ANOTHER TIME LUCKY
Having given us several pop anthems, Lucky Ali and producer Mikey McCleary are collaborating again
As we emerged in December 2020 after months of lockdown, an Instagram video posted by actorpolitician Nafisa Ali went viral. Shot in Goa’s Arambol village, it featured a grizzled Lucky Ali—guitar in hand, scarf draped around his shoulders—performing a rendition of his breakout hit ‘O Sanam’ to a small, intimate crowd. At the end of the first verse, a chorus of voices rises to sing the last line, as the 63-yearold star grins knowingly at his guitar.
It has been 26 years since Ali and producer Mikey McCleary released their Indipop debut Sunoh, but the magic of those songs still resonates. And now, a decade on from their previous album, the duo is back at it. On April 6, they released ‘Intezaar’, a charming pop-rock ballad about expectation and desire that feels at once contemporary and timeless, thanks to Ali’s signature croon and McCleary’s bright, breezy composition.
“I.P. [Singh] wrote this beautiful song that Mikey sent to me and I liked it, but it was quite focused on the idea of romantic love,” says Ali over a Zoom call, sitting next to McCleary in the producer’s Mumbai studio. “But I wanted it to be about a higher love, because the music itself gave you the licence to go further. So, it’s not really about individuals, it’s about hope.”
The song and accompanying music video are the first in a string of planned singles, leading up to the release of their first full album together since 2011. Other work kept both artists busy in the interim: Ali’s past release was a collaborative single with Israeli musician Eliezer Botzer in 2021, while McCleary has been racking up film soundtrack credits and releasing albums as The Bartender. “We both had our personal journeys to complete, but it was natural that we’d reunite,” says Ali. “We just needed to find the time to connect and get it together. And I think the pandemic afforded us that opportunity to revisit old stuff, bring it together and compose some new music.”
A lot of things have changed since the two of them last worked together. Music production technology has improved leaps and bounds in the past decade, and music tastes have become a lot more global. The pandemic also meant that they had to do the bulk of writing and recording remotely, rather than jamming in the same room. Despite the obstacles, the two fell back into the collaborative process with natural ease. “Michael and I have this understanding we have built over these years of working together, and even though we were communicating remotely, it felt quite comfortable,” says Ali.
‘Intezaar’ has already sent thousands of music-starved Lucky Ali fans into rapture, if the comments on the music video are any indication. What can we expect from the rest of the album? “There are a number of different themes, different tempos on the album,” says McCleary. “We have songs that feel more like a journey, we have songs that are more celebratory. But at the heart of it all, there’s that same thread of acoustic guitar and Lucky’s voice. A certain type of melody. I think people will very much connect with that and the organic sound of what we like to make together.” ■