A sound so familiar yet so different; that’s the story of Raeth — a young band from Pakistan that believes the melody of life is the driving force behind their soulful compositions.
The band, formed by three young music enthusiasts Sunny Ghansham, Wajhi Farouqui and Hassan Farabi, is now ready to enter Bollywood with the upcoming film Marksheet. In 2006, Raeth made a rocking debut and has given hit tracks like Bhula Do, Tumharay Liye and Dur Jag Ka Tara.
The band has already been featured in the Pakistani movie Fragiles and they are now excited to take up more projects in the Indian film industry. Rhythm guitarist of the band, Sunny Ghansham says, “We as a band are really excited about giving voice to debutant actor Imran Zahid. Marksheet is a great opportunity for us because as musicians we want to make music together and not individually. Often, you find that only playback is given importance even when a band is taken aboard. But the makers of the film are not limiting our capability and have given us a chance to perform together with our original sound, which is a welcome step for musicians. Also, we have a huge following in India but films increase your spectrum and take you to a much larger base.”
The lead vocalist, Wajhi Farouqui, informs that the band likes to compose Sufi-inspired rock music and their songs are all about the intense youthful pursuit of romance and dreams. He says, “Through our music we want to spread the message of unity, peace and brotherhood. In Pakistan, whatever music we make is inspired from real life experiences. The musician narrates his own story and produces songs by himself. Here you have a machinery to do everything and lot of people get involved in the making of an album. Pakistani music is more reality based and is targeted at the youth as our film industry is not that big compared to Bollywood. Rock bands are more popular there.”
Hinting at their upcoming projects and collaborations with Indian artistes, Sunny mentions, “Right now we are working on our third album and will be collaborating with various artists like Shibani Kashyap. She will join us for a Sufi song and it is the first time we are using a female voice. We are also going to shoot the music video of Tum Meri Ho from our second album in Bhopal this June. We have also planned concerts in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Bengaluru during the release of Marksheet. Right now it’s only two of us here since due to a dengue attack, Faradi has not been able to accompany the band to India.”