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musical
activism
Laal take off on an ideological musical
odyssey
With
their debut record, Umeed e Sahar, Laal is all set to revolutionize
Pakistan's musical landscape.
The band talks to Instep about where they see this revolutionary
road taking them.
By
Saba Imtiaz
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Think
Laal, and the first memory that pops up is the video for 'Mainay
Uss Se Yeh Kaha', which received heavy airplay on Geo News,
featuring a montage of notable political moments from last
year. The band, comprising of Taimur Rahman, Mahvash Waqar,
Haider Rahman and Shahram Azhar, have just released their
debut album, Umeed e Sahar. But this is no ordinary band,
nor an ordinary album. Set to the hard hitting and deeply
insightful poetry of Habib Jalib and Faiz Ahmed Faiz, as well
as the band's own poetry, Umeed e Sahar may just well be one
of the most important records to have ever been released in
Pakistan. It is revolutionary and relevant to its core, and
speaks of an honest desire to truly inspire change. Moreover,
it has revived verses that have been enclosed in dusty books
for far too long, and are a befitting soundtrack to our current
socio-political landscape. |
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Currently
based in the UK and Pakistan, Laal came to Karachi on a whirlwind
media tour last month. For over two days the band members waltzed
in and out of media organizations to talk about their album and
they performed two songs at The Second Floor as well as a full-fledged
live concert for Geo TV's show Applause, which had Aitzaz Ahsan
sitting in the front row. Their music had the audience in raptures
- and one witnessed people all around singing along to the infectious
chorus' - yet at the same time trying to decipher the loaded meaning
of their songs.
Interviewing Laal is another experience in itself. Taimur Rahman,
also known as a rather popular teacher at the Lahore University
of Management Sciences (LUMS), acts as a spokesperson for the band,
with the others content to listen on and interject at will. His
jovial nature infused the mood of the room and their unabashed honesty
- from their political leanings to their musical preferences - was
truly refreshing. So how did Laal make it to our TV screens? Taimur
and Shahram were being filmed by Taimur Khan for a documentary,
and as the two started singing randomly, Taimur Khan thought it
would be great to shoot a video for their song - and the song became
such a YouTube hit that it was noticed by Geo TV who offered them
an album deal as well as used their songs for videos
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How do they feel the events of post-Emergency have affected the
music landscape in Pakistan?
"Its great!" enthused Taimur. "There's been a transformation,
and there is an effort by musicians to inculcate some sort of political
commentary." Laal cited Azal's 'Aisi Taisi' as an example.
"The media lifting us (Laal) up is an advantage of the November
3 emergency. There has been a politicization of youth. Earlier if
you'd be somewhere talking to people about politics, someone would
say 'don't talk about politics, its very passe'. Now if someone
says that, the reply is 'not talking about politics is passe'."
Taimur added, "Arguably, we are the most politicized youth
out there, something that was lacking in the 1990s." |
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quizzed about Laal's history, Taimur laughed and wondered whether
we'll be going back to the 1900s. He made the story short though.
"I was teaching at LUMS and I would often bring my guitar
to class and sing during classes. I met Shahram Azhar there,
who's a classically trained vocalist, who's studied with Mehfooz
Khokhar. We connected ideologically, musically, as comrades
and researchers. So for six years we've been playing music and
we were utilizing music to raise awareness. So we'd play at
small gatherings, for workers, in their houses, gatherings of
20 to 50 people and even a 100 people. We performed at the Media
Rally in 2006, and had a repertoire of songs, Jalib and Faiz's
poetry, original songs, songs by others. But the emphasis was
always on activism." |
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After the imposition of emergency in Pakistan on November 3, 2007,
Taimur and Shahram mobilized their students and friends in the UK
respectively, to build up a network and organize protests at Downing
Street against the emergency. The band was also invited by the Pindi
Bar Association to perform at the Long March last year.
Given the politicization of youth, then, does this mean that Laal
is catering to that particular segment of music aficionados only?
Laal disagreed as Mahvash quoted examples of parents of friends
who listen to Laal's music. Taimur added, "We're operating
on a universal campus. We see ourselves as a continuity of the progressive
artists and writers' community. We're appealing to the intelligentsia,
who is anyone willing to listen to our message. Saying it's youthful
is unfaithful to our other listeners. Our music talks about the
oppressed. It encourages thought, to think about the fetters and
hindrances. To talk about social issues is beneficial. We're intent
to bring forward a message of social change to anyone who's ready
to listen."
And how do they intent on bringing that message to the people, given
that the concert circuit has evaporated with the worsening security
situation? "Guerrilla concerts!" said Taimur emphatically.
"That's our niche. We don't have any commercial considerations
or sponsors. We're ideologically motivated that our message reaches
- chahe humein har chappay chappay pind pind jaana pade! (even if
we have to go to every corner, every small and big town) We're not
scared". This rhetoric is truly refreshing given the number
of artists who have shied away from performing in Pakistan in recent
times. Taimur reinforced that sentiment, "We're not a big name
who'll think that 'if I perform for less money, my market value
will go down'. We've had an enormously positive response, from the
youth, Pakistanis, communists, socialists, progressives…and
also, we're bloody damn good musicians!"
One can't disagree, having heard them perform live with an ensemble
of musicians and to boot, Shahram and Haider are both trained musicians.
Shahram has been trained as a classical singer, while Haider (who
plays the flute) has trained with India's flute maestro Pandit Hariprasad
Chaurasia. The band's musical preferences range from Pathanay Khan,
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Shiraz Uppal, Abrar-ul-Haq, Junoon's early
work, Jawad Ahmed to a diverse slew of classical music.
Umeed e Sahar features the poetry of Habib Jalib, Faiz Ahmed Faiz,
Aitzaz Ahsan as well as the band's original work. Taimur waxed lyrical
about Shahram's poetic abilities.
"Shahram understands poetry deeply. He's a poet himself and
he has a big role to play in the original songs." Why pick
Jalib and Faiz? "They were natural choices for us," said
Shahram. "Theirs is Urdu poetry filled in progressive thought,
anyone with similar ideas is naturally attracted to it. And music
is such a progressive medium. No one has really sung Jalib in the
past 20 years."
With their debut record, Umeed e Sahar, out in stores now and released
at such a tumultuous moment in Pakistan's scarred history, we bet
everyone will be singing along to Jalib with Laal now! |
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