One of the gifts of staying at home during this pandemic is that artists have had more time to work on their craft and release new music. One of the most popular acts from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Khumariyaan, has been doing the same.

Although their music is steeped in traditional and folk Pashto music, they’re able to bypass language and cultural barriers by being a completely instrumental act. If you don’t have lyrics that need translating, you can just go with the flow of the music and interpret it any way you like.

The band consists of percussionist Shiraz Khan on the zerbaghali, guitarists Aamer Shafiq and Sparlay Rawail and Farhan ‘Bogey’ Bogra on the rabab. While all of the members are equal and contribute equally and all that jazz… Bogey is an absolute magician on the rabab. You can hear him weave his magic in the band’s latest releases from the Chaar Mix sessions: the upbeat and ‘happy’ Janana and the mellower yet intense Khawaga.

For a band known to truly come alive during their live performances, this quarantine has been challenging. “It gets tough when you don’t have a crowd and a stage to share your music and happiness with,” says Sparlay. “But we made these videos during the quarantine so we can give everyone a break from the gloom, including us.

Khumariyaan are using their Chaar Mix sessions to get back to their first love: performing together live

“For 10 years, we’ve been travelling nationally and internationally for one reason: to play live. It was super emotional for us when we played the Chaar Mix live sessions, as it had been a couple of months since we’d played together.”

Coming to the name of the sessions: Chaar Mix. What is the story behind that? “Chaar Mix is a legendary drink in Peshawar,” laughs Sparlay. “If you’re from Peshawar, you know the legendary shop that serves it. It’s a super heavy shake with four or more fruits. We named it that so our original OG fans from our city could smile when they heard it.”

What does Khawaga mean? “Khawaga is a Pashto word,” responds Sparlay. “It means anything that’s sweet. We’ve played it [the song] sweetly, so we named it sweet.”

But it turns out, there’s more. “This one time while in Quetta, one of the members was getting a trim and asked the barber to take just a little bit off the top. The barber replied ‘Meetha meetha kaat dun?’ [Do you want me to cut it sweetly?] And that’s been with the band ever since!” he laughs.

The first track they released from the session is the more upbeat instrumental track titled Janana. The band really had fun with this one — throughout the performance, they can be seen exchanging looks and looking very amused, as if sharing a private joke. “Janana is a modified version of a very well-known folk song called Janana Sharabi,” laughs Sparlay. They first tried to cover it in 2014 but somehow it didn’t work. They revisited the track six years later, and finally figured out how they wanted to do it.

What’s that secret joke they seem to quietly be sharing? Sparlay swears it’s just the music. “We love our folk music!” he says. “These tunes are set to the beats of the attan (traditional dance in the north) and they always get us going. Every rock-star, popstar, any-star plays a folk song at the end of their set to get the crowd going… these tunes are in our bones and that’s the smile you see.”

These songs, like all Khumariyaan songs, have been recorded in one take. Khumariyaan aims to work on and release their debut album later this year.

And finally, are they ever going to incorporate a singer into the line-up? “The question of all questions!” responded Sparlay. “We won a Lux Style Award (last year) without a singer so we aren’t still sold on having one as a permanent member. Between the four of us, we can hold a tune. But a rolling member or a collaboration with professional singers is something we plan on doing. The biggest bands in Pakistan were sacrificed for [their lead singer’s] solo careers, leaving the composers and musicians out of the limelight. So, yes and no. But a mutually beneficial kind of arrangement is something we are always up for.”

Until then, we’ll have to make do with the fruits of Chaar Mix.

Published in Dawn, ICON, June 7th, 2020