From anthems to love songs, Soch embrace all

interview

After 'Khabar' for Chambaili's superhit OST, Soch have come up with a song called 'Bandeya', the video for which has been airing in India as well as Pakistan, and are now releasing the video for their song 'Hamesha'

In the last few months, Lahore based band Soch have released the video for their song 'Bandeya', unveiled their new single 'Arz', and also contributed a track to the soundtrack of the film Chambaili. The group is now gearing up to release the clip for their song 'Hamesha'. In an interview with Instep, vocalist Adnan Dhool and guitarist Rabi Ahmed talk about their latest releases, new video, and current activities.

Instep: The video for your song 'Bandeya' was released a few months ago. How has the response been?
Rabi Ahmed: The response to 'Bandeya' has actually been very good and inciting.
Adnan Dhool: Upbeat! 'Bandeya' was released worldwide in collaboration with Indya Records, and was exclusively aired on 9x Network in India. In Pakistan, the video was aired on all major music channels. 'Bandeya' remained in the charts for over eight weeks with the likes of Sajjad Ali, Farhan Saeed (Jal), Junaid Khan (Call), and many other mainstream artists. 'Bandeya' has been lauded by our fans worldwide, and most importantly by music directors and producers from across the boarders too. We were edgy about 'Bandeya' initially. Having new artists and songs coming in every other day makes the Pakistani music scene very competitive. You have to break into the music scene, making sure you have something worth leaving an impact on your listener. And for artists like us, having limited resources, it was tough. It was 'Bandeya's elevated response that eventually made us realize if one has the potential and the content is mature and worth listening to, you definitely get noticed.

Instep: You are now releasing the video for the song 'Hamesha'. Please tell us about the song. What is the inspiration behind the track?
Rabi: 'Hamesha' is a mellow and softer side of Soch. It's a wonderfully deep, mature love song. 'Hamesha' is all about emotions. There's a power within love songs that people tend to pay attention to.
Adnan: I have always had an impassioned imagination and songwriting has always given me enough rope to run with it. I try to embrace love in bigger ways. It is a gift and I like to share that through my music. When I sing I want to touch people's lives through music. Music as we all know bypasses dialogue and gets right to the emotion. We as a nation are unfortunately bombarded with a lot of negative news every minute of our lives and I just feel that the human spirit has that element of possibilities and hopefulness that revolves around love. Love songs offer you that hope to keep going on.

Instep: What can you tell us about the music video?
Rabi: After 'Bandeya', 'Uth Jawana', and 'Awari', Soch was being stereotyped as a band that would do music and songs highlighting social causes and issues only. Soch does like emphasizing on social issues, but it was unfortunately narrowing down our audience. 'Hamesha's video will definitely put a light on the melodious, romantic side of Soch that our fans are not yet familiar with.
Adnan: 'Hamesha's audio is our first audio production done by ourselves in our own studio, PMR Studio Works. This is our first good budgeted video with the wardrobe being done by Fahad Hussayn, makeup styling by Khawar Riaz, directed by Adnan Qazi and edited by Murtaza Niaz (Murzie). It features Ali Shakeel and Kubra Khanum. Kubra also features in an ad for a renowned telecom company in Pakistan. Both Ali and Kubra have made a mark modelling at the Pakistan Fashion Week London. Kubra is now busy with her projects with some big top notch designers of Pakistan's fashion industry.

Instep: When will the video be released?
Adnan: The video for 'Hamesha' is all done and we are ready to release it somewhere near 26th of August.

Instep: Why did you choose director Adnan Qazi to helm this project?
Adnan: We have known Adnan for quite a while now. Upon his return from the New York Film Academy, we discussed 'Hamesha' with him, and Adnan Qazi willingly took 'Hamesha' as his debut as a filmmaker.

Instep: Are you satisfied with how the video turned out?
Rabi: Yep! Definitely!!
Adnan: Satisfied indeed. We are super excited about 'Hamesha', and are certainly looking forward to its release as well.

Instep: The premiere of the video was held in the UK a few months ago. How did that go?
Adnan: The screening of 'Hamesha' was held by Raj and Pablo at the BBC Club, and was attended by prominent celebrities and Soch fans. The director and actors of 'Hamesha' graced the red carpet at the club where celebrities like Raj and Pablo, Rocky S, Bally Sagoo, Sadia Siddiqui, and others were present too.

Instep: Have you had any live shows (in Pakistan or abroad) recently? How do you feel about the situation of concerts and gigs in the country?
Rabi: Yes, but unfortunately the random targeting of civilians with disregard for human life is pushing Pakistan brutally towards collapse and has been an absolute setback for the entire nation. As a result, all the internal chaos is virtually putting a halt to concerts and public performances too.

Instep: Soch also recently released the song 'Khabar' which was on the soundtrack of the film Chambaili. How did the chance to contribute to this soundtrack come about?
Rabi: Shahzad Nawaz had heard our song 'Uth Jawana' and appreciated our work. While the making of Chambaili was in the pipeline, we met Shahzad Nawaz through a mutual friend; it is then that he discussed Chambaili and asked if we could do a track for him. We had already compiled and recorded 'Khabar' by then.
Adnan: 'Khabar' is based on how every citizen of Pakistan is frustrated because of the happenings of all the tragic series of incidents that take place in Pakistan, like the killing of the brothers in Sialkot, the suicide of a widow during the Raymond Davis case, and not to forget the long hung-up case of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui.
Since Shahzad Nawaz had briefed us about Chambaili, we knew that 'Khabar' was just the right track to be used in a movie as inspiring as Chambaili.

Instep: Are there any other projects that you are currently working on?
Adnan: We are, at the moment, rejoicing the overwhelming response we got from RJs, DJs, and fans across the globe for our Urdu audio web release 'Arz'. Our main focus at the moment is on releasing some back to back videos one of which is for 'Arz'. We are also sorting out work related to our album.

Instep: What's next for Soch? And what can we expect from the group in the coming weeks?
Adnan: Lots of music and concerts. We want to work as much as we can and share our content with our fans on a regular basis as much as possible.
Rabi: Yes, playing a couple more gigs and then who knows, there might be something really thrilling up our sleeves.

- By Sameen Amer

Instep, The News on Sunday - 25th August, 2013