Rup Magon has spent three decades in airports. The Montreal-born, Toronto-based singer, songwriter and producer co-founded the South Asian fusion group JoSH in 1996. With the group he has sold more than three million records worldwide, played more than 25 countries and become the first Canadian to win both MTV India and MTV Pakistan awards. Now he’s starting a new journey under his own name. His solo debut is the double A-side single “Flight Mode” and “Without You.” Together they’re the first music from his debut solo EP, ‘Disrupt,’ which took more than five years to make.
“Flight Mode” is out now, and “Without You”, which features Canadian-Nigerian star Sojiii, out now via Magon Entertainment Inc. Magon wrote both songs with Ahsan Pervaiz Mehndi and co-produced them with Deep Jandu, the Punjabi singer and producer. Together the two tracks introduce what Magon calls Sufi funk: modern funk rhythms and Eastern melodies, with lyrics written to challenge “normalized philosophies and theological narratives from both worlds.”
The pairing has deep roots. Qawwali, the Sufi devotional music of the Indian sub-continent, reached Western audiences in 1990 when Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Canadian producer Michael Brook released ‘Mustt Mustt’ on Peter Gabriel’s Real World label. Massive Attack’s remix of its title track then carried it onto dance floors around the world. Magon grew up on both sides of that conversation. He plays tabla, harmonium, dholak and piano, and he spent the 2000s turning Montreal’s bhangra and pop crossover into a career that broke big in South Asia. The name of the new EP also holds a clue: ‘Disrupt’ has “Rup” inside it.
“Yash Chopra used to say, there are a lot of actors, but very few stars,” says Magon. “In the same way, I say there are plenty of technically sound singers, but very few artists. We must have something to say and something to share with the world—that’s what makes an artist different.”
He has been sharing it on a global scale for years. JoSH’s debut album, ‘Main Hoon Tanha,’ made Magon and JoSH bandmate stars in India and Pakistan. They followed it with ‘Kabhi’ (2004), ‘Mausam’ (2006) and ‘Beyond Kismat’ (2010), and reproduced Nelly Furtado’s “Promiscuous” and “Maneater.”
His screen career travels just as widely. Magon made his acting debut in 2011’s Speedy Singhs (released in Canada as Breakaway) alongside Russell Peters, Anupam Kher and Camilla Belle, a role the Times of India covered at the time. JoSH recorded the film’s title track, “Chaddi Wale Yaar.” He went on to appear in Deepa Mehta’s Beeba Boys (2015), and he starred in the award-winning short Bonjour Ji (2015), which won Best Short at the International Film Festival of South Asia. In The Black Prince (2017), directed by Kavi Raz, he played Arur Singh, confidant to Maharaja Duleep Singh, and the film won a Special Jury Prize at WorldFest-Houston. He also played Amandeep in CBC Gem’s Decoys (2020).
Three decades after Main Hoon Tanha, Rup Magon is ready for takeoff again, and this time the flight plan is his own.
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