Five Questions With Jhalaak

Vancouver’s Jhalaak recently released their new track, “Main Naraye Mastana” from Ruby Singh presents Jhalaak (spark) which is slated to come out on May 7, 2020. Also out today is Jhalaak‘s stunning video for ‘Main Naraye Mastana’  which was shot in the group’s ancestral home of Rajasthan, India. The video was directed by Singh + features Raki Khalbelia, one of the most celebrated dancers in Kalbelia folk dance.

Check out the video below and find out more about Ruby Singh and Jhalaak via our Five Questions With segment.

Care to introduce yourself to our readers?

My name is Ruby Singh and this project is Jhalaak which means spark. Jhalaak is a Sufi hip hop project that’s made of 2 Canadian Desi artists, myself and Adham Shaikh and 3 Rajastani brothers Chugge, Khete and Salim Khan.

Tell us a bit about your music and writing style.

The Khan brothers are all steeped in the Qawaali tradition, a style of devotional Sufi music from India and Pakistan, all of them are multi-instrumentalists and incredible singers. We blend this with the global bass and hip hop sounds of myself and Adham Shaikh. Some of the lyrics for Jhalaak go as far back as the 13th century and stretch to some originals written by us. What I’m doing is English translations/ interpretations in raps based on these lyrics. We have been traveling back and forth between Canada and India for the last 6 years dialling in the collaboration process. Growing our understanding of the traditional forms within Qawaali music and translating those over to beat production as well as influencing compositions.

Do you have any upcoming shows? For someone who has yet to see you live, how would you explain your live performance?

Jhalaak will reunite this summer for a Western Canada tour in July. We will be at Indian Summer Fest in Vancouver and Starbelly Jam to name a few. Come to the show with your dancing shoes, prepare for virtuosic musicianship, soul-stirring vocals and driving beats. Jhalaaks music sparks the ecstatic in all of us, for me, getting to be on stage with my brothers makes me feel like a kid in mud.

If you were asked to suggest only one of your songs for someone to hear, which would it be?

Well, we only have the one release right now which is “Main Naraya Mastana” (herald of the ecstatic). We’ll be releasing a few singles over the next couple of months and the full album in May 2020.

Canadian Beats is all about Canadian music, so who are your current favourite Canadian bands/ artists?

I’m a big music fan of a lot of different genres so it’s hard for me to pick favourites but check out Shad, PIQSIQ, Khari Wendell McLelland, Tanika Charles, Gord Grdina, Marin Patineaude, Ora Cogan to name just a few…I could go on forever, for such a small country, we’ve got a crazy amount of talent!

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