Both ‘born and bred’ in the UK capital, Iqbal retains huge love for her home city and appreciates its intrinsic role in her creative journey. From spending weekends in Camden going to punk gigs as a teenager, to her current residency in Somerset House, to downtime spent crate digging in Soho, it’s evident that soaking up London’s vibe is invigorating, fulfilling, and part of her artistry. The corners of the city which keep hold of their long-held character despite the ever-changing landscapes around them are where she’s most at home. 

In amongst everything, Iqbal remains considered and collected. The journey to her second album was fraught, marred by a burglary, the loss of two years’ worth of music, a family emergency, and the global pandemic. But listening to DREAMER, it’s a glistening record that emanates soothing and uplifting sounds shot through with romance. Her spirit and resilience shine throughout, from beautifully arranged instrumentals to gently poetic lyrics that evoke pensive feeling. 

As part of the Your Space Or Mine initiative, BUILDHOLLYWOOD and Iqbal collaborated to translate the album’s essence into artwork featuring its cover, video shoot imagery, and hand-painted song lyrics, telling DREAMER’s story through a series of billboards and takeovers. 

Just ahead of DREAMER’s release, we chatted to Iqbal about the unpredictable process of bringing her second album to life, her love for her home city of London, her relationship with her heritage and the culture in Pakistan, and how her varied work can be united by one driving force – the desire to provoke feeling. 

Could you begin by introducing your music to someone who may not have listened to it previously?   

I feel like it’s quite hard to describe your own music most of the time, and also I feel like it doesn’t really fit under one label. But I guess I’d say my main word to describe it would be emotional, because that’s what I want – I want whoever listens to it to have an emotional response. It’s very electronic, but then also incorporates guitar. I guess it has a lot of ‘80s influence in it as well. 

Can you tell us a bit about the different journeys you’ve been on through your career to get to where you are now?   

There’s some things in life you just can’t plan, that are out of your control. This whole journey has made me realise that – because even though music’s my favourite thing in the world, I didn’t really plan to do it full time, as a career.   

I studied Ethnomusicology as an undergrad with History, then I did a Masters in History, and then I actually did the law conversion and the bar, so I thought I was going to be a barrister. But then the music side of things started gaining momentum, I felt like there was something in the universe pulling me that way. All the way through uni, and even doing law, that whole time, I was always doing music things on the side – whether it was making music, or organising parties with my friends, DJing – there’s always [been] something going on. I guess it just turned into a thing.   

Today, you’re releasing your second LP, DREAMER. The timeline of the record was disrupted by both the pandemic and the unfortunate loss of two years’ worth of demos. This then coincided with a family emergency trip to Pakistan, eventually prolonged by global lockdowns in 2020. Do you feel that this difficult time changed the course of the final record?  

Yeah, it definitely changed the course. It completely flipped it. So, the music that I lost in the burglary – when I think about that now compared to what the album is sounding like as a finished product – it’s two very different records. I think if all of those things hadn’t happened, then the music would’ve turned out quite differently. But I prefer how it is now, so, even though at the time I was completely distraught, now I’m thinking all of those things were meant to happen somehow.   

All of those different obstacles forced me to slow down, and just rethink about the way I approach writing music. I had to go back to basics really. It’s nothing revolutionary, but I think it helped me a lot. For a long time, I didn’t record anything, I was just using an acoustic guitar that I bought in Pakistan while I was out there, and was making voicenote recordings on my phone, letting the ideas really breathe and evolve and change. And then, maybe it was seven or eight months later that I decided, okay, I’m going to start recording things. 

What became the inspiration and driving force for the album? How would you describe the creative process in hindsight?  

It started that way – with me not having my studio around me because I was in a different place, forced to try and make something with whatever I had, which was basically nothing. It just kind of evolved. 

I guess in my head I was feeling quite stressed out and frustrated with all these things that kept getting in the way, so then that made me take a different approach with the actual location of where I worked. I ended up making most of this album on artist residencies in the countryside, in Scotland and in Suffolk. Even being in a completely different environment – that would’ve impacted the creative process, and my whole approach to the record. Things were quite different this time around compared to when I think about how I made the first album, which now feels like it was really easy. 

Could you walk us through the visual elements of DREAMER, and the street poster artwork created for Your Space Or Mine?   

The album cover is a passport photo that I took of myself on the day I finished the album. I guess like anyone who does music or anything like that, you get this weird feeling of despondency when you finally actually finish, you sign it off, and you’re like wow – that’s it. 

This whole journey has been super hard and really emotional, so when I finally reached that last day of working on the record, and we did the masters, and I was happy with them, I came out the studio and I was like oh my god – it’s actually done. I felt so strange. I was listening to the record on headphones on the bus, and my mum called me, so I went to go meet [her] for dinner. We were in central, and I got this photo taken because I thought I wanted to get a passport photo taken of myself to know that this is the day I finished – and that’s ended up being the cover. In the photo I chose, I’ve got my eyes closed, but I feel like that matches the title DREAMER pretty well. 

I hand-painted all the writing – the title DREAMER, and my name, the track list and everything was painted by hand. It’s kinda simple, but everything is very hands on – and I knew what I wanted it to look like, so I thought I should just do it myself. And by painting all the stuff, it’s kinda like a meditation process, making the artwork. It was really hard, I’m not a painter. Even just trying to paint something really simple, it was quite tricky. That’s kind of followed through for the different designs of the posters for BUILDHOLLYWOOD – hand painting different sections of the lyrics. 

A lot of your radio shows involve deep dives into localised genres and styles, you have a wealth of specialised knowledge. Would you say that your heritage and personal relationship with the culture in Pakistan feeds into your own music?  

Up until this album, I really feel like they were two separate worlds. But on this record, it’s the first time that I’ve included the sitar and the harmonium, and those are two instruments from my Pakistani heritage. I think the whole journey of making this record is quite linked to time that I spent in Pakistan. The harmonium is an instrument that I bought while I was out there on a trip. So, when I think of that instrument and when I hear the sound of it, it really reminds me of Pakistan and all my experiences being there. It’s quite important.   

So now, I feel like I don’t see the two separately, I see them as part of the same thing but I guess, when you’re a diasporic person you are always on this constant journey of figuring out your identity, or how you feel about yourself. Trying to make sense of it all, that’s a constant journey – you’re never going to get to the end of it because it will always change. So, I think reaching this point, and using those instruments in my music, and feeling good about it – like the way on the last album was the first time I used my real name as my artist name – it’s all part of the same evolution.  

How do you feel about the visibility of that culture within the music industry?  

I feel like it still has a really, really long way to go. Things are moving in the right direction – even when I think about when I started my NTS show in 2013, the landscape was quite different to how it is now. But I feel like when it comes to actual, substantive change, that’s where we’re lacking. There’s a lot of flash-in-the-pan movements and things that happen, it’s trending, everyone jumps on the bandwagon, and maybe we’ve seen that a bit in the last couple of years with a lot of focus on the South Asian community in terms of DJs and producers in the UK. It’s all been really good. But the main question is the longevity of those things and how it translates to real change, that has yet to really happen. We’ll have to wait and see.   

You grew up in London – how do you remember the city in that time?  

I’m London born and bred, and I grew up in central London, right in the thick of it. I wouldn’t swap it for anything else. The city has changed loads, even in my life. I guess I’d focus on my teens, because that’s when you start exploring the city or your surroundings for yourself. I think about Camden Town, because I always used to hang out there every weekend with my friends, because we were all so alternative and used to go to punk gigs there. It’s changed a lot.  

There’s way less independent shops and cafés now, compared to how it was when I was 13 or 14. I’m sad that the really big music shops don’t exist anymore, like HMV and Virgin Megastore and Tower Records, because my whole music experience and all those formative years are so intrinsically linked with going to buy CDs and going to in-store gigs. It’s kinda sad that younger people will never have that experience.  

I still think London’s the most amazing city in the world, and whatever happens, you can never really crush the spirit of this place. There’ll always be creativity, there’ll always be amazing and interesting things going on.  

Would you say you had a lot of your formative experiences in the city? What’s your relationship with London like today?  

My formative experiences do come from London, and I wouldn’t change that at all, because it was just so fun all the time, just hanging out. That time when you’re a teenager or in your early 20s and you don’t have to worry about anything, it’s just a good time.  

My relationship with the city is still a love-love relationship. I feel lucky that I still live in an area close to where I grew up. My music studio is in central London at Somerset House so I’m in Zone 1 with it as my stomping ground, and I feel good about that. I want it to stay that way. Central London is my favourite part of the city, because there’s so much history here and everyone overlaps, I love that. It feels really real. Especially in the area where I live, it feels like a good example of a London neighbourhood where you have loads of different types of people, different cultures and ethnicities, but it’s a nice mix and a good balance between everything. I prefer the parts of town which don’t change so fast, you know? They feel real.    

What would your ideal day in London involve?  

If it’s a day of leisure, I get on my bike, maybe ride to a good café or breakfast spot. I live by Regents Park, and I also live by the canal, so maybe I’d go along the canal or to the park to have a bit of chilled London beauty to start the day. I’d get a coffee, maybe have a wander round Soho, go to some record shops, go shopping a bit. You know when you just have a day where you’re hanging out? That’s my ideal day. Maybe I’ll buy some music, or a book, have a wander round and bump into some friends, have dinner, and then just soak up the city. 

Your work spans a lot of different disciplines that cross over with one another, including DJing, curating and broadcasting. How do you find that all of these interact with one another?  

To me, it feels like they’re all part of the same thing. I think all of these different activities and projects are reflective of the way I approach my work in the first place, because I never want to be boxed in, and I never want to feel like I should only do one thing. At the crux of it is my absolute deep love and passion for music, and discovery, and sharing. I feel like the essence of music is all about sharing. Whether it’s me playing a DJ gig for a dancefloor, or doing a radio show, or talking about my new album, or putting on a Glory to Sound event where I invite different artists to come and perform, it’s all about sharing and exchange of ideas and feelings. When you look at it that way, all the different activities are totally related to each other.  

What’s captured your imagination recently outside of your work?  

I saw a really good film recently called Joyland which is a Pakistani film and it’s set in Lahore. I watched it just after coming back from Pakistan a few weeks ago, and that definitely captured my imagination. I just think it’s such an amazing film and it tells this really important story that’s often overlooked. I’m still thinking about it.   

What’s next for you? What are you most looking forward to this year (once the album is out)?  

Thinking about the live performance of the album, that is what I’m really, really excited about. I’ve put a band together, and that’s the first time that I’m playing my music with a band – it feels so amazing. That first rehearsal when we started playing the first tune all together, everyone had learnt their parts, and the song just came to life. It’s taken on a new meaning almost. I was feeling really emotional from that.   

The first gig is on the 13th May at the ICA in London. And then, after that, we’re doing an America tour – my first time doing an America tour – and we’ve got loads of different festivals and gigs throughout the summer. Hopefully, a UK and Europe tour in the autumn. It’s going to be really busy – a really busy year of playing shows, but I’m looking forward to it.