Think rock musician, and you think (at least I do) grungy T-shirt, slashed jeans and at least one visible tattoo. So the clean-cut, rather cute Taimur Tajik, who recently launched his debut album, Vice Versa, came as a pleasant surprise (and, no, I couldn’t spot a single tattoo). Of course, being a rock musician is only one aspect of Tajik’s persona; when he is not strumming the guitar, he is drumming up ideas for his latest campaign as Associate Creative Director at Spectrum Y&R.

So, did the musician or the ad man come first?

“Music has always been a passion,” he says, adding that his father bought him his first guitar when he was 15.

“As guitars go, it wasn’t really the best,” he grins, but it was enough to get him started playing music from his favourite bands.

“I was heavily inspired by the rock music of the nineties,” he says, naming Guns N’ Roses, Aerosmith and Black Label Society (which explains the BLS T-shirt he has donned for the interview; point noted).

It would, however, be some years before the musician in Tajik came professionally to the fore. In the interim, he went abroad and did his bachelor’s in sociology in the US and then a master’s degree in media and communication in the UK. Again, it takes a slight shift of the mental gears to equate this boyish rocker with two university degrees, but then perhaps this is because Tajik is very low-key about his qualifications, providing the information only when asked.

Tajik fell into advertising naturally.

“I always wanted to be in advertising. I knew I was not cut out for a regular job, and I was very lucky to be accepted at the first agency I applied to,” he replies.

That first agency was, of course, Spectrum and four years down the road, he is still there handling top-notch clients, including Caltex and Colgate-Palmolive.

Regarding what he feels about being in a profession that binds one to the dictates of the client, Tajik believes that even the most boring brief can be interpreted and executed in multiple ways; for him, it is up to the creative person to find the path.

“It is incredibly important to have your voice in your work; when you write a caption or copy (if you are good at your job), your voice will be heard in that caption or copy. This is what makes it creative.”

As an example, he quotes his Caltex Havoline campaign, which depicts engine oil in a humorous way rather than giving the technical spiel.

“I like doing things differently from the way they have been done before, in music and in advertising,” he says.

As to whether clients are ready for a different approach, he is optimistic.

“It is the agency’s role to expose clients to new ideas, and once they see others take a different approach, they will follow.”

He also believes the focus should be more on entertaining rather than providing information.

“Consumers do not watch TV or read magazines for the ads; they want to be entertained.”

But he adds that clients tend to be wary of taking this approach, as “they feel it might make their brand seem non-serious.”

Being in advertising helped Tajik realise his musical ambitions. He met Adison Albert, Gumby, Omran Shafique, Faraz Haider and Mazhar Raza through his work, and they then helped him at various stages to compose and launch his album. However, the creative spirit that drives the music is Tajik’s own, and his are the words that bring meaning to the songs.

“The songs are a synopsis of the past few years of my life: the good and bad times, experiences I have been through, people I have lost and people I have come to know. Writing them has been therapeutic. They helped me learn about myself – who I was and who I am now.”

And there is a sense of purpose behind his choosing to name his album Vice Versa.

“Every experience in life is determined by your perception. It’s about how you approach it. Things can be really good or bad; it depends on how you look at them. It doesn’t matter what hand you are dealt in life; what matters is how you deal with the hand you have been dealt. That is what Vice Versa is about.”

Instead of trying to make money from all this hard work, Tajik is happy to give the album away for free, and the songs can be downloaded from his website. He believes this will gain him honest feedback. It might also be savvy marketing in anticipation of the next album, although at the moment Tajik says he does not have any plans to release another one.

Having tasted the creative freedom of writing his own songs, isn’t it hard to adjust to the controlled creativity required in advertising? According to Tajik, writing advertising copy is easier.

“When there are constraints, you have a guideline; you know not to go past a certain point. When there are no boundaries, you don’t have a cut-off point; you don’t know where your canvas starts and where it ends.”

As for the future, Tajik is quite happy basking in the present.

“If I start planning for the future, I tend not to enjoy the now,” he says with a characteristic grin, and one can’t help but wish him the best of luck – for now and the future.

Shagufta Naaz works for the Dawn Media Group.