Looking for rubies in a mountain of rocks
Rock music is something that has remained synonymous with Pakistan for the best part of the last two decades.Over the years, the country has produced a whole battery of rock vocalists, such as Ali Azmat of Junoon, Ali Noor of Noori, Junaid Khan of Call and Karavan’s Tanseer Dar to name a few.
For a vocalist as underutilised as Dar, he seems to have developed a cult of his own. The singer has been part of some of the better rock songs to come out of the country.
His latest release Khamoshi, with former Aaroh guitarist Nabeel Nihal, is no different and is also the latest addition to Nihals’ Nabeel Nihal Project.
“Though it is pretty much a Nabeel Nihal song, I was creatively involved with it while it was in the works,” Dar tells The Express Tribune.
He further added that this is just the beginning of collaborations with Nihal. He will feature on several others songs in the Nabeel Nihal Project.
“Nabeel has been working on an album for quite some time now and is expected it to release anytime soon. I’ve lent my vocals to a few other songs,” says the Aagay Hi Aagay singer.
The musician, who continues to work as a rock vocalist, lamented the declining rock music scene of Pakistan.
“Nowadays, people don’t learn to play instruments like they used to do in the older days. Everyone wants to be a vocalist and with things so computerised, every other person you know is setting up a studio,” exclaims Dar.
“The real problem is that new kids compose beats on a computer and then jam on those beats, which is pointless. It should be the other way around, jamming is where everything happens and will continue to stay seminal to the creation of honest rock music,” states Dar.
Last year, he was featured on the soundtrack of the film Chambaili and is now the singer is open to the idea of featuring as a playback singer for other films as well.
“I am open to featuring as a playback singer in movies provided the music being made appeals to me. Sadly, that is not the case as people nowadays have developed an interest in Indian film music, which doesn’t really appeal to me as a singer and musician,” says the Karavan vocalist.
Dar replaced Najam Sheraz as the vocalist of Karavan in 1998 and became an integral part of the band formed by former Awaz guitarist Asad Ahmed. In 2011, the band called it quits, only to comeback after a small gap for live shows and now it seems that they may even release new music.
“Karavan might be getting back to make more music. But we have no plans to release an album and will only focus on releasing singles,” he says.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 28th, 2014.
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