“Coke Studio gives artists a chance to break out of their usual style.” – Qurram Hussain of Josh
They came, they sang, they conquered and now they are back home in Canada. They are Josh, comprising of Qurrum Hussain aka Q and Rupinder Magon aka Rup.
Speaking with Instep Today from Canada, Q said about the Coke Studio experience, “Everyone always knows that Coke Studio gives the artists a chance to break out of their usual style a bit, but really its Rohail and Umber’s comfortable attitude that makes it easy to experiment. When Rohail had discussed the project with us, he was open to any ideas we had for music and presentation, so we were able to take Coke Studio in different directions with songs like ‘Bari Barsi’. That being said, I was a little nervous about the band because we had not jammed with them and just sent the music ideas over email. But when we landed and had our first jam it was easy to see how tight the band was, and that allowed me to really free my mind from the music and just concentrate on the performance.”
And while we wait for the third episode of Coke Studio to air, Q further explains why the band chose ‘Jaaney Do’ – their cult hit for this season.
“Jaaney Do is a song we had planned on releasing from Kabhi. We even had started planning the video shoot, but it fell apart at that time. This gave us the opportunity to bring that song back. It’s a personal favorite of ours because its one of the oldest songs we wrote, and it was actually written at the airport in Frankfurt, so for the longest time we called it ‘Frankfurt’! When a song is so inspired that it cannot even wait till we get home from a trip to get written, you know its something special!” says Q.
Speaking on the importance and the perception that Coke Studio has helped create, Rup of Josh says, “Coke Studio hasn’t changed the way I feel about the music industry here. It has only strengthened my perception of how interesting Pakistan music really is. The very fact that pop, rock, and bhangra bands exist here without the push of the film industry is amazing. I wish all territories could do the same.”
This week Josh will play their energy packed ‘Bari Barsi’ on Coke Studio’s third episode so do watch out. Josh are really just that – Josh.
link: The News International – No. 1 English Newspaper from Pakistan – Saturday, December 30, 1899