A Swabi singer’s journey to music against all odds

As primitive people, it is quite possible that we made music before we had language, and perhaps that’s where all language comes from. Which explain why music today, acts as a universal tongue, transcending all man-made boundaries in pursuits of speaking to the soul.

A firm believer of this notion is a Swabi based vocal artist whose melodious voice has also touched many hearts near and far. Gulwareen, a Phd aspirant in engineering, is among the few new-age folk singers endeavoring to bring the sounds of Pashto folk music to the international stage.

They say inspiration can stem from the most unlikely of places and perhaps so is also true for Gulwareen’s journey into music-making, which surprisingly took off from an engineering college, located a stone’s throw from Peshawar’s Mall Road. This was some eight years ago.

“I come from an orthodox Swabi family, so music was never something I had the wings enough to study or professionally purse. It was always set in stone for me to get a degree in engineering, but my heart was always drawn to the vocal arts,” said Gulwareen.

The singer unbeknownst of his musical fate, was enrolled as a FSc student at the Edwardes College, which he credits for sparking and fostering his passion for music.

“Even though I was still studying pre-engineering at Edwardes, luckily for me the college also had a thriving performing arts culture; something which I thought had been lost to decades of violence and insurgencies in the region. I quickly enrolled at the college’s music society, which became a turning point in my musical career,” he recalled.

Although Gulwareen had already gotten a taste of music while still a student at Edwardes, it was not enough to make him rebel his hardline family values and chase dreams which he thought were too big for his town.

In the years after, exactly six, the young songbird had secured a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering, as well as a master’s training in construction project management. He was on a path he had long prepared for, but something was amiss. Despite years of professional training in a qualification furthest from arts, Gulwareen would often find himself harking back to his days at Edwardes and the time he spent at the music society.

“The more I thought about those days, the more incomplete I felt. Like a part of me was left behind in the rehearsal rooms of college, calling on to me to pursue my passion,” the singer expressed.

The encouragement Gulwareen most needed at the time came from of his uncle Haroon Bacha, a renowned Pashto singer and journalist, who had also rebelled against his family to follow his heart.

“Bacha’s rebellion in his days had made things much easier for me and since I had already secured my engineering degrees, there wasn’t much else stopping me either. And although I didn’t receive any professional training in music, I had the help of my uncle who helped me find my voice as well as access to a works of artists like Karan Khan, Asif Hussain and Waqar Atal on YouTube, which I learned from.”

Gulwareen, who holds expertise in classical, soft rock and folk music, has seven digital tracks under his name, for which he has received various praises from top sub-continental artists including Ustad Ghulam Ali Khan and India’s Ustad Anop Jalota. In the future, the vocal artist, hopes to create more Sufi-inspired music, which he thinks is one of the least explored genres of Pashto literature.

“Years of militancy and fundamentalism has severely affected our artists. There was a time when the slightest show of self-expression would get people killed, abducted or tortured, which has instilled great fear in the region’s artists. However, today is a different time. Music has many mediums and I want to use my voice to broaden our musical dimensions and send out a message of peace; one which isn’t restrained by language or barriers,” the singer told The Express Tribune.