Embrace the Middle Space (with Aadil Abedi)

Episode 11: For all immigrant artists, this is for you.

Despite his success as an accomplished artist, Aadil Abedi was not immediately drawn to this path. Rather, he began his journey as a creative by navigating the acting world, from Hollywood to Bollywood. Experiencing more ups and downs than he could count, his passions shifted — and with that came new experiences, challenges, and victories. Tune in for an insightful conversation that offers a rare look into the world of this extraordinary talent.

If you enjoyed the episode, be sure to subscribe for more inspiring and thought-provoking conversations.

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https://aadilabedi.com/

instagram.com/aadilabedi

facebook.com/aadil.abedi
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Transcript

Hamza: [00:00:00] I know you answered this earlier and you said, look, I don't know where I'm going, but I don't, but we really need to know who you are gonna be in five years. Oh God, that it nice. It's the Immigrant 

Aadil Abedi: Unfiltered Podcast with

Hey guys, it's the Immigrant Unfiltered Podcast with your host Hamza. And today I have a wonderful guest with me, aade Laity. Of course, a lot of you may already know him. He's a fantastic, I looked you up online, by the way, and it says actor, but 

I 

Aadil Abedi: will call you an 

Hamza: artist I interest, because that's what you are.

Uh, we met you just mentioned earlier, uh, five years ago, but by the way, you know what? I didn't realize it was five years ago. So the time passed. I know. Very fast. And you just mentioned, mentioned that you got your green cards. Congrats on that. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, and once again, thank you for being here on the podcast.

Uh, it's, it's an honor. It's a pleasure to have this conversation with you once again. Thank you. And, uh, you know, before we get started, first question I write, like love to ask all my guests right off the bat is, [00:01:00] Who are you? So in your case it would be, who is Aadi? Gimme the backstory. I wanna hear it all.

Oh God. 

Aadil Abedi: Where do, where do I start? Haven't, haven't it been asked that question for a long time. Uh, so yeah, my name is Ada Lati. Um, I am yes artist. I need to change that on my own. No, I think actor. Cool. Cool. So that was in my past life. I actually was pursuing an acting career, um, in my early twenties. But I think for me, I've always just been someone who is extremely creative.

Um, you know, coming from a bit of a traditional, you know, Indian, Pakistani background, it wasn't something that was necessarily frowned upon, but it wasn't something that was encouraged either. So I feel like I was always. Pushing against the wave and always trying to do something a little bit different.

And you know, my father always said to me, if you can just get an undergrad in something stable, then you can go away and do what you want to do. Which is, I guess, a standard Desi parent thing to say. But, um, I guess who I am now, uh, you know, at age 36, uh, after having done various, many [00:02:00] kind of, you know, having different kind of career paths and wearing different hats, I, I don't really want to say I'm anything or anyone.

I'm very much kind of want to go with the flow. I'm very content and blessed as to, you know, where I am in my life right now. Um, as an artist, as a, as a, as a creator, as someone who has kind of navigated this path with no blueprint. Um, and I'm kind of hoping in Charlotte, the journey continues and I'm very excited to kind of, you know, like I said, I know, I know it sounds generic, but kind of go with the flow.

I just kind of wanna see where it takes me. Um, That's kind of it right now. You touched 

Hamza: on pushback. Yeah. I'm very curious as to what that's like and how quickly at and at what age did that really begin? Because you're right. I mean, look, parenting Arabian, you know, Dacy culture, there's, you know, either doctor, lawyer, attorney, whatever it is.

Yeah. That's what you need to be and that's kind of what you grow up to. Like of course. Or that's what you understand. Yeah. To, to be part of this world that you are in is very difficult for a lot of people and there's a lot of challenges. And of course a [00:03:00] lot of those start at home. Yeah, of course. Yeah.

Aadil Abedi: And so, and so what was that journey like? Um, yeah. You know, I won't sugarcoat it and say it was easy. It was definitely a challenge. I think the main thing that got me through it all was Adah having very supportive parents. And you know, I I, I'm very aware of, you know, a lot of my friends when I was graduating from Univers, so I actually did an economics degree.

So I did the whole, you know, econ and, you know, a lot of my friends back in London are in finance and, you know, they're very happy and content doing their thing, but I know a lot of them have, you know, inner desires of, oh, if only we could have done this, if we could have done that. And I used to always hear the elder people, the elder, you know, guys and girls in my family who would be doing very much, you know, cookie cutter nine to five.

And, you know, they had passions, but none of them really pursued them. And I dunno why, this was always something in the back of my head, which was, I don't wanna be doing something which I don't love, or at least like, you know, and I, and the idea of working for somebody always used to like, scare me. I never wanted to report to someone.

I was very much, I did not do [00:04:00] well answering to anybody. So I think from an early age I had kind of decided that I'll do this, I'll do the degree for my father. But then after that I have to just try myself. And I, you know, I, I think because I was very vocal with my parents about this, it wasn't something I hid.

They kind of, I guess, knew, okay, at some point Adel might do something, might veer off the path. And I think I'm the youngest of three. My brother is a doctor, haha. And my sister's a teacher. So they very much did the, the normal, you know, made my parents kind of, you know, tick the boxes in that way. And I guess by the time it came to me, they're like, okay, he can do what he wants and he can, he can figure it out.

But, um, I'm very lucky that they let, they gave me that space. Um, and you know, I was very fortunate to, you know, very aware living at home. I never really had any kind of overhead in terms of rent and costs and responsibilities. So I kind of did have a little bit of a. I guess you can say luxury of just kind of picking and choosing what I wanted to do.

Um, and that's when the whole acting thing actually started. And I, and I, and I, my, [00:05:00] my passion at that time was to not necessarily be in front of the camera, but just, you know, work on a craft that was mine. And I used to, obviously growing up, watching Hollywood movies, Bollywood movies, and, you know, being in England, I, I just had a desire to give it a shot.

Um, and, you know, it was something which I tried for a couple of years. It didn't work out. And you know, I have no regrets about it. You know, I went to New York Acting school in 2011 for six months, and then I moved to India, Bombay. I did that for a whole year. You know, just living in India for a year, a British boy going over and living in Bombay was the biggest learning experience of my life.

It was the toughest time of my life, and it was something which I chose to do. So it was very difficult to go and complain about to my parents. Cause every, every time they'd call me, they'd be like, so a, how's it going? I'm like, yes. Amazing. It's so much fun. They had no idea. I was washing my clothes in a bucket.

I was sharing a room with three other guys. I was traveling in these rich stars to auditions and like, they'd be like 10, 15 guys who looked exactly like me with a, with a placard and doing all, all this stuff. So, you know, I, I feel like it was very [00:06:00] character building that entire experience. Um, And I'm very blessed that, you know, I left it when I, when I left it, it wasn't like a, oh, I wish I could have done more.

It was one of those things where I, you know, I think my faith and just knowing where I came from, very much played into it as well. Um, and I guess art for me was always just a side thing. It was never, it was never something that was gonna become my career. Um, I used to do it as for friends and family on the side here and there.

And even then, my dad used to always tell me he was other, you need to now do something properly. You know, you've done, you've tried it, it didn't work. Now you have to get this a normal job and do the normal thing. And I feel, it's funny cuz in the beginning that the pushback wasn't there, but the pushback came then when I was 26, 27, when my parents were, you know, realizing, okay, I, we gave you the chance, now you have to go do that.

And then I was like, damn, I can't, no, I, this, this, this can't be it. This I, I was so close and it didn't work out. But there has to be another avenue and. I think when my dad told me, he was like, you know, you can stay in the house, but I'm literally cutting you off and now you have to do your own thing. And, [00:07:00] and there was a bit of a fire, I guess, you know, un under me.

And after that, I actually went back to an old marketing job I was doing, um, before I left for New York and all those guys who were still there, they were like, didn't you go to, do you supposed to become an actor? I was like, yes, yes, yes. It was a, it was a great exercise in humility and, uh, I, I, and, and the honestly painting was just something, like I said, I did it as a side thing.

I had a few pieces in the house that I did for my parents and family friends, and it was a bit of a dark time. This is in 2013, I think, when all the acting thing finished and I was back at the old job and, you know, I'd go on the underground in England on the tube and I just felt, I'm just like, like a minion.

I just, I I, and not to, not, no disrespect to anybody else who was doing that at the time, but for me, I was like, ah, this is, this can't be it. And, you know, and I was very much just aware that I, I dunno if I had it in me to do something else by myself. And you know, they say, you know, God works in mysterious ways, but, you know, a family friend of ours came and saw the work in my house and [00:08:00] she was a, a family friend of my parents and she loved it.

And she said, oh, other, you should come to Dubai and, and bring your work over there. It's, you know, you are doing calligraphy. It's, and about that time, it was very basic. It was just, you know, aah, Mohamed, you know, nothing, nothing as intricate. And as, as I do now. And she was like, you know, I'll host a little dinner for you.

Let's, let's start with that. And then I was, in my head, I was like, I dunno if I, there was a part, my dad was like, You're not doing it like he was kinda like, you know, just be very careful what you decide to do now. And I was like, you know what? Lemme just give it one, one last try. Let me just do this and see if I can make it work.

And it went well. I mean, that show, you know, it was like, it was a home show situation, but you know, that is what got the ball rolling. Uh, you know, after earning no money for two, three years as, as a starving actor, you know, um, I, I sold some paintings, you know, a higher price point and I was just like, damn.

Okay. Okay. I think I could, maybe, I can maybe make this work, but, um, and then that's how, kind of how the art career started. So I've been a full-time artist since February, 2014, and then Honah for the last nine [00:09:00] years. That's been my, yeah. You've grown ma the amount of success you've, yeah. Well, no, I won't say that, but I said humble.

I'm just very blessed to have lasted this long and I, and I hope it continues. No, I think 

Hamza: you, you know, I'm sure that you'll only grow from here. It looks like you're doing fascinating things. Yeah. In what was young like. So now I'm, I'm hearing all these stories. And, you know, you make it sound so easy, like Yeah, I lived with, you know, I this room with three other people.

Yeah. You know, that, that, that, there's a story there, man, and you know, you there, we want to, we want to really understand like what that life was like. But what was young Adel like before he went and did all those things? 

Aadil Abedi: Uh, young Adel was, uh, uh, how much could we like talk about? I feel like I need to figure out what I can say, what I can't say.

Um, I was very, I was, I think I was definitely extroverted. Okay. I, um, not that I wanted to be center of attention, but there was definitely a part of me that was a lot of show and, you [00:10:00] know, parties. I would be the one that would be doing all the dancing and all the singing and all the stupid, all the stupid, honestly the stupid things.

And I think just being the youngest. Out of all my family and you know, I used to just get away with all kinds of rubbish really. And yeah, everyone would be, oh, this, that and the other. And you know, and it was, it was a lot of, it was a lot of, um, just, you know, we, we call it bug bun. I was being silly and all the time and I, and I used to say, be very funny and imitate people in the family and take the mick out of people.

And, and I dunno if I was covering up any kind of insecurity or anything, but I'm guessing there was an element of that as well, where maybe because I knew I wanted to do things or, you know, go in a certain direction, which no one in my family had ever done or did. And, you know, it was one of those things where I'd get a thought and I'm like, oh no, I can't even go there because.

That's not even fathomable. No one does this, no one will do this. And why are you even thinking about it? So maybe I was a lot more trying to get all my angst out in all those kind of more silly, silly ways. But, you know, I was [00:11:00] very, I was very, I would talk to every, everybody, anybody. I, I wasn't very shy.

Um, you know, I didn't really like being by myself, you know, I used to always surround myself with people, very social. Um, and yeah, I was, I feel like a lot of the time all my friends and family would say I used to be the life of the party, I guess. Um, and it's funny because then later on as I got a bit older, I feel like as I guess every child eventually realized that the world is not, you know, the best place at times you become a little bit more introverted as well.

But yeah, most of my youth and I had an amazing childhood, you know, honah and my cousins and my, you know, my family. But yeah, I was definitely a bit of, a bit of a joker, I think. For 

Hamza: sure. And did you grow up outside of like the, in indoor park? Uh, Uh, like what, what was growing up in London? Like a little?

Aadil Abedi: Yeah, a little bit. I mean, I think, so I grew up in the, obviously, I guess the nineties. Okay. Um, in the UK and the school I went to was predominantly white. Um, there were the token, you know, Indian community in the Pakistani friends, but, you know, majority of it was white. Um, and, you know, I, my father, honestly, [00:12:00] he really, I think for his generation, really thought differently to the way other men his age were thinking.

He was very big on putting me and my siblings into extracurricular activities outside of school. So I learned piano, I did violin, we did athletics, I did drama, we had coding. Um, you know, it was one of those things where he really wanted us to have a breadth of experiences. I wasn't very into sports. Um, and, you know, my brother was obsessed with football and doing all those type of things.

And I, you know, and I think I, I genuinely believe I, I, I have the desire for the arts, I guess because my dad very much instilled that in us. Not, he did put, he didn't think that if I put other in all these things, he would want to do it. He just wanted to give us, uh, you know, a taste of everything. Did he try to put you in any sports?

Uh, I think athletics was the best he was gonna, was gonna get out of me running. I love running, but other than that, I, you're not gonna see me pick up a bat or pick up a racket of any kind. Uh, he very much wanted us, I think he understood, you know, my brother was gonna do this. Okay, Charlie, let's put Sam air into that.

AR was [00:13:00] gonna do this. Let's put him into this. And, you know, but I'm very, very grateful. And I think at the time I did, I took it for granted as to how open-minded he was about wanting us to do different things. And especially when a lot of the other men in our community, even my cousins and my friends, they would just go to school, come back home.

They won't really do anything else. Whereas, you know, we'd have, you know, piano recital, we'll have violin classes, we'd have musical stuff, our art stuff, drama stuff. There was so many extracurricular, you know, stuff that we did that I'm, I'm so grateful that he did that. And I wish, you know, you know, for the future generations as well that come, like my nieces and my nephews, you know, they get to experience these different, you know, avenues as well so that they can make up their mind as to what they want to do as opposed to just, you know, the more, you know, stringent set, I dunno say stereotypical, but you know, things that we expect from them.

It seems like, 

Hamza: it seems like he strategically put you guys in a position to win based on who you were. 

Aadil Abedi: Yeah. Very much. Right? Yeah. And if there was a, if there a time he felt okay, my sister wasn't doing very well, she, he would take her out. [00:14:00] Parent something else. If I was doing something great, he'd get, you know, you know, kind of nurture that a lot, lot, lot, a lot more, you know, and me and my sister have a bit of a closer age, get my brothers a little bit older than us and obviously, you know, my, he raised my brother in the eighties.

He raised me and my sister in the nineties. You know, my dad is an accountant or was an accountant, so, you know, his means changed as well as time went on. So I think my brother sometimes laughs he's, oh, when I was your age I didn't have this, I didn't have that. I'm like, well, what can I say? Dad wasn't like that back then, so sorry.

Um, so no, my dad was very cognizant of all of our, each individual personalities. And like I said, even to date, my dad, I love him. He's my role model, you know, uh, very inspired by him all the time. And I think, you know, I feel like te even saying that, but um, he's very much just let me be. Me and my mom, of course, you know, my mom is super supportive, but.

I wouldn't say she took a backseat, but I think because my dad was so involved, she was always supportive of what, whatever he did, there was never kind of any kind of a pushback from her. You know? She, she just kind of let him lead. Right. [00:15:00] Um, and because he led so well, uh, you know, it was kind of like a, you know what you're doing good job, Jonathan.

Carry on. You do your thing. So no, I'm, and I think I carry that and I think the young avil I always wanted my dad to, and I guess this is something which I'm sure you can relate to as well. I really wanted my dad to be happy with whatever. Yeah. Proud of you, proud of me. You know, whatever I decided to do with my career, you know, I always, it was always the back of my head.

I was like, I need him to be happy. I think that's just part of our culture. Right. I'm guessing with the same, same, same thing with you. What kind of setup do you have in your family? Is it, so 

Hamza: my setup is very interesting. I actually moved here, uh, by myself. Okay. Uh, in 2013. Uh, I, I came here alone. I had a wife and kids at that time.

Oh wow. So I came here. I literally talked to my wife. She's sitting over there. So I talked to her and I was like, Hey son, you know what? I'm gonna go to America for a couple of weeks and I'll see you in a couple of weeks. I'm just gonna go check it out. I'll see where are you coming from? So I was coming from Dubai at the time.

Dubai. Okay. Uh, and she was like, yeah, sure. Go check it out if there's opportunity. You know, why not? We had just come [00:16:00] out of a recession, you know, we were starting to recover. It was really bad. We, like that city was in really bad shape, of course at that time. Uh, so came here, picked up the phone, called her, Hey, you know what?

I don't think I'm coming back and spend a, spend a year without her. Uh, after a year, got her here. Process immigration. Did all of that stuff. Yeah. Uh, so very, very, and Texas became Texas. Texas. And then, you know, once my business grew, all of that, then brought my family here as well. And so now my entire family lives here.

Everyone's here, everyone's 

Aadil Abedi: here. But you started it basically? I started it, yeah. Wow. How was it coming by yourself like? 

Hamza: Um, it was interesting. Uh, Zara's here, so actually Zara's mom took me in. Oh, and I lived at her house for a year, almost a year. Oh, wow. Uh, I lived in, I lived as a guest in their home, and until I could like get up on my feet and do my own thing.

Yeah. So, 

Aadil Abedi: you know, it's very interesting. Wow, that's amazing. Yeah. Could you ever see yourself leaving or you pretty much set here? So, I mean, you 

Hamza: know, look, uh, nothing's permanent. Yeah. Life's short. I think should, you should, you should live, uh, in the [00:17:00] moment. And honah, you know, as business grows, as money comes, you know, uh, I think experiences are more important.

Definitely. And I think just limiting, especially when you come from such a diverse background. Yeah. Limiting yourself to one country is just not an option. Totally. I, I don't think 

Aadil Abedi: that's a thing. That's a good way to look at it as well. Like I said, nothing is permanent. Right. And then people always ask me, where do you see yourself in five years?

I'm like, to be honest, I don't know. I mean, yeah. You know, I, I've lived Aland India, I've done some stuff in Dubai. I've left London and now I live in the US and you know, I'm in the process now moving from the east coast to the west coast. And you know, it's funny, I feel as you get older, I think there is a feeling of wanting to be near family.

That's definitely something which I miss cuz you know, my entire family was in England, you know, every immediate family member, my parents, siblings, my grandparents, everybody was there. So I, I had a very full childhood. Um, and then maybe that's what probably why I used to enjoy being around a lot of people because everybody there, it was either your friends and if it wasn't your friends and it was your family, there was always someone around and then cut to move over here to America.

Um, and [00:18:00] where I am in dc, the Virginia area, there's not a single family member. So it's, and moving, and I left England at 30. So it's, it's, it's kind of leaving a full life. Right. You know, all my college friends, high school friends, and everybody who I had over that experience. So the memories, the very deep relationships I had with people, I had to really start from scratch again when I moved here.

Yeah. That was the exact same. I came 

Hamza: here when I was 29. There you go. Oh wow. Same thing. Look at that. And I had, I had two kids and a wife at that. Yeah. 

Aadil Abedi: I, you, I had no one. So you, you are way, way more tough than I had d So, uh, 

Hamza: uh. Talk to me about school. So you said you studied econ, uh, and you glanced over that just a second.

And obviously that was something you did to, you know, for your parents. Yeah. Just to, you know, have that in your, in 

Aadil Abedi: as a backup. Yeah. How, don't ask me anything about econ, I don't remember anything about how often 

do 

Hamza: you think it is to have a backup when per, when, you know, doing something like, because the way I look at it or the way I think about it is you may have very well been able to do all those things just because you knew you had something in the back, in the back, in the background.

I don't know, I'm 

Aadil Abedi: asking. Yeah, no, [00:19:00] no, it was a good question. And it's funny cause I heard, I mean, there's a saying, and I've heard it, many people say this around, if you have a plan B, then your plan A doesn't work right? You literally just have to have one plan. And I dunno if it's like, again, this Indian mentality where you have to have like 10 plans just to know all these, just in case.

Just in case. But, um, at that time, I, I, I, now, I think with, with the way life is, with social media, even now with ai, everything which is just changing, I just feel is not, is not that necessary. To have, for example, which I had, which I thought I needed, which was a degree. Um, I think it was great to go through the process, to go through the structure of doing it, of doing an undergraduate degree.

And I know UK and US is a little bit, there's, there's differences. Mine was three years and done so by the time I was 21, I'm out there in the world. Um, and you know, I look back and I don't regret it for sure. And at the time it was the best knowledge that my parents had had and I guess I had, and again, there was nobody that had done anything different.

So in my head, the thought of not doing that and going straight into [00:20:00] pursuing something creative also scared me. If I'm being honest. It wasn't as if I was, ah, yeah, I don't wanna do this. I was like, yeah, your dad, you're right, I should do this. I'll only be 21. I can still, I still have time Ella to do all the stuff I want to do.

And, and I'm, and I'm blessed cause I met, you know, my lifelong friends at my college and who are till date, you know, my best friends. And, um, and I, you know, and I miss them all. But I feel now with new avenues to, you know, make money through various other streams, various other avenues. There's so many different ways.

I don't think it's as, as clear cut as it was back then. Um, I think a lot of people now, especially the younger generation, they can, they're finding so many different ways of, there's so many new jobs I've have opened up now and jobs of those jobs that didn't even exist like a decade ago. So there's so much more opportunity.

I think there's a lot more scope for people to do a lot more stuff earlier on than it was for maybe for us who thought, okay, we have to do X, Y, Z before we can get to, oh my God, I said Z. Yeah. Damn. Oh my God. Zed, Zed, Zed. Uh, and, uh, I've been here too long and, [00:21:00] uh, so I, I think it's important now that people realize whatever path they want to go on.

I think I, I personally believe, I, I'd never really thought of, oh, I'll go back to economics. Genuinely, even though I dipped in and, and I dipped out every now and then, I, I, I really rode those waves. I think of no money, no idea what I was doing. Um, because I kept thinking of the greater good, which was. I want to be my own boss.

You know, I don't want to work for anybody. I want to work hard so that I can earn, not be in a pecking order of, you know, for someone else to earn more money than I, than me, if that makes sense. So that was very much what kept me, was my drive throughout, and I genuinely handle my heart. Like I said, I've been doing this now for nine years now, and I don't ever think, oh, I'll go back and do something else.

This is it. And, and it has been it since, since 2014. So, um, yeah, I wouldn't want to think you need backups and the actor 

Hamza: piece. What about the actor piece? So obviously econ was a backup. [00:22:00] Yeah. 

Aadil Abedi: I guess the actor, yeah. Acting, honestly, it was just one of those things, like I said, it was something I wanted to try.

Um, but like, how, like, you know, I 

Hamza: can say, oh, I wanna try acting. What does, what does one really do to. Um, become an 

Aadil Abedi: actor? Well, again, there's different ways and I think in, in different places as well. I think I may have done it, I may have shot myself a bit on the foot by going to India and trying it over there.

It's, you know, the whole Nepo, Bollywood, Bollywood, you know, very nepotistic industry. It's not very much based around talent. Dismissed more, you know, what family do you come from? Who do you know? And you know, I, it was, and I was a British guy rocking up and I was very aware that I wasn't gonna become like a, like a big shot, you know, a-list Bollywood actor.

I was kind of looking for character roles, comedic roles, maybe dark characters, this, that and the other. And back then there was no streaming. Yeah. So now all these really cool shows are coming out. Amazon. Yeah. So many really, really cool stuff. And I feel, you know, if I was there now, there could have been a cool opportunity, but back then there was [00:23:00] nothing.

And, um, if I'd come to America potentially, that could have been different. But I dunno. Again, I'm very, uh, I'm very aware of the family that I come from and, you know, my background and you know, not to get all like, you know, not religious or anything that in that way, but just I never wanted to, to do something that my parents would've felt any kind of shame.

You know of, and especially in India in that industry, it's very sorted, it's very dark, it's very murky, and lines get very blurred and all the type of stuff. And I had exposure to certain things, which I was very much just not going to do. I was very much like, I wanna work on the craft of acting all the strings.

That come with this, and I'm hoping, you know what I mean? I, I don't wanna be a part of it. And I realized, you know, I'd get a role for a film or an ad, or a shoot or a campaign, and then something else would come up they'd want me to do, to do something. And I was like, I'm not gonna do that. And the next day they'd throw me out the project and I was like, this is just stupid.

Like, I'm not gonna get anywhere unless I do something that's gonna go against my morals and my principles. So all to say [00:24:00] that, you know, I think it came, those lessons came sooner rather than later. I'm blessed that I only really spent two, three years doing that. I didn't, it's not as if I spent a decade of my life, you know, I very much, you know, did it, tried it, it was hard, it was tough, learnt, amazing kind of life experiences.

Um, you know, my, my Hindi, although I guess improved a little bit back then, but, um, I came back to London at 26. And I still felt like, you know what? I still have more to do and give and try. Um, so there's no regrets about that at all. And, and is that when you went to New York? So, I went to New York when I was 24.

Okay. So first, so that was first I got the kind of education, the schooling in it got, I guess like a semi qualification in acting. I went to the Lee Rabo method acting school. And then in 2012 I moved to India. Is that 

Hamza: part of getting like the actual job, like the role 

Aadil Abedi: you have to be part of? Not really.

Again, no, it's not. It's, it's something I wanted to do because again, I took the craft so seriously. I was like, I don't wanna just rock up and just be like, Hey, gimme a script. I don't, no, I wanted to learn how, what's the technique, what's the form? How do you learn, how do you memorize lines, diction, dial it, all [00:25:00] these things.

Because again, I was, I, I was taking it seriously, but I think because I went to India where people over there more just do any other line, it was, I was very much like, and they would always be like, oh, you'd be great for this character. That's, that's that. That's not what I want to do. And it was just, it was, like I said, it was, I wouldn't say it was the wrong decision, but in a way, it's funny, my parents always say it was the right decision because maybe if something else had happened, I would've probably continued it and who knows where I'd be right now.

But it's funny, through my art, I do feel like I get to show. It's a whole other obviously creative side, but with the campaigns that I've done, with the brands that I've worked with, you know, a lot of it, I really enjoy the kind of, you know, being with my work, kind of being one with my work and showcasing what I can do through my work.

You know, mine also, the eye is not necessarily on me, but it's not something that I'm, I'm, I'm making obviously, which is being inspired by him. Um, and I just feel like it's, it's the best as you speaking to this, to my sister-in-law, the way here is like the best halal way I have of keeping everybody happy and, and you know, my family.

And, [00:26:00] and at the end of the day, like I said, they're, they're really proud of what I'm doing. So worked out, I think, so 

Hamza: 26, you come back from India, you're back in London. Yeah. You pick up a paintbrush. Mm-hmm. And that is that when it all 

Aadil Abedi: began, Yeah, well I was mentioning prior to that it would be just very much, I actually first picked up a brush in 2007.

It was Ramadan. I was fasting and I was trying to kill some time. And uh, I was flicking through a catalog and there was some paintings and I thought to myself, you know what, lemme just try and copy. It was like flowers 

Hamza: and the paintbrushes were like, everything was widely available at home. Oh yeah.

Aadil Abedi: Everything. Well, I went to the store. Okay. You know, equivalent of like a Michael's in England. Okay. Um, and then went and bought some stuff and did it, put it up in the house. Um, back then on Facebook, I think I put it on Facebook as well, and so many people started in the family, were like, oh my God, where'd you buy that?

Where'd you buy that? And I was like, I just did it. You know, I was, I was trying to kill Rosa, trying to kill my fast. And, and, and then, you know, that's what came out of it. And then people started say, oh, we'd, we'd love one. We'd love one. I was like, I'm not, why? I mean, it was very much, it was one of those things where I was like, why?

[00:27:00] You didn't get it? No. I was like, you didn't see it. You didn't see it. And then they were like, no, we'll pay you. And I was like, to do what? And they're like to paint for us. And I was like, I'll just, I'll just do it for you. Like, don't just paint me. I'll just tell me what you want. I'll just do it. So in the beginning, early days, I would just paint pretty much for free.

Yeah. Cuz you don't necessarily, you don't monetize. No, I wasn't. And it wasn't, and that wasn't my intention. And it was very much just, it was, oh, they like it. Okay, fine. I'll do it if they like it and, you know, if it makes them happy. And, and then they were insisting on PS then I was like, I don't know, 20 pounds, 30 pounds.

They're like, no, we'll give you 50. And I was like, okay, fine. In my head I'm like, that's a gas of tank. There we go. Um, and I basically, after that, it was very much one of those things where charities were getting in touch with me. I'd have like a table at a, you know, a stall and I'd have some, you know, paintings up on there, small pieces and, you know, 50, 60 pounds, 50 pounds.

And all I was thinking was that that'll pay for this jacket or that'll pay for this. I wasn't very much thinking of anything, anything more than just, this is cool. It's a nice thing to do when I'm, have some free time and, you know, but my focus is, you know, again, no one in my family or friends or anybody in my [00:28:00] life.

I, I wasn't around artists, I wasn't around creative people. There was no thought of this ever becoming a thing. But, um, when I came back in 2013 Okay. Mentioned it was a bit of a tough time, you know, mentally for me. And I, I went, my dad very kindly like, built a studio for me actually at the back of our house and, you know, turned into like a nice kind of situation where I could paint.

Um, and I remember. You know, just being in a really rough phase and, you know, not very sure what I was doing very much at Crossroads of just, you know, now what I mean, you know, and this is, this is when you got cut off. This is when I got cut off. Yeah. And, uh, he was, I was just so scared cuz I was thinking of myself, dad, all my friends, they've, they've been working now since 21, 22, they're now buying houses and now they're getting married and, and I'm like, I'm like some unemployed actor, failed actor at 26, 27.

Um, and I need to like do something. And I was like, what the hell am I gonna do? And I think I had guilt from stuff from India and just generally whatever I was going through [00:29:00] my life. So I ended up, you know, doing some of my best pieces back then when I was in a really dark place. Which sounds, might, might sound a bit, you know, odd, but I remember I did this so class piece.

I still remember it was like a black, black going into like dark brown. It was a very moody, very, very moody piece. And I, I remember as I finished it, I even looked at it and I felt, well, that's quite heavy, you know? And but then that lady that from Dubai, she saw that piece and she loved it. And it was, it was based off of that, where she was like, you have to come to Dubai and do the, and that's what kind of started off.

So it's funny how that's crazy. A very dark, a very uncertain time of my life. It very much, it, it flowed just through me to, to paint something, which was, again, there was no, no, not much thought behind it, but that kind of really got everything going. And But what got you to paint like sort of glass like?

So I think for me it was, um, I used to fear, well, not fear, but I, I, I used to think of themes that used to be around God's mercy, [00:30:00] God's compassion, uh, and forgiveness. Um, and 

Hamza: was that something like from the very beginning, you, you 

Aadil Abedi: picked up the paintbrush? Not from the beginning. It wasn't from the beginning.

It was something, I think because of the life experiences I had had. At that, up until that point, um, I used to just be wary of wherever I go in life, I need to make sure that he is near me, you know? And I'm very cognizant of him. And, you know, for me, faith is very personal. It's very, it's a very inward thing.

You know, I, I, I'm, I'm not, I don't wanna see how sound preachy you or heard it, nothing like that. For, for me it was just, I, cause my mind was going to all these wacky places and, you know, like I said, living in New York, living in India, doing all these things and being so un just, honestly, I was, it was very, I dunno how else to say it.

I, I, there was no constant in my life at that point, but the only constant that I used to feel was when I would open up a mat and, and just pray by myself in a corner. You know, I'm not one to go to a mosque. I don't do, I don't do very public displays of my faith. It's very [00:31:00] much just a, a personal thing that I do.

And I, and I used to always just pray and just be like, you know, just help me, you know, help me figure out what I'm trying to do. And if, and if this isn't, if this isn't for me, if I'm not gonna have this crazy cool life, then make me be content with a normal job. But even that wasn't working out, so I'm like, what?

Why is nothing, I just felt nothing was working out and I would just err on the side of, you know, just, you know, his compassion, his love. And, um, and that would kind of make me want to, to write the verses from the Quran that were based around. So it was a form of expression, definitely, definitely it flu, very much, very much flu.

And you know, it's something which even till date, you know, I keep it with me. And, and in every exhibition or any collection that I do, there's always one verse, froms, which I put into every, if, if there's any, every 10 or 12 pieces, one will always have the phrase, he's with you wherever you are. And I just feel like, for me, again, this very nomadic life that I've led, you know, living in different places, being all over the place, that kind of just grounds me and I just feel very.

Uh, just [00:32:00] kind of like, it's like a hug, I feel. It just feels much more warm and I know that there's one piece in this collection where I know that the focus is, you know, he's with me and I, and I, and I'm fine. Um, and it's funny how that kind of started, like I said, back in, in 2013, when again, no intention, no desire.

It was a very, very low point in my life. Um, and if it wasn't for that lady that saw that painting, which my parents, you know, it was funny cause they, my dad liked it, but he was a bit like, it was quite, it was a quite dark colored scheme. I was like, yeah, dad, just put up, it's fine. Uh, we, we put it up and then yeah.

That, that kind of got the ball rolling really. And I, after that, I'd very much just left up to God. And, uh, it just happened very organically after that. So let's talk about the lady a little more. 

Hamza: Yeah. So obviously she, this part, this individual reached out to you Yeah. Said come to Dubai. Mm-hmm. And you know Dubai very well.

Often. I know Dubai very well. Of course I grew up there. So at that point, What do you think? Is this serious? Is this happening? Is you know, royal families? Like what are, 

Aadil Abedi: what are the thoughts that are going on? [00:33:00] No, it was very much, again, what, and can I really do this? You know, do I have it in me to give this a whole other shot, a try.

I mean, she was a family friend of my parents. I didn't know who she was, but you know, she was very gracious, very loving, very sweet. Her, her name is Arm Auntie. And, um, she basically just said to me, go better. I'll just, I'll do, I'll host, I'll, I'll host a little dinner. You bring some paintings. And, and she had connections.

She had connections and she said she'll invite some of her auntie friends. This is actually funny actually, because that, that first event was a music party and, uh, the way the setup of the, of the, of the room was, was. The singers were at the front and all the chairs were facing that way. And my work was here behind.

So I'm standing with my work and everyone's walking in and then just sitting and not even acknowledging that I'm right. I'm like, oh shit. I'm crap rocking. No, no one's looking. So I have to sit for the entire three hour music party. Only when they get up and turn around to leave, they're like, oh, what is this?

At the course I was, oh, hi. Hello, this is me. Um, it was so funny back then I used to feel like such a salesman. I was like, oh, hello. Standing next to standing next to my little store. And then there was [00:34:00] one lady from that show, her name is and she goes, she loved them all. I think she actually bought them all.

Um, and she goes, I wanna do a dinner for you next year. Come, this was, this was November, 2013. And then she said to me, I wanted to do dinner. Come bring 20 paintings with you. And I was like, oh, in my head I was like, yeah, sure. Yeah. Great. Yeah. As soon as she left, I was like, how the hell am I gonna do this?

And um, and she's like, I'll invite my auntie friends and my, you know, like kitty party friends and we'll just do like a little setup. And this is Emirates Hill. So, do you know, you know, yeah, of course. Very lovely home, very affluent, very affluent area. So, um, I come back to London and I, I literally do all the 20 paintings in like two months.

And, you know, I, I always tell this funny story, the first 10 were very, very intricate, very elaborate, rather than the next 10. I was like, I've got the energy to do this at this point. And then I, the job that I had, that marketing job, I remember the date was February 4th, was the dinner. I, I handed in my third resignation at that company on in January.[00:35:00] 

And they all were like, oh, when will we see you again? And I was like, no, this is it. I'm not coming back. This, this has to be with my head, low key. I was like, shit, I could, I could be back. Yeah, you could be, I could be back. I was like, great. I wanna give one more chance. And then I left with Dubai on the second of Feb, uh, had the show on the fourth.

Um, and of those 20 pieces, I think I sold like 13. And I was just like, crap, how did this happen? Like this was again, you know, and then it was very much, and I dunno how, you know, Dubai in the, in the, in those days, it was very much still the kind of Pakistani affluent Pakistan Indian families, I guess, who were expats who moved there, who have, obviously Martial had done very well for themselves.

They were the ones who were kind of the patrons of the work, and they were the ones who were pushing it forward. So there were like two or three aunties that came who were Naji auntie's friends who were like, oh, I live in, you know, uh, Arabian ranches, or I live over here, come over here. And I was just like, okay, you know what?

I'll do it. It's fine. You know, there's. There's no blueprint. I'm, I'm just gonna see how this goes. And every, I'd go back to Dubai, I'd come back to London, do all the paintings, [00:36:00] go back, fly them to Dubai, have the show and the like two, three shows. But it was going really well. Um, and then, uh, I started feeling great.

I was like finally earning money after, again, it was three years of nothing. And I was very much like, oh, great. I was buying gifts with my dad, my mom, my sister. I was like being very like, chill. And I was like, crap, everything's gone. Okay, let's go to the Dubai. Let's get, let's go to another show. And then I got hit quite hard when there was the first time, uh, I, I, I wanted to do something by myself and I didn't, I didn't know how it worked and I wasn't sure what to do.

I met this one lady, I wouldn't name any name just in case. And uh, she was, oh, well I'll host a show for you at Capital Club in D I F C. Okay. I dunno if you know of that club. And, uh, she was, oh, you just go back and focus on the work. I'll organize everything. And I was like, okay. But I don't even know who she was.

I met, I think at some event or something, and she, I, it was all a bit cd, but I, my head, I was like, okay, with Dubai, I've had two successful shows. I know there were home shows, but this will be nice. It's, it's gonna be in a venue and, you know, you're gonna do an invite and it's gonna be like a whole guest list.[00:37:00] 

And I was like, okay, fine. So I went back to London, did the whole collection. I d I did like 15 pieces at the time, flew to Dubai for the event, and she pretty much ghosted me. And for the two months she kept telling me, oh, everything's great. I, I have, she had the venue, but that was it. She did, she didn't invite anybody.

There was no, and she kept sending me all these fake mockups of invitations and in my head I'm like, okay, great, it's happening. And I'm in London. I have no idea what's going on. So I rock up and then she texted me and she said, Hey Arvil, sorry I can't make it. And sorry I just couldn't make anything happen, but good luck.

And I'm there and she has the venue and she had the venue that she paid for that. Well, I actually paid for it. Oh damn. And it turned out that I paid like twice the amount cuz it wasn't even that much. But she basically, I think like, you know, did one on me and took my money and ran and, and then I'm there in D I F C with 20 pa 15 paintings and eight people showed up of which seven were my friends.

Um, and then after that I was like, crap, this is it. This, the bubble has burst. What was that like when you were there? I mean, [00:38:00] I cried. It was, it was very, it was very depressing and it's a shame because my first thought, sadly I'm being honest, I was, oh, I'm human about it. I was like, oh crap, maybe then this wasn't gonna happen.

Maybe this was just another little blip, you know, you know, you know, I was gonna get a little taste of, of this could work, but what was I thinking? You know, is art. You know, you're an artist, you're not, this is, this is not gonna, you still didn't see it at that point? No, I definitely didn't see it at that point.

And then that trip ended up being me, literally Hamza like lugging my work in my car, rental car from house to house on the palm and trying to sell it to people in their homes. And there'd be these ladies that like, tell, you know, it was in August, July, August time. So it was peak heat summer. Yeah. And I'd be like, I had lu them in the car, take them all out, array them in the home and they'd be like, no, no, maybe no, actually no.

And then usher me away. It was the most I, cause I would cost more to get them back. Yeah, exactly. So, so my head, I was, I have to just try and flog these if I can. And it was just, like I said, I, it was, it was tough. It was mentally, I was [00:39:00] really, again, I, I kind of thought this is, I'm after this, I'm done. I'm not doing this anymore.

Um, and I think I actually came back to London having not really sold any, uh, but having spent I think two months in the Dubai trying, um, and nothing was working. And then, There was no auntie, there was nothing. No one was helping me. And I was like, wow. That was it. That was a quick, that was, that was a short about What about the auntie that helped you initially?

Yeah, she, honestly, to be fair, she was, she, again, in her own way, she was trying, but I didn't wanna let her on. I didn't let, sorry, I didn't let it on that things were that bad because, you know, she did this, I don't wanna ask her for more, you know? She do. And she was like, better. How did it go? Oh, auntie went amazing.

You know, great con, great contacts. And I didn't tell her that. The lady basically ghosted me, took my money cuz she would've been obviously really, really upset. Um, so I, I, I pretty much lied. Um, came back to London at the end of 2014, super upset. Um, but then it was actually my dad who was kind of like, you've got this far, you have to carry on.

You're not, you're done. You're not doing anything else now. Right. And I remember him saying that to me and me [00:40:00] feeling, I was like, damn, this is the first time when he's actually not telling me to go back and do because he saw it. Yeah. He was you who did it. Yeah, I guess. But, but, but I'm, but you are also in it.

I couldn't really see out of it. And I was just so annoyed. I'll be honest. I was just annoyed. I was like, how could this happen? Like, you know, I've had two successful shows in Dubai and, and Dubai is a very fickle place. And you know, I, I think, you know, especially in those years, you know, and I have lovely friends there, and I, and I love the place, but you know, behind that glitzy facade, it is kind of like, it is run like a bit like a third world country.

And, and you know, and people were like saying, oh, we'll, we'll keep the work, we'll sell it in our stores. And, and actually stuff was actually then being sold, but I wasn't getting paid. Um, so in my head I was like, oh God, Dubai is just what the, this is not gonna work. Um, and um, I think actually, so then after that, for 2014, for six months, I pretty much wasn't doing anything, you know?

And now we're into 2015 and I'm now thinking. Maybe I should go get a job. But same, those same [00:41:00] thoughts can kept crept back in again. And I was like, and I'm only getting older. I was, I was turning 29 that year and I was like, oh, this is so depressing. I was like, I'm gonna be 30 and nothing is, again, it is similar, similar trait of thought.

Um, but I honestly, aah, I feel like God has always placed people in my life at that, the exact right time. And now this far on in my, in my journey I, I never, I never, I never have that feeling anymore. Even if there's a bit of a lull, I feel very confident whenever the right thing is gonna happen. And, and it does because, you know, I don't, I don't stop, obviously I'm still doing the work, but that feeling of, oh God, and no, no, this is what, you know, what happened And oh, forget it.

That's the humble that has, that has completely disappeared. Um, but because I have full faith in, in him and, um, and at that time there was a, another lady. That kind of came outta nowhere really. And she kind of wanted me to come back to Emirate's Golf Club and do a group show. Um, and she had jewelry and, and she was like, we love, I have two other artists.[00:42:00] 

And I was like, you know what? I'll give it a shot at this point. I, I'd take anything. And, uh, and that it was always like a bit of a reel of a match every time, every time, um, until I started coming over to, to America. And then that really then started to change everything. I'm sorry, I'm, I'm completely waffling now.

I know, sorry. Well, but like, I'm 

Hamza: actually surprised because I would think 

Aadil Abedi: Dubai is like, you know, I know you'd think I, 

Hamza: I would think that, but now you're saying you come to America and that's really when you saw mm-hmm. Things take off. Mm-hmm. I'm, 

Aadil Abedi: I'm curious, I think, I think in Dubai, again, you know, I'm not Arab, you know, I'm British born.

My, my family's from India, Pakistan. Um, there was this ownership. I used to always feel this. Because I don't speak Arabic, you know, even, even though we've been doing it for a decade, it's very much, it's art, right? It's, for me, it's art, it's typography, it's, I use scripture to express how I feel. It's, it's, and it's, it's, it's not like a language that I'm learning as I'm doing it.

As I go along, there's always a reference that I look at. And then I think of composition, I think of design, I think of color theory, all this type of stuff. [00:43:00] But in Dubai, they, these Emirati ladies would come to my shows and it would give me so much grief for not speaking Arabic, for not being Arab. And you know, they'd be like, ah, Dylan, and come and speak.

And I'd be like, I'm so sorry. I, I, you know, they're like, well then why are you painting Arabic? And I was like, well, why, why can't I? They're like, this is not your language. I was like, well, I grew up reading Theran. You know, there's no, I don't think there's ownership over this, this language. I mean, even though I'm not from, I'm not Arab.

I can, I can still relate to the, to the text and the, and the language. And I used to always just feel they would, would rather promote Emirati artists and Arab artists. And, you know, there was one of my favorite artists, El Seed, he's a Tunisian French Tunisian guy. And he was my biggest inspiration back then.

Um, and you know, they, and I just feel like they would always usher more towards those people who they could promote and show off as, ah, he's Arab and this and the other. And I was kind of reliant on my Indian, Pakistani expat friends in Dubai to help me with my work. But it got to a point where I felt I'd kind of exhausted that a little bit.

Uh, and it was funny cause everyone thought you're doing Arabic, [00:44:00] Arabic, Dubai makes sense. But no, Dubai ended up not being the right place for me. Um, it was a great kind of start, I guess. But no, I, I, I, I really felt like, I used to, I used to legit feel nervous when I'd have a, any t or Arab person would come to my shows.

I'd be like, crap. They're gonna like, they're gonna girl me. They're gonna ask me, why can't you speak Arabic? Why can't you recite that? Why can't you say that? And I was always like, oh my God, please just leave me alone. Just, just appreciate the art. And then if you don't like it, then you're fine. But, um, over here there's a lot, there's none of, there's never been any of how, how did here open up for you?

So again, there was a lovely lady, uh, her name is Selma Hassan, El uh, I met her virtually through a mutual friend, uh, in 2016. And she, at the time was, she's known as like, a bit like a storyteller, you know, she loves, you know, finding people who doing various different career parts. And my mutual friend put me in touch with her.

I told her, you know, I, this is what I've done in the past. And she was, oh, I'd love to host a little intimate dinner. It was, it was always these little dinners. It's always, always starts everything off. [00:45:00] And, um, she told me, uh, this was October of 2016 and, uh, she hosted me in her beautiful home in uh, uh, DC and I think I had 10 paintings there at the time.

And, uh, actually cut to actually 20, technically 2015. I actually had a show with my sister-in-law who's over there, Ruby, she's also an artist. And we had a joint show that my uncle organized in Dallas. But, uh, that was more of like a family kind of friends situation. But in 2016, it was like the first of its kind of entire new audience.

I had no idea who these people were. She opened up her Rolodex so much for me, and, you know, and that was an amazing dinner. You know, I, I think I pretty much sold all the pieces that were there. I left with around 13, 14 commissions and, you know, it was, there was so much interest and so much love. And again, it was, everybody was just so excited to see something so different, especially in America where I guess, you know, geographically it's that much further from, from Dubai and access to the kind of stuff that I was doing.

They didn't have access to it. So they, they really, really enjoyed it. And there was a genuine kind of desire to know more, want to know [00:46:00] more. And there was no shame on me. There was no like, you know, grilling me on. So, so where's this iat say it with, with Fu and all this type. And I was like, what? I can't do this.

So, um, I uh, and then she said to me, Salma, she was like, you know, America, you should really think about, you know, the geography is so big. There's so many, there's so many Muslims here. Um, you know, just by virtue of the fact that it's such a massive country, there's so many spots that we could hit. And, um, I was like, okay, if I don't really know many people, if you are, if you are down to help me.

And then she organized a similar event for me in Chicago in April, 2017. Um, and again, that another successful show. And, and then I thought to myself, you know what, maybe I think I need to start spending some more time here. Um, in England, it's funny you haven't asked, but in England, the scope of my work, there wasn't really that, you know, it, in England, there wasn't much desire for what I was doing.

Has that changed now? I don't really know cause I haven't been focusing Good England, I mean, I, I obviously humble through just, you know, my small social media platform. I send work [00:47:00] to London for clients who want it. But I dunno, I just feel like the, the mindset of people in in London is a little bit different.

You know, they, they're a little bit more risk averse. They don't wanna spend too much money. Homes aren't as big, they don't wanna invest in that kind of artwork. Uh, whereas in America I just feel like, you know, humble, you know, everybody's always up for stuff and everyone's always down to try something new and different.

There's also tax right off. They, well I to think of that, but yeah, sure. And um, and for me, I just felt, cuz people used to say to me, why you just focus in London? And I was like, there's not much people here a bit, you know, they're not as, they're not as artsy I guess as, as, as I would probably like. And um, and then that's what I decided.

And then October, 2017 is when I left England officially, um, was here on a business visa, moved to an oh one visa. And then now I just got my green card. So it's all just, yeah, it's crazy to think it's coming up to six years. 

Hamza: Um, yeah, I remember I, I actually saw one of your shows on video and in that show you were painting something like as part of your show, you would have your art [00:48:00] display, but you would also be live painting.

A live painting. Yeah. And so is that something that was, that was, you know, a piece of the attraction where people would actually 

Aadil Abedi: come to see you paint their life? I think so. And it is funny because again, when I met you guys in 2018, that was still kind of figuring out the methodology of how I was doing it.

It was still a lot of the home shows and. You know, more of the, these aunties and ladies and who are just patrons of the work, who are kind of hosting me and doing all this stuff. But Anah, it's been a while since I've done that. And, you know, it's, it's, it's, I'm, I'm blessed that it's a lot more, there's a lot more kind of bigger things that are happening now, but I love that that's how it kind of started.

It was very much, you know, I met you guys over here in Houston and, and I've had shows in Atlanta, in Kentucky, in Tampa, Florida. And I've driven to like all these places, um, in my car with paintings in, in my trunk. Um, and I think the live painting part was always just a fun thing to do. I, I think I get very conscious of, oh, people coming to an art event, they're just gonna stand there and look stoically at people.

Like, okay, next I just feel I need to, [00:49:00] I need to do something. Give them something. Um, so it is one of those things that at that time I used to do, like, you know, on tables and just to kind of show people the process of behind the scenes. It was, it was mixed reactions of some people like, oh, you don't wanna let people know.

What, how you do it. You don't wanna like divulge your, your secrets. I was like, to be honest, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm, there's no secret. I mean, I'm very blessed that I can do this and I put in, you know, so many hours into this now where I'm not afraid of showing people that, cause they, every, the question I get asked even till date the most is how long, how long does it take you to do a painting?

How long does it take you to? And I'm like, that's a very difficult question to answer because it's taken me years to get to the speed at which I can do it now. So, you know, you're not paying, you must have heard this as well. You're not paying for the time it takes me now you're paying for the years.

It's taken me to get to a point where I can do it. So hold on. You're, 

Hamza: you people are asking you how much time it takes to justify 

Aadil Abedi: price. Sometimes I, I, I think that's probably where their mind is trying to go because when they see my prices, then obviously for the most part now a humble lot of people will pay.

But for some people they're like, oh, you can come on that much, but how long does it take you to do it? I'm like, if it took me [00:50:00] half an hour, what does that you're paying me for how long it's taking me to get to the point where I can do it in half an hour. So, um, It's funny, I laugh it off. It's not one of those things I, I take, I take very seriously, but back then, yeah, I used to be very scared about letting people in on, you know, what am I doing?

And I used to hear from people like, oh, you don't want people copying you? And I was like, let them copy me. I have no issue. It's fine. There's no monopoly on this. I mean, again, I'm very humble or blessed that this comes from him. It can go from him any anytime soon. And I'm just very much just the intermediary.

I have no formal training in painting. It's something which is completely self-taught. Um, and the, and it's funny cuz my, the small team that I have, they, in 2020, the guy who I was working with at the time, he said to me, there'll come a time when people will be copying your stuff. And I, and, and I was like, that, that would be amazing because I, I used to copy other people.

Right. Um, and now I get tagged on Instagram so many times. People all, all copying and send such amazing messages and, you know, and I, and that's such an amazing, for me, that's a huge achievement. Cause I just feel like you're one inspiration. Well, I don't wanna say that, but it's just, it's just nice to see that kind of evolution of, you know, people Oh, [00:51:00] you're being humble.

Well, no, but whatever. I just feel like I, I'm very lucky that I'm in a position, but I can hopefully cultivate something in other people the same way that other people did that for me. So it's kind of like I'm just passing it on, you know, if there's, if there's like a button that's going around. So let's talk about the 

Hamza: oh one.

So, and the reason I want to talk about it is I think a lot of people who immigrate to the US Yeah. You know, have stories about immigration as well. Of course. And it's something that nobody really talks about. Everybody talks about the business and how we struggled and how we made money and how we did this.

Nobody talks about immigration. Yeah. And I just wanna know, what was your, uh, what was 

Aadil Abedi: your process like? Yeah, that's a good question. No one's ever asked me that. Um, it was tough. It was, talk about it, it was tough. It was a massive big packet that you had to um, submit. Um, a lot of, so obviously, so oh one is an artist visa.

It's funny cause it used to say Alien with extraordinary talent. That's where it said on my, on the U S C I S, on the, on the application form. And it was one of those visas where I genuinely wasn't sure whether [00:52:00] I'd get it because you know, you have to prove that you are, you are this entity who's doing something very specialized and very unique and you have to be in this part of the world.

Like why I could just do from England, like I was doing it from England, I was painting and then traveling and whatever. But, so it's a whole case you have to put forward, you have to get I think 20 references from people that you've worked with across, at that point, I'd only really had four or five years of actual experience.

Pictures, brochures, magazines, I've mentioned your name, Instagram, social media, Google Analytics of stuff. There was, I mean, I had a lawyer obviously that was helping me with this. Bear took around, it took a year just to. Acquire all the things I needed to apply for this visa, not even knowing if I was gonna get it or not.

And with my business Visa expiring. And it was one of those things where I was like, if I don't get this, then again, I mean, I don't, I dunno how I'm gonna continue staying in this country, but akah all the references, you know, be Mimi chasing them. These are, and they had to be 20 different [00:53:00] people and you had to chase them.

I had to chase them and people. And they, and the, the, your, your application is that much stronger if you can find people from all over the world who can vouch for you. So did you get people who were 

Hamza: afraid and they're like, look, we don't wanna get involved. Like, we love you, but I can't give you a reference.

Uh, 

Aadil Abedi: actually Cause they just don't understand what to No, thankfully, no. But a lot of people had to chase. They, a lot of people said yes, and then a month, two months. Hey. Yeah. Yeah. So there's one person that took a year, and I think they may have been the main reason why it took me a whole year. And, um, and it was just one of those things I had to constantly be on their case.

And I, they, they were, well, what do we have to say? I was like, just talk about, you know, what the experience was like working with me. What, you know, that I'm legitimate, that I'm a re, I'm, I'm not like some fake, you know, con artist or whatever. Um, and then, but, and the packet, like I said, it was a huge packet that we had to submit.

Um, and, uh, I think we heard back within, I think two or three months actually. Wasn't that, that wasn't that long. And then, and how'd you find the attorney? Through a friend of mine actually, who, who had, who had got the oh one a few years before with that same guy. So it was a guy in New York I was using at the time.

I think he passed away [00:54:00] now, sadly. Um, but, um, he, he was great. I mean, and he, you know, he helped me during the entire process. Um, and, you know, kept reassuring me, oh no, no. Cause I kept thinking at this point, damn, maybe I'm not that legit. Maybe I, maybe I'm, I I'm not gonna get this visa because I dunno if I have all these credentials, but I think because I'm doing something which is very niche, you know, it's very specific.

Um, and obviously I made the case that I need to be living in America to do it because obviously I'd, I'd exhausted London. I'd been there for so many, such a long time, and, and they want to know what stuff you planned. You need to give them like a three year plan and what you're planning to do in, cause the visas for three years.

Um, and then I got it in, in 2019 and then, 

Hamza: Is there, was there a renewal process or did you go 

Aadil Abedi: direct from Uh, well, no, what happened was, it's funny, I got stuck in London for four months afterwards. Um, I got the visa here in 2019, in February. The last formality was I have to go to London to just get the stamp correct in.

And I, so I, in my head, the embassy, it was the embassy. So in my head [00:55:00] I'm like, okay, this is, I, I felt like I had done the hard work and I was like, let's just go and do this. And then I was like, you know what? I have a wedding in June. I'll go, I'll go to the embassy, get it done. I was only gonna go for two weeks.

Trip to London, see everybody come back. And uh, I went to the US Embassy, the stoic white building US Embassy in, in England. And the lady. Just started grilling me. Yeah. And I was like, wait, wait, wait. I have it. Like, don't talk to me. Like, I was like, I've done the hard work. And she just kept asking all these questions, um, where I've been, what I'm doing, why I'm in the us And then I was in my head, I was like, doesn't this literally in my head, I just thought it was a simple process.

And then she goes, okay, thank you. We'll be in touch. And she just took my application, stamped it, and it said, this is now an admin processing. I got, that's a six month process for me. It was 17 weeks. And I was like, are you serious? And I was done. Like I, I couldn't, there was no way of knowing there was, she literally ushered me out.

And I remember it was morning, it was raining in England. And I was like, what? Like, I, after [00:56:00] all of that, I, I now this and I'm stuck here. And it was funny cause I was like, I'm not stuck in a horrendous place. I was stuck in England. But in my head I was like, my entire life is now in America and I've been working so hard at it.

I finally have it. And now I was stuck. So I was in England from June to, uh, end of September, 2019. And then, uh, by the way, you're lucky 17 weeks, right? Well, you're lucky, man. What happened? I feel like you have a, 

Hamza: so I had a similar thing happen to me. Oh, amen. I got my business visa and I decided to go to Lebanon and uh, I went to Lebanon and I was like, same thing.

I went for Christmas. Okay. So I was like, okay, I'm gonna go meet my in-laws. I love my in-laws, so I'm gonna go meet them for Christmas. And son, me and the kids will go to the embassy, the stoic building. Ah, yeah. And we'll apply. And so same thing, we went in, we're like, look, we have this application, it's approved.

We just need you to stamp our passport so we can go back to the us. And they're like, yeah, sure. Admin processing. I didn't even know what that was. Submit our passports. The country shuts down. They don't have a government. They go on riots. Oh yeah. Uh, US embassy shut down for like [00:57:00] four, four months. Oh yeah.

Or something. Okay. So we have no idea what's going on. Are they processing our paperwork? Is, you know, are things happening? And then I think we, at that point, we left Lebanon. We went to Dubai, we went to Tyler, we started going on vacation. Uh oh. And, uh, they called us one day, uh, when we were in Thailand, actually in Bangkok.

And they're like, oh yeah, you, you can come back and, uh, you can submit your passports and your, you know, stuff is ready. Okay. So we can stamp it for you. And so the same thing happened to us. Admin processing. Ah, 

Aadil Abedi: yes. The worst. That's the worst. And it's funny because then I, I got back into the country in Oct end of end of September and then I haven't gone back since cuz Covid happened.

And then I was stuck because at the time they were only allowing green card holders to come back into the country. And then I started the green card process, just, just kind of more of a migration. And then I thought it was a little bit of like a long shot trying to do that butk. I, I did the full application in 2021.

Submitted all the paperwork in for your green card. For the green card. Okay. In [00:58:00] Instrument 2021, um, cause I, the oh one was expiring in February, 2022. And to, to be honest, I never even really used the oh one cause I never left the country after that. Right. So all that effort, all that money went was, I had to do it obviously for legal reasons, but, um, filed in 20 September, 2021.

Had my interview in January, 2023. And then I just got, I got the green card in April. Uh, and now it took, it took a, took a minute, took a long time, took a long time. So I'm going back to London after, yeah, 3, 3, 3 years and three quarters basically it. 

Hamza: And I, look, I feel like that's something that people just don't understand.

They think like that honestly come 

Aadil Abedi: business. It's the honest and it's, it's true. And I forget this is Immigrant Unfolded, so Yes. The, this, you'd think it's so. It's so you don't think about how, what should be, how hard it should be. Easy. But, you know, coming, moving to the, even setting up like a bank account is all these small things.

I mean, the last thing I haven't done is my driver's license and I need to do that now. Right. Cause now I have my green card and I actually got pulled over. I got pulled over last week by the cops in Virginia. I was running late to a cla um, [00:59:00] a gym Claus and I rolled over your stupid stop signs in this country.

Yeah. And uh, she caught me on not having a Virginia license. And I said to all my green card just came last month. And she's like, okay, so you've had a month to get it. And I was like, Yes, I've been traveling and I'm gonna do it. She's like, do you have proof that you have an, you have a DMV appointment? I was like, no, no, but I'm gonna do it.

She's like, well, I wanna cite you. And then she gave me this massive court order and now I'm like, are you adding all, all this stuff to this? I just get this strenuous process of getting my, now I have to go into this license. Mostly draining process. Honestly, man, I'm over it at this point. I'm like, I'm done this cut.

No, they really humble you, 

Hamza: honestly. And it doesn't matter what your background is. It's so hard. It's so hard, you know, getting that green card in your hand. Yeah. And then ultimately your citizenship. Yeah. It's a really humbling 

Aadil Abedi: process. Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course. And it's funny cause everyone asks me, you know, do you want citizenship?

And in my head I'm like, you know what? Just for ease of life and traveling, yes, I, I probably will. Um, but you know, I think I can, I can keep both my UK and us. Um, but no, honestly, man, it's, like I said, it's been six years and it's still not [01:00:00] finished. Um, and it's just this, I just, now it feels a bit more lighter obviously cause I have the green card.

But honestly this immigration cloud definitely has been hovering, you know, 

Hamza: what the processing time for immigration is today. No, it's for any immigrant standard. Immigrant comes in 10 years. For what? For citizens to get to citizenship. Oh, so not to receive, uh, not to get their citizenship in their hand.

Okay. But to get to the process where they are now eligible to be 10 years. 

Aadil Abedi: Really? Yes. So I'm, 

Hamza: you're actually on the short end of the, uh, damn. Everybody who comes here on, what are those, uh, work visas? Visas called K 

Aadil Abedi: uh, aren't they like Yeah, like K or I think student is an f1. Students F1 s 

Hamza: are terrible because f1, they need to then go into another form of visas and they need to H one, H one.

So the H one B is not, I think now they're coming back to where they have enough staff to cater to the needs. But for the, since I've been here, it's been about 10 years, I haven't met [01:01:00] even one person probably who's told me that. Oh yeah, it was a two year process or three or whatever it's supposed to be.

You know what I mean? Everybody's just, it's prolonged and 

Aadil Abedi: everybody's just going through that together. I think, you know, I, and I don't really value even our parents' time. I guess when they left India and Pakistan came to London and all the various, you know, back then I think things were lot harder as well.

Right. But yeah, moving country is just, it's, it's an ordeal. It's, it's very taxing. I mean, my sister-in-law, you know, she's been there for 20 years, she's also British, and you know, and I know it's, it's, it's just still one of those things where you just, you'd like to think, you know, I'm just moving to, I'm just moving to America and I'm British.

It should be a pretty seamless process, but, um, language is the same. I know you guys other side of the road, but other than that, pretty much everything else is not too, is not too dissimilar. But yeah, no, it's, immigration is one of the toughest things. And I hope in Charlotte now I'm like, you know, if there's a long list, I'm near the end.

Do you 

Hamza: feel like it impacts your flow even with your art? 

Aadil Abedi: At times? Uh, yes. I think definitely yes, because I haven't been home in nearly four years. Um, and [01:02:00] it's done the opposite for me in that it's literally, if anything, Just made me so immersed in my work in these last three, four years where, cause that's all I have to do, right?

I have, I have no family here. I haven't been able to go home and see my family. I'll dip into Dallas to come and see family. That's why I, I, I, that's my, my go into Texas all the time is to come and see my family. But other than that, honestly, all I am pretty much, I live, breathe my work and I'm always, if I'm not painting, then I'm ideating.

If I'm not ideating that I'm pitching, if I'm not pitching them, discussing stuff with my team, planning future events, collaborations, brand stuff, whatever. So, you know, I don't really know what else to do. I, I do need, I do need to figure out, and like I said, now a leather green card has arrived. I'm getting to go home and I think I need, I need that recharge with my loved ones, with my college friends, with the people that know me before I was whatever, whatever I am.

It was a, you know, just the Adel from England who just grew up with them, went to college with them. Not this artist who, whatever, whatever. And I just, I need that. Cause I've not had that in a very, very long time. And you know, I have lovely friends in Virginia. I've made some lovely friends, [01:03:00] lifelong friends over there.

But it's still not the same as the people that kind of knew me before I moved here. Um, and I missed out on so many. My friends who got married, they had children, you know, when I left whole life, this whole four years, a lot happens in four years. Right. So I, I feel like I'm, I'm very much looking forward to that.

And, you know, I'm, I'm off. I'm actually, I've in London for three weeks, then I'm going to Dubai for a week, and then I go to Australia, to Sydney. Cause my brother's over there. And I haven't seen my sister-in-law and my nieces again for nearly five years. So she was 10, she's now 15. The little one was five.

She's now 10. So I'm looking, I, I just can't wait. The next two months I'm literally taking off and just full recharge and I hop in, I can come back and then, you know, crack on with the work that I have planned for Q3 and q4. 

Hamza: I think the work is gonna be insane after the reach. I hope so. 

Aadil Abedi: I'm excited to see what comes up.

Yeah. Yeah. I hope so too. I think it'll be colorful and, and, and very airy and light. Uh, that's kind of the vibe I'm hoping for. 

Hamza: So you've been working on a few really cool projects recently, right? Yeah. I know, I know you went to the White House. I know you've been working or you were [01:04:00] alongside Jay Shetty.

Yes. For a minute. Yes. And then I know that there were some other cool things that you were doing, and I just wanna know how, how did those opportunities come along? 

Aadil Abedi: I wish there was a right, wish there was like a clear answer. Honestly, I feel during Covid, honestly, that time I actually took to really rethink what I actually, where I wanted to go, what I wanted to do.

I, I met someone that, you know, kind of guided me into helping me position myself as to how to present myself as an artist. I mean, his whole thing was, you need to. Sell your work artistically. Every, everything you do has to be artistic. And I, and I, and then when I met him, I put that, I put to that point, I was like, I feel like I kind of already did.

But he was like, no, you do not. I was like, okay, fine. I guess I'm, I guess I'm not doing it right. Um, and he was like, you know, these home shows, this all has to stop. And, you know, you know, people shouldn't be able to access you and you know, you need to be, you need to have like a collection and have a whole, you know, have a whole like, you know, full like production kind of around the way you launch things.

And to be honest, it was all the right things. And I'm really happy that he [01:05:00] guided me into that way because, again, I keep saying this, there's no blueprint how to be an artist. Right. I've had to kind of make it myself. So it was in 2020, uh, October when I came out with my first ever collection. Up until that point, it was just painting for clients, doing shows.

At homes, you know, in home people's homes and whatnot. Um, and whenever an order would come, I would do it. There was, there wasn't much of a, I wasn't really doing anything for me. It was very much what other people wanted me to do. And I had all these ideas and every time a client would come, I'd be like, oh, can we do this?

They'd be like, ah, my color scheme is there. I was like, okay, fine, I'll do it. Um, and then so he get to, he said to me, he goes, you need to do something for yourself. And then I decided, I've always loved, um, the phrase gunfire, gunk. And it is, I just felt it's the, it's the, it's the origin of life. It's the first kind of.

Noise or sound that was made. And I, I feel for me, I just wanted to keep it simple. Keep it classic, keep it very much me and my, my favorite color palette at the time, which was a very classic, you know, black, gold and white. Um, [01:06:00] and really just enhance the calligraphy and the lettering and my style of typography, the ribbon style, the very, you know, manipulate the letters, just really accentuate all my favorite things that ak I feel like I've developed a bit of a signature style on that.

Um, and then I met an amazing videographer, cinema cinematographer, who I love till date. Chancey, who I work with til all the time. She's never going anywhere. She's not allowed to go anywhere. Um, and, uh, we all production be Hide Studio. We had a smoke machine. We had, we did a full-on, you know, had all the artwork in, in this room.

And we, and we, like proper launch, did a full-on launch. Um, and honestly, I feel like that really just like, In all the years or whatever I was doing prior to that, it was great. But that in itself just put me in another notch of just, oh wow, okay. He takes this very seriously. And, um, you know, and I wasn't even thinking about, I didn't even care for the collection, didn't sell.

My whole thing was I want to artistically depict it and produce it and show it. Um, and then off the back of that, honestly, Hamza like, you [01:07:00] know, just sharing the people on Instagram were sharing at the time of that. Back then, I didn't have that many followers either. And whoever saw it, it was very much like, oh, wow, we, we never even seen someone launch an art collection canvases like that, right?

You'd always see them on ads and brands and, you know, you know, products of certain kinds. Um, and that really kind of opened the gates to, I guess, you know, me even reaching out and my, you know, at the time it was with me and, and, and, and the guy I was working with, but called emailing clients, sending them what we've done and then looking at that and they're being, oh wow, this is amazing.

And if we gave you a product, could you go away and ideate and come out with it and do, and well, yeah, we can. And, and then that is kind of what started and then. Um, 2021. Spent some time in la, um, did some cool commissions for some celebrities, and then, you know, Disney got in touch, apple got in touch. Um, did some really cool campaign work with them.

But I think it all stemmed from that first collection where I really felt, you know, I can do this. If you just give me a brief, I'll go away and ideate color theme. I'll go and do the brand, the, the verbiage, how we're gonna present it, leave it. Even [01:08:00] nominal went to the jewelry collection for them, you know, they were great.

They very much, and you know, I'm blessed that they very much left up to me, but artistically, um, I, I only ever wanna work with bra. I mean, I, I value, if I'm working with other creatives, I, I will value what you have to say, but, If it's like a business who, who don't really present themselves creatively or artistically, I prefer if you kind of left all that to us, me and my team, that, you know, trust us that we can do that.

And Elah, whoever I've worked with, you know, in the past, even at Disney, when we did the, the, there was the first time that they were acknowledging eat last year, and then they reached out and we did the whole collaboration with Aladdin and I painted the, the lamp, um, and the theme was wishes. Um, and they left it all up to me.

And, you know, uh, uh, from ideation and Chance, see my videographer came on board and we storyboarded the entire thing. And I love all of that. There's so much more creativity that goes into outside of just picking up a brush. And it's funny cuz now my parents understand from the beginning, But they didn't see me brought, but they didn't see me painting.

They're like, so what are you doing with your time? I was like, guys, there's, there's so much other stuff that comes around before I even pick up [01:09:00] a brush. And now at Honah, they know, um, and you know, they now tell their friends. Cause even their friends always like, so a, is he still doing painting? Is he still doing that?

And I was like, yes. He's like, he was showing them all the stuff. They're like, oh wow, this is amazing. Cause it's fine. I don't blame them. They don't, they don't fully understand what, what this is. Right? If they, if they don't see a brush and a canvas up somewhere, they think, oh, oh, nothing. Nothing's really happening.

But, you know, I, I think it's, it's one of those things where I've really had to educate myself and I guess in turn, educate others as to this is how you, you can present yourself as a visual artist who's working in, I guess, more traditional methods like canvas and brush and, you know, and, and all of that as opposed to, you know, dance and film and singing and all that type of stuff.

So, um, these last, I feel like these last three years, I have definitely changed the trajectory as to how I present myself, uh, brands who are now in touch with me and the future stuff that I'm working on. I feel more confident in, you know, this is how I want to do it and if you guys are ready to kind of, you know, buy into the idea.

And I'm, I'm very happy to listen to what you have as well. But [01:10:00] trust me that, you know, I will, I will bring something really cool to the table as well. And that's kind of where I've ended up right now. So I think it's a huge deal that Disney reached out to. Mm-hmm. That was, that was huge. That was, I was very, and, and they posted it on the Instagram, um, and it had I think over like a million views, but on their Facebook and on their YouTube even.

I think it ended up having, I think, close to 90 million views that video that we did. And then the VP of Disney reached out to me and thanked me and he was just like, we're so grateful, cuz a day before they were gonna pull it. They were gonna, we'd done the shoot, we'd went to New York, went to the theater, did the whole shoot, they saw the edit, and then they, everyone was so excited, but the day before Eid, they were like, oh, this might seem too Islamic.

Maybe we shouldn't be doing this. And then I was like, are you kidding me? And then one, my friend who works, who's actually's now, my friend at the time, uh, Rocky, at Disney, she, and she's Hindu, she was even Muslim. She fought so hard for this to come out, um, just a whole like presentation to them telling them this is, this is not Islamophobia.

This is exactly what you guys have to be doing. Anyway, she did a [01:11:00] whole spiel and then the next day, yeah, they, they posted it. But it was these things, people don't hear about it. Exactly. Exactly. I know. One day before, literally, and the nerves all ready to go, had everything ready, the caption done with the whole co collaboration situation, everything was ready and all the effort was, was so excited.

And then literally 12 hours before I get emails saying, Adel, this might not come out. And I was like, what? And I, and I couldn't do anything at that point, cause I'm not part of the in, in inner team. I just texted Rocky and she was like, don't worry, I'm gonna sort this out. And then, Thankfully she did. And a number that, and she, she, she fought for you.

She did, like I said, and you know, and she was, you know, and you know, now that's set up new president every year, now they're gonna be doing something for Eid. And it's nice to know, like, you know, I guess I, I, I may have started it, but you know, it's just nice that, you know, they even acknowledged it. Um, and you know, and then, and they should, rightly so.

And you know, I feel like if other brands start to do all of that, and I think, well, but if 

Hamza: you think about it, I mean, they're obviously gonna do it again next year. Mm-hmm. Right? The guy who's gonna, or whoever's gonna do it next year, whether it's you or anybody else, will take inspiration from the first person who 

Aadil Abedi: did it [01:12:00] and Charla.

Yeah. That's, that, that, that is the plan, I hope for Sure. Um, and so you've basically started a legacy No, no, no. Not a legacy, but there's more just, it's a cool thing, a cool thing. Ham a hundred years from now when 

Hamza: you're not here. Oh my God. Can you imagine 

Aadil Abedi: Disney's still gonna be here? That painting will be covered in dust.

You're gonna be the 

Hamza: first person who did 

Aadil Abedi: that. Yeah. That's a big deal. That's coolah. 

Hamza: Let's talk about all the other struggling artists, all the other struggling immigrant artists. Mm-hmm. What do they need to do to become 

Aadil Abedi: something that's better? Loaded question. Um, honestly, Hamza, like I said, there's, I think, I, I think what I've kept in me as my grounding force, again, not to sound preacher, but is for me, is my faith.

I think faith in myself, faith in my family, having faith in me if that, if that in a, in a roundabout way. [01:13:00] Um, and just, I think patience. Um, I used to always get irked by people who were younger than me. Who are doing all these cool things, and I'm like, shit, every year I'm, I'm just getting older and nothing, but, and it's only the time I guess you realize that everyone is gonna happen.

When it's gonna happen for you. You can't expedite it. You can't make it go slower faster. You have to put in the hours, you have to put in the work. You have to, to do all the backend work that we've been talking about. The grafting, the, the slugging, all that type of stuff. What does that look like? It's just a lot of, you know, any collection that I do, there's probably like 10 iterations before I actually decide on the final one.

And it'll involve sketching and it'll involve back and forth conversations with my team. Or I can do, I go away, there's months that go into it, and then at the end moment I could change it and do something else. So there's, there's so many backend stuff that no one sees. Ideas that get lost, ideas that get paused, ideas that never make it on onto a canvas.

The stuff I'll say I'll use for something else later on, later on. Um, I, I think it's just, it's, I'm, I don't, I don't [01:14:00] see it again. I don't see it because I'm so in it, but when they people see me, they're always, oh, your work ethic and this and that. And I'm just like, well, there's no other option. I mean, you know, I, I'm humble, so blessed to be doing what I'm doing.

I never want it to stop. Um, and I, I, and if I stop, then it stops. So for any of the struggling artists, and I would, and I put myself in that to an extent because I'm, I, I, I feel it. Right? You know, even though humble, all these cool things have happened, I still have a fear that it could all one day just stop.

And, you know, people might not be interested in my work anymore. And I never get complacent. I never ever think, ah, I did this, like if it's Disney thing right in my head, genuinely I'm talking about it now, but I do not sit there and think about it and be like, ah, in 2021 I did this. No, I'm, I'm, that's for me, that's ages ago.

What's next? And even after something really cool happens, I'm like, great, humble up next. I I don't wanna take the highest high. I don't wanna take the lows low. I very much kind of want to just be in this middle space. And I, I feel like for anybody who is struggling, you know, you need to look at yourself and ask [01:15:00] yourself, you know, hours you're putting in, are you actually fully ideating?

Are you really exhausting all your, and all networking? I mean, honestly, and I know it sounds cliche, but there is an element of luck in this as well. And I think I'm just, I have been lucky. I'm, I'm very blessed to know other cool people. Who are doing cool things and then, you know, they open up a door and then I'll, but, but I'm very aware, I've knocked on like hundreds of doors and then if one door is relevant, I'll take it.

Right. You moved on that I'm all caught up my entire life in a, and it's, and it's become so second nature to me that I didn't even notice that I'm doing it sometimes, but like, you know, my friends, they're like, we see you and you know that we could tell that person's not gonna do anything, but you still talk to them.

You still get who knows who. I didn't know what was gonna happen. You know, I, I need to give it a shot. And, you know, I, I, I think networking is something, is a big skill that I'm not sure if people. I guess they do, but I'm, I'm not that, you know, well versed in the, in the business side of, of, of life, but for me, networking has definitely put me in a, in a great position where I'm always open to stuff, you know?

[01:16:00] Um, I might eventually say no, or I might, something might not happen, but I'm always open to speaking to someone, seeing where it might go. Um, you know, following through to an extent. But then also realizing now that, okay, now I'm in a position where I can say no. But in the beginning I would say yes, I would, I would try so many things.

It was, and you have to, because you can't sit there and be like, no, I'm, I'm gonna wait until this opportunity comes. You have to, you know, I could have easily sat there and be like, I'm not gonna drive around my paintings in the car and take them house to house and legit be like a salesman, uh, in, in, you know, in the heat.

And I'm gonna sit and wait and, you know, be, you know, be, be, be chrisy about it. So, I, I, I just feel like, you know, I can only speak for myself and my own experience, obviously. Um, I know that I put in the hard work. I still give myself a hard time that I'm not doing enough. So that keeps me, keeps me going obviously to, to carry on.

Um, but you know, I, the ad the advice I would give is just, you need to have faith, you need to have patience. Um, and, you know, just keep at it. I mean, there's, there's no right way about doing this. There's, you know, like, you know, for every other [01:17:00] profession I feel like, you know, you do this, then this is what's gonna happen.

You go down this course, you're gonna do, you're gonna get this qualification. Whereas with us, with, you know, being in the creative world, it's so fickle, it's so subjective. Yeah. Every day is different. And you know, some people will love your stuff. Some people will hate your stuff. Um, it, it's very much just why I said I'm very much just trying to stay in this middle, middle lane, um, and not get affected by the good or the bad too much because then, you know, you become, you do become complacent.

I've seen it, you know, You know, I'm really blessed to, to be around some really super successful people who are killing it. And I see they never take it for granted. I mean, I see how hard they work. I see how many hours they put into what they're doing. They could easily chill. They've made all the money, they've made all the, you know, they have all the fame, all of that.

But I'm like, I see the graph they're putting in and in my head I'm like, mate, I'm like, if, if they're doing it, then I'm like, I, I never, I, there's no end. So, you know, and I never wanna feel like I've, I've, I've made it because then I'm like, shit, then what [01:18:00] that was left to do. So, um, if in, in a roundabout way of the answer to your question, uh, I just feel like you have to just, and, and like I said, patience is one of the biggest things I and I, and that when it's meant to happen, it will happen for you.

And if it's not, something else will happen for you. You know, it might not be that way you want, but something is gonna happen. I know that sounds generic, but 

Hamza: let's talk about social media. Yes. So, obviously you've grown leaps and bounds on social media. You know, you continue to grow. There's a lot of cool content that you put out there.

But I've noticed that you don't really share too much personal stuff. Yes. And it's, it's, you know, it's all your work. It's beautiful. It's all of that. What is the reason? 

Aadil Abedi: Um, I just feel like it's not important. I feel, uh, my personal life is my personal life. It's, it's, it's, it's different. I mean, even with you, I mean, I'm not sure how much of your personal life you put [01:19:00] on what, what you're doing.

I mean, if that's relevant to what you're doing, then I guess you will talk about it. But if it's not, at the end of the day, I have a product and, you know, uh, it's only been the last few years where I've also put myself in alignment with the product. Whereas prior to that, you know, it was very much just the work, you know, the, the very little me, um, But I get it, the social media game and people want to know who's the artist and what does he do.

And, and you know, and it's funny cuz I get a lot of brands who reach out to me and saying, oh, we'd love to send you this and can you promote this? I'm like, mate, I'm not an influencer. I'm not, I'm I, I actually have something that I'm offering you. Right. And, you know, and no influencer is a separate thing and it's own entity and whatever, but you know, I, I genuinely want to share something with you that I've made, that I've actually, you know, have a craft.

Um, so I always say no to all these brands that reach out and say, we'll send you this. Can you post this? Can you promote this? Can you do this? I'm like, no, because I, I know my lane and I'm, I'm very aware of what I'm doing. And I feel like if you bring in your personal [01:20:00] situation into that, I just think the lines get a little bit blurred and then people start to think they can access you more and ask for more and, you know, infer about things that aren't true or whatever, whatever, whatever.

I don't care. And people can say what they want to say. Um, you know, I'm, I, all I care about is obviously my relationship with God as long as my parents are happy. Um, you know, that's it. I don't really care what anyone else has to think or say about my, you know, whatever I'm doing personally. Therefore, I don't think I need to talk about it on my, on my social media.

Of course, every now and then, you know, I will post fun stuff that I'm doing and, you know, events and whatever I'm doing. Cause that is that I feel like that's happened because of the cool stuff that I'm also doing. And, you know, I think anybody who's doing creative stuff is always, you know, uh, how do I say this without sounding thing, but I'm just doing different stuff.

It's different, right? I mean, my friends in, in England and back then when I was just starting out, used to get so annoyed at me because it, we, we good to new settings and people would be talking and they'd [01:21:00] ask, what does everybody, everybody do? And every time, oh, I'm an accountant. Oh, I'm a banker. And no one would ask anything else.

And any time I'd say, oh, I'm an artist, they'll be, oh, well what is that about? They'll tell me everyone was interested. So they were like, are they. Next time can you just not say you're an artist? So I was like, okay, fine. So we went out one time and we were go new people. And I was like, they asked me, what do I say?

I'm an accountant. They're like, okay, next. No one cared. And I was like, oh, great. I, I don't have to talk about anything else. So I just think people. Especially with social media, you can, there's, there's too much of a window into your life. And again, coming back to, because I'm not an influencer, I don't, people don't need to know, you know, who I'm wearing, what I'm doing, even though I know I just posted about it recently.

But that's, that's more of an extenuating circumstance. But it's more just, I feel like I want the focus to be on the work. I really want it to stay on the campaigns I'm working on, what I'm doing with calligraphy, what I'm doing with typography. I feel like, you know, it's such a, again, people don't, especially the non-Muslims who are, who are seeing my work now, and my goal has [01:22:00] always been to involve other people for other faiths into my work.

And, you know, getting commissioned by clients who don't even understand Arabic, but visually they love it. Um, that for me is my focus. You know, I, I want people to see the script in a different light. I want, I want, I want that to kind of extend, you know, traditions and borders and all those, all those words that people say.

I, I just, I, I, I don't think it's important for people to really know who. I am, you know, when I have collections, when I have dinners, or if I doing these intimate events and whatnot, yes, of course I will talk to people and I'm always, and I'm, you can, you can always access me. Um, I'm, I feel like, I think I'm very, um, inclusive, you know, but I want, I want the work to obviously be exclusive.

So, you know, I think it's, it's just finding that, finding that balance, I think is important. So, you know, I don't shy away from posting about my personal stuff, but I'm not really, it's not the focus, it's not my personal life. How 

Hamza: reflective is your outlet, your social media outlet towards your 

Aadil Abedi: business? I mean, it's, [01:23:00] is it everything?

It sounds depressing, doesn't it? When you say it is, it's not, it's not everything, but it's, it's a big part. I think I get to access people all across the world. I mean, I'm sending my work to people in like Papua New Guinea. You know, I, I've never, I've never even been there, right. And, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm shipping work to Australia, to Singapore, to India, to Dubai to Pakistan can't.

And I'm just like, this is amazing. And I'm, and I'm sitting in my house in Virginia, America and accessing all these people. So I feel like it's, it's made my life so much more full, even though it's virtual to an extent. But I'm getting all these different access points that I probably would not have ever got without, without social media.

And I think I'm, I'm very, I, I'm, I like to think I'm pretty true to it, in that I don't, I don't get forced to post. You have to do all these things. It's very much So you're not posting like once, you don't have I, no, not at all. I don't, no, not at all. I, for me, like I, I posted, like I posted like twice or twice this month.

That's it. It's not one of those structured things. Every day I have to post. No. For me it's very much, this is mine. [01:24:00] And in Charlo, when I'm ready to talk about something or have something, I will, I will talk about it. You know, I just had a dinner in New York a couple of weeks ago, um, that was like a private dinner that was organized by a friend of mine, and then the collection I wanna drop obviously in the coming days.

So stuff like that, you know, and it's fun and, you know, I get to make cool kind of real content behind the scenes and, you know, I gotta have my team, which I love, and, you know, I trust them implicitly and they, they, they do such a good job of, you know, portraying me in a, in a, in a really lovely way. You know, I, I feel like.

For me, I, I think for anybody in the visual world, uh, social media, it is, it is, it is important. And I, and you know, I have a good relationship with it. It's not one of those things, if ever I'm scrolling, it's purely just to be inspired to see what other people are doing and get ideas and, you know, figuring out a way of, okay, that's really cool.

How can I incorporate that into what I'm doing? Um, you know, I know there's TikTok as well, but I'm not that I can't, I just feel like I can't. It's just, yeah. 

Hamza: Cause the TikTok life is very intrusive. It's very pretty. 

Aadil Abedi: That's too much. And I'm, people want that. People. Yeah, exactly. And I think I'm very lucky that I've managed to stay away from that.

[01:25:00] So top 

Hamza: three platforms, then TikTok wouldn't 

Aadil Abedi: be number one for you? Uh, no. From honesty to me it is just Instagram. I wouldn't even, Facebook is not that for me, for me personally, I know it's still there and for, for the OG people and YouTube and all that type of stuff. But for me it's, you know, it's, it's getting a product out there to the right people who have the means.

In to, to, to, to purchase the work, to, to, to let me carry on creating. It's, it always tends to be Instagram. Um, TikTok is there, but it's a lot more of the Gen Z people who you might get the numbers and the likes and the followers and stuff, but the conversions don't really happen there for me. Um, it's, it's predominantly, it's predominantly Instagram for me.

Okay. So, uh, 

Hamza: uh, what, what are your thoughts on TikTok Going away? 

Aadil Abedi: Eh, they keep talking. They keep saying that, but I didn't think, are they actually gonna do it? I don't know. 

Hamza: I don't know. Cause you know, the thing is, we get speaker, we get guests who are like, yeah, you know, our number one thing is TikTok right now, but since it's going away, we're jumping on these other three platforms, you know, 

Aadil Abedi: whatever those are.

I mean, I, but in your [01:26:00] case, since you're Instagram, I'm guessing, I hope Instagram doesn't go away, obviously. And I feel like they were, when they were changing the algorithms to become more like TikTok, I was annoying cuz it was kind of one of those things, especially as a, as an artist, You know, I, I also, there's something I like about Stoic picture, you know, and just having a look.

Not everything has to be moving all the time. And I think now I've read some of the Instagram actually going back to They are, thankfully. Yeah. Um, maybe because they're realizing that that whole is, is not working and, or they, and they need to be different from TikTok as well. I feel like TikTok has, again, everyone, everyone needs to stay in their lane.

So if you just stay in your lane of TikTok what you're doing, let Instagram do what it was doing. They don't need to copy it. I mean, I, it's funny more for personal reasons, but just people in my life, it'd be fun if TikTok disappeared cuz then I feel like I'd have a lot more of their attention. Um, because, uh, a lot of people are on there all the time.

But as of now, I just hope Instagram stays. Um, and I'm happy that they're bringing it back to the original kind of algorithm because that supports people like me who are doing visual stuff as well, as well as, you know, videography and cinematography. There's an element of photography that I [01:27:00] feel like, you know, has to come back again.

Cause I feel like it was a bit unfair for those guys who have still images. Like, what are you gonna do? Just constantly having reels and the same audio and the same thing is so repetitive. It's not, it's, that takes away actually from the creativity to be honest. You're, you're kind of held by, what do you do?

Do you stick to your, to your guns and don't do what the algorithm is telling you and get like 10 views, but you wanna get the views right. So you, there's a, there's a balance and I, I feel like I do a bit of both. You know, I'll be honest, I do pick the audios that will help me get my work seen, cuz my goal is to get seen.

But then stuff that I love, ideas that I have, like, I like a recent wallpaper collaboration. I really want it to be like my own kind of voice behind it and the music and everything. And pick something that wasn't trending that, you know, that wasn't vi that wouldn't go viral. Cuz I'm like, I don't want to be, you know, held to that all the time.

So a 

Hamza: wallpaper collaboration, 

Aadil Abedi: is you painting an entire wall? No, it was, um, me painting on canvas, on paintings. Okay. And then me shipping the work to, uh, the company area environments, they do these amazing, uh, high quality [01:28:00] scans of them, and then they become these full on murals. So, um, we launched that actually, the, the, the, the public line went live yesterday.

Wow. Congrats. Uh, 

Hamza: thanks. How does something like that 

Aadil Abedi: happen? I'm curious. Again, someone, uh, slid into my dms on Instagram. Uh, it's, uh, her name is Abby. I love her. She's so amazing and it's crazy, man. She reached out to me and she said, you know, we, we've, we've been following you for a while. We love what you do.

We love to work with you on a wallpaper line. Um, and at that time I, I've always thought of doing, you know, having my work on a much larger scale, but it was always one of those things where I was like, I need to figure out the, the production, the, all the backend stuff. And I was like, I'll, I'll get to it.

So when they reached out and then they actually are a legit, you know, much, they're a very, you know, well, um, renowned organization in the industry world, in the trade world and restaurants and hotels and all of that. Um, but for me it was the first time they were launching a public line. Um, cause I told them, I was like, look, my, my audience, if it's just trade, they're gonna be so annoyed that I'm finally doing this.

But you have to have an interior designer to access the, to the wallpaper. So, um, and [01:29:00] then I think based off of just again, the way I present myself and they were like, well do four for trade. We'll do four for public. Um, and Aham, they, they've had, they've had a great reception so far. And in the beginning I was like, so do you want me to like dull down the calligraphy?

Do you want, they're like, no, we love it. We love the drama. We love the way it kind of dances on, on, on the wall and there's no one that's doing anything like it. So they, they literally let me do exactly what I wanted to do, which is great. And, and it's a full white organization 

Hamza: and we need to bring you back in season two and get an update on that.

Yeah. You 

Aadil Abedi: know, exactly. No, no. It's And they wanna do like another, they wanna do like another collection next year and. And even in LA now, there's a lot more, um, things moving in the direction of, you know, non-Muslim people wanting to see my work. And it's hard and Yeah, exactly. It's art. And I feel like that was always my goal from the beginning.

I mean, I'm so blessed that my community, my people, south Asians, Indians, Muslims have supported me. That's fun. I hope obviously the Israel continue to, but if I can bring newer people into the, into the audience as well, um, that's just a topic, I, I'd be so happy. That's this. I, I [01:30:00] really hope that happens in Shela, so that's awesome.

Hamza: So, I know you answered this earlier and you said, look, I don't know where I'm going, but I don't, but we really need to know who you're gonna be in five years. Oh, God. Then it does. So you obviously, you're taking a two month break, you're gonna recharge, you're gonna come back super fresh. 

Aadil Abedi: Right. I'm gonna become more British, I hope, after going home.

Cause I feel like a max is disappearing. Honestly. Hamza, no, I, I, I, I feel like I just wanna be in a more, uh, How do I say it? Just more I am, I'm very content alah and you know, I, I just want to be able to continue putting out the type of imagery and the messaging that, that I'm doing that I never really thought was a responsibility that I had.

You know, I very much just fell into Arabic. I very much fell into calligraphy and picking verses from the Quran and then poetry and then, you know, um, just, it's something that was, there was [01:31:00] no, there was no, there wasn't much thought in initially in the beginning. And now that it's become this, you know, much bigger thing and, you know, there's, there's, there's lots of people who are so engaged in what I'm doing and interested in what I'm doing.

I feel like it now is my responsibility to, to present it in a, in a really, In just a very non-confrontational, I know I keep saying this word, but just a very beautiful way. And, and I, and I hope I come across like that and I hope my work comes across like that. Um, and you know, I have, I have, I have desires of, you know, painting or, you know, movie sets and, you know, doing, you know, having a whole product line and doing, you know, decking out restaurants and doing all these really cool things.

I, I just hope the project just continued to get bigger and better. I mean, I dunno what else I can say. I, I never want to stop. So in five years, I hope in Shala, you know, we, we, we have our next discussion. I can say, look, these are all the cool things I've been doing and much bigger installations. And, you know, I have two or three other kind of lines happening on the side and, you know, there's a lot I want to do.[01:32:00] 

Um, and there's the plans that I have. So I think the honest answer is just, I hope I, in the next five years, I'm still doing what I love. Um, that's honestly wild. All I can say. What a great conversation, man. Thank you so much. Sorry, I feel like I waffled. What a great conversation. 

Hamza: Seriously, man, I learned so much today.

No, no. Thank you. World of Art and how that, you know, how beautiful it is and how you just have to navigate it and it is a, it is an art, you know? Yeah. Within itself, of course. Just navigating this industry. Totally. It's totally an art and you're building a brand and it's, it's all based off of that. Yeah.

Yeah. That's crazy. So, 

Aadil Abedi: thanks. Thank you. Hum. Thank you so much. It was really 

Hamza: good having you. Thank you for coming. I know you're driving to 

Aadil Abedi: Dallas after this. No, no, no. No worries. I 

Hamza: appreciate it. But thank you for being here. Thank you.