Rizwan - Muazzum Qawwal
Interviewed by : Naushad Sarwar
Location : Hollywood Bollywood Restaurant

What is Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan to You?
He is brother to my father, Mujahid Mubarak Ali Khan. So, he is my Uncle. And I feel proud to be his nephew.

Who trained you in Qawwali?
Did you get any training from Nusrat F.A.Khan? My father, who was also famous for his Qawwali taught us beginning of Qawwali and after his retirement Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan trained us not only on Qawwali but also gave lessons on Classical Music and we learned from him around 3 year.

How did you find him as a Qawwali, and as a teacher?
I mean, there is no doubt that he was a great Qawwal of his time and we still follow him and try to be like him. “We can’t be like him because he was a whole artist in Qawwali singing, but we can try our best to follow his steps and the teaching we received from him to perform better as a Qawwal.

Did you passions for Qawwali since your childhood or you come to this field as you find all around you?
Since Qawwali singing was inherited in our blood for the last 700 year and we heard and seen our fathers and forefathers doing Qawwali I should say that me and my brother Rizwan had interest in Qawwali since childhood. Plus Qawwali was all around us, meaning we lived and breathe with Qawwali so it came naturally.

How did you start Qawwali?
I took a competition in school when I and my brother were 9 and 10. We won the competition and when our father came to know about it, he got upset. Our father didn’t want us to be in Qawwali. He thought Qawwali is a tough profession, still is, and he wanted to see us going to school finish our degrees and lead a 9 to 5 routine life. Once he learned about the school competition, he sat down with us and ask us if were really serious in this profession and the answer was YES. He gave us ok to start it and did tell us that this is such a profession if you love it the whole world will be in love with you. We do feel proud now.

Though Qawwali is in your blood, how much practice you do a day or in a week?
After a big laughter, Muazzam said you don’t believe it that in the beginning we used to practice 16 to 18 hours a day. Once we got the basics, it reduced to 7 to 8 hours a day. You won’t believe me Naushad, he stressed, “it’s a really tough job and it does take lots of practice and time to make it perfect.”

You do your own poetry for your Qawwali?
After a having a sip of tea Mr. Rizwan replied that some times we do write some poetry, compose it and then perform it in different shows. He did mention that they do use poetry from poets like Fana Buland Shehree, Anwar Feroze Puri, Purnam Elahbadi and Sajid.

If you pick poetry for a Qawwali, whom (poet) do you prefer to pick poetry from and what do you look for in that poetry?
As I mentioned earlier, we do use some poets for their poetry and do like Sufiana poetry as it is the core of Qawwali.

What kind of poetry you look for your Qawwali: Sufiana, Love, Spiritual, religious or worldly?
Though we have audiences all over the world so we have to select poetry to suit everybody. Mostly we do Sufiana Qawwali because Qawwali is basically a way to reach and talk to God and Mashallah our fans every part of the world loved our Sufiana Qawwali. But again we deliver all types of poetry through our Qawwali to keep everybody happy.

Have you ever had a hard time in your career of Qawwali?
Well Naushad, I should say that nothing comes easy in life. Though Qawwali runs in our vein but there were some times that had to change our delivery of Qawwali to some extend to stay in demand as music has changed a lot and we had to change too, but again it was not easy and did require work hard.

How many albums you guys have so far?
So far we have 4 albums in the market and alhamd dulillah they were all hits of the time. Sacrifice to Love, The Hidden Fire, Day of Colors, and Peoples Colony # 1.

Which album reached the most popularity?
Sacrifice to Love.

How much time you usually need to complete an album?
It depends on the content, album size and number of Qawwali. Normally it takes 30 to 40 days to complete an album.

How may time you came to US?
We have visited US in 1999, 2001 and 2004.

What other countries did you perform so far?
Mostly US and UK.

Do you try to convey a message to you fans through your Qawwali?
Our message to the masses is love. Meaning love is what will make this world better and hatred will create more problems for humanities.

How did you find Los Angeles fans, is there any message for them?
After a big laughter Mr. Muazzum mentioned the fact that Los Angeles audience are the best audience so far. Love, respect, appreciation are what we expect from our fans and we found them in bundles.