Pukar aspire to be heard

ISLAMABAD: Islamabad-based musical band Pukaar is due to perform in a charity fundraising concert for flood victims at SZABIST University on Sunday, October 17. The two-member band has been performing music for the last two years. Having released two music videos to date, Pukaar hope to become one of the most popular Islamabad-based bands in the music industry.

Talking to The Express Tribune, band members Ali Tariq (vocalist) and Omar Kabeer (guitarist) expressed concerns regarding the extent of their success due to them being Islamabad-based.

“Most media channels, networks and record labels are based out of either Lahore or Karachi. This means that bands in other cities trump us because we have to commute in order to shoot our videos,” claims Tariq.

With an album on the cusp of being released within the next year, the band has been working very hard to ensure that their music is different and caters to all ages.

“Even though the basic theme of our music is soft rock, we have diversified our music by recording generational songs, qawwali’s, ghazals and kalaam, especially that of Pir Mehr Ali. We have refrained from making music that is exclusive to a specific market,” said Kabeer.

Having composed everything independently, the band hopes to release an album with 14 original tracks and no remixes. The album is strung together by the quality and genre of music. Zulfi of Call and Sam of Akash are helping the budding artists produce their album from Lahore. Having already released two music videos Aag in June 2009 and Jee Utha in December 2009, the band is continuously working on releasing more videos. Their ambitions are to release a new video every two months.

Currently in talks with an Indian company the band is working on two upcoming videos Anjana and Mahiya Ve. “Our talents are now being realised and we are going on our first international tour for 25 days to Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand to play at the Pakistan Rock Concert,” said Omar.

We have also been selected to perform at an upcoming Pakistan India Label Project that’s releasing and album featuring five Indian and five Pakistani bands contributing a song each.

Being a two member band Pukaar feels it is wise to not include a drummer or bass player. They believe that the chemistry between two people is much more cohesive and that larger bands are more susceptible to internal collapse. They hire drummers and bassists on contractual basis.

Having performed around Pakistan and worked privately with various television networks, the band is trying to make a unique identity and market for its music before the launch of their new album.

The band wishes to expand their range by including playback singing in their repertoire. Their first playback title song for the upcoming television serial Jiggar Kya Fikar is to be released soon. The artists have not been formally trained and hold day jobs. They are striving to make music their profession.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 17^th, 2010.