Not all members of Sikandar Ka Mandar, a music group originally from Karachi with two veritable albums to their credit, count Karachi as their base anymore.
Vocalist and chief songwriter Nadir Shehzad Khan has moved to Islamabad while the rest of the members count Lahore as their base - barring Ali Suhail, a solo artist as well who recently produced Natasha Noorani’s debut EP Munaasib, who moves in between cities.
But the music it seems will not stop coming from this band of uber-talented super musicians.
Having released their second album, 36 (Chatees) last December that contained songs like ‘Gehri Neend’, ‘Baaghi’, ‘Uncle’ and plenty of others, the band has played some interesting shows since then including one at Sattar Buksh in Islamabad (where one can also purchase their CDs) and True Brew TV, a brilliant initiative launched last year by True Brew Records’s Jamal Rahman, where artists get to perform before an audience as well as a in a ‘Singles’ format, which is more intimate and without the audience in the room.
Past performers include Moyo, Shorbanoor, Saakin, Mughal E Funk and The D/A Method, among others.
As for SKM, who also picked up an LSA nod in the category of Best Music Album earlier this year and played a revered, packed show at Lahore Music Meet 2018, are now gearing up to perform at Ali Azmat’s The Guitar School.
Speaking about the gig, Nadir Shehzad Khan told Instep about the band’s motive behind playing this particular show.
“There’s no motive as such right now. We like to play music and we landed this gig so we’re playing it,” he said.
The gig will feature as SKM, apart from Nadir (who is also a music video director/emerging filmmaker), Zahra Paracha (one-half of Biryani Brothers, Passive Fruit and co-founder of Lahore Music Meet), Ali Suhail (whose last full length-release Pursuit of Irrelevance sounds like a dream and who is also a part of Umair Jaswal’s live and studio line-up) and Daud Ramay (Roots, Janoobi Kharghosh, Takatak).
Tickets are priced at Rs 500 and the show is scheduled to take place at 8:30 pm today.
Given the critically acclaimed reviews the band has picked up for its records as well as performances, this October 13 gig will serve as a not-miss-event for all music aficionados. No better way to spend a Saturday.
