Mixing it up with the Cheapmunks

"A video launch? A world tour? Who knows? We have a lot planned - you’ll know in due time" say Cheapmunks.


Saadia Qamar December 28, 2010

KARACHI: T2F previously known as the Second Floor embarked upon yet another successful launch, providing leading t-shirt brand, Uth-Oye with an outlet for their second collection and viral band Cheapmunks an avenue to perform with an audience present.

The Cheapmunks lead the event with a musical line up featuring their original takes on songs, starting with “Bewafa Nikli Hai” by Imran Khan and “Love the way you Lie” by Rihanna and followed with their debut “Oh Hum Dum” by AR Rahman and then moved onto “Say My Name” by Destiny’s Child.

With ripe rumours airing that the band had broken up, the Cheapmunks come clean in an exclusive interview with The Express Tribune; refuting progressing claims of their split, spoke about their future plans and their recent decision to recruit two new members to the band. The initial duo of Mehak Teherani and Suhana Baloch has now grown to a team of four with Daniyal Pervez and Hamza Qudddosi as the latest addition to the band.

How did Cheapmunks as an idea spring up and result in the formulation of a band?

The outset of our band was pure coincidence, completely spontaneous. Not something we imagined ourselves doing.

It started off with a sleep over, where both of us (Mehak and Suhana) were jamming to Usher’s “Oh my Gosh” combined with Sajjad Ali’s “Babia”. The mash up sounded pretty cool and so we put on our shutters and recorded the song and posted the video up on Facebook for our friends to have a laugh at. That was pretty much it, the video spread like wild fire and we started getting calls from various editors, directors, producers, who wanted to help promote us.

Soon after we decided on doing a gig dedicated to the flood victims. That’s also when we met the rest of our band members including our two guitarists Hamza Quddusi and Danyal Pervaiz and our Tabla player, Kamran bhai. We’re all really good friends now and are pretty strong as a band.

What is your crowd pleaser?

The most popular has to be the mash up of “Oh Hum Dum” by AR Rahman and “Say My Name” by Destinys Child - that video is still very popular on the internet, gaining us hundreds of fans every day - it is overwhelming.

There is a strong rumor in the media that the band has split, is there any reality to it?

That’s not true. We just got started. However we did go a little low profile because Mehak had to return to England to complete her studies, that is probably why the rumors started.

It is believed you will be performing in Lahore, which songs are you going to perform and where?

Yes, that’s right. We are performing in Lahore on the 28th of December 2010. The place is called Ali auditorium and its somewhere on Ferozpur Road. Well we’re mostly planning on doing the same songs we did for our Karachi gig back in September, with a few new additions.

What’s in store for 2011? A new album?

A video launch? A world tour? Who knows? We have a lot planned - you’ll know in due time.

Collaboration

Uth Oye revealed that they are launching their store in Lahore and wanted their Karachi clientele to feel equally important, hence chose to launch the second collection in Karachi first. Babar Rashid Khan of Uth Oye, revealed that the event was a progressing sale of the brand and the decision to incorporate the Cheapmunks performance was a conscious decision based on a shared commonality between the two. “We are not a fashion conscious brand. The Cheapmunks are completely viral, a lot like Uth Oye! Like us they launched themselves through the social media network and have not sold out yet, “said Khan. The sale of the t-shirts will continue throughout the week at T2F.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 26th, 2010.

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