People have been saying we’re over, but we didn’t go anywhere: Outlandish

Denmark based hip-hop group Outlandish talks about releasing music after seven years

They are back after seven years, but for Danish hip-hop group Outlandish, the time gap only signifies that they don’t make music out of compulsion. The group, comprising Waqas Ali Qadri , Lenny Martinez and Isam Bachiri, famous for songs Aicha and Guantanamo among many others, recently released their single My Old Man.

Denmark based hip-hop group Outlandish released My Old Man after a gap of seven years.

Over a conference call (Waqas was in Denmark, Lenny in Cuba and Isam in Spain), the group spoke to us about their absence, and their take on the “ evolving music scene” and more… Excerpts:

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What did you take seven years to release a single?

What’s the song My Old Man all about?

It’s about the relationship between a father and his son. Funnily, Lenny, was the one who came up with the idea. But he came up with the idea of a mother and his son, since Lenny never had a father. But then, we discussed and we decided that we should probably talk about the other bond, because it’s not really talked about much. In popular culture, fathers don’t credit as much credit as the mothers do.

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You, too, are following the trend of releasing singles than albums. Do you think that’s a better choice?

For Outlandish, definitely yes. We take time in making a song. So when we make an album, we generally have to be in the studios for a long time, and that means you are missing out on a lot of what’s going in the industry. Plus, music is evolving so fast, that by the time one comes up with an album, you realise that the sound is old, and people are listening to something different. Also for us, what works is the fact that we can give the kind of music that people are listening to at that point in time, and then start working on something else immediately.

In this age of piracy, musicians are the worst affected. Do you agree?

Yes! I mean, we are definitely not making a lot of money by selling albums. People download it for free. You want people to know that artists also need some kind of support to be able to make music. But, you can’t blame them! At the end of the day, I want people to listen to our music, so that they can come and listen to us at the concerts. It’s a tight spot that we are in. The only thing you can do as a musician is to adapt to the situation in the best way possible.