Abdullah Siddiqui breaks down the process of creating PSL anthem 'Agay Dekh'

Abdullah Siddiqui has a long list of musical credits to his name and is a considered a prodigy by many people in Pakistan but have you ever wondered what goes into making one of his songs? He just broke down the PSL anthem 'Agay Dekh' for Spotify, giving us a look into his musical process.

Siddiqui, who is also an associate producer for the latest season of Coke Studio, worked on the anthem sung by Atif Aslam and Aima Baig.

"When I knew I was going to be doing this anthem, I knew that the first thing I wanted to make sure [of was] it had a dance beat because these anthems normally don't have dance beats and I love a good club beat. It has more of a dance hall pattern," the electropop prodigy explained on Spotify's "How To Sound Like Me" feature.

Siddiqui said he found a trumpet loop that sounded "instantly super catchy" so he added that to the mix. "Then I decided that it needed a lot of crowd sounds so there are all these samples of crowds clapping and chanting, it's like the ambience of a stadium. When you put all of that together, it kind of feels like the foundation for the song."

He mentioned another instrument that played a big part in the music — "there are also these very big cinematic drums." He said they also had "vocals that are very tightly treated, like very crisp pop vocals". "There are some synths happening and I kept building and building just to add more intensity because I felt like this song needed to be super intense and upbeat."

'Agay Dekh' was released on Jan 24 and like its predecessors, received mixed reactions. With time, people warmed up to it though, especially with the energy it injected in the PSL tournament.

Siddiqui first gained national fame with his Nescafé Basement original 'Resistance', and later his super hit 'Kingdom' for Peshawar Zalmi in PSL6 last year. The song was Zalmi's official anthem.

The singer-songwriter has three albums under his belt — Heterotopia, Metannoya and dead Beat poets — and was also featured on US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar's Spotify playlist called 'Muslim Vibes', along with Shamoon Ismail. He has also been featured on Forbes 30 under 30 Asia list.