Shane weighs in. “My influences are mainly indie drummers and groove drummers. I really love Dennis Chambers. When we actually make our music, we put all our influences into one song. So we see a lot of different things coming through, like Bilal’s [Lali’s] vocals are very different from a typical Pakistani vocalist’s. That gives a different sort of feel as compared to bands currently working. Not to say they’re not good, it’s [Kashmir’s music] just different. All of our influences make our music what it is.”
Lali expands on the take. “We don’t fight when we compose but we argue a lot because everyone is entitled to their opinion. We learn from each other. Whatever intensifies the feel of the song, we go with it.”
To elucidate the process, they talk about the genesis of Kaghaz Ka Jahaz. It was Vais who had come up with the basic riff of the track. “We were jamming one day,” recalls Shane, “waiting for other band members to come, when Vais said he had made this riff ...”
Vais cuts off Shane telling him that it had happened earlier. “Me, Zair, Usman and Lali were just chitchatting, talking about life, a riff hit me, I said to Lali ‘listen to this’, and Lali, I kid you not, penned the lyrics on the spot,” he says. “Next day I came to Shane, he played a beat and everything happened spontaneously.”
At this point, Zair and Usman enter the studio. The bespectacled Usman comes across as the guy who likes getting into the nitty-gritty of things. He is what a novelist would call ‘loquacious.’ He describes how the six of them got together. “Basically Vais and I, and another guy [who he doesn’t name] started playing music together. Then we thought why not make a band. Ali who plays the keyboard is with me since Class I. When we did our first show, I called Ali. We had a different drummer at the time. Then came Zair on the rhythm guitar.” One thing led to another, others joined in, and the band came into being.
What about finding the right sound for Kashmir? “To date we don’t know what the sound of the band is,” admits Usman. “If you have seen BOTB, you would have noticed that all of our original compositions — Kaghaz Ka Jahaz, Soch, Faisley — are varied.” He does say, however, that Coldplay and Radiohead are common inspirations for all six of them.
I return to the issue of what fame has changed for the boys, quoting the immortal line from Spider Man, “with great power comes great responsibility.” Lali reiterates, “It hasn’t yet sunk in because we haven’t had the time to think about it. Whatever time we get, we use it for jamming. We use the following sentence for ourselves because it’s true: ‘We are six socially awkward people who just like to make music.’”
At what stage in the competition did they realise that they were on to something special? Lali talks about the ups and downs on BOTB which once caused him to have a sore throat. Zair, who appears to be more media savvy than the rest of them, endorses his fellow musician saying, “I also had a sore throat and I don’t even sing.”
The fact that Kashmir is deferential towards all the judges on the BOTB indicates their amiability. “The judges were spot-on,” says Usman. “You see, if you make a mistake on stage, you know it. You can’t cheat yourself. Not just that, the judges’ music sense was so sharp that they could identify the [musical] influences our songs had.”
I play the devil’s advocate, trying to turn them against the judges, let’s say Atif Aslam or Meesha Shafi, for passing vague comments such as ‘maza nahin aaya [I didn’t enjoy it]’. But Lali defends them. “Our music is atmospheric, which leaves very little margin for error. The slightest of mistakes would be caught. Also, the bar was set for us after we had done Mera Pyar [a brilliant cover of Aamir Zaki’s song].”
I try and come back to the point about musical unison. “Hamari aapas mein banti nahin hai musically [We don’t agree with one another on music],” quips Zair. When asked whether they point out each other’s mistakes while playing a song, they immediately say ‘yes’. According to Usman, Vais’s ability as a musician is double of his, but if he points out that the lead guitarist is not playing a certain lick right, he would generally agree. Vais concurs. “If Usman tells me that tapping is not working for a particular sequence, I will accept it because as musicians we know what’s coming off right or not.”
The band is not very keen on Bollywood music. They do, however, like Pakistani pop. Strings, EP, Noori are some of the bands they mention as the ones they grew up listening to.
Now that Kashmir is known countrywide — and I tell them I hope this will soon translate into worldwide recognition — their fan-base must have increased. I ask them if they have started to receive a big number of calls from female fans to which Usman unapologetically retorts, “Thank God for that!”
I walk out of the studio. Bilal’s car is parked on the road across the building. A motorcycle whizzes by, barely missing its door.
Published in Dawn, ICON, November 5th, 2017