The power of Bayaan

Rock icon Xulfi’s protégés aim to become the generation’s most exciting act

LAHORE:

Only a few years ago when Coke Studio was shining at its brightest, there emerged a group of college boys led by a veteran rock musician, who churned up a music show that distanced itself from the monotony that South Asia’s biggest music show had plunged into. This new troupe on the block called its jam room Nescafe Basement. Its first season wasn’t exactly a roaring success but some of the tracks like Tere Ishq Mein did make waves.

The show went on to gain momentum over four seasons and also give a boost of confidence to four of its producer’s protégés, bassist Haider Abbas, drummer Mansoor Lashari, guitarist Shahrukh Aslam and vocalist Asfar Hussain. Combining forces with guitarist Muqueet Shahzad, they formed a band they call Bayaan. “We call ourselves Bayaan because we want to express [ourselves] through our music. Each one of us has had diverse experiences in life,” said Muqueet.



Post Nescafe Basement, they came together with a singular vision in mind —  producing their own music. “We want to make music that has been missing from the scene for a decade now. Music is to us what it was to fans of the early 2000s,” he added, saying that Bayaan wants to bring back to life exactly that. “No meaningful videos or songs are being produced these days.”



The band’s first original, Nahein Milta, was penned by Asfar who hails from Chitral. “He studied at an average school and made it to National College of Arts to study musicology. His journey is very inspiring. Nahein Milta is about him coming from Chitral to a dog eat dog world. Muqueet said the lyrical structure is such that no part of the song is repeated, except the chorus. “It’s a very progressive song.”

Featuring on the show made them household names. “It became easier to get producers on board for the video because we had the Nescafe Basement name attached with ours.”

The video of Nahein Milta is a concept-based one but it never really garnered much attention, he dismally reflected. “Ali Azmat’s Na Re Na and Mekaal Hasan Band’s Chal Bulleya were our inspirations for the video. It’s not one of those that you understand at first sight.”



Bayaan’s latest, Farda, was recently played at the Pak Media Revolution concert in Lahore which also happened to be their first live gig. “We got a great response from the crowd because Farda is more catchy and commercial.” Does that mean Bayaan has found solace in commercial music? “All we think about is remaining authentic. We understand it has to be commercial to a certain extent but an artist has to remain loyal to what they are doing. We want to give back to our fans because we know what they are expecting from us,” he said. For Muqueet and Co, the sky is certainly the limit. “We want to take our band to the South Asian level where we can become the greatest act this generation ever produced. We know what people want to hear and what we can do. That’s our biggest strength.”



Over the years, Nescafe Basement’s producer Zulfiqar Jabbar Khan, commonly known as Xulfi, has emerged as a mentor to many of the scene’s brightest talents. Bayaan too made full use of his body of knowledge. “Bayaan is creative, original and fresh. I have seen them evolve musically hence when they made a band, I wasn’t surprised. I knew this was how it was meant to be,” he told The Express Tribune. Xulfi said he has reason to believe the band has a long way ahead.



Published in The Express Tribune, December 5^th, 2015.

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