|
INTERVIEW
Flag
An interview by INDIA TODAY's Sonia Faleiro.
In
1992, Bilal Maqsood and Faisal Kapadia, Strings, were, with their hit
single Sar Kiye Yeh Pahar, pop stars second to none in the subcontinent.
When they were two albums--Strings, Strings II--down, the Pakistani duo
went into hibernation, choosing to complete their education before consolidating
their careers in music. Now they're back. Strings' third album, Duur,
was released in Mumbai last month and its first music video, shot in Gowadar,
Baluchistan, and 10 pop/rock songs have catapulted the group back where
they belong. On centrestage. In conversation with INDIA TODAY's Sonia
Faleiro:
Q. After
eight years, conventional careers and marriage with kids, Strings is back.
Why?
Bilal Maqsood: In 1992, when Sar Kiye Yeh Pahar was released, it was
a hit across Asia. It was difficult for us to leave home without getting
mobbed. But we were only 20 and knew that we had to finish our studies,
and that we could always return to music, which we did.
Q. What
was the interim like?
BM: Well, I acquired a BA in Communications design, worked as an art
director, then a music video director before freelancing and starting
my own company. So I never really left music. Every now and then I'd get
a call from Faisal saying, we have to make music, we must get back together.
Faisal
Kapadia: I went to the US for management studies and on returning
joined my father's oil transport business. Very dry work! And all I ever
wanted to do was be in the music and entertainment business.
Bilal and I would meet up and jam but the spark was missing. Plus, we
were settled, had families and were earning a reasonable livelihood. Leaving
all that for a second foray into music was intimidating. (In 1998, Bilal
composed Duur. On hearing it Faisal suggested cutting an album, the lyrics
of which would be written by Bilal's father, eminent Pakistani painter
and writer Anwar Maqsood. After recording the album, Strings approached
Magnasound (India) through e-mail for a contract.)
Q. Bilal,
Duur was the first album for which your father composed the lyrics, what
was working with him like?
BM: The great thing about my father is that he really understands
music. And he listens to everything pop, rock, Indian classical music.
He's also a great fan of S.D. and R.D. Burman and has their entire collection.
You name the song, he has it. And since I'm his son he was as excited
and hyper as we were.
FK: Bilal
would compose the melody and his father would need only 10 minutes to
compose the lyrics, he's so good. He's also followed our career through
our earlier albums Strings, Strings II, so he knew the kind of lyrics
we wanted.
Q:Tell
me about Duur's music video.
BM: It was shot in Gowadar, Baluchistan, which is right next to the
Iranian border. It's a port that's completely cut off from mainland Pakistan,
all it has is sea and mountains. It runs on a generator which is shut
at 11 p.m. Each night when the sky was clear we could see three satellites
in the sky simultaneously. Often, we slept outside instead of at the rest
house.
The video is about life, of how one travels through it meeting friends
and how one day it ends only to make way for another. It+s a simple video
which an ordinary person can relate to. We wanted to avoid a technical
storyline that would be so engrossing that the viewer wouldn't listen
to the music.
FK: We
wanted our video to be like our music, completely natural. No flashy cars
and flashy clothes and no artificial sets.
Q: Bilal,
your son, Mikail, sang the opening bars to Duur (Reprise). How did you
get a three-year-old into the studio?
BM.: Mikail is a great String-er! He's been singing since he was
one-and-a-half. He has his own small guitar, knows all Strings songs and
jams with us, so it wasn't too difficult. I just took the mike up to him.
Q: How
intoxicating is fame second time around?
FK: When we were 20 life was very different. We had no responsibilities,
only music in our lives. We saw the limelight, left it and came back so
it's not something that struck us out of the blue and will drive us crazy.
We understand our limits and responsibilities.
BM: When you don't have responsibilities, the limelight can take
you away from music and into a life of too much partying and wild things,
on to another tangent altogether. I have two children, Faisal has a kid,
we have wives. We have to support them.
Q: Before
coming to India were you under the impression that the first question
you'd be asked would be on Indo-Pak relations?
BM: (Laughs) Yes! But no one's bothered to ask us about it, they're
too into music. Anyway, if they had we would have said, Next Question!
Q: Magnasound
has been very subtle in its promotion for Duur. Has that helped or hindered
album sales?
FK: They believe, and rightly so, that too much publicity takes away
from the flavour of the music. Downplaying our album has really worked
because if you see the same song on every channel and the same face everywhere,
you don't really want to go out and buy the album.
Q: Who
do you perceive as competition among Indi-pop stars?
BM: No one. Every singer has his own niche. If you put Junoon, Euphoria
and Silk Route on the same platform, you'd realise that they have nothing
in common. The only obvious competition is in bhangra, which has so many
singers--Daler Mehndi, Jassi, Hans Raj Hans ...
FK: Since
we don't have a shared composer like many artistes do, our music is exactly
what we want it to be and has its own niche.
Q: You're
under contract for another album with Magnasound. How many more do you
envisage in the future?
BM: I don't want to put a number to it. It could be as many as 20.
FK: We'd
like to keep making music. But once we release an album we'd like to take
it all over the world, wherever there are people who listen to music.
So we definitely won't be releasing an album a year.
|
