MUMBAI: 'Prince of Bhangra' Sukhbir, who has been lying low for a while, returns to the music circuit with a new album called "Tere Naal Naal" to be launched by music label T-Series.
The album due to release next month, marks the comeback of the singer after a six year hiatus.
The Dubai based singer says, "I was busy working on my father's Kirtan album called Nirgun Raakh Liya. It's been a childhood dream. So last year we finally released it and I even got my good friend Akshay Kumar to sing a track for us. Later I moved on to my new album, which is now ready for release."
The album a mix of Punjabi and electronic music, has 10 tracks. Sukhbir himself has composed the music for most of the tracks. He has collaborated with another Punjabi singer, Jassi Sidhu, for one of the tracks. Sukhbir is also trying his hand at Hindi with this album.
The 'Punjabi Munda', known for creating hip-swinging music for the dance floor, has roped in Asian remix veteran Rishi Rich and international musician and producer Karl Wolf to co-produce one track each in the album. T-series honcho Bhushan Kumar's wife Divya Khosla will be directing the music video for the album.
Taking his stance on the current music scenario, Sukhbir says, "Globally the sales of music are down by 90 per cent. It makes sense because when you can download music for free at the click of a button, why would someone pay?
That's why companies are cutting marketing budgets and can't promote albums as aggressively as they used to. In fact, many labels are asking artistes to pay for their own promotion. But now the music scene is getting an impetus again, and I'm looking forward to it."
Talking about the recent trend of singers taking a plunge into music reality shows on television, the singer says, "Television today has come up in a big way. NDTV Imagine had approached me for Dhoom Macha De where I was to be the only international performer. But we could not finalise the terms and conditions so it did not work out. I would certainly take up something if it is interesting enough."
Sukhbir has earlier lent his voice for Yash Raj Films' multistarer Dhoom 2 in 2006. He also has a few more Bollywood projects in the pipeline, although he refused to divulge details. He also plans to come up with another album with his father in future.