Mere khwaishein adhuri, ab hone lage poori, jab tum paas ho...

Teri ye manzoori, mere liye hai zaroori, jab tum paas ho...

The lyrics from the single, released on Monday by Salim-Sulaiman’s Merchant Records, are among the more beautiful poetic works one has heard in recent times. Says Salim, “We conceived it as a romantic ballad. And of course, Niranjan (lyricist Niranjan Iyengar) gave it a beautiful poetic dimension. The hummable track evokes powerful emotions of closeness — not just in a true romantic sense — but a strong longing and affection. It could be your parents, family, partner, friends, hobbies, passions... anything or anyone that holds an important role in your lives.”

The song ‘Jab Tum Paas Ho’ was created much before the lockdown, though the video had not been shot. “We had initially thought of releasing it in March or April but we have been waiting for the lockdown to get easy to shoot the music video; and we finally shot the video with real people, not actors; that’s why it’s so special,” says Salim.

The video was directed by Shakti Hasija.

Ash King’s Bollywood tryst

When Ash King met Salim and Sulaiman in England 10 years ago, they decided to work together and that has fructified into a reality.

Poster of ‘Jab Tum Paas Ho’  

Says Ash about ‘Jab Tum…’, “For me, it was nice to tap into my RnB style of singing. To be able to sing that in an Indian song felt so fresh. I’ve worked with every major music director in the business except Salim -Sulaiman, so it was nice to get my first song with them.” Ash, who has sung numbers like ‘Auntyji’, ‘Bandook meri Laila’ and ‘Te Amo’, feels singing in Bollywood has given him the versatility even though he leans towards soulful music.

Connecting with us from Canada, Jonita Gandhi says, “I tried to channel my inner Ash King (laughs) while delivering the song, while bringing my own sound to the track. What I love about ‘Jab Tum Paas Ho’ is that it’s hard to put it into one specific genre; and that’s how I feel about my own personality as well.”

Agreeing that the song is more relevant to present times, Jonita says, “These are times we need to be connected with our loved ones... we all need that human connection and knowing that we are not alone. It’s a great message to spread.”

Lauding the composer duo, Ash says, “The vibe that you get with them (Salim-Sulaiman) is fresh. They are young modern music producers and am glad that they now have a label to do independent music that allows them to explore their musical creations outside of a Bollywood script.”

Sharing the sentiment Jonita says, “I absolutely love recording with Salim-Sulaiman, Raj Pandit, and the entire team! I’ve recorded with them several times before, for a couple of singles, including ‘Tu Hai’ and ‘Jheeni Jheeni’.”

Salim respects Jonita and Ash as singers and he feels they have great personalities in terms of lending voices with each other. ‘Since it was a romantic song, we needed a soothing voice that touches your heart and so they were our first choice and they did beautifully,” he says.

Merchant Records’ emergence

‘Jab Tum Paas Ho’ is the fourth release under Merchant Records started by brothers Salim and Sulaiman. Sharing the intent behind the label, the duo says, “It is our way of building an open community that flourishes on the back of the talent and aspirations of musical talent in the country. Our label is a beautiful destination for creative people — be it singers, composers, lyricists or filmmakers.”Artistes like Grammy award-winner Ricky Kej, Vijay Prakash, Raj Pandit, Tapas, Ranjit Barot, Rajiv Sundaresan, will be releasing their music through Merchant Records shortly.

The first video under Merchant Records label was ‘Maangi Duaein’ that featured Faisu and Ruhi Singh and was followed by ‘Beech Raaste’, a unique project released during the lockdown, set to a video that was created with the use of Apple’s Memoji technology — a first in the Indian music scene. On August 15, the label released its third music video, a soulful recreation of ‘Jana Gana Mana’, composed by Nikhil and Swapnil.

Eid release

It is an annual tradition for Salim and Sulaiman to release a composition around Eid. “But this year was a challenge and we almost gave up, as we had no studio access, no interaction, no brainstorming sessions as we were all at our homes under lockdown. But the Almighty is always doing mighty things on your behalf. We brothers had not met even once in this lockdown and operated from our homes. So have all the singers and actors in this music video. Raj Pandit was in Mumbai, Salman Ali was in Haryana, Vipul Mehta was in Amritsar. They recorded and filmed their parts on their phones and emailed us which we put together as a beautiful video. We did not attach ourselves to any music label for this auspicious offering and released it ourselves,” explains Salim.