Ali Jafri premieres the new single and lyric video ‘Catch Your Breath’ via his Bandcamp and Youtube channel today. Perhaps it’s not the gloomiest of songs on this fine “World Goth Day” but you can definitely hear a few shimmering darker undertones throughout. ‘Catch Your Breath’ was written during a time of isolation and reflection while on lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has literally affected our day to day way of life on a global scale. The song guides us with Ali’s reflective plea that now is a great time to reassess our lives and reshape the future. ‘Catch Your Breath’ has an eclectic ambiance highlighting Ali Jafri’s experimental use of the sitar.
It’s “Bowie meets The Doors on acid” reflects Martin Atkins (Pigface) as he reads off an undisclosed panelist’s critique while leading a listening ‘Zoom Music Conference’. The song was voted into the top 10 of 50 submissions by industry professionals Matt Eidson, Martin Atkins, Brian Abbott, and Ricco Lumpkins, to name a few.
Ali Jafri is a highly talented vocalist and multi-instrumentalist (guitar, bass, synth, percussion & sitar) and is an extended Pigface family member. He’s also had the opportunity to travel and play with Bauhaus bassist David J for a string of ‘living room style’ shows along with sharing the stage at Convergence 23 Festival in Dallas, TX. He is the former frontman of the band ARIEL and current partner in multimedia electro-operatic, celtic, eastern world fusion duo SAINTFIELD. His eclectic style spans from post-punk, shoegaze, industrial to world music. His vocals are noted for its deep and resonant and emotional quality.
Ali Jafri takes us on a journey through his inspiration and process in creating ‘Catch Your Breath’ while on lockdown due to COVID-19.
“The inspiration behind this is the current lockdown situation. It’s about taking inventory and cutting the shit. “Catch Your Breath” refers to a couple of things, there are people that are on ventilators, with pneumonia-like symptoms due to Covid-19 and breathing laboriously, while some are (thankfully) forced out of the rat-race and have a chance to literally and figuratively catch their breath and reassess the lives we’re living. I believe we have a chance to reshape a more equitable and environmentally responsible world and the old ways are dying. We need to wise up and cut the shit. If we have a chance to sensitize, it’s right now. “Is that a tear in your eye” can be taken a few ways. It’s a jeer at those whinging about going back to “normal”, it’s also a call to sensitize and see what we’ve done. It’s time to get real.”
“To the first point about ventilators and people cut out of the rat race, one set of people are suffering with breathing, the other set is healing by “catching their breath”. It’s an interesting juxtaposition. And it also speaks to the choice we have in how we collectively proceed. Do we go down a path of further destruction and suffocation, or do we go down a path of peace and healing?”
….or a path of peace and reconciliation.
“My process usually starts with a beat or a groove. I’m a sucker for a good groove. I often try various riffs over certain beats and see if I feel something emerging. When things click the rest can start flowing. As a sitar player I’m always looking to incorporate it, luckily it works well with this one. I’m very experimental with my approach to sitar, I run it through a reverb pedal and a Memory Man which has a great reverse feature. I love classical indian music however, I wanna break sitar rules, which is why I like mine electric, played standing up, and sometimes with shoes on! I love my ancestral heritage and I want to express myself, as I am, as who I am, through these experiments. I try hard not to make it about my ego, it’s about sincerity, and I’m sincerely different yet similar to my ancestors, as we all are living in the modern era. This is part of my story not only as an artist, but as a person. Sincerity is holistic.
“One of the last bits to come together is the vocals and lyrics. It’s the hardest thing sometimes, often times really. Figuring out what to say and how to say it. With this song the inspiration for the lyrics came from being in lockdown. It’s pretty current even though the core idea musically is so old for me. While Covid is the obvious “plague” that is the hot topic of discussion, we’re also learning that our lifestyle, or even us, perhaps we are a virus that needs to leave our old ways behind and carve out something new, equitable and sustainable. We’ve lost touch with the basics to living well, it’s an art. But the modern era and rat race has taken the art out of living. I reference the “heart” in the lyrics as that’s our opening to go inside ourselves and find ourselves and eventually each other, a re connection of something we’ve lost and perhaps can get back. That’s what we need. We’re feeling it heightened now focused in isolation. Also, human history has a brutally violent past, we collectively now have an opportunity to take the best of the past ie simplicity, with the best of the modern ie tech and do away with violence and destruction that is outside of the course of nature. But what is nature? Didn’t somebody say going against nature “is part of nature too”? I‘m perpetually headspun and my songs are a result of this I suppose.”
‘Catch Your Breath’ Lyrics
Catch your breath
In the death
Of Yesterday
Catch your breath
In the death
Of yesterday
Find your name
On me and your heart
Find my name (Fight this plague)
On you and your heart
Catch your breath
In the death of yesterday
Do you really think she’ll pull through
We can laugh til we die
What do you think we can do
Is that a tear in your eye
Catch your breath
In the death of yesterday
Catch your breath
Just let it go
Credits
released May 22, 2020
Ali Jafri – Lyrics, vocals, sitar, bass VI, guitar, keyboards, programmming.
Mixed by Ali Jafri at Das Bunker at Saintfield Productions
Mastered by Andy Krehm
Special thanks to Ciara Adams, Zayn Jafri and Martin Atkins
Keep up with Ali Jafri
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