Song: King Of Self

 

By: Sajid Ghafoor & Zeeshan Parwez 
From: Peshawar, Pakistan
About the Songwriters: Sajid and Zeeshan live in Peshawar, Pakistan, a place where merely writing music can be regarded as an immoral thing. Though artistic endeavor for the rest of country has changed for the better in recent years, their province N.W.F.P with its capital of Peshawar still lives in a traditionally and religiously oppressive climate. They have seen times when musicians were not given the respect but at least were given the opportunity to perform, but only in specific venues. Now, the general acceptance for music, musicians, and artists has raised a little higher. Still, their local government has recently put a ban on performing arts at all public venues and during any private functions held at those venues. It seems like no sooner do the people find their creative soul, when their right to feed that soul is taken away. Musicians in their community are thought of as a rebel. In describing their plight, Sajid and Zeeshan stated, "Why blame the lungs to breathe when it depends on the air it breathes in? It lives on it; it has no choice, even if we minimize the oxygen intake. The shortage of it makes a person gasp for air. Right now we’re gaspng for air. We’re doing all we can to feed our soul and of those people who understand the importance of this magical phenomena of rhythm and melody and its harmony. We can not turn away from the fact that every thing in this universe is in sync with each other and losing harmony would only lead to destruction. Music is a force, even if not understood properly by the conscious mind can be felt and understood much better by the soul/subconscious mind. Now that is something most of us can feel here but consciously can not do much about it. Keeping all these circumstances in mind, (that really do play a major role in our lives) we opted to pursue music and we try to do it with the same passion we feel on the inside. We feel it is the right thing to do and we hope we can slowly and gradually serve as a tool, if nothing else, to bring about this change where music can get the same respect it deserves, be it on the part of the people or the government."

They have always enjoyed playing music, landing a few gigs and playing for the foreign communities in their area. At first, they were an under ground band called “Still”, the name making reference to their creativity being “static” but not yet dead. After a few years, their bassist left for England and their Drummer left for Congo. In the end it was Zeeshan and Sajid who were left to their own devices. For some time, they remained quiet, until one day the creative urge returned and started off with this project. They wanted to make an album in English and that actually initiated the whole process. Breathing suddenly got a little smoother than usual.

Sajid and Zeeshan came on the public scene when they noticed too many local music channels showing many artists from other parts of the country but rarely ever saw one which belonged to Peshawar. They wanted to ensure that Peshawar was represented in the Pakistan music scene, so they took a risk and came out with their debut track titled “King of Self”. Fortunately, it got a positive response from all over Pakistan and, surprisingly, a good response from Peshawar too. Considering that music, especially an English tune, had a slim chance of being accepted in Peshawar, their song still got the recognition it deserved under the given circumstances. "We were very happy, but like mentioned earlier, we’re still gasping for air. We want to keep on making more music, good music and want to keep doing this with all the love and passion we have for it. We do have the will, all we need is appreciation," notes Sajid.

Sajid and Zeeshan's first album is now under development. Both intend to release their album sometime before the end of this year. In closing, Sajid comments, "We’re nervous but yet hopeful."