Strings

Strings

For 16 years, the music of Strings, one of the most popular duos in the Pakistani pop music industry, has struck a high note for listeners.

Inspite of an 8 year hiatus from their existence as Strings, their songs like "Sar Kiye Yeh Pahaar" stayed on listeners' minds and with their comeback in year 2000 with "Dur", Strings has captured the top of the charts with one hit after another.

The Saturday Post met with Strings in Washington DC, during their recent US tour, dubbed the "Zinda Tour" to celebrate their latest hit "Yeh Hai Meri Kahani" from the Sanjay Gupta film starring Sanjay Dutt and John Abraham.

Faisal Kapadia and Bilal Maqsood are among the nicest people we have had a chance to interview. They are soft spoken, articulate, intellectual, humble, and really funny.

Let us not keep you any more from reading our exclusive Rendezvous with Faisal Kapadia and Bilal Maqsood, aka Strings...

What is the story of Strings…how did it all begin?

Bilal: It goes back to 1989. We met in college. We realized we both really liked music. Faisal knew Rafeeq and Kareem, who were a part of the initial line-up. We started by jamming together. It was a time when there was a boom in the pop music industry in Pakistan; a lot of bands were being formed. Strings was one of those bands. We started with some TV shows and then went on from there.

Strings released their first album in 1990

The big break for Strings was the song "Sar Kiye Yeh Pahaar" in 1992

From 1992-2000, Faisal and Bilal took a break from Strings

In 2000, they came back and released the hit single "Duur" followed by the album "Duur" in 2002

The next big release was "Dhaani" in 2004, from which "Naa Jaanay Kyon" became part of the official soundtrack of Spiderman 2's release in India

The latest buzz created by Strings is with the song "Yeh Hai Meri Kahaani" from the soundtrack of Sanjay Gupta's movie "Zinda"

You can listen to all of Strings' songs on www.stringsonline.net

Bilal: We knew that eventually we will go back to our music. The break was mainly to complete our education. In 2000 after we released Duur, we had no option but to do it full time. It was quite an effort to revive the band and Faisal's thinking was that we have to burn all our boats and do this full time. So Faisal left his business, I left my job, which was a big decision for us and our wives as well. When life is going well and you make such a drastic move, "kay music full time karna hai", it is quite difficult.

(In the 8-year hiatus from Strings, Bilal was working for an ad agency and Faisal was working with his father's business).

Bilal: Even we didn't know how much we would have to travel. We didn't realize how big the market had grown. Every day it is growing. The media boom on the internet has taken the market by storm. Pakistani music has reached everywhere. India has suddenly become the biggest market for Pakistani music. We spend as much time in Bombay as we do in Karachi. But it's great. Our families have gotten used to it. They also travel with us whenever there's an opportunity. Plus, it's not a 9-5 job, so when we are with them in Karachi, we are at home all day! So we get to spend that quality time with them; in fact maybe it gets to be a bit too much for them (laughs).

Zinda was an ideal project. The team and cast were great. Plus the storyline was such that it almost called out for Strings' music. So it went off very well and everyone was really happy about it; the song's been a great success.

Bilal: I think the video did the trick. In a lot of songs, you see that the star cast gets a lot of coverage but the singers make a short appearance, if any. The way Sanjay Gupta did it, Strings, Sanjay Dutt, and John Abraham were all really well mixed and given equal airtime. It just ended up giving the song a lot of prominence and importance, which was just amazing.

When we met him he told us that he'd been a big fan of our music since the very first songs we released in India. He had always wanted to get us to do a song for one of his movies, but he said that none of the movies he had made up to Zinda had the right place for a song by Strings. When he conceived Zinda, he knew he wanted us to do a song.

Faisal: They are all extremely professional. Sanjay Gupta knew exactly what he wanted to do with the video and when, so from a work standpoint, it was all very high standard. But the really great thing about working with them was that they are really good hearted people. They are all very nice and down to earth. Sanjay Dutt and John Abraham never make you feel like they are such big stars and you're working with them. It's become a really good friendship, actually.

Bilal: Usually one does projects and moves on, but here we are 8-9 months after the song was shot and we are still in constant touch. Every time we go to Bombay, we have to have dinner at Sanjay Dutt's house, just like you would be invited to a close friend's house. Then we recently heard that while touring the US for his Rock Stars show, John Abraham was promoting our concert tour to his audience by making an on-stage announcement. As for Sanjay Gupta, once the project was done, he took us to Goa for a 3-day vacation. He didn't really need to do that, because once the work is done, it's done. So what we were really taken by was not just the professionalism but the warmth and friendship that they've extended to us and we really value that the most in this whole experience.

Was the song "Yeh Hai Meri Kahani" written and composed specifically for Zinda??

Bilal: Yes. Sanjay Gupta narrated the whole story to us in our first meeting. When we came back to Karachi, we narrated the same story to my father (Anwar Maqsood). And if you look at the movie and hear the song, it's one and the same.

Faisal: The way Sanjay Gupta narrated the story was so strong that we've never witnessed that in any other project. He knew each and every one of the scenes, the camera angles, zoom ins and zoom outs, etc. It was just fascinating.

Bilal: We first did the music; that's how it always works. We first do the music and then the lyrics. It took me about fifteen minutes to do the chorus (Chubhtay kaante yaadon kay..). I was really inspired by the story and it just came very quickly. The song was maybe done in 4-5 days. But the whole project with the final version and the video took between one and two months. In fact, when I sent the rough cut to Sanjay Gupta, and then sent him the final one, he said "woh pehlay wala zyada acha tha!" (laughs). He had grown accustomed to hearing the rough cut while shooting, so when he got the final one it was just different.

What about the next album - when is it coming out and will we hear more of the traditional Strings music or something different and darker?

Bilal: The way it's coming up, it's very different. It's definitely more along the darker lines. But it will take time. We have not been getting enough time to focus on it. But we are hoping that it will be done by January or February of 2007.

Faisal: We are doing songs for a couple of Indian films. There's a UNICEF project we are working on. For UNICEF, they basically rely on us to create awareness about HIV/AIDS. We are the Pakistani Ambassadors for UNICEF's AIDS/HIV awareness program. We do workshops for homeless or street children, who don't have any guardians or responsible adults to educate them about these issues. Plus we go to schools and colleges to start talking about this subject, because people aren't very open about it. So we want to encourage dialog and discussion of this topic, behaving nicely with AIDS/HIV patients and their families, e.g. children who have lost a parent to HIV/AIDS should not face any negative attitudes. We will be doing concerts and a special video on this topic.

Strings are the UN Goodwill Ambassadors for HIV/AIDS in Pakistan

Bilal: They are receptive. It is really difficult to talk about these issues but if you use the right language and talk about it maturely, people are very responsive and receptive to this discussion. There's a lot of ignorance about this topic, especially in rural areas. They would have no idea if someone is dying of AIDS in front of them. But we have to be careful and we are given guidance on what kind of language to use so it's not offensive to people.

Faisal: It also helps that we are not asking for donations. We have no monetary interest in talking to them and it's just about discussing the problems and issues associated with identifying and coping with HIV/AIDS. We've gone to educational institutes for women and talked to them. We've gone to schools and talked to children. You just have to handle it maturely.

Faisal: You have to be careful with how many and what kind of concerts you do. Like we prefer not to perform for smaller audiences except if we really feel like entertaining a specific segment of our fans. Plus, we don't want over exposure either.

All about Faisal...

Born June 29, 1971

Married? Yes. Wife's name is Seema. "I met her 18 years ago when I was in college. She lived in the same apartment complex as us. That's how we met, and we got married 8 years ago."

Children? "Two boys, 6 and 2. I thoroughly enjoy spending time with them. I used to have a huge circle of friends and play cricket and video games with them. But now, my time is mostly spent with my kids."

Parents and siblings? Faisal's late father was the one who nudged him towards music. "He bought me a harmonium and appointed a music teacher for me when I was younger. He passed away in 1995, but I'm really glad he saw the first phase of Strings. Ammi passed away 3 years ago, while we were actually on a tour of the US. So she actually saw the second phase. They were both really supportive of our music." Faisal has three brothers and one sister, all of whom have lived in the US for the last 20-25 years.

All about Bilal...

Born March 23

Married? Yes. Wife's name is Tina. " We met at Indus Valley (school of art), we were studying there together." What fans may not know is that Tina figures in almost all of Bilal's compositions..."I've composed a lot of songs for her like Sar Kiye Yeh Pahaar, Aaj Din Bhar Bekaar Tha. If you look at the video for Sar Kiye Yeh Pahaar, there's some sea shells in them. I had brought those sea shells from Tina because she used to see sea shells in her dreams. She didn't know then that I was shooting a video. In almost all of my songs, there's something about her or for her." Then Bilal adds with a smile, "It's not a junoon like it was before, but there's still some little touches."

Children? "Three kids, Mikail 8, Khizer 6, Zehra 3. They really don't care about my music (laughs). They consider it my office work. I'm not a celebrity for them!"

Parents and siblings? Bilal is famous TV playwright and author Anwar Maqsood's son. "I'm very close to him. He's been my best friend as long as I can remember. Right from school days when I remember him hurriedly polishing our shoes in the morning, helping us get ready, or making us breakfast. My friends and I played cricket with him." Bilal has one younger sister, who is married.
"She'd also taken classical music lessons, but didn't pursue it as a serious interest or career."