In their last release, the neon and electric ‘Raat Shabnami’, the music video (directed by Yasir Jaswal) opened with a reference to the early days of PTV and the words: “Strings was formed in the summer of 1988” followed by the landscape traipsing into the future with the words: “Here’s to a hundred.”
The song and the album, 30, is a milestone for Strings who finished 30 years in the music business with this sixth studio album and one without corporate backing and a record label.
They released it on digital mediums, taking a risk like never before in their careers. The biggest champions of pop music in this country, instead of losing fans, by making new music and past melodies that are still beautiful are making new fans while staying relevant and with the times.
A story Bilal Maqsood recounted after their concert Soul Fest 2020 in an exclusive conversation with Instep is another reminder that the age of Strings is far from over.
As Strings took the stage at Soul Fest 2020, Bilal Maqsood told Instep that they had just finished their second song when his eyes fell on two children - a girl who was 10-11 years old and a boy who was 5 years old, accompanied by their parents. “The two of them were singing ‘Najane Kyun’ with their hearts out. I thought they had seen the song on Pepsi Battle of the Bands,” recalled Bilal. “We moved to ‘Chaaye Chaaye’ and they continued to sing their hearts out. Same was the case with ‘Anjaane’ that I sung next.”
Bilal explained that he looked at Faisal (Kapadia) and said to him to look at the two children. “When we sang ‘Raat Shabnami’, they were singing along, again.”
Bilal Maqsood thought to himself and told Faisal to invite both onstage. As the parents watched, said Bilal, “Faisal picked up one of them (the little one) and asked, ‘Do you know ‘Sajni’?’ and I’m forgetting the words now but in perfect key and continuo (sur) this child sang. He knew the lyrics and the crowd was overjoyed.”
Bilal continued afterwards: “It’s such an amazing thing to see such young children singing and to see their parents singing. If 30 years later, our fan-base includes 5-year-old and 10-year-old children as well – it gives us a lot of hope that we can do so much more music; if this generation is also connecting with our music, we can make more,” he concluded. And yes, they pulled the largest crowd at Soul Fest, which goes to show their market strength even now. Here’s to a 100 more.
