The prodigious Abdullah Siddiqui on future plans

From playing multiple roles in Coke Studio 14 to creating Joyland’s sparse music, Abdullah is now looking towards a new album. His work on Joyland has not gone unnoticed as the film is being hailed for getting everything right including its music.

His role in Coke Studio 14 also goes beyond being a performing artist with Atif Aslam (‘Go’).

He was also the associate producer to more than half a dozen songs and part of a think-tank within the production.

It looks like the stars are within his reach.

As this piece is being written, Abdullah Siddiqui, in a brief conversation with Instep from Toronto, confirmed that he is attending the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival at the moment.

What’s he doing there? He is present as part of the Joyland contingent, which is a film by Saim Sadiq and Siddiqui has done the music for the critically acclaimed film.

During the conversation, Abdullah Siddiqui confirmed that he is working on a new album.

Confirming a record is coming, the artist noted he will not drop the whole thing in one go.

Said Abdullah Siddiqui: “Yes, I just shot the first music video [for my next album],” adding, “that’s going to be out soon, and then I’m going to start rolling out the album over the next couple of months. Hopefully, it’ll be out by the end of this year or early next year.”

Siddiqui confirmed - that like his previous records - the upcoming one will feature several collaborations. However, the first single is a solo by Abdullah Siddiqui.

Still in his early 20s, Abdullah has done enough work to earn the title of music’s prodigious son who has an uncompromising work ethic and vision.

Since appearing on Nescafe Basement with the song ‘Resistance’ in 2019, Siddiqui became a performing artist who took industry insiders and outsiders by storm. Everyone began noticing his talent.

To add to his growing following, Siddiqui dropped a full-fledged album, beginning with Metannoya (2019) followed by Heterotopia (2020), dead Beat poets (2021) and dead Beat poets: Side B (2021).

Each album was a vessel for Siddiqui to experiment with everything from philosophical ideas to personal experiences to electronic genres and subgenres.

While the records were always on the cards and Siddiqui made sure that they released, he also worked with Fawad Khan, Meesha Shafi, Atif Aslam, Faris Shafi, Shamoon Ismail, Talha Anjum, Natasha Noorani, Aima Baig, Zoe Viccaji, Maanu, and did projects such as Pakistan Super League ft. Altamash Sever and Mahira Khan in the music video of the song, ‘Kingdom’. And that’s just off the top of our head.

What is written in the stars for Abdullah Siddiqui will become palpable in the coming weeks and months.

But given his skills, cerebral talent, and ability to produce in astonishing fashion with whatever task he takes on, his upcoming album is one of the most anticipated albums of 2022. It may switch release to early next year, but we’re hoping the singles will keep us satiated in the meantime.

(Read more about Joyland and TIFF in the upcoming issue of Instep on Sunday).