They are taking country music out of their country. Meet Zeb and Haniya, the velvet-voiced cousins from Pakistan who, after enthralling music lovers at home, are gearing up for a musical odyssey to India.
The girls are already a sensation on YouTube, courtesy MTV’s Coke Studio Pakistan. They recently landed in Mumbai for their first Indian music project “The Dewarists”, an online music-travel show that will see the two artists from completely different musical backgrounds travelling to one destination in India to collaborate over a song. Zeb and Haniya are collaborating with Bollywood lyricist, playback singer and writer Swanand Kirkire and music director Shantanu Moitra.
The song has a multilingual flavour, with Urdu, Dari, English and Bengali finding their places in perfect melody. “The entire video for the song has been shot in Mumbai. There’s something magical about shooting in real places rather than sets. We shot at landmarks like Chor Bazaar, Marine Drive, Cuffe Parade, and, of course, Mohammad Ali Road during Iftaar time simply cannot be forgotten,” says Zeb.
With their album Chup making a successful debut in the domestic market, the duo received the much-needed confidence — that music enthusiasts are ready to embrace their brand of music. “We write our own songs and while most of our compositions are in Urdu, there is a heavy Turkish and Middle Eastern influence in all of them. And of course, Dari and Pashto, our native languages, find a place of prominence in our work,” Haniya says.
Although they grew up in Islamabad, the duo traces its roots to the Northwestern part of Pakistan; they later went on to study in the United States of America. “There has always been a musical buzz in the family, although no one really took it beyond just something to occasionally while away the time. Both of us were also academically inclined and were planning careers in anthropology and economics. But I guess the lure of music was too hard to resist, and we decided to try giving vent to our creativity,” they say with confidence, adding, “No regrets so far!”
A supportive family may have paved the course of their future, but do the hostilities and the growing extremism in their country raise a cause of concern for their craft, especially as women?
Zeb replies, “The problems are definitely not gender-specific. The number of concerts have certainly diminished because of law and order issues, and every artiste is feeling the pinch.”
But like many other things, music too has learned the art of survival in Pakistan. “There have been innovative ways like Coke Studio’s online projects that have provided a succor for creative minds,” the duo says, adding that they will soon be releasing their second album, probably by the end of this year.