Zain Zohaib and Hamza Malik on Thursday released a collaboration with DJ and producer Alan Walker and singer-songwriter James Arthur — a remix of their super-hit song ‘Alfaaz’ infused with Walker’s signature EDM and Arthur’s vocals.

‘Alfaaz’, the original song, has been a chart-topping sensation, reaching the top spots on Spotify’s daily music charts in Pakistan and India and even making it to the weekly top 50 chart.

To find out more about the remake titled ‘Alfaaz (Alan Walker Relight)’, Images sat down with Walker to talk about the song, his experience working in Pakistan and his first impressions of the country.

Fusing Eastern with EDM

The DJ admitted it wasn’t an easy undertaking: “It was a difficult one because it’s a very different type of style of music versus what I usually do.” But he believed he had managed to mix the distinctly Eastern style of ‘Alfaaz’ with his own “in a way that really resonates with people who might be fans of EDM, but also people who don’t listen to too much EDM as well”.

How did the collaboration come about? Walker said it began with mutual interest from both sides and an idea. “We heard the song a bit, here and there. It felt like it was everywhere. We were already travelling around Asia, and then we had the idea to remake or remix the song. And then suddenly my team just contacted me and were like, ‘Hey, do you want to travel to Pakistan?’, and I was like, ‘Sure, yeah, why not?’”

Fast-tracking the track

Walker said it took just a few weeks for the song to come together from the day he was approached to the final release. “It’s the quickest turnaround we’ve ever had of any songs. I think the last time I made a song this quick and it’s come out as fast as we’re doing now was when I was, like, 16 and making music for fun and had no record label, just put out music that I liked to make.”

Within less than a week, the first demo was ready, and in a week and a half, James Arthur was locked in to provide vocals for the song as well.

“When we were there, we were working very much in the closing stages,” Walker said of his time in Lahore. “Within a day or two after the trip, that’s when we got the final vocals from James Arthur.”

That aligned with the deadline the team had to submit the song to Spotify. “That also puts things into perspective, how quickly things have moved around. There have been so many little puzzle pieces that needed to come into place, but it’s been moving incredibly rapidly.”

How it happened

Muhammad Ibrahim, co-founder of Giraffe Pakistan, the studio responsible for ‘Alfaaz’, said the Pakistani and international teams worked so well because they were “on the same page about what they exactly wanted out of it”.

Ibrahim said they had approached Walker’s team, asking if they were interested in the collaboration, but the initiative to have Walker in Pakistan came from his team. “This would be the best thing to happen — if we could really have him here,” they’d told his team, Ibrahim said.

When they came through, he said, “No one had time to really, you know, plan anything… Everything happened so fast and so organically.”

The DJ was impressed with the way his collaborators were on board, making time and space in their own schedules to facilitate the process.

Love affair with Lahore

For his trip, Walker said he had all of 24 hours, which meant he was taken from the plane to the hotel and then straight to Old Lahore, where his first shoot was at the historic Lahore Fort. He described the fort complex adjacent to the Badshahi Mosque as being reminiscent of the Taj Mahal — both being iconic examples of Mughal architecture.

“That’s when we got to see the true beauty of Lahore … I’m so happy that we got to showcase some of the most iconic sites of Lahore in the music video,” he said.

The DJ said he had a memorable experience working with the team in Pakistan and was happy to have met them in person. “I think it was really important for our collaboration and the project that we wanted to do with ‘Alfaaz’, to actually go meet the people, meet the team, meet the artists, and just build that connection.”

“It was a blast, I loved working with all of the people, and everyone was super nice, welcoming me and also my crew with open arms,” he shared.

As is customary for Pakistanis, the hosts took him out to a big group lunch, where the Norwegian was treated to some halwa poori, which he said he enjoyed.

‘Pakistani music can make it globally’

Walker seemed really hopeful at the end of the project, saying his experiences showed “that it is really possible for Pakistani music to make it worldwide, as it already has”.

He said he wouldn’t rule out working with Pakistani musicians again: “Anything is possible. Our arms are wide open, and it will be very interesting to see what we can do in the future and for the months coming up.”

Ibrahim, expanding upon Giraffe Pakistan’s role in the collaboration, said the team is seeking to “build an ecosystem here within the country to … strike global partnerships or collaborations, or provide a system of distribution and promotion which can really get songs out of the country and get them to the world.”

“I can’t thank Alan and his team enough … they’ve really facilitated it the way they’ve done it with such open arms and with a lot of love,” he said.

Header image courtesy Giraffe Pakistan