Lucky Ali doesn’t care about royalties: I have not gotten any for so many years, so it won’t make any difference if it happens now

At a time when the Indian Music Industry is rejoicing the landmark agreement with ISRA (Indian Singers Rights Association) stating that 25% of all royalty collection will be shared with singers, singer-songwriter Lucky Ali remains unaffected by this development.

“I don’t care. I have not gotten my royalties for so many years, so it’s not going to make much of a difference if it happens now,” he tells us, adding, “When we stand on stage and our sweat falls on the ground and people give us recognition for that, we get our fees and that all. But I hope they do it because end of the day, so many artistes are believing them and they also hold a responsibility towards them.”

According to the 64-year-old, such things don’t really make any difference to artistes in the independent music space and it’s only those connected with music labels who will benefit from it.

“When you becomes an independent musician, you don’t care about all these things because you are responsible for what you do. If you make a fault, you suffer, if something works out, you get enjoy the benefits. Independent artistes are only getting benefitted in the sense that people are getting more aware of it. There are no gains economically,” explains Ali, who has recently released a new song titled Virtuality from the album Lemalla, in collaboration with Israeli artiste Eliezer Cohen Botzer.

The Na Tum Jaano Na Hum hitmaker often takes a lot of time to release his songs, making fans speculate if he’s planning retirement soon. Ali, however, does not succumb to the pressure of creating music as per the demand. “Music has to be created in yaksui. You can’t force it. Apne hisaab se banta hai… That’s why, with me, there is no pressure like, ‘Oh I am to make a song’. It’s the wrong way. Good results do not come out until you are happy. One needs to unlearn what we know and start all over again. Only then, the results will be beneficial,” he stresses.

Mention the retirement bit and the singer quips, “I am retired right from the beginning. Whatever I’m doing is for the love of music that I have. Otherwise, all this is retired work. I have other responsibilities to fulfil and things to look after including my farm, which keeps me very occupied.”

While most of his time is spent taking care of the wildlife at his far, the singer once in a while organically creates music and the latest one is his collaboration with Botzer for their third song Virtuality, under the album Lemalla. The song talks about the technological pandemic and urges humanity to be grounded and seek the light of truth and stop objectifying human existence at the hands of technology.

Describing Botzer as a brother from another mother, Ali calls it a privilege to work with someone whose ideas and thought-process align with his. “Both of our intention is not to release the next big hit, but to share the discovery. We both spend our time discussing all things creative. It’s always about some new song, music, and more,” he shares.

But when two creative minds come together, a clash of opinions is bound to happen. Ask him about things that lead to disagreement between them, and Ali answers. “We agree and disagree, but it’s always about growth and finding ways to accommodate suggestions. We have been very clear about the fact that no matter what we do, we will not bring political ideas into our work. We come from the same faith and understand where we want to go. And that’s the kind of communication that’s liked by anybody who listens.”

The two don’t have the same native language but Ali says, the feeling is the same. “We intend to make people feel the energy that we feel while collaborating and creating music,” he ends.