were hungry during the sound checks and had his backing singers singer Challa over hip hop beats in the restaurant where we all ate at after the concert...I think it was after the concert that we actually thought nice one....we just met a legend!

Irfan: This ones for Lil' Dev - you got pulled up by customs when trying to bring some instruments over to the UK from India. Tell us exactly what happened!

Lil' Dev: Well basically, I wanted to buy a new, Harmonium, dholki, and tumbi when I was in India, so I got to the airport and my mum was saying its cool just put it through as luggage it will be fine, and I said no way, so I said I will take the time to carry it, myself on the plane, as hand luggage, so I had everything wrapped up really securely, and got if from India to here, guarding everything with my life, and in Scotland they ask me to open up the Harmonium cause they thought it was a bomb so I opened (and it took forever), and they spent a good 5 minutes looking at it, and I was so vexed, I said to them, "do you want me to play it as well while I've got it all out now!"

Irfan: So what was their reply when you said that to them?

Lil' Dev: Nah it's cool, we know it's not a bomb.

Irfan: So the guy at customs actually said 'bomb'?

Lil' Dev: Yeh I couldn't believe it, the whole airport stopped to see what I had.

Irfan: Sticking with Lil' Dev…you have toured with The Glasgow Dhol Foundation at a very young age. Tell us more about that!

Lil' Dev: Well basically, I was a part of Glasgow Dhol Foundation, since I was 11/ 12 years old, but now since last year, the Glasgow Dhol Foundation, is no longer and we have now formed our own dhol group called Dhol Infusion, but I did go to Turkey with Glasgow Dhol Foundation, a few years back which was really good, it was a world music parade, and 30 drummers went from the UK to the event, which was really cool.

Irfan: This ones for Tarv - you made a TV appearance on the BBC documentary 'Pakistani Actually.' How did that come about?

Tarv: The programme was on BBC1 on a Saturday night and was about a good friend and ex-work colleague Atta Yaqub. He recently starred in a Ken Loach movie called Ae Fond Kiss and the program focused on his life since the film. It was just a massive coincidence that the BBC were filming at the same time he was coming onto our show, Urban Fusion for a radio interview, so they filmed the interview and showed it on the programme...I'm still to square him up for that coincidence...nice one Atta.

Irfan: Tarv tells me that certain shops in Scotland sell under the counter copies of original albums for £5 (half the original price). What is the Northern Lights view on this?

Lil' Dev: Well, piracy, is a very big problem in the industry, and it is gettin worse and worse, but what people don't understand is that if they keep on downloading, there will be no artists left to produce the products therefore us will not have nothing to even download, so you have to keep both parties happy, by buying the albums legitimately.

Tarv: Its out of order...it's one thing trying to stop downloading which is impossible but then Uncle Ji in the shop copying the album on cheap media, scanning the cover and selling something you've spent hours on, could annoy anyone. The problems up and down the country, thankfully since the Launch of VIP the shops in Scotland have supported the label and not bootlegged the products but that don't stop other places like Birmingham, London especially Broadway smashing 10 pirate copies of your album every day for half the price. There are developments underway to try and reduce this and stop the bootlegging by introducing a new initiative, which should be in place by the end of the year.... watch, this space!

Irfan: Sounds interesting...seems like you got inside information...you don't think I'm going to let you leave it at that do you. Tell me more!!

Tarv: honest bro its like many other developments in other areas of the whole industry that will take time to introduce if introduced at all, that's why its best just to say watch this space...lol but just like other industries, the Urban Desi Industry are looking at many ways to reduce piracy and bootlegging.

Irfan: Your brand new album 'Sparked' is out on the Friday the 29th of July. Tell us more about it!

Tarv: Ok it's a 13-track album; well 12 tracks from us and a bonus remix from Tigerstyle courtesy of Nachural Records. The album features many different flexes with our Urban Desi blend rinsed through it. Its taken over a year to make and got vocalists like Labh Janjua, Kaka Bhanewala, Kuldip Manak, Tanveer Gogi, others and that other guy whose name I'm not gonna say in case you think I'm rinsing it.

Northern Lights - Sparked

Irfan: You album cover is quite different to the usual bhangra album, as it doesn't use your left over passport photograph blown up on the front! Explain yourself! Lil' Dev: Well, we have both done an album for the love of the music, not for the fame, and we strongly believe that people should buy an album for the music, and nothing else. Tarv: We never wanted our faces plastered on the cover of the album; just like we didn't want to mime to tracks in our videos because we thought it would be a bit daft. Many of the aspects that were needed to drop a heavy album and not just the music but also the whole product Press Packs/Album Cover/ Website etc. We

looked at many media companies within Scotland and decided to use Citrus Green [www.citrusgreen.com] because they had an idea of where we were trying to go in all different areas of the album launch. We have to give out big thanks to Yusuf, Gordon and the Whole of Citrus green not forgetting Zoe and Kiersla for their help. Even with the album cover we had to narrow it down to one from a choice of ten and we were able to give 100% of our own input into all areas of the project.

Irfan: You keep telling me how 'Lembher Hussainpuri's vocals are getting rinsed but he is on your album! Explain that one to me!

Tarv: You can't knock Lembher he is an amazing vocal talent and you can't knock producers for wanting him on their albums. Its only when you have albums dropping with Lember's track as the main track on the album which is then followed up by album video and then the next 7 or 8 tracks on the album are average tracks. It kinda misleads the person buying the CD because they think they are getting a heavier product then it actually is. Sparked uses the vocal talents of Lember in an awesome track called Matador, which is a heavy desi track. But it is track 10 on the album and is not used in any of the videos. So hopefully we've used Lembher in a useful way to let his awesome vocal talent be discovered from within the album and not rinsed it in hyping the launch based on that track.

Irfan: You've shot a couple of videos for the album. Tell us more about them! What are the concepts behind them?

Tarv: We have tried to be different with the music videos we have done for Sparked to your usual videos all over your music channels. Sparked has two music videos with are basically a two part movie introducing Northern Lights. The first part Billo Tere Nakreh is on music channels at the moment, Zee Music 551 and this finishes where part two will start which will drop a week after the album launch and will be for a track called Janaab. Part one focuses more on the story and has less music but this is followed up with a full musical in part 2.

Irfan: There are no samples on your album. What is your view on so-called producers who blatantly rip off mainstream samples?

Tarv: It depends on what the producer releasing the album is trying to achieve. Is it a remix album, is it a DJ album or is it just simple an all rounder.

Lil' Dev: It is okay if you give it away for free and don't put it on legit albums to make money, but when you put it on a legit album, and try to earn money off it, its quite sad because it shows that you cant even make up fresh beats, for your album, shows people how good your production skills are!

Tarv: Our first release Partytime was directly to the DJ market, tracks that will blow up on the dance floor. Being DJ's ourselves we know that crowds go mad to tracks with well known influences and become instant club anthems, hence Lus Lus. With Sparked we wanted to drop an all round product that can be played in a club, chillin in the house or wherever and we didn't want to sell any of the tracks as bootlegs and that's why we never used samples in Sparked.

Irfan: Do you feel that people who release albums that consist mainly of uncleared samples are being unfair on real producers who are spending a lot more effort on the product as these so called sample-filled album saturate the market by taking a share of the overall sales of desi music? Tarv: Yes I think so, if a producer wants to release a serious album that has any cross over appeal it can't be sample based. If we want to move Urban Desi to the mainstream like Hip Hop did many

Northern Lights

years ago we've got to stop using blatant samples that have not been cleared on tracks on albums. This works both ways though; Bach Ke was massive and had a blatant sample but still blew up all over the world. But they still had problems when trying to clear the sample so we thought if we ever want to have the cross over appeal we might as well stay away from samples then trying to clear a track if it ever got to that stage and some big American hip-hop label not giving us the time of day.

Lil' Dev: People still like bootlegs, don't get us wrong, they are well received, because people can relate to them better because they already have an understanding with the song cause they had heard the sample before on some hip hop song, but its not fresh, and if we wanna bring desi music up, there we have to produce our own fresh beats, because we want to promote desi music at the end of da day not hip hop music.

Irfan: What else do you have lined up in the near future that we should know about?

Lil' Dev: Ok, once the album drops you can check us at various melas and gigs up and down the country. Check the website www.thenorthernlights.co.uk for more info. Then, were doing a track on the next release from VIP Records Pure Desi Volume 1 which also features tracks from the other artists on the label. Were also making an album for a new Punjabi vocalist who we haven't show pieced on the first album and then we will be concentrating on our next album. That's all I can think of just now but keep locked onto the website for more info.

Tarv: Oh you can check the video on the website as well.

Irfan: Any final words to the desitunes4u readers worldwide?

Tarv: A big thanks to everyone who is likin what we are doing up north. Big shouts to everyone supporting VIP Records. Keep doing what your doing, can't do it without you!! Keep supporting the Urban Desi industry by buying originals and not buying bootlegs or downloading. Keep supporting desitunes4u; one heavy site.

That concludes the interview, a big thanks to Tarv and Lil' Dev of the Northern Lights for taking some time out to chat to us. Be sure to check out the official Northern Lights brand new website at www.thenorthernlights.co.uk. The debut album 'Sparked is out on Friday the 29th of July so make so you check it out as it promises to be one phat album.