If reports are to be believed the duo are about to be snapped up by our friends across the border and turned into rock stars.

It’s only natural that Pakistan’s music scene would see another Nazia and Zohaib; they were after all the most successful duo that we’ve ever had. But to label Club Caramel as just another incarnation of the pair would be grossly inaccurate.

In 2005, the restless feeling that they had tried to suppress with education and ‘respectable’ careers took over and they came back to Pakistan and decided to pursue music.

Adnan had previously been a stalwart of the underground rock music scene that gripped Pakistan in the ’90s. He had trained under Meekal Hassan and used to be their lead guitarist before playing with Ali Zafar as well. They first met at a concert, where Adnan introduced himself to Kiran as a racecar driver—true story. Later at a party, Kiran saw him playing the guitar. “I was really surprised,” she said. “I’d met him earlier and he told me he was a racecar driver and here he was sitting there playing the guitar. It was so different. And he wasn’t shredding the guitar or showing his chops or anything, he was just playing really soulfully.”

In his defense, Adnan says, “You introduce yourself as who you really are, or at least you should. At that point, until I met Kiran, I was a racecar driver.” Adnan was in fact so successful that he became the only Pakistani to ever come close to competing in the A1 races.

Did they ever go out? It’s a question they brought up themselves, without any of my prodding. “It’s a natural question to ask and yes, we did for a while. But we aren’t dating anymore.” They explained that the band had gone through a ‘breakup’ for a few months when their relationship ended. But they were friends, and they made really good music together, so the band didn’t stay apart for very long.

In 2006, at the launch of Cosa Nostra in Lahore, they had their first outing as an act—they called their concerts Club Nights.

There were only a 110 people present, but they were the crème de la crème of the nightlife in Lahore. Adnan had played many concerts because of his adventures as a rock banshee, but for Kiran this was her first time singing out in front of a crowd in a career she had just decided to break into. Adnan, a naturally shy person, would find himself speaking into the mike most of the time because Kiran would shy away to the drummer after each song. According to the band, it went really well; well enough to be booked for weeks after. “When we got paid,” said Kiran, “I thought ‘OMG, we’re getting paid so much for this’!”

For the next five years, the band played the circuit in Lahore and went on a nationwide tour. All this while Adnan insists they didn’t have (and still don’t have) much money. “We’re a band that’s good for business,” he said. “People come to our concerts to listen to us because we play good music.” When I asked them how they would say they aren’t selling out despite the corporate interest, Kiran said, “Because we’re making the music we want to make, from the audio to video. No one else is telling us what to make.”

If you’ve watched their videos, the credits are dominated by Adnan Sarwar. He composes the tunes, writes the lyrics and even directs the videos; Kiran then sings the songs how she wants them to sound. And you can see their touch in the songs. The second song, for instance, was a blend of noir similar to that which Meekal Hassan became famous for with Chal Bulleya. Adnan maintains a lot of respect for Meekal and though he doesn’t attribute the theme for the video to Meekal, does say that it is only natural for some of his inspiration for the video to come from the time he spent with the virtuoso.

They have only three songs out; the latest, Deewana, was released on Feb 8 this year. The video (once again conceived and directed by Adnan) starts off with Kiran loudly snapping her fingers in front of a mike before breaking out into laughter and setting the tone for the rest of the behind-the-scenes-cum-bloopers-cum-shooting-of-Deewana video. While the three of us were competing to see which one of us could snap the loudest, the Club Caramel duo failed miserably, leading them to confess, “We actually had five people snapping in the video. It took a lot of takes.”

And that statement is really the difference between Club Caramel and most other bands out there. The genre of their songs depends on whether they play to your taste or not (meaning don’t discount them just because they sing about love), but if you’ve paid attention to any of their videos, not only do they look great, they sound phenomenal. It’s the kind of production that makes a listener/viewer think that it must have cost a lot of money to make.

When I asked the duo about it, they agreed saying yes it did cost them a lot, that they were saving up for a long time. But when they quoted me a figure, it wasn’t really a whole lot. It took a lot of prodding to get to the bottom of how they sounded so professional—a lot of painstaking effort. Adnan, modest as he might make it, likes to get into the dirt with the equipment and the process to make sure everything is perfect. Kiran believes in sparing nothing to make sure that the video looks like they are indeed having a great time and looking good. “We try very hard to make it look good and that takes a lot of time and a lot of effort, which we aren’t afraid of putting in.” She quipped in saying that it was why her Saturday nights are now signed off to work.

Future plans for Club Caramel include a cross-country college tour and, if reports are to be believed, the duo are about to be snapped up by our friends across the border and turned into rock stars. “He’s a man with incredible talent, he can do it all,” said Kiran of Adnan. “Unfortunately I procrastinate a lot. Fortunately she’s a great singer and works hard at it,” said Adnan. n