Haroon Shahid is a part of the increasingly-popular pop rock outfit, Symt, a band that has been making waves for the past couple of years first as a part of the Lahore underground scene and now as a recently launched mainstream band. Shahid was recently in Karachi for a concert and mused that “barring a few issues with the sound it was a really good experience and the crowd was also very supportive even though most of them had not heard our original material but again I am a firm believer in time people will know our songs by heart.”

With hits such as Zamana and Pyaar di Ganderi under their belt, Symt reveals that they don’t have a concrete plan when it comes to releasing their album, but hope to do it after Muharram. The next video the band plans to release is of a single called Jeenay Do. “It’s a song that describes present-day Pakistan and we feel that it will make an impact,” explained Shahis Haroon.

What kind of a response did the band receive after launching their first video, Zamana? “I personally feel the response was as expected: a lot of people talked about the eyeliner in the video and lyrics of the song but they slowly adjusted to it. We knew it would grow on people and it has!”

Haroon is perhaps, best known to his audiences as one of the finalists of Pakistan Sangeet Icon (PSI) – a Pakistani version of American Idol. Does he think it helped launch his career? “It did not, however, it taught me what to and what not to do as a musician. It showed how difficult it is to make a living out of music and how professional I’d need to get before I could even think about launching myself as an artist. It was more like PMA (Pakistan military academy) than PSI!”