Shahryar Bakshi finds his own niche

Found fame through his participation in Nescafe Basement, a platform for young, aspiring musicians.

ISLAMABAD:

Shahryar Bakshi knew the timbres and silhouette of the tabla, before even laying his hands on one. Born into a humble household sustained through the musical genius of his father, Ustad Muhammad Ajmal, Shahryar’s childhood was marked with awe and ambivalence.

He was fascinated during performances, watching the meticulous friction of the palm and fingers on the powdered surface of the instrument, however, he was always reminded of the intentional silence of their apartment, where his father never rehearsed and education took precedence over music.

“My father has always urged me to keep music a hobby,” said the 21-year-old, who is a music teacher at The Educators School. With few platforms for survival in a competitive and short-spanned music industry, his relationship with music is one that is inherently personal, and driven through passion.



Part of an eight-member band known as the Bakshi Brothers — comprising his brother Yawar and his uncle Ustad Azam Bakshi’s sons — fame fell upon Shahryar’s shoulders earlier this year through his participation in Nescafe Basement, a platform for young, aspiring musicians with two successful seasons to its credit.

“Nescafe Basement was a new kind of exposure and the kind of welcoming podium I had inadvertently been waiting for,” he shared, recollecting how the opportunity came to him through a fan and mutual friend, Zulfiqar Jabbar Khan — better known as Xulfi when the underground band EP surfaced to satiate a local niche in the rock genre.

According to Shahryar, Nescafe Basement enabled him to abandon his comfort zone and the soulful melodies of Mehdi Hassan and Lata Mangeshkar that he had grown up listening to and train his ear to a new kind of sound; Western music.

“I was exposed to an entirely new music library,” he said with a laugh, explaining that while his first week was spent with his hands on his ears, he eventually grew to appreciate this diversity. Three months into jamming, the cohort of musicians whose backgrounds and talents were spread out, became inseparable.  For Shahryar, the exchange of ideas and tunes with his peers was invaluable and led him to alter his approach towards teaching music.

“People don’t value Eastern instruments,” he explained. Even within the realm of Eastern classical music, those who accompany the vocalist remain in the shadows, getting the smallest of cuts in the earning. “To fuse knowledge of Eastern instruments to produce more readily-accepted western music is a powerful way to sustain and preserve our heritage,” he added.

Shahryar sometimes finds the limelight burdensome. With an identity tied inextricably to his father, who was conferred the pride of performance in 2012, for his decades-long dedication to the craft; even the smallest of mistake can garner unfair criticism. But like most star progenies, Shahryar has found his own niche in teaching and investing in the youth.

“I have had incredible support from the school that allowed me to take time off during recordings and shootings for Nescafe Basement. They have also supported much of my evolving syllabus designs,” he said, adding that it was his goal to expose his students to all forms of music through knowledge of heirloom instruments that must be preserved, if not in practice, at least in memory.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 24^th, 2014.

Like Life & Style on Facebook, follow @ETLifeandStyle on Twitter for the latest in fashion, gossip and entertainment.