Kiran Chaudhry and Adnan Sarwar have been playing live music for over five years. But 2011 was the year when Club Caramel really came into its own with original songs and music videos. Their first single, ‘Zindagi’ is really groovy and funk-inspired while their sophomore effort, ‘Tere Bin’ is more moody, laced with melancholic emotions. With both songs, Kiran has shown her versatility as a singer while songwriter of this duo, Adnan Sarwar continues to impress with his compositions, melodies and riffs. In this interview with Instep, Club Caramel talk about their new single, ‘Deewana’, the music business and what’s next for them…

Instep: Tell us about this tune, ‘Deewana’.

Club Caramel: The song ‘Deewana’ is about falling in love and what it does to a person. Everything feels great and if you fall hard enough, it can make you a little crazy! Arranged with mostly live acoustic instruments, it’s a good old fashioned, sweet love song.

Instep: Tell us about the video concept?

Club Caramel: We wanted to keep the video fairly basic and honest. We have therefore put in a lot of bloopers and shots probably that would not make it to the final cut with most people. We wanted it to have a behind-the scenes feel and we just went to set and had some fun. The main purpose of a music video is to complement the song and take the backseat if necessary. With such a relaxed tune, the video also had to be in the same feel and we decided to just perform our song on set, point some cameras, and shoot!

Instep: This song is your third single after ‘Zindagi’ and ‘Tere Bin’. Does this mean you will continue to release singles rather than a full album?

Club Caramel: We are not ruling out an album release eventually but we will only do that if it makes commercial sense. Everyone just downloads music for free now and CD sales are suffering globally. The entire business model that the music industry followed in the 20th century is now dead and we are, just like everyone else, looking at a new approach to get our music heard. Meanwhile, we will continue releasing singles every 2-3 months.

Instep: As a relatively newer act, how difficult is it to survive the industry?

Club Caramel: We have done well so far, primarily because Club Caramel has become a very popular live act. We play a lot of shows and that ensures that basic survival as career musicians is not a problem anymore. Having said that, it has been very challenging to create that kind of following and has taken years of hard work.

Instep: Tell us about working with Jamal Rehman at True Brew Records?

Club Caramel: He is very talented and helped us get the sound that we wanted. The studio environment during sessions was very relaxed and friendly and we feel that True Brew Records is a valuable addition to the local music industry.

Instep: This song is musically different than the rest of your songs. Was that a conscious choice, to tinker with the sound, make it more earthy?

Club Caramel: Usually, the song itself dictates its sound. When ‘Deewana’ was written, we knew that it was going to be a more stripped down, acoustic production. It is a simple, sweet love song and the production had to do justice to the overall feel. As musicians, we always want to explore new sounds and that is why we chose to release ‘Deewana’ which is entirely different from anything else we have done so far.

Instep: Club Caramel consists of Kiran and Adnan. What about the rest of the people who play with you?

Club Caramel: For live performances and studio recordings, we use session musicians. However, it has been pretty much the same set of people we have worked with from day one. Fahad Khan on drums, Farhan Albert on keyboards and Sameer Ahmed on bass are the backbone of our sound and play on all our studio recordings. We also use Farhan Ali on bass guitar in a lot of our live shows. The reason Club Caramel has become such a popular live band is the fact that the musicians that play with us are the best of the best, in our opinion.

Instep: Are you guys a full-fledged band or do you collaborate with different musicians?

Club Caramel: Club Caramel is a duo with Adnan writing and producing all of the original music. For live performances, we have the group of session musicians that play with us. We have collaborated with some musicians in our live performances including Overload when we did a cover of Adele’s ‘Rolling in the Deep’ during their OLTA sessions. We are currently also working on a project that features collaborations with some of our favorite artists from Pakistan.

Instep: What’s next for you guys?

Club Caramel: Over the next 2 months, we will start working on the next song and video as we plan to keep on releasing our music. There is also a concert tour and a very interesting music project which we are a part of. All this will be done before the summer and we are then off for some international performances. We are also working on a film project in India soon so this year is going to be fairly busy, which is great as career musicians.

Instep: Tell us about your association with Samsung? How did it come about?

Club Caramel: We are a live band and play a lot of shows. We also organize our own concerts and are regularly booked for corporate events. If you keep putting yourself out there, and are good at what you do, somebody somewhere will take notice. Samsung Pakistan was looking to find a promotional partner for their Galaxy Series Smartphones and we were looking for someone to support our music. Our association with them is unique in the sense that they are actually backing and supporting Club Caramel, a relatively new, independent musical act, while allowing us to retain complete freedom over the creative process. That has always been our core demand from any corporate sponsor interested in signing us and in Samsung, we have found one which understands our needs as musicians.

Instep: How important is corporate sponsorship for musicians, artists these days?

Club Caramel: The nature of the global music industry in the 21st century has completely changed. CD sales are negligible and illegal downloads are rampant. There are not a lot of avenues left for artists to generate an income. In Pakistan, the situation is even worse as there is no real music industry infrastructure nor a vibrant live music scene. Corporate sponsorship, in fact, has contributed greatly to the development and survival of the Pakistani music industry by helping in generating local content and ensuring visibility for new artists who otherwise cannot compete with the massively funded and brilliantly produced Indian content bring run on every local entertainment channel. Band and music sponsorship has become quite common all the world over and any artist in Pakistan who wants to make a solid career has to look into and be open to such opportunities.