“Another one bites the dust/And another one gone and another one gone”

– ‘Another One Bites The Dust’ by Queen

If the Pakistani music scene is dominated by pop rock and Sufi in the mainstream with electronic music inching its way in, it is also marred with electrifying bands calling it a day.

The last major group to do so was Strings, who after more than 30 years in the business, is no longer a band with co-founders Bilal Maqsood and Faisal Kapadia going solo as artists. There are many such stories.

The most recent news has come from the camp of Sounds of Kolachi where Quaid Ahmed, one of the pivotal members of the music group has decided to part ways with the outfit.

Ahmed first released a statement to the press that observed, “After eight incredible years, with a heavy heart and loads of memories, I would like to announce the end of my time with Sounds of Kolachi (SOK). Ahsan, Gul and Nimra will continue the ensemble as core members, and I look forward to the upcoming concerts and their second album scheduled to release later this year.

“The past eight years have been surreal and nothing short of pure magic,” states Quaid in the statement. “It’s so rare to have the chance to be able to learn, implement and do things the way we did as a team over the past eight years with SOK.

“After eight years, I feel like it is now the right time for me to bid farewell. I am parting ways to be able to focus a bit more on my solo career, my own upcoming album, web content and other projects that I am currently engaged with,” the statement explains.

After some probing questions from Instep, Quaid Ahmed noted, “I had been rethinking for the last year since Covid-19 (becoming much more a reality). In a country like Pakistan, it is often difficult to work as and within a band. Our SOK ensemble has always been big in terms of members and consisted of many ideas and ideologies. Your own creative portrayal that you wish to put out may not always be something that appeals to other members even as you cajole them to see that point of view. Sometimes you don’t agree on the same things. I compose, write lyrics and wish to focus on my solo career now. I thought it was high time I distanced myself from SOK and every other platform and pursue my solo career as a composer, with respect to my next album, plus some web content I’m thinking of for social media for my channel.”

Quaid Ahmed had more to add.

“I am launching a music production company. I have all these ideas in my head and I wish to liberate myself as an artist and when you’re alone and individual, you collaborate with others, and you don’t have to consult with your band members about it. You can do things with your own name; a band is also time-consuming and I’m hoping that for the next five odd years my focus will be on my solo career as well as on collaborating with a multitude of diverse artists, making music and content based on my ideas. There will be no creative block in the sense because whatever I wish to portray, I will be able to.”

The man at the helm of the music group, Ahsan Bari, also spoke to Instep, about where this departure will leave the band. “There is no untoward reason,” Ahsan Bari calmly explained, “Natasha (Baig) wanted to start her solo career properly, so she left a while back. We’re still family. Quaid came to me and before announcing he spoke to me. I had been suggesting this to him for a while too. With a band, it can be difficult and it has different demands. I am a very demanding mentor, so it makes sense. He has taken the right decision at the right time and he’s doing excellent things and to do those things, the focus required can only happen if he is not bound by other commitments.”

In addition to his work with SOK, Quaid Ahmed has released a solo EP called Sunlo in 2021 and has worked on collaborations with Laal Series. Here’s looking forward to seeing and hearing more from him.