Out There

Delhi-6 can be classified as hip hop.” They’ll be in India later this week to promote their fourth album Sound of a Rebel which released in May.

Qadri and his long-time friends Isam Bachiri and Lenny Martinez formed the group in 1997,but it was in 2002,with their second album,especially the hit single Aicha,that they

really hit the big time. In India,they’re still known as the ‘Aicha guys’ and when informed about this,Qadri laughs. “I suppose it’s because of the music that it did so well in India,” he says. Qadri “It could also be becasue the song is about a middle class girl1” and Indians identify with that because most Indian TV shows are on the same topic.We get more Indian and Pakistani channels than Danish ones at home,” he explains.

The immigrant experience has coloured Outlandish’s music to a huge extent,providing them both with the ideas and the languages in which to put forward those ideas. “We consider ourselves Danes,but we’ve inherited a lot from the cultures that our parents come from. My parents used to listen to a lot of Lata Mangeshkar and music from movies like Shalimar and Sholay,so that obviously influenced my music.”

They’re often said to compose very political music; Look into My Eyes from their third album Closer than Veins,talks about the American middle easter policy. But that’s not a categorisation that sits well with them. “If you’re saying that we talk about issues that affect the m an on the street then I suppose we do have political music. People tend to put us in boxes,because it makes them easier to understand.”

Coming to India is a big deal for the group and Outlandish,brought to the city by VH1 to perform at Hard Rock Café on July 8,is looking forward to absorbing some of the city’s culture. And also to mingle with some of Bollywood’s stars. “The last time we were here,we met Shah Rukh Khan and Abhishek Bachchan. Let me tell you,we were totally star-struck,” Qadri laughs.