InstepinterVIEW
Creator and producer Jamal Rahman on the artists who have come on the music series so far and how the Internet has changed things.
True Brew TV, an original music initiative launched last year and spearheaded by Jamal Rahman of True Brew Records, is now several months old. The format consists of two separate fundamentals and both showcase musicians in different element.
Live at True Brew is a showcase during which artists perform before a select audience while the Singles format is much more intimate without an audience in the room.
Since arriving in October of last year, True Brew TV has featured an eclectic group of artists such as Moyo, Gentle Robot, Shorbanoor, Haroon Shahid, The D/A Method, Abdullah Siddiqui, Janoobi Khargosh, Ali Suhail and Jimmy Khan. What is most obvious is that no two songs sound the same even though some artists have made more than one appearance. All of these artists represent the new wave of sound, which is both great and necessary. At a time when so much of what is heard in mainstream is commissioned and therefore lacks personal narrative, here is a series that is introducing listeners to the edgy side of Pakistani music where artists are free to present what they want without restrictions.
Instep speaks to creator and producer Jamal Rahman as he reflects on some of the artists who have featured on True Brew TV (so far)…
Instep: Last time we spoke it was in October 2017. Between then and now, several artists have come on True Brew TV. Let’s talk a bit about the artists, beginning with Moyo.
Jamal Rahman (JR): Moyo (Hassan Mohyeddin) is an old friend. He’s been tinkering with electronic music since I’ve known him. And he’s also a classically trained tabla player. His mother is Naheed Siddiqui, the kathak dancer. He’s got that lineage and knowledge and understanding of traditional music. He moved to London some years ago and he’s been experimenting and merging the two sounds so this is kind of his debut effort, from the upcoming album, Neon Horizon, that he came and performed at True Brew in March of 2017. We’ve done two songs with him and there’s depth to the way he composes, he’s a serious musician with a corny sense of humour. It’s always fun to work with someone who’s got the understanding and has a sense of humour about it.
Instep: There’s also Abdullah Siddiqui…
JR: He’s like the new prodigy on the block.
Instep: It was incredible to see him perform ‘Fiction’. What was it like to work with him?
JR: He’s very young, new and shy. He’s like 18 or 19 years old. But in his music there is so much maturity. The way he writes his lyrics and the subject matter he tackles, he’s way beyond his years. At age 19, he’s doing the kind of music that people spend a few decades trying to master.
Instep: Tell us about Gentle Robot. The kind of sounds all these artists are creating are not the kind of sounds you hear in mainstream in Pakistan.
JR: The idea is to add to the (music) narrative rather than perpetuating the same stuff that already exists. The people behind the great stuff in rock music or pop music have already peaked. Sure, there are some good songs being written when they are written but the frequency of that kind of output is low. The big artists have done the best work. The new stuff is not breaking new ground.
Coming back to Gentle Robot, it is the solo music project of Ibrahim Imdad. He’s quite an active musician. He plays with Takatak, Keeray Makoray, Sikandar Ka Mandar and Janoobi Khargosh and he’s got his own solo project. He’s a really talented guy. It’s one thing to plug into a band and play with them, it’s another thing to have your own sound, your own compositions and they are really remarkable as well so he’s quite a well-rounded musician that way. His debut EP, Feel, released last year, is offbeat, off-kilter; it’s got really crazy sounds and really cool compositions. He was a bit hesitant to come to the show, thinking that his music is non-performative but I kind of convinced him that the format, particularly ‘Singles’ is geared for people like him. You kind of have a certain percentage of that song that he performed live while the rest of it is electronic. It is how electronic musicians perform.
Instep: After decades of rock and pop, we’ve come to a point where we have new genres coming in. Even globally rock is not where it used to be.
JR: Absolutely. This is the new wave. In the last ten years, the Internet has really swept over and the new generation is the internet generation with access to all kinds of music; the influences are so much wider than they used to be. It’s no longer just MTV or Indus. Now the whole Pandora ’s Box is open. So obviously when new artists come in, their influences are very different so when they produce music, their influences show. The future is in the new wave.
The rock scene is a bit old now and they are some good things in it too but I feel like there’s room for other genres and I have maintained this for many years. The scene should not be restricted to one genre, there should be many things happening. There should be traditional desi music, rock, pop and other genres. Everything has space here because there is listenership and the audiences are growing. People come out in droves to see these artists at Lahore Music Meet and other independent festivals. So I think it’s only upwards and onwards for these guys.