As Nazia Zuberi - the original singer featured in Rushk’s debut album Sawaal - returns to Pakistan and joins the group, Instep talks to co-founder Uns Mufti about their 2018 single ‘To Ja’ and what’s coming up.
Rushk, among Pakistan’s most underrated bands, originally co-founded by Ziyyad Gulzar and Uns Mufti, has been on a comeback trail for some time.
After releasing and re-releasing their debut album Sawaal that contained songs such as ‘Behti Naar’ and ‘Khuahish’, the band changed gears and re-emerged in 2014.
Tara Mehmood replaced the original vocalist, Nazia Zuberi Hassan, who had moved to foreign shores. Rushk also added, in addition to Uns Mufti and Ziyyad Gulzar, formidable musicians such as Sikandar Mufti and Ali Jafri.
In 2014, they released a series of songs like ‘Tujhay Patta To Chalay’, ‘Mera Naam’, ‘Bori’ and ‘Aye Na’ – each accompanied by its own artwork designed by Safwat Saleem.
The new and improved Rushk emerged as a group with a sound that had completely changed with groove, funk, melancholia, ambient post-rock landscape with as much flair as possible. After that the group played some live shows including an iconic, still memorable show at the PACC.
But something miraculous happened. Nazia Zuberi Hassan, who provided vocals to the first album Sawaal, returned to Pakistan. Earlier this summer, Rushk released ‘To Ja’ - a track featuring Nazia on vocals, with the rest of the band having stayed the same.
The song, ‘To Ja’ is (among many things) about a lack of sense of belonging, a deeper longing that so many of us carry. It is nothing like the old Rushk in terms of sound and yet still contains the magic that made the band a cult hit for years.
Speaking to Instep at length about their newest song, ‘To Ja’ and much more, Uns Mufti sat down for an extensive interview.
“Tara sang the last few songs; Nazia was living abroad but had indicated that she wants to come back,” Uns begins over a cup of coffee.
As Uns tells it, the fact was that things were not gelling too much with Tara, who simply had a different approach and style. Uns notes that a different style - while not a bad thing at all - wasn’t fitting into the Rushk feel. Therefore, it made sense to make room for Nazia, who was coming back while giving Tara further room to pursue her acting career.
“Nazia is very active in the music scene and we needed somebody like that. Tara is first and foremost an actor whereas Nazia is first and foremost a vocalist. It worked out well. ‘To Ja’ was a good song to start with Nazia,” he reveals.
With four songs sung by Tara and one by Nazia, Rushk have essentially created at minimum an EP. But as far as co-founder, songwriter and guitarist Uns Mufti is concerned, more songs are on the way. Money is not driving this band although artists should make money through their art. Rushk doesn’t, not really, like many others.
“We have at least two songs that will be coming soon. We’ll try to put them out by this year,” says Uns tentatively.
‘To Ja’ was a long song, compared to non-branded releases and has a length of nearly 8 minutes.
“The song is straightforward. I wrote the melody and my friend Sarmed (Mirza) wrote the words. He asked me what I should write about and I told him to write about what is happening with us. We were trying to write about dead relationships – you’re not in them but we’re not young boys anymore. There’s also a very strong sense of not belonging. Pakistan does that to you. Everybody I know keeps running away to another land as soon as work is done with. It’s like a political song; it’s a break-up song of sorts.”
Uns reiterates: “You can never have a sense of belonging if you’ve never been completely accepted by your surroundings. That’s prevalent in the case of a lot of people. The level of acceptance here of who you are is an issue. If you build a society where the only person accepted is a person roaming around in his Tundra with four guards and can do whatever he wants to and it is acceptable but the rest of the population.”
Coming to the music, as Uns confirms at least two more songs are planned. “Tara has sung the first four songs so she is on the credits. ‘To Ja’ is sung by Nazia and there is an upcoming single called ‘Khel’ that also features Nazia. Let’s see what happens next.”
Rushk, as Uns explains, is a band and not only two people programming.
“Ziyyad, Sikandar, Ali Jafri, Nazia – everybody is a giant. I am the small fish.”
The critical success of Sawaal does not mean following it up with another similar sounding record, notes Uns.
“Sawaal was us (Ziyyad and I) programming the whole album. And we put guitars and vocals on top. Now Rushk is not a programmed situation. It’s a band. The arrangements are whack. Ziyyad and I are not the only ones. Everybody has their influence and I didn’t want to particularly do Sawaal again.”
He adds on a parting note: “People appreciated Sawaal. But now we’ve progressed to a point where the dynamic is different. It will always be Rushk because it’s always off-the-cuff. The strangeness, it will remain. But to ask for the same sound, we’re not working the same way.”
