Before Coke Studio 14 launched its final song of the season, ‘Phir Milenge’ just last week, featuring artists Faisal Kapadia in a solo avatar collaborating with Young Stunners to the public at large, an exclusive screening was held digitally followed by a session. Hosted by Spotify’s Artist & Label Partnership for Pakistan, repped by Khan FM, it included Fahad Ashraf, Vice President Coca-Cola Pakistan & Afghanistan, Zeeshan Sikandar, Coke Studio’s Middle East and Eurasia Manager as well as Coke Studio 14 season producer Xulfi, video director Zeeshan Parwez, and one of the two featured artists, Faisal Kapadia.

The conversation veered to how the song came into being to the sonic landscape and the visuals, as well as how Xulfi managed to convince Faisal Kapadia to be a part of the series after he had hung up his musical cape.

Producing four years of Coke Studio, as well as being a featured artist in the early years of the show, while creating music and putting out music with the still cherished Strings, he had pretty much seen it all.

But as Faisal had earlier told Instep, a long conversation with Xulfi had him convinced.

During the session, Xulfi noted at one point: “We are diverse. We love melodies and artistry because it is inside us. We have to uphold tradition,” he said, “But we also have to show a progressive side of Pakistan to the world and that we belong to a progressive culture. So, yes, we are proud of our tradition but with our culture we are progressing. So, we are transcending boundaries and we are global. We can create ideas and narratives that are global in nature.”

From hybrid-nationalism to an inclusive, progressive Pakistan, the agenda behind Coke Studio has certainly changed, but did the show deliver when it came to the audio-visual narrative? Keep watching this space…

Wooly and the Uke on
working with Sarmad Khoosat in ‘How’

Jannat Sohail Aziz, who goes by the stage name Wooly and the Uke, a singer-songwriter from Pakistan, currently based in Berlin (Germany), has some ethereal songs that you might recognize, including ‘Watch’, featuring Poor Rich Boy, and ‘Circle in a Circle’.

But after those releases, each with its own narrative behind it, Wooly is releasing an album in 2022, called Rebirth: These Days. She has worked with the likes of local female musicians like Haniya Aslam and Zahra Paracha as well as a Taylor Swift engineer John Mark Nelson on her first single from the upcoming album, ‘How’, which came with a music video she directed.

The music video features Wooly and a slew of terrific performers including actor-director Sarmad Khoosat.

Talking to Instep about how Wooly roped in Sarmad Khoosat for the music video, she recalled:

“I reached out to Sarmad and wasn’t that hopeful because I haven’t seen him do a music video before. But he was very kind; he appreciated my work and I think it played a huge role in motivating me to feel like I could do more - because somebody like Sarmad Khoosat was able to support it, facilitate it, and appreciate it. I think he played an integral role for this.”

A second single from Rebirth: These Days called ‘These Days’ has released for which she has written the lyrics and composed the music with Santiago Narvaez (Glitch Bird) producing, mixing and mastering the audio.

“There’s always an underlying message to my music,” Wooly said about her music – “particularly in context to the upcoming album.”

Talking about why she has a stage name, Wooly admitted, “There’s always a sense of comfort and expression in a persona and each song is about personas I create. Wooly was my cat and the only entity sitting next to me when I was making music as a young person. The only energy to drive me to do more. It helped me write more. It was like carrying your narrative everywhere you go.”

Nazia Zuberi Hasan on raising funds for Imkaan Welfare
Organization

Based in Machar Colony in Karachi, Imkaan Welfare Organization and its offshoot, Khel, is one of the most important welfare organizations presently working in the city of lights. From marginalized communities crushed by poverty and identity issues, to Khel, which provides learning and recreational opportunities to children, they do much more than this space allows. Suffice to say, their generous work has impacted countless households and provided help when none seemed available.

To that end, the dynamic singer-songwriter Nazia Zuberi Hasan collaborated with the organization for an event titled Bazm-e-Zauq featuring an “exclusive night of music and poetry” this past week in Karachi. As fears of Corona virus take a backseat with SOPs in place, and vaccinated crowds, events have begun across Pakistan, and this is certainly one of those which followed protocols while raising funds.

Talking to Instep about why she chose to collaborate with Imkaan Welfare Organization, Nazia explained, “It’s always very special to sing for a cause that’s close to one’s heart. I’ve had the opportunity to visit Imkaan in Machar Colony and see the incredible work that’s being carried out there by Tahera Hasan and her phenomenal team.

“I’ve done several music sessions at Khel with the children, and I’d encourage everyone to go and see for themselves Khel and other projects undertaken by Imkaan. I was happy to sing to raise funds for Imkaan Welfare Organization.”

Nazia Zuberi Hasan, best known for singing on Sawaal, the debut album by Rushk, since her return to Pakistan is carving a solo career for herself, with Bazm-e-Zauq being one of the efforts to that end.

She delighted her audience with a medley of compositions featuring the poetry of Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Hazrat Amir Khusro.

“I sang some of Hazrat Amir Khusro’s compositions. He was born almost 900 years ago, and I always wonder and want to explore the magic of those compositions that are still alive, and enjoyed by us.”

Nazia told Instep that she researches the backstory to whatever she presents to the audience, which helps her expression and context. She received “thrilling” response and the audience was “wonderful”.

As an artist, she managed to put her own spin on the well-known works of literature, before concluding: “Imkaan Welfare Organization is doing incredible work and needs support from all of us so that they are better able to carry on what they’re doing.”