'We're starting from memory and emotion': Hasan Fancy and Maha Ali Kazmi on reviving classics

From doing renditions of classic songs like Mera Pyaar as a spur-of-the-moment thing, Hassan Fancy and Maha Ali Kazmi's collaboration has come a long way and for a reason we can all connect to: music.

Maha Ali Kazmi

Hasan Fancy

Just as most people find it as a form of escape, Hasan finds music as a way to express himself. Whether it’s someone playing something or creating something entirely new, he takes it as an opening, leading to a jam session or a collaboration.

This is how he first interacted with Maha. Hasan opened up about their first interaction, where he heard Maha sing on his friend’s Instagram story and was moved by her raw, unprocessed vocals singing his friend Amir Zaki’s song Mera Pyaar.

“I asked to be connected with her and requested a raw vocal so I could build something around it. I tested them, and it just clicked,” Hasan said, adding that Maha's voice was exactly the kind of emotion he resonated with, “very effortless, very real.” According to him, from the very first session, their music felt aligned.

For him, what matters is not how the music sounds but the story it tells and how the track is shaped around it. Discussing his collaboration with Maha, Hasan revealed that it was not planned as a series. The idea just grew from the first realisation, Hasan said, adding that this opened doors for the two to blend modern sound with original tracks.

Hasan elaborated, though, that there is something deeper at work: the feel of a song when you sit quietly. It hits you out of nowhere, he said, an emotional depth where you know you can genuinely add something new to it. “That’s when I know it’s worth revisiting,” he noted.

Saying that music should be about substance, soul, and honesty, Hasan explained that, as an audiophile, he wanted to hear these emotions in today’s sound “in a way that hits even deeper now.” According to him, that’s the driving force. “That’s what I’m building, not just something catchy, but something that feels right.”