Covid-19 changed the way I look at 'Coke Studio': Rohail Hyatt

‘Sorry, I just surfaced,’ wrote Rohail Hyatt after our meeting got delayed by 30 minutes. This was 5 in the evening. Assuming that the artsy types prefer to live like owls in order to be more productive, if not wiser, I entered Rohail Hyatt’s man cave at 5:30. You could tell he had just woken up and the screen lights that brightened his face weren’t really helping.

“YouTube keeps on changing the interface and sometimes it gets really annoying,” said Hyatt as I tried to peep in and figure out the thumbnail he was uploading but I was late. The tall and now much thinner Hyatt greeted me with folded hands and a fresh cup of kehwa; a delicacy he felt one should have an endless supply of. Is the kehwa also part of the pounds he has been able to shed since March?

“Not really, Jee,” he smiled, “None of this was intentional. It’s just that there’s not a single day off these days and I have turned 53, so you have to keep a check on yourself. But I am no one to complain and God has been very kind.” Hyatt is the founder and currently, the producer of Coke Studio termed by many as Pakistan’s most significant export of the past two decades.

The pandemic season

The Coca-Cola Company had almost called-off season 13 which is now set to release end of this month. “When the world has come to a standstill and there is no business activity it makes perfect sense for a brand to hold back on the marketing,” said Hyatt. So Hyatt helped them with a fundamental shift in perspective. “You were no longer doing Coke Studio as a marketing commitment, you were doing it as your commitment to giving music out for free. Then the brand asked me whether I’ll be able to do it and I replied ‘we will do it’ because the message here is to adapt and change both as a brand and as species. Don’t stop, evolve.”

And so Coke Studio 13 kicked off just like an online class. There were lags, delays, and bandwidth issues. It started with Fariha Parvez not being too comfortable with technology and ended with her exploring different options within the communication platform that they were using to interact with each other. “So where the world was sinking at one place we were also rising in terms of learning things and equipping ourselves in a new manner,” recalled Hyatt.

These circumstantial changes were grounded in the changes Hyatt himself went through during the Covid-19-related lockdown. The impact was huge, almost unreal and Hyatt noticed a very fundamental shift in nature; a shift so significant that it made him reconsider his own priorities in life. “A new flock of birds had arrived just three days into the lockdown and the sky was clear as glass. So nature was making a huge rebound and this was the time for us to get in sync with,” he said.

Three weeks later Hyatt disconnected himself from the virtual world entirely and started spending his entire day on the rooftop. “I felt so positive that I started feeling guilty about it,” Hyatt smiled. “And I feel anyone connected to nature was feeling positive and relieved so I decided to give hope when everyone else was getting hopeless. I got into gardening big time, so much so that I almost gave the idea of starting my own nursery a thought. That didn’t happen, but I am still obsessed with plants.”

This entire process of understanding what nature wanted from humans made Hyatt go through a phase of what he likes to call ‘acceptance’. “If you are able to accept your flaws you will be able to accept others with their flaws as well. There’s a ‘you’ in you and that is by design, and you can’t fix it through a scientific formula. All you can do is come to terms with it”

As a result of which Hyatt decided to approach CS in a very different way. He started delving further into the psychological impact Covid-19 has had on the life and thinking of musicians and this mishmash of stimuli culminated into a season that wasn’t happening to begin with.

“I knew people along with the artists needed hope and that doesn’t mean we start writing happy songs,” he quipped. “It means we can also celebrate something sad or something that the musician may have written during a low phase in life such as the ongoing pandemic.”

Much-needed push

The surprising fact about this year’s Coke Studio is that all songs are originals. The show that has also been termed ‘Folk Studio’ for its increasing reliance on covers and traditional melodies has taken a leap of faith albeit out of pure circumstance. “I think we have been forced into that corner especially after last year’s shenanigans”, smiled Hyatt.

In 2019, Coke Studio received copyright strikes from all corners of YouTube and claims were made by both, prominent labels and random accounts. All of which forced the producer to just stay away from the mess that it can prove to be despite taking all necessary measures.

Hyatt feels like everything else out there even CS has a certain nature and a certain personality. Circumstantial changes such as original songs or covers are a part of the personality but the nature of the show is neutrality and inclusivity.

“CS is a center point where we don’t discriminate between let’s say a ‘burger’ or a skilled musician who travelled to the city from his village for the first. Everybody is welcomed with equal warmth and there is no division of spotlight. And this is by design, at least anything I am a part of will be neutral, it has to be a win-win for everyone.”

As much as Hyatt’s approach seems broad and accommodating there are artists, some prominent names who have complained about Hyatt ghosting them or them feeling ‘used’ by the maestro. So is it really a win-win as Hyatt suggested?

“That way you’re trying to suggest that it is only the CS artists who have benefited from CS. I think it has elevated the stature and role of the musician in our society,” he said.

Hyatt recalls his own days playing for the Vital Signs where he used to play and produce the music but it was the vocalist who got the entire spotlight. “I have seen that happen with me and countless other musicians so we made sure that every session artist gets the prominence he or she deserves. It isn’t just about being a part of the show it is much bigger than that. It is about giving the musicians the respect and recognition they deserve as people with amazing talent and skillset.”

According to Hyatt the show has been conceived in a way that everyone who experiences the show walks away with a smile. “I am not charging the audience, the musicians are well-compensated and everyone else looks forward to the show, and so out there if there’s someone who doesn’t like our music they can go the other way. It isn’t like they didn’t get what they were promised or what they had paid for.”

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