ebatably, burning the midnight oil may have contributed to his success in the desi-pop electronica genre, but there is no substitute for talent, he believes. After all, he has come a long way from 2013 when he released his first instrumental EP, Equator. “I didn’t take any formal training in music. I used to work in a radio station in 2010-2011. The only reason I wanted to work there was because they had a studio and I couldn’t afford one. I would do my work, at the same time I would make music. That’s how my first EP came about, with job that paid me just Pakistani rupees (PKR) 5,000,” he shares.
It was at the age of 13 when Talal was first introduced to music-making, that too through PlayStation. “I broke my hand at the time and started making music on my computer,” he says. But it was only during Covid when Talal’s career actually took off. Rather reticent, he was often shy to reach out to fellow musicians for collaborations, and so he stuck to making instrumental tracks for a long time. “I wasn’t good at networking. I remember connecting with rapper Faris Shafi, the first artiste I teamed up with, and sending him beats. He told me that there’s no space for him to rap. That’s when I realised that I was only invested in crafting melodies. I started working with more artistes gradually and learnt that I can still utilise my melodies in vocal production too,” he shares.