Piracy: What stands between Pakistani music, and greatness
Pakistani music is recognised around the world for its distinct and creative style. The diversities in Pakistani music are there for everyone to hear, with artists coming up with everything from hip hop and rock, all the way to classical eastern music, with some musicians even putting them together. The fact that we don’t have a prestigious film industry helps rather than hurts. Since artists don’t look towards movies to be their main form of advertisement or the medium for people to be exposed to their music, they don’t need to make specific types of tracks to please producers and ...
Read Full Post
Talking music with Malang Party’s Zeeshan Mansoor
I’ve written countless times about how the music scene in Islamabad needs major rejuvenation. Venues, bands and music fans – everything is scarce. Most fans listen to what is popular and ignore lesser known bands because the majority is the authority (and of course, democracy is Islamabad’s middle name). But Malang Party is one band that has continued to make music despite these challenges. And they are doing a darn good job. Recently I caught up with Zeeshan Mansoor (guitarist and songwriter for Malang Party) and discussed the prospects of music, musical evolution and his approach towards music as a guitar player. 1) ...
Read Full Post
Singing through patriarchy with a bit of desi jazz
So, three years too late I have discovered Zeb and Haniya. I discovered them thanks to a friend’s enthusiasm for ‘waii waii’, a term used in their Coke Studio rendition of Paimona Bitte. The ‘waii waii’ women have brought a ‘girls just wanna have fun’ element into Pakistani music. While Paimona was the song that got me hooked, it is their song Chup (Hush) that makes me smile whenever I listen to it. It was different. Pakistani and Indian love songs are usually all about the sacrificing, shy, scared and most importantly, submissive female. Sure, there was Nazia Hassan’s Aap jaisa koi (Someone like ...
Read Full Post
Faraz Haider’s Andher: Hits and misses
Faraz Haider derives his musical inspiration from life, be it human emotions or current affairs. His debut album Andher reflects this, as most of the songs on the album have been composed by him and the relation of the artist to his lyrics lends them honesty – as if he is relating real life experiences. As soon as I popped the CD into the disc drive and hit the play button, I was greeted with an Audioslave inspired rock intro. Faraz Haider’s classic rock-esque wails and croons in the title track Andher are disappointing; the music and angry-guy lyrics are predictable ...
Read Full Post
True stories of celebrity tantrums
The best part about being a journalist is meeting celebrities of whom one has been a great fan. However, at times staying in touch with celebrities can be a miserable job. Celebrities can live up to your worst nightmare of stereo-typical narcissistic social-climbing artificial materialistic horror – and they can do it in spike heels. As a free-lance writer for several English language magazines I have gone through some bitter experiences. Interviewing a celebrity (with fangs!) A. Khan is a singer and song-writer who I have had the misfortune of interviewing twice. The first piece I wrote appeared on my blog before it was printed in a weekly publication. The ...
Read Full Post1-5 of 5
