Monday 27 July 2015

Bayaan- Heading Towards New Horizons




Bayaan, a promising new band comprising of Nescafe Basement alums, has been playing music together since NB season 1 even before it was formed. The music Gods united Shahrukh Aslam (guitarist), Mansoor Lashari (drummer), Haider Abbas (bassist) and Asfar Hussain (vocalist) with Muqueet Shahzad (guitarist) down the road at the NB jams, all of whom decided to put combine their efforts to create some originals pieces. Around three years later, the young lads have successfully released their debut song, Nahein Milta along with the video that has some 600 shares and 38 thousand views.


Q- How did Bayaan come into being? What does it stand for?
S.A- We created Bayaan with an intention and a promise that we will cater to no one genre or one type of music, we will indulge in various styles and embark on unique ventures. All band members have a varied background in terms of their musical inspiration and styles; this gives Bayaan a very rich sonic diversity and allows us to tap a lot of different styles of music. In future, apart from creating music, we plan to bring back the culture of releasing albums and not just singles as one time hits. Observing the increasing trend, we would love to provide score for a Pakistani movie. Strings seem to be doing a brilliant job with Moor, so is a good sign that producers are looking for bands to create compositions for their movies. And obviously, we want to play endlessly at live shows all over Pakistan and abroad.


Q- Who suggested the name? Is there a story behind it?
M.S- We spent endless hours discussing the name of our band, throwing in different names for months. Asfar put a halt to that madness and gave us the name Bayaan; it appealed to every one of us and purported the band’s ideology perfectly in just one word. What we are trying to do through our music is give life to various experiences that many of us have and situations we all face and give our perspective on them, hence, Bayaan which literally means to express something.







Q- The video and concept for 'Nahein Milta' is quite unique. Tell us about the collaborations on it. What is the song about?
M.L- The concept of Nahein Milta really embodies what ourmusic stands for; meaningful, rich, diverse and unorthodox. The song is written by Asfar Hussain, our vocalist. He just explains an element of his worldly experiences through this song and chorus of the song clearly sums up this journey- Jisko jo bhi milta hai besabab nahein milta, mujh se bolay munn mera sub sab ko sab nahein milta (no one gets what they get without a reason, my heart tells me not everyone gets what they desire) quite self-explanatory. The visuals of the song tell the same story but through a different medium. We decided to do something truly unprecedented and bring out something that will make a person re-visit that video again and again, just to understand it. The video is quite metaphorical in nature, it leaves out just enough for the viewer to figure out the rest. Raza and Jaffer, the two geniuses behind the video, have done a brilliant job in conveying the concept and we are very proud the way final product shaped up. Special mention for Maida Khan, for her amazing artwork and sketches that gave life to that girl’s story through Nahein Milta.




Q- What are the challenges such a young musician has to face? Do you think discouragement from parents and family members is a factor? How much do you think initiatives like Nescafe Basement help young artists and the local music scene? What else do you think can be done on a bigger scale to help?
H.A- Unfortunately, a daunting dearth of music platforms and avenues in our country greatly demotivates a young musician from growing beyond a certain level. After a hefty investment in music equipment and years of practice, musicians are unable to channel out their skills and creativity to a mass audience. With this lack of prospects, parents are generally uncomfortable with the idea of pursuing music as a career. A young musician has to defy these existent societal norms to take up music on a more serious level.
Initiatives like Nescafe Basement are working in the right direction to facilitate young and budding musicians in showcasing themselves to larger audience. More importantly, they are connecting musicians at a level where they can initiate music related projects in future. I ended up forming a band with my former Nescafe Basement artists; nothing compares to like-minded musicians coming together to make new music. We have received a commendable response on our first music video and plan to release more in near future.


Q- As a band, where do you see yourself in fuve years?

A.H- We hope to take Pakistan’s music to a level where it deserves to be. This country has seen some amazing times in terms of music, we have lost all of that now, but that does not mean we can’t bring it back. There is immense talent here and it’s just heartbreaking to see it being ignored due to lack of proper structure. Our aim is to create music that people around the world will recognize as Pakistani, take Pakistan to an international platform of arts that gives local talent its due limelight. We will keep trying and pursuing this vision through creating music for as long as it takes.



Check out their song, Nahein Milta here and let us know how you like it
https://www.facebook.com/Bayaantheband

No comments:

Post a Comment