In a conversation, Muzahid Abdullah, a.k.a MUZA, gets candid about his career and the inspiration behind producing viral Bengali/English songs.
YOU STARTED WRITING SONGS WHEN YOU WERE 8. WHAT KIND OF SONGS WERE YOU WRITING THEN?
I started with love poems. At first, they were quite simple but then I started learning about similes and metaphors and I applied them to make my lyrics sound more beautiful – something that would let people vividly imagine and feel the love and romance. When you listen to a love song, you wonder “When is something like this going to happen to me?” There is so much to explore about love – happiness, romance and heartbreaks – and it’s all so relatable. Growing up, I used to watch a lot of Bengali movies, and every single story was about about love.
WHAT ARE SOME OF THE BENGALI MOVIES THAT YOU’VE WATCHED AND YOU’VE REALLY ENJOYED?
I honestly don’t even remember, but my mom says I used to be a huge Manna fan. I still remember the song, ‘Ammajan Ammajan’. Apparently, I used to love listening to that song. Come to think of it, maybe I should do an ‘Ammajan’ remix!
MY GOAL CURRENTLY IS TO MAKE REALLY GOOD BENGALI SONGS. THE WAY I WAS RAISED, I WAS VERY CLOSELY TIED TO MY CULTURE, AND I DON’T WANT PEOPLE DETACHING THEMSELVES FROM IT EITHER
HOW DID IT FEEL WHEN YOUR SONGS STARTED GOING VIRAL?
My first viral song was ‘Bondhurey’, which was also the first Bengali song that I made. At first, I couldn’t believe it and thought the numbers were all fake views. But people were genuinely loving the song. Then ‘Noya Daman’ absolutely blew up which went way beyond my expectations. Also, ‘Lilabali’ which became a wedding hit got the best responses. People were leaving comments saying, “Thanks MUZA. I can’t sleep because there’s a wedding next door and they’re playing Lilabali.”
DID YOU PLAN ON MAKING YOUR SONGS TO BE SUCH HUGE WEDDING HITS?
Yup! Because growing up, it would bother me that every Bangladeshi wedding I’d go to would be playing Hindi songs – no disrespect to Hindi and Punjabi music – they’re amazing in their own right. But my goal currently is to make really good Bengali songs. The way I was raised, I am very closely tied to my culture, and I don’t want people detaching themselves from it either. ‘Lilabali’ is such a traditional song, that even my great-great-grandfather knew about it. And now, the next generation will have a good ‘Lilabali’ remix to celebrate with.
WHICH SONGS ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF?
Out of the viral ones, ‘Noya Daman,’ because, it’s traditionally a Sylheti song, but its popularity made it a Bangladeshi song. ‘Noya Daman’ is celebrated as a Bengali song, and people love it for what it is.
Out of my less popular songs, I’d say La Magia (Jadoo). It did pretty well in the American market, but not so much in Bangladesh. It’s the first ever Spanish-Bengali song. Spanish is one of the languages I speak and it felt really good to bring that into my work.
It was just a really proud moment for me to be able to do the first of something.
YOU ALSO HAVE A FEW ARABIC SONGS. IS THERE A STORY BEHIND WRITING ARABIC SONGS?
Yeah, it’s a funny story actually. Growing up, my mom sent me to a madrasa to learn Arabic, and I met a lot of Arab kids there who showed me Arabic music. I was really into it, but I felt that there were no EDM Arabic songs, and that drove me nuts! I thought, “This needs some pump and some bass!” So, I made a trance Arabic song called ‘Habibi’ which was released in my first album called ‘3rd Eye’, and then a house Arabic song called ‘Ulili.’ That’s the whole purpose of making these songs – I want to make them available to kids who are into that genre.
YOU SPEAK A LOT OF LANGUAGES. WHERE DOES THAT INTEREST COME FROM?
I love the beauty of languages. I speak Bengali, English, Spanish, Arabic, and I’m also learning German. I think language is going to be the new instrument and nobody is going to care about what country a song is from. That’s why K-pop is so popular, and now people are learning Korean just to understand K-pop.
WHAT DO YOU WISH PEOPLE KNEW ABOUT THE MAN BEHIND MUZA?
MUZA is short for Muzahid Abdullah. That’s who I am – that’s my name. The name MUZA, in Russian means muse – someone who inspires – and I think that’s very close to how I want people to look at me. I love and feel blessed that people have shown me so much love as a songwriter, but I am also a producer. In my experience, producers in Bangladesh do not get the attention and respect they deserve. A good producer knows and understands the technology to get the best out of a singer’s voice. It’s a lot of work, and I wish knew me more for the effort I put in as a producer to make amazing music.
Photograph: Nirjon Mahmood