Some have found Abdullah Siddiqui’s foray to the music production side as a real-game changer. But, as Abdullah pointed out to Instep in an exclusive interview, it was the combination of people and free-flowing ideas that lent the new season of Coke Studio 14 the flavour it has.

As the news of Faisal Kapadia making his debut sans Strings via Coke Studio 14 became public, many have been waiting on what Faisal Kapadia would be doing in this series - which is a departure from previous seasons, sonically and visually.

We’ve already seen one-half of the original Strings, Bilal Maqsood, in multiple musical roles. But, the question of whether Faisal Kapadia would pursue music or not lingered. Not anymore. Abdullah spoke to Instep about working with the veteran artist whom we’ve watched for nearly three decades with Strings as the chief vocalist.

“Faisal Kapadia is such an iconic vocalist and it was interesting because his pairing and the song he is on – it’s a very unexpected sort of collaboration. It was really kind of a challenge compositionally and as a producer to bridge the gap between these two acts.”

It required, as Abdullah noted, keeping Faisal Kapadia’s voice in mind.

“It needed to be in the voice of Faisal and to sort of create music that carried his energy, and it was an interesting task. His voice is so textured and lively and it tells such a story; producing for him was really incredible because I got to apply my skills as a designer of soundscapes in creating something that is tailored to his tone. His voice occupies a very specific frequency, and it occupies a very specific timbre, and producing specifically for it has been a big learning experience for me. It was how to produce for different voices. I’ve done that in the past but never to this extent.”

Wooly and the Uke on working
with Haniya Aslam

For an entire generation of female musicians, Zeb and Haniya’s debut album, Chup, was an inspiration. Released more than a decade ago, the anomalous yet beautiful indie-rock album came at a time when barring Hadiqa Kiani in the mainstream, female musicians in contemporary music had disappeared with Meesha Shafi being another exception.

Now there are all-female acts, solo female artists, bands with women and men. They are making music that is bold, daring, personal, showcasing a vulnerability that had started to disappear. Rushk’s 2006 re-release of their debut album, Sawaal, often went overlooked because the album’s face was represented by co-founders Uns Mufti and Ziyyad Gulzar. The vocalist, Nazia Zuberi Hassan, had moved away from Pakistan. Female musicians remained sporadic in design, with some leaving us bewildered. Chup became a possible cultural vernacular for future musicians.

Fast forward to 2022, Haniya, may have separated ways with Zeb, but Chup remains an iconic album for many others. Zeb is pursing everything from film and TV OST to music with her band, Sandaraa. Haniya Aslam, upon her return from Canada, went on to work on Coke Studio 11 as guest musician on certain songs as well as featured artist on ‘Main Irada’ and being a part of the audio team. She is also working on an EP with the title song released called ‘Ayi Re’ and it is delectable. Both Zeb and Haniya have a different sonic landscape and Haniya is interested in playing her role to help female musicians. She has produced the feminist, punk anthem ‘Maa Behn Ka Danda’ for the music group Garam Anday, and worked on several Mehreen Jabbar films in various capacities including Marina Khan starrer Lala Begum (sound design and mix) and Dobara Phir Se (background score, title song and music supervisor) among other things. Haniya Aslam did the audio mixing for Wooly and the Uke’s new single ‘How’ and when asked how and more specifically why it was important, audio-visual artist Wooly explained: “Haniya likes a lot of world music and she likes a lot of folk and acoustic sounds. She was very honoured to do the audio mixing, which made me feel honoured. It was also important for me to work with people who are very progressive and innovative. Some people are quite comfortable with whatever they are doing, which is always also fine. My goal is work with people who are doing something new.”

– Haniya Aslam, Wajiha Naqvi and Mehr Qadir photo by Insiya Syed

Wooly and the Uke (Jannat Sohail) photo by Mike Ioannidis, Kanella Petropoulou