Riz Ahmed: "SOPHIE's 'BIPP' gave me the belief that things could get better"

Becoming the subject of EMMY buzz for its chaotic portrayal of a down-on-his-luck actor aspiring to be the next James Bond, Riz Ahmed's semi-biographic, dark comedy Bait has left its mark as one of the year's most memorable TV shows since it premiered on Amazon Prime in late March. Written, executive produced and starring the Oscar-winning actor, Bait has been hailed not only for its candid, funny, and sometimes even self-flagellating look at navigating the UK film industry as an actor from the South Asian diapora, but also its leftfield visual and sonic storytelling as protagonist, Shah Latif, descends into Shakespearean delirium on his mission to achieve the industry's most coveted role. 

Bait's soundtrack, curated by the Wembley-hailing actor alongside music executive Zubin Irani - Jorja Smith's manager and co-founder of the label FAMM - is a deftly-chosen mash-up of UK electronic bangers, James Bond-destined operatics, '70s cinema motifs from Pakistan and India, and venerated sounds from both South Asia and the global diaspora. Featuring original music and remixes created by AJ Tracey, Jorja Smith, The Twins, CASISDEAD, Manni Dee, Jay Sean, UPPAL, Anish Kumar, Sukh Knight, ENNY, Arooj Aftab, and many more. 

Read this next: Riz Ahmed speaks to Nabihah Iqbal as part of Mixmag's South Asian Series

Following the release of Bait earlier this year, we caught up with Riz Ahmed to find out more about the process of putting together the 17-track accompaniment to the six-episode limited series, his feelings about its genre-defying scope aptly representing the sounds of the city he grew up in, and why he opted for late-producer SOPHIE's 'BIPP' as the core for the show's most romantic scene. 

The soundtrack for Bait was created alongside Zubin Irani. Can you tell us where it all started?

I always had a dream of creating a soundtrack for this show that was a unique blend of flavours and a snapshot into a world that I love, that was eclectic and defied genres. That's what we'd tried to do with the show. The soundtrack is an important part of my musical upbringing in different ways. We knew we needed a Bond song, because it's a Bond-themed TV show, and Jorja was someone on my list. I was chatting to Zubin, her manager, and he was like, “Let me see what I can cook up, let me think about it.” And he came back with a completely finished, perfect song that narrated the entire journey of the main character. I was like... “how is this possible?” And he said: “Well, you don't remember this, but I approached you about this song eight years ago.” He'd said, half jokingly at the time, you know - when you get to play James Bond, I have the perfect Bond song for you. It turns out this is one of the first demos Jorja had ever recorded when she started working with Zubin. And it just fit perfectly; the lyrics couldn't have fit the show more. I was very moved, it felt like complete kismet, you know? So that was the first piece, and I said to Zubin, “How do you feel about building a soundtrack around it?”

The Eurythmics' 'Sweet Dreams' - reimagined with production from Anish Kumar and vocals from Arooj Aftab - became a real needle drop in the show. Can you tell us about the process of recreating that for Bait?

I've always thought 'Sweet Dreams' is a kind of anthem for Shah's desperation, journey and disillusionment. You know, The Eurythmics created an incredible track, but I'd love to get Arooj Aftab to an Urdu version of it. Again, that felt like a tall order, but then when we got the permission from Annie Lennox - and God bless her for giving us that permission - we suddenly had two absolute bangers, and the momentum went from there. It became easier to envisage what the final product could be. Once we started reaching out to a community of artists we know, and others that we don't know that we really admire, across the globe, all these different artists, all these different genres, it really started taking shape. It was beyond our wildest dreams what we ended up with.

How has the reaction to this soundtrack been for you? Was it important that it could stand almost on its own?

The fact that people have spoken to us and told us what it means to them, in the way in which we kind of dreamed... What they are saying - and what we'd wanted - is that there's “never been an album like this.” You know, that blends these different styles and flavours, and gives a snapshot of this global music community from the South Asian diaspora, in this way. It was always our goal to sort of make our own version of the Black Panther soundtrack, which brought in artists from across the African diaspora, and so yeah, it's been incredibly moving to see what it means to people to be honest.

How important was it to reinterpret classic film sounds/motifs through a UK/South Asian lens on Bait? And to incorporate such a genre-fluid range of artists within it?

Ciara Elwis, who was our incredible music supervisor for the show, really helped us to clear all these very obscure and unique tracks from the late '70s and early '80s from Bollywood and Lollywood. So those are the needle drops — they are very distinctive, very unique. You need those needle drops. We needed a sonic bed that was free-wheeling, surreal and playful, just like Bait is, and yet culturally specific. So it was a very particular pocket of music, people like Nahid Akhtar in Pakistan, Asha Bhosle in India, the Tafo Brothers. The thought was, let's take these needle drops, and then get artists and producers to remix them, to allow them to pay homage to it and put their own twist on these classics. Once you do that, there's going to be a DNA of this heritage woven through all the tracks. But also, the blending of genres and blending styles, it wasn't so much that it felt important, it just felt... exciting. It was honest to our tastes and honest to the world of the show, you know? So, having R&B and UKG from Jai Paul, alongside the new-wave electroclash from Twins, having Arooj Aftab alongside Jorja Smith, having Raf-Saperra alongside Talwiinder, and, really importantly, having Young Stunnahz, arguably the biggest rap act in South Asia at the moment. We were like, you do what you want, here’s the samples, and they came back with a garage track. It really speaks to how globalised music is today; it really speaks to all of us.

When you spoke to our guest editor Nabihah Iqbal for your interview as part of Mixmag's South Asian Series, you said, “you can't always see the true face of London, but you can hear it” — do you feel this is true on Bait?

Yeah. I kind of feel like music bypasses the brain in a way that nothing else really does. It really is a way of cutting straight to our emotional core, so I think that a lot of the time we can kind of analyse multiculturalism, or try and put it under the microscope, and these things don’t do justice to what multiculturalism is. It’s not statistics, it’s not a news headline — it’s a feeling. And I think there’s no better way of communicating than through sounds. So this isn’t just a snapshot of the global diaspora, it’s a snapshot of London. We’re adding a dimension to it.

There's a romance scene in the back of a Pedicab in Bait where two instantly recognisable tracks for Mixmag readers are played, can you tell us about the choice to include them? 

In that scene, we played two of the most important tracks to me ever, one of them is ‘Flowers’ by Sweet Female Attitude, and the other one is ‘BIPP’ by SOPHIE. SOPHIE’s family/estate doesn’t regularly give permission to use her music, and rightly so; it’s something that has been so emulated and imitated, such a pivotal body of work in contemporary pop music. But I wrote them a letter, and I explained what it means to me. It was a track I first heard when I was in the place Shah is in, jobless, disillusioned, broke, and I needed something to pick me up. And that track was my pick-me-up; it was my belief that things could maybe get better.

You can watch Bait via Amazon Prime Video here

Megan Townsend is Mixmag's Deputy Editor, get in touch with her here