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." |