Azam Ali – Singer & Musician Interview by Dj Nocturna

Originally aired on Modsnap Radio’s ‘Queen of Wands’ with Dj Nocturna, June 27th, 2020. Visit DjNocturna.com

Dj Nocturna speaks with Singer, Musician & Producer Azam Ali.

Azam Ali: Well, thank you so much for wanting to speak with me and for, I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for Djs growing up. Always my best friends were Djs you know, that you play the role of bringing music to people who may otherwise not hear it. So it’s a very sacred role You play in the realm of creatives and music, you know?

Dj Nocturna: Well, you know, if it wasn’t for artists like you, I wouldn’t know what to play. . . So thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much Azam for doing the interview with me. . I’ve I’ve been a very big fan of yours since, since VAS in the late nineties. Yeah. You know, I remember seeing a flyer.  do you remember going to San Francisco, like sometime in the 2000 or in , I don’t know, late nineties or 2000.

Azam Ali: depends. Where, which event was it a particular venue?

Dj Nocturna: You know, I can’t, I can’t remember. I saw the flyer in the Amoeba records, you know, there’s a flyer area.

Azam Ali: Wow my goodness. During that time, it was the beginning of my career. A lot of shows in Northern California. It was either like, The height of our VAS when we played the great American Music Hall.

But before that it was mostly just not so much clubs have been suited, but we’re doing a lot of esoteric bookstore. Little, little venues. Yeah, we did do a performance at amoeba once. Now that I think about it up North.

Dj Nocturna: No, but I, I don’t know if he was inside of me, but I just remembered, I remember hearing.

The most, one of the most beautiful voices I ever heard on the speakers.

Azam Ali: That is such a Nice thing to say. Thank you. It’s always weird for me to say thank you. When people say that about my voice, because I had nothing to do with it. I just, you know, it’s weird for me. Like I, when I say thank you for the music I write, that’s different because like I have a hand.

That’s part of, but you know, you’re, it’s like somebody complimenting you on your hair. It’s like, thank you. But like, it just, you know, I can’t take any credit for that.

Dj Nocturna: Yeah. It was a really interesting time back then, too, because you know, back then I remember like, you know, and everybody was, was really loved middle Eastern music.

For some reason, there was a lot of stores that sold like middle Eastern jewelry. And you, you would hear it. I mean, I remember that time in San Francisco, especially.

Azam Ali: Well, the nineties were a very magical time anyway for music. You know what I mean? When I came to the U S from India in 1985 and I, and I kind of really got, I went to high school and in high school, pretty much everyone was listening to, you know, I had my goth friends who were like the Bauhaus fans.

You know, all the, all that other stuff. And then. And then my other friends were like, you know, guns and roses and all that other world. And then once I graduated high school, like I personally myself got really into industrial music because it was the first time I was hearing music that was blending middle Eastern music.

So I was just so intrigued when I first started hearing, you know, like bands like Ajax and you know, all that stuff coming out of Wax Trax. . And I was like they put middle Eastern music on these, like beats. And then I just like, got really heavily into that world. And that’s really where my love for electronic music developed is listening to, industrial music, you know, and then of course there’s the Dead Can Dances and, and all of that, that, you know, played such a vital role and even making, I mean, I really credit Dead Can Dance with.

Making a lot of Western audiences appreciate Eastern music, you know, because they delivered it in a way that was unique to them. But, but they really, you could tell from their music that they really shared a deep love and respect. They really had a reverence for, for those sounds. So, you know, I’m very grateful to them for creating the body of work that they did.

Dj Nocturna: Yeah, but, but for you too, I mean, you you’ve been making music now for like what, like two decades, right?

Azam Ali: Yeah. So, I mean, VAS was late nineties , yes for 20 years, you know? Wow. It sucks sometimes. Sometimes you don’t think about it. You don’t think about your own trajectory. It’s like I tell my husband, like.

It’s weird for me when I, when I have to, when people ask me how old I am? And then I, cause I don’t feel my age, I don’t feel myself doing this as long. No, but I’m thinking I don’t do you know what I mean? When I say that, I’m sure you feel like that too. You know, when you’re a creative person, you just don’t find, you don’t really age the way people do.

you’re not, you’re not measuring by the way. By that clock. So it’s really weird when suddenly it’s drawing. When I, when I realized, wow, you know

Dj Nocturna: well, you know why you came a long ways. I mean, you you’ve been like, uh, you, you were also in Niyaz , you know, with Loga , right?

Azam Ali: Yeah. We’re still doing that though.

Dj Nocturna: Um, and I, I love, I love, I love Niyaz as well, and I, by the way, I love Axiom of Choice.

Azam Ali: That was the great band. So that was another thing that’s interesting is that while. Actually I met my partner in Vas through Loga because he was playing percussion in Axiom of Choice. And it’s always the joke that I came and stole Axiom of Choice’s percussionist to start my own band.

, but it really that’s really what happened is that I met Greg. Through Loga. And then, and then we just, you know, I had these ideas of what I wanted to do and we just started messing around. And then once we had a few songs, people even Loga , they were like, you guys are really onto something very unique.

So just continue. And then we did our first record and, you know, it was still. I feel So fortunate that, that I started my career then because there was still as bad as it was, I was an unjust, a model as it was, there was still a music industry, you know, and, you know, we got signed to a label and our first record.

I mean, for 1997, or whenever that came out, we sold like over 60,000 copies. Yeah. It was crazy for us, you know, but it was a time that you still could do that. Like now there’s so many talented artists and they put out these incredible records and they’re lucky if even, you know, a hundred people can hear them.

It’s just, I feel really fortunate that we started then because I built a lot of my hardcore fan base. In those early years, and they’ve kind of just all come along with me, you know, all these people who beg me stop making this electronic music and go make VAS And I’m like, but I did that. I’d made four angles.

Like, why would I want to do that again?

Dj Nocturna: You know, good. I mean, it’s, it’s good that you, you, you, you, you move from there. I mean, it’s good to always change, you know, to transform a little bit.

Azam Ali: Yeah. You’ll have to evolve as an artist, but it’s weird because sometimes, you know, and I understand that. Because I was like that with Dead Can Dance.

I really loved their earlier work. And then I became friends with Brendan Perry and I’ll never forget. We were having wine one night, I had too much wine and he asked me what my favorite Dead Can Dance records were. And it just came out of my mouth, Spleen & Ideal and A Serpent’s Egg, And I thought he was going to feel so happy when I said that, but I could tell the look of disappointment on his face because really what I said was.

None of your later works ,

you know what I mean? Like imagine if you were interviewing me and I asked you, what is my favorite record of yours? What is, what is your favorite record of mine. And then you said something from like the nineties, you know, I wouldn’t be like, okay, well, I guess she doesn’t like anything I’m doing now.

And I didn’t realize that until later, but then I realized, you know, that’s why I don’t get upset anymore when, when fans say that to me, because I realized there’s also a certain nostalgia that we attach. Yeah. I mean, it was a certain albums, a period we were going through and, and it’s sacred for people, you know, they don’t want to part with that nostalgia.

Dj Nocturna: Yeah. You know, in Niyaz , you know, I love, I love what it means. Yearning. You know, it definitely has that, that, you know, what the Portuguese called Saudade , you know, it has that yearning of the soul, you know, because the music is very soulful. It’s very deep. Very beautiful. So I wanted to ask you, because I know you mentioned, I read this somewhere.

You said that music is the most esoteric in the arts. What do you, what do you mean by that?

Azam Ali: I mean that it is the most intangible form of the arts. You know, you cannot, you cannot smell it. You cannot touch it. You cannot hold it. You cannot, it’s just this it’s this unseen frequency and vibration that is just it’s, it’s somehow it connects to it’s connected to all of us, but it’s still so intangible.

So it makes it very, it’s so intriguing to me, you know, and yeah. It’s stuff you can stand in front of a painting and your eyes see it. There’s just none of your, you can’t explain what part of your senses are experiencing music, you know, it’s so it is a Esoteric in that sense. And I just feel like it’s the one thing we have in this world.

Not that not to take away from any other art form, because believe me, each of them has such a special place in my life, but I feel music of all things, it allows us to. Tap into a frequency that connects us to something so much deeper than. Then being these physical bodies and living in the, in this physical realm, you know, it’s, it’s something that it’s unexplained.

It’s inexplainable.

Dj Nocturna: That’s beautiful. That’s beautiful. You know, I know you’re spiritual. How do you start your morning and, you know, do you have a morning ritual when you get up in the morning, you drink your coffee?

Azam Ali: You know, because it changes throughout my life. And, you know, I grew up of course, growing up in India.

So I was surrounded by mysticism all the time, you know, and going to temples. And then I had a teacher in my school was Christian. So every Sunday she would take me to church. And so I had exposure to so many different religions, like especially Buddhism also when I, where I grew up and I kind of studied the ones that I studied, you know, pretty closely .

The word Buddhism, I studied Hinduism and you know, really what I’ve taken away from it. Is it just a religious doctrine it doesn’t completely appeal to me. I’m more interested in the mystical aspect of religions. And I think one of the most powerful tools we have at our disposal as human beings is the power to meditate.

And, that’s really how I begin. My day. I’ll have my coffee. and you know what it’s so. It’s it’s really the only way I know people say, you know, cause I’m not a new age person by any stretch of the imagination, I’m a through and through goth and in, in the most essential sense in the sense, you know, I’m, I may not look the part, but.

But there is, you know what I mean when I say that? So I, I just feel like, I mean, I have a perfect balance of optimism and pessimism kind of constantly flowing through me. And for me, that’s kind of a lot of what being a goth is about is that you just. examine the world and you’re able to see it for what it is, you know, good and bad.

And you’re not afraid of the bad and the dark . You know, you realize that the world is balanced with light and darkness and, and you have to embrace, you have to embrace both, you know, so it’s, I just feel like I’m always walking that tightrope, but meditation, to me, it’s just, it’s so powerful because it’s the one, it’s the only thing you do where you’re really are with yourself.

Where , you can kind of escape from the, what I like about it is when I go really deep. I’m no longer attached to my body. My thoughts, my emotions are who I am in this life. You know, it’s sort of feel something about what you are in its essence. . It’s so vast and it’s so intertwined with it, everything else in this world and everyone else in this world.

And I think that. I wish they taught us how to do that in school when we were little and we did it throughout our lives, you know, because I think we would just live. We would live very differently, you know, we’d make horrible,yeah, we’d make horrible soldiers for capitalism, but you know,  we’d all be a lot more fulfilled and in life.

So that’s how I start my day. And sometimes like today I’ll meditate twice a day. Like before I talked to you, I finished all my work and I was like, you know what, I’m going to take a shower or do a second meditation and then just relax in the garden. And then also when you go there as an artist, it allows you to tap into, into higher frequencies, you know?

And when you tap into those higher frequencies, then that. Then there’s a certain energy that comes through you and vibration, and then you can kind of bring that out in the music you do, and then hopefully, you know, you you’re able to transmit that across to other people.

Dj Nocturna: Yeah. He’s always good to be in high vibration.

I agree. So you were born into Tehran, Iran, you left at about when you were four, you moved to India to go to a international boarding school. And then, would you say that those were the years, those were the informative years being in India that helped you to shape your, your musical journey and create your voice?

Azam Ali: Yes

Dj Nocturna: You know, your, because you are, you are an inspiring independent woman, you know , especially during those times, you know, when you’re, looking at finding that, that voice and that journey.

Azam Ali: But also, you’re not considering that I came from the East, you know, it’s very, it’s not a very honorable thing to do to say, I want to go become a singer or an artist on stage, you know, it’s kind of, it’s, it’s, you know, it’s always looked down upon shamefully for, for women, you know, it’s okay for men to do that.

But for women, you know, Of course, like, like many other cultures, my mother would have loved for me to become a doctor, a lawyer or a nurse or whatever. But , you know, I’m lucky that, that, my mother, there was also an independent woman and she, at first she was a bit disappointed when I told her I want to be an artist and I don’t want to do other things.

Cause my mom was an artist. My mom. Made Persian rugs and she was phenomenal. . But you know what? She never thought she’d go do that as a living. So she went and became a nurse and she spent her whole life being a nurse and, and then just made rugs as a hobby. And you know what she could have probably become a millionaire making rugs , but you know what, you came from a culture that didn’t support that, you know, so.

So I think when I told her that she was a little bit afraid that I would not be able to earn a living, but then she supported me, especially once she started hearing my music, she thought, okay, you’re, you’re doing something special. So just keep doing it. And she was supportive of that. And I feel like it’s important to be a positive role model for Eastern women because you know, Now, now there are so many more women younger than me from the East who are becoming artists.

And I’m not saying just because of me, but I’m saying because of women like me and the more of us that do it, it inspires others to, to follow suit. So. So I’m grateful that, you know, I have, I remember like around 10 years ago or something, I got contacted by these high school girls, two high school girls from Turkey, and they said, we’re doing, I mean, in college.

And they said, we want to do our college presentation on you. And I started crying because I thought, Oh my goodness. They were like, you know, you’re such a. Positive role model for middle Eastern women. And we want to do our presentation on you. And I was so honored, you know, so those things, those things mean a lot to me in my life.

Dj Nocturna: Yeah. You know the human voice, the human voice, you know, it’s, it’s so special. Right? It’s so powerful. It’s also so delicate. It’s also delicate because, you know, just like words and music. The, the human voice has a potential to inspire. It has the ability to, you know, transcend cultures, language breaks, barriers, unite, races.

I mean, did you always know you can sing? Did you always know you have that ability to

Azam Ali: Not at all. Actually, I never wanted to be a singer. It’s something , I don’t talk about that often, but I knew I wanted to do music when I was in India. When I was five, I actually started studying classical dance and everybody thought I’m going to become a dancer.

Everybody thought I’m going to become a dancer because I was just very good at it. but you know, in doing Indian classical dance, there’s always live musicians that perform when that, when you are performing, it’s very common. And I just remember, even as a child, that was always my attention, even though I was dancing well, my attention was constantly going to the music.

So I, I knew it. Even back then that, you know, I wanted to go more into the realm of music, but I wanted to learn to play an instrument. So when we came here to America in 1985, I started looking for an instrument teacher and I, I knew I wanted to play an Eastern instrument, old instruments

Dj Nocturna: they’re beautiful.

Azam Ali: So I found a teacher and. The Persian hammer dulcimer. And I started studying with him and I studied with him for eight years. And one time in one of our classes, you know, in certain passages is when you play, you have to sing the. There, there are a few lines like these little couplets that you have poetry, and then you sing them while you play.

And so I was just singing that for him as I was, you know, playing what he had taught me and he stopped me and he said, have you ever considered singing? And I said, no. And he said , I really think you should think about that because anybody can go and learn how to sing, but some people, there’s a timber in their voice that just moves the heart.

It just triggers something in the heart and you have that in your voice. And I think you should go explore it. So I said, okay. I, you know, in the East you have so much respect for your teachers. If they tell you, go jump off a cliff, you go and you jump off a cliff. You know? So I said, okay, I’ll sign up for a class.

So I went to Santa Monica college and I signed up for a beginner voice class. I took the class and at the end of the semester, The teacher called me and he said he was this really sweet, you know, 75 year old man. And he said to me, he said, you’ll have a lot of potential. And I’m willing to give you private lessons if, if you’re willing to work hard.

And I said, okay. And I started studying with him. And before I knew it, it was like, nobody wanted to hear me play my instrument anymore. You know, it was kind of like the path got chosen for me, honestly. And I say that very gratefully of course, because you know, at the end, as an artist, you , create your work because you have a hope that it will be of service to others heal others to uplift others and to contribute something meaningful to their lives. So I think that I found my way of doing that through my voice and, you know, there’s no greater blessing than that. So that’s kind of how it all happened for me , and then yes, once I started singing all that, all that sort of subconscious stuff from India.

From my childhood from, from everything music my mother listened to and everything started coming through, I just, I didn’t realize how much I had recorded inside myself, you know?

Dj Nocturna: Yeah. She must be really proud of you too.

Azam Ali: Well, my mother passed away. She never got to see . She passed away in the early days of she passed away right after I dissolved Vos.

So she’s been gone. She’s been gone for a while now, so, but you know, she got, she got to see me living my dream. So I’m grateful for that.

Dj Nocturna: You know, in 2002, you released your first solo album, portals of grace, and then five more followed. Right. But I want to talk about your latest album, which I really, really love your Phantoms that you released last year.

I can totally relate to it because I do have multiple personas just joking, right? No, you know? Yeah, no, I mean, I love the album, you know, you actually produced this. If we produced this album, you wrote, you wrote the songs, right. And you also did the programming, which is amazing.

Cause you know how many, I mean, we need more independent women who actually can produce and actually do this.

Azam Ali: Absolutely.

Dj Nocturna: It’s a great album. I love the, you know, the, the Cocteau twins cover. that you did, which is really difficult. Difficult to do. I mean, I don’t know who would want to do a cover of the Cocteau Twins. They’re hard to do.

And that one in particular. That’s their early album. I’m a big fan of the Cocteau twins. I’m a big fan of 4AD . So I can totally see how difficult that was, but it’s beautiful. You guys did a great job and I love them. I’m not sure that’s a cello. I don’t think cello is that a cello that Loga was playing on.

Azam Ali: No, My husband plays a guitar, basically. It’s a boat guitar. That’s a very haunting instrument

Dj Nocturna: It’s beautiful. Really beautiful.

Azam Ali: Thank you. Did you read the quote that Simon remanned from Cocteau Twins towards growth?

Dj Nocturna: Yeah. Yeah. I wrote about that and he loved it. Yeah, that’s amazing.

Azam Ali: No, but, but more than that, the best that it took a lot of guts for me to even do it.

It is a very scary thing. When you think, and you know what, that was the only way I could do it. It’s not think about how scary it was that I was actually going to cover something that so many people love, including myself and. Actually on purpose, I covered a track that was not one of their popular tracks. I knew only hardcore Cocteau Twins fans would know that song.

It was not one of their popular songs. So I knew the only people who will relate to it or other hardcore fans. So it was kind of, that was the reason I chose that song. But yeah, it was, it was, I couldn’t think at that moment that. I like what I was actually doing, because I was like, either it’s going to be incredible or I, or like people are going to just laugh at me, you know?

But you know, what if I had to tell you one thing, the secret of my success is I never gave a damn what people thought about what I did. I always, and I never, like now I can’t even listen to like VAS records, anything. I feel like I sound like a baby, but you know what I, my philosophy about music is that, you know, You just make the best you can do at that moment.

and Put it out there and you sit back at the end of your record. And if you are able to just say, you know what for where I am right now, I did a hundred percent, the best that I could on. I’m going to put it out there and move on, you know, that’s the way to do it. I know people who have. that have been working on the same record for five, six years because they just want it to get better and better.

And I keep telling them like, no, Oh no you could have made five words. And your sixth one is going to sound the way you want it to sound, but you have to put out the other five. So, so anyway, thank you for saying that about Phantoms because. You know, my whole career, I have been the singer that sat in the passenger seat, you know, with men engineering, with men doing, and I’m okay with that because I’ve loved all the men that I’ve worked with and I’ve admired them and respected them.

But, but I’m not a good passenger seat. I’m not, I’m not good in the passenger seat. And I find it really started when, when I started working with Loga , you know, I realized how frustrated I would get, and it created so much tension with us because I was constantly, you know, telling him what to do or I didn’t like what he was doing.

And we would get into so many fights until finally he just had enough and he was like, you know what, you’re pregnant now. You’re about to have a baby. We’ll to have our first, our only baby. . And he said, you need to just learn how to do this because. You’re you’re very well capable of doing it. You’re very intelligent.

I’m going to teach you and you’re going to do it. And, and then he started teaching me and I just felt like somebody gave me wings. And I, and it’s funny now because I know, I know there are some softwares I know better than him. So he comes to me, he’s like, okay, how do you do that? How do you do that? Like programming, like I’ll do programming on his music now because I just, it just took off from there.

And I just feel like, you know, It’s a, it’s so important that album was, it was so important for me to establish myself as a producer because , you don’t get, you don’t get credit as a woman for that, you know? And, and I just wish there are some amazing electronic musicians out there, female electronic musicians and producers, and I’m really, I’m really wanting to encourage more and more women to do it.

Because, you know, also the music is very different. Electronic music made by women. It’s very different, you know, you know what I mean? It’s like the album Phantoms would not be what it is. If it was produced by a man, it just wouldn’t. I mean, there are very sorta masculine qualities to it, but it’s

Dj Nocturna: I love the, your, your voice. I love the instruments. I love the, I just love the whole, I love the, the, the vibe brings out, you know,

Azam Ali: Thank you. Well, it’s a combination of all the music I’d loved from the eighties

Dj Nocturna: yeah, it has that. And I’m a big fan of eighties. I love the eighties and I’m a big fan of 4AD .

So, you know, in fact, one of my favorite tracks, my, one of my favorite songs by the Cocteau twins is, It’s called, those eyes that mouth. Yeah, those eyes that mouth.  I love it. I love it. I love a lot of things. I love the pink opaque, you know, I’m a big fan of of the 4AD label.

Azam Ali: They’re amazing. I just feel like one of the biggest losses for the world is that we don’t hear too much more music from Elizabeth Fraser. You know, I just feel. She’s one of the most beautiful voices that has ever existed and it’s such a pity that she’s alive. And we don’t hear her more, you know,

Dj Nocturna: you know, I was fortunate to hear her last year.

I went to see ’em, Massive Attack. And then she, she, she was playing with them because they were doing the mezzanine album tour.

Azam Ali: That’s amazing. You’re so lucky. You got to see that. I mean, the last time I saw her was also with massive attack, but that was not big and play the mezzanine album, but, but I saw them here in LA and I actually, I think I, yeah, I went to that show with David J

I went to that show with David J, and we had really bad seats. No, not last year. It was in the. When was it? It was, and in early two thousands when they came and we went, I have a really funny story about that because we had really horrible seats. And I was like, I can’t listen to this music from here was at the Hollywood bowl.

So it does very sweet spots, the Hollywood bowl. So I got up and the concert had started and I walked to the center of the. Amphitheater and what people a bunch of , people were just standing and I was like, okay, I’m going to stand here, cause the sound is perfect. And I watched the whole show and by the end of it, I had tears.

And when the lights came on, I just kind of looked to the guy next to me, because I wanted to like bond with him over the fact that we just witnessed something so amazing. And I looked over and it’s Keanu Reeves. .

Dj Nocturna: Oh my God. Really? Oh my God, what a story?

Azam Ali: Okay. I can’t say anything. We’re going to look over and say, Oh my goodness was that incredible.

And I look over and see Keanu Reeves . I’m like, okay, bye.

Dj Nocturna: Oh, you didn’t say anything to him? .

Azam Ali: Sorry. No, I didn’t say anything. I’m not, I’m not a, you know, I’m always quiet when I meet celebrities. she was so, so beautiful. It was so beautiful to hear her.

Dj Nocturna: Yeah. Yeah. I agree. Yeah, that was a , it’s a good experience.

She’s she’s still, I mean, I, I do tribute to 4AD all the time and. Sometimes I play like a few songs by her that she doesn’t even like side projects that nobody’s ever heard of. I love Elizabeth Fraser. Yeah.

Azam Ali: The last track that she released that called Moses. That’s an incredible track. That’s a really beautiful track.

I really wish she, you know, well, bless her heart, you know, hopefully she’s happy and healthy and yeah. And living the way that makes her happy because you know, another, another person who I’m was one, one of his biggest fans. And I feel the same way about him is David Sylvian, you know, I love him so much.

And, you know, I wish he would release more music, but you know, he’s living the life that he wants to live.

Dj Nocturna: One of my favorite songs by my him is Heartbeat.

Azam Ali: That’s a great track. .

Dj Nocturna: Yeah. I love everything about it. I love a Brilliant Tree’s Secret of the Beehive.

Azam Ali: He’s amazing, all of The stuff he did with Robert Fripp is like, it’s a, yeah, I always will put my hand with him and admit that I’ve been so influenced by him. There are tracks I’ve done. There’s one track I did for my second solo album, Elysium for the Brave, it’s called the Tryst and I recorded it with, one of the members of King Crimson and that track, honestly, when I’ve listened to it now, I’m like, I totally ripped off.

David’s … . I was so influenced by him.

Dj Nocturna: Yeah. I mean, I me too. I love Japan. You know, the music is from the seventies, you know? You know, I’m, I’m also totally blown away by your version of the 12th century piece that you can post that I heard on Facebook.

Azam Ali: Yeah. That’s so nice. Thank you. Yeah. the woman who was responsible for me singing, honestly, it’….. So I told you the story of my teacher and how he pushed me and you know, it started. And I was like, okay, I’ll take the classes. And then, because I was singing because I had started taking singing classes at the college, it was very early on that.

And one day I was just in my apartment, I was just cleaning. I don’t even know it’s just doing something really mundane and the radio was on. And then that piece, one of those pieces came on by her. And I just literally dropped what I was doing. I called them the radio station. See, thank God for DJs. Right.

So I called and I said, what. Is that playing right now. And then they said, it’s A feather on the breath of God by the Gothic Voices Choir. So I literally grabbed my bag and my keys and I went to the record store and I bought that CD and I came home and I devoured it. I devoured it. I, and this was the first piece I taught myself.

I feel like I learned how to sing because of this piece, because I fell in love with it. And I was like, I’m going to learn how to sing this as close . To how the singer is singing it. And it’s taken me 20 years to sing it as well as her, but you know what it was, it was a journey worth going on.

Dj Nocturna: So is that single going to be in an album

Azam Ali: no, actually I’m going to release it as a single because I didn’t expect it to do so. Well, actually what happened is that, you know, during the quarantine. Struggling like most people and some days getting really depressed. And, and so of course music is my healer. So I just decided one day I was going through some of my old music papers, I was, I was just cleaning out my drawer and I found the music for this.

And I said, wow, you know, I have not signed this in so many years. Let me just sing it again and see what happens. And I was just singing it for myself and then some, my heart just burst open. I thought, wow, why did I stop singing this music? So. I started singing that song sort of every day is my warm-up.

I would warm up. Yeah. And I would sing that as sort of, and then I decided, you know what, I should just record this for people. They would love it. So I just went in the studio and I recorded it and I didn’t expect it to do so well, you know, suddenly it just went went viral, you know, it was like, what is happening , everybody needs to hear, that people want to hear that people want. to Feel connected to that all about vibration and frequency. And, and I realized people want to feel connected to that. So if I’m really here to be of service, that’s what I should be doing. And I’ll pull up a couple more pieces of hers that, that moves me in the same way. And. And hopefully release those, but now I’m going to release this as a single and of course being me, I’m already doing a remix of it.

Oh, I’m going to release a very electronic version of it. So I’m going to release a electronic version and you’ll be the first person to get it .

Dj Nocturna: Oh, thank you. I wonder I’m going to play it. You know, when I played this people, people called and asked what that was.

Azam Ali: Wow that’s so nice.

Dj Nocturna: . It really, I mean, when you play on the radio, it’s almost like vibrating.

It’s almost like you get some vibration, you know? I, I mean, you can hear it. I mean, it’s so beautiful. Yeah. Do you believe in soulmates? I just want, I just thought I’d ask , I think connection.

Azam Ali: I believe in multiple. I believe in many soulmates. I think whoever you are with at whatever point in your lives, they are your soulmate.

That’s who you’re meant to be with to learn whatever it is that you need to learn. So I don’t, I don’t, I think it’s very sad if you think that there’s just one person waiting for you out there because, and, and, you know, there are so many people I know like that who are lonely because they have this mentality that there’s only one chance it’s like saying you only get one chance in life.

I don’t like to think that life is that cruel, you know? So I think that we have multiple soulmates. I think my son is a soulmate. I think my friends are my soulmates. You know, there are different things you do with different soulmates, but everybody, I think you connect to your life is a soulmate, you know?

Do you believe in soulmates?

Dj Nocturna: Oh yes, of course, of course.

Azam Ali: But in one or multiple.

Dj Nocturna: Oh many. Yeah, many I believe in, I believe we have soul families, you know, we have, we transcend, we, we meet people for a reason, whatever it may be. And when they’re, you know, when we serve our purpose with that person, then it’s time to move on.

Azam Ali: Exactly, exactly. You know, it’s like, I think, I think if you want the answers for so many things in life, you just have to look at nature and the answers are already there. Like, you know, when people say there’s only one soulmate, I tell them. I said, that’s like saying that a fruit tree, we will only give one fruit and a Apple tree will only give you one Apple, an Apple tree gives you hundreds of apples

you know, some fall to the ground and you have no use for them . And some you eat some, you give others, but life is so abundant that it’s hard for me to believe that. You know, we, we get only one shot at love. You know, love can enter our lives in so many different ways. And I think if we just open our minds to, to that, we end up experiencing love to its fullest.

Dj Nocturna: Right, right, right. I totally agree. You were a supporting act with Peter Murphy and Bauhaus. I know that, was I wasn’t last year I missed it. I wanted to go.

Azam Ali: That was surreal.

Dj Nocturna: Yeah. I really, I really wanted to go with it last year. Last year, right?

Azam Ali: Yeah. December 1st was when I opened for them.

Dj Nocturna: Yeah. I really wanted to go. I couldn’t, couldn’t go. Couldn’t, couldn’t get out there. I had to stay here because I had some stuff to do, but I heard it.

Azam Ali: You’ll get to see them again. They’re going to actually, I’m really sad because I was supposed to open up for them again for some dates in November, but I don’t think it’s going to happen, but I’m sure I’ll join them the next time.

It was such a magical experience, I’ve known Peter, for many years now, you know, I met Peter through Myspace . Yeah. I got a message on Myspace from Peter and he’s like, hi, this is Peter Murphy. And I just. Wanted to tell you how much I love your music. And I was like who’s this weirdo posing as Peter Murphy . So I like totally ignored the message you know, okay, this is some, like, psycho fan thinking they’re going to get my attention if they say “I’m Peter Murphy”.

So I ignored it. And then a few months go by and he sends me another message. He’s like, Are you, did you not see my message or do you just not care, but this is Peter Murphy again. And I just, just sending love and telling you I, and I, and I thought, okay, this is kind of weird. So let me go check it out. So I went and I checked out his profile.

No, this is really Peter Murphy. So I replied to him and then, you know, we became friends. It’s really funny. And actually I’m really sad because one of the tracks on Phantoms, he was supposed to sing on it. and I even have his vocals. Cause he came to LA. He told me he came to my house for dinner, with his son.

I cooked for him and he said, play me. What are you working on now? I said, I’m making, I’m working on a solo album. I’m producing now called Phantoms. And I’ll probably release it in a year or so. And he was like, will you play a few tracks for me? So I said, sure. So I played him a few songs. And then the third song that came on, he stopped me 20 seconds in .

Then he said, I want to sing on this. And I said, Okay. And then, and then, and then he said, I’ll be back here tomorrow at 10:00 AM to record my vocals. And then he came back that morning. He wrote some lyrics, he recorded some vocals and then he had to leave suddenly. So it was just, I had these rough vocals and we never had a chance to do the real vocals.

So we just kind of left it at that.

Dj Nocturna: there’ll be, there’s always next time.

Azam Ali: but you know, we have recorded a phenomenal track together, which unfortunately is not being released because we had a mutual friend, um, another amazing DJ Cheb I Sabbah . Did you ever know him ?

Dj Nocturna: Yeah, no, I, I know who he is.

Azam Ali: So Cheb I Sabbah was a very close friend of both of ours and he died. He got stage four cancer, stomach cancer. And before his death, he said, I want to make a dream album where I put my favorite artist on it, but I want to team people up to do a track together. So he called me and he said, there’s a track Peter’s doing .

Will you sing on it? And I said, anything, anything for you? So I signed on it, Peter loved it. And unfortunately it belongs to Cheb I’s son now. And there’s so many issues going on with the rights , but it breaks my heart that it hasn’t been released because. I think it’s one of the most beautiful things.

Peter has sung, his voice sounds so amazing. I mean, he’s an amazing singer anyway, but I really hope that that track sees the light of day. So anyways, so when the Bauhaus was happening, I didn’t even think about like, you know, Opening or anything like that, but then it was kind of serendipitous how it all happened.

The sentence came out and it was like a perfect fit for their show. And then, you know, David, Jay and I became friends in , LA here we met. I forget how we met. I really forget how I met David J, but we became good friends and we were hanging out for a while and then he moved. And so when that happened, David, Jay, and Peter really advocated for for me to open for them.

So they, they asked me to open and, and I was like, I’m not going to miss this moment in history, you know, but you know, what was really scary, I’ll make you laugh about this. So Peter said to me, so, you know, Kevin’s, daughter’s band opened for the first two shows. So Peter said, why don’t you come see one of the shows?

So you kind of get an idea and everything. I really wish I hadn’t done that. It terrified me because I I’ve never, I’ve never played for 5,000 people, you know, played festivals, but it’s different because. People are distracted at festivals and not, you know, it’s not like they’re not all there just to see you, you know?

So I watched that show and I swear to God, I was upstairs sitting next to, I was sitting next to Daniel Ashe’s wife . I was sitting next to her and there was one moment we were upstairs. And there was that one moment in that room . It was like, everything was levitating.

It was so powerful. Just the energy in that room. Imagine all these people who have loved this band and they have so many memories and so, so much connected to their music and to hear , they sound so incredible, I didn’t expect it to sound that incredible. So to hear how amazing they were sounding and the love that was being projected to them

on that stage and this kind of exchange, it was so powerful that I left there. And I remember coming home and telling Loga . I went with one of my friends and I came home and I told Loga . Holy shit. What am I going to do? No. And Loga was like, you’re going to be fine, you know? And it was an amazing experience.

It was so wonderful that audience, they were so attentive. They responded to every single track. And of course they flipped out when I did the Cocteau Twins cover because they were all hardcore fans. It was an amazing experience, but it was surreal for me because I was like backstage. And here was my name on the dressing room door.

I took one picture where I took a picture of everyone’s name on their dressing room door. And I just couldn’t believe it. I’m like here. I was like, if you told me as a teenager, okay. When you’re like older in your career, you’re going to open for one of your favorite bands. I would have just thought you’re out of your mind, you know, and here it was happening, How many artists can say that, you know?

Dj Nocturna: Well, they pick you for a reason because you’re amazing, you know? I mean, they wouldn’t just pick you .

Azam Ali: Thank you so well, they’re all very remarkable. You know what I love about them and it’s something to do with their generation. You know, David Sylvian is the same way. A lot of the artists, even the guys from King Crimson, like there’s something about that generation of artists, where they are.

First of all, they’re incredible at their craft and they have very high, their standards are incredibly high. But they are so open and they listen to so much music from around the world and that’s very important. They don’t know one kind of music like I’m shocked when they tell me about albums that they listened to and love .

that I’m like, how do you know that? You know, I remember, you know, with Brendan Perry, for example, he sent me records that he had Turkish records, from middle East that I did not have. And I was like, how did he even find these? So there’s something about that generation that’s why their music is so, it’s so remarkable because it’s informed by so many different frequencies and vibrations, you know,

Dj Nocturna: you know, I really love your website is very carefully put together, your website.

Azam Ali: Well, I have my hand in every, I have OCD. So I have my hand in every little thing.

Dj Nocturna:

AzamAlimusic.com for people that want to check that out. But you also have, you have your jewelry line

Azam Ali: I created Azam Ali boutique, where i sell some of my own artwork because I create artwork. That’s my other passion , and some of my own jewelry and perfume & Natural oil.

Dj Nocturna: That’s that’s nice. I mean, you have everything in there. I mean, I love the. The photography of some of the, you know, the pictures.

Azam Ali: Yeah. That’s my own personal artwork. That’s my passion project. You know, it’s something very nice kind of escape from music.

And, then when I started creating those, and then my friends told me you got to sell these. These are amazing. You know, I, I really wanted to have an art show this year, but you know, that’s not going to happen. So hopefully next year, sometime. Yeah.

Dj Nocturna: And then, and then you have another website, Niyazmusic.com also, which is also incredible.

Azam Ali: Thank you. Yes, that’s for my world electronic project. We’re starting a new album actually in the next month or so we’re going to start our next album.

Dj Nocturna: Thank you. Azam, I really thank you for this interview.

Azam Ali: I love speaking with you. Next time we get to have a conversation in person.

Dj Nocturna: Yes, we will.

For sure. Thank you. Alright, bye bye. Bye bye.