Winners of Pepsi Battle of the Bands in 2017, music group Kashmir unveils their first non-corporate music video with an edgy punch to it and explain some of the ideas behind it to Instep.
It’s the season of music with winter gigs and several music releases upon us. Fortunately for particular followers of Pakistani music, Kashmir, featuring the awkward six individuals - Bilal Ali (vocals), Vais Khan (lead guitar), Usman Siddiqui (bass guitar), Shane J. Anthoney (drums, percussion), Zair Zaki (rhythm guitar) and Ali Raza (keyboard, backing vocals) - is riding on the momentum.
Though together as a band since 2012, it was in 2017 that Kashmir found national fame by appearing and winning the comeback second season of Pepsi Battle of the Bands with some excellent performances – both with covers and original material.
Since then, they’ve collaborated with Pepsi to release the music video of ‘Kaghaz Ka Jahaaz’ as well as another brand for a music video.
However, as far as music videos go, it’s ‘Khwaab’ that really packs a punch. It opens with the band, being taken to an undisclosed location by a bunch of goons, the dangerous kind. With the band members’ eyes covered with a cloth and hand tied with ropes, they don’t know where they are going except it’s clear that it’s a do-or-die situation.
Upon arrival, with the cloth wrapped on their eyes and an inability to see, they find their instruments and get onstage to perform. The public is enjoying but the band is performing, not out of courtesy or love. As the armed presence of the goons suggests, they are forced to perform. The audience doesn’t see it except for a child in particular who notices the anomaly and leaves amidst the song playing even as others enjoy the music.
As the song ends, the same goons load their gun and aim at the singer and the video ends. Of course, like all videos this one is open to interpretation as well.
The video is shot very well and the opening aerial shot that captures a rugged, quiet landscape is worth watching.
But there are several ideas, behind the melancholic, alt-rock track. As Bilal Ali told Instep in an earlier conversation, within the context of the audio, particularly the lyrics, he wrote the song as a vision.
“The song was just a vision when I started writing it,” said Bilal. “It was me in a room full of memories playing on loop, sort of what some may believe the afterlife might be like. It felt like I was searching for a way out, but I was just in search of myself.”
Distorted guitars, a gradual crescendo, this is Kashmir entering a new territory where genres don’t matter and that they are growing with every song, something many electronic producers from home and independent artists have mastered.
As the vocalist/songwriter told Instep, the concept of the video would be different than the song but in the end, the haunting ballad fits the idea.
Speaking to Instep recently to discuss the video, Bilal states, “My interpretation of the song was quite different. But it was the interpretation of the producer and director. Our input was there obviously.”
Explaining the idea further, drummer Shane J. Anthoney tells Instep, “The director thought of this concept and we all liked it.”
He adds further: “The people surrounding us are corporate(s) and people in general who hold these events. And they treat artists like pieces of meat. They don’t care about the artists and once the artist is done, they replace them with another artist.”
Shane went on to add that the video is a representation of them as artists. “And it’s the same for every artist, musician if you speak to them. That is essentially the message.”
For a band that has struggled for several years before finding national success, this dystopian music video is a bold effort.
Directed by Ashar Khalid and co-produced by Salman Noorani and Moiz Khan, ‘Khwaab’ works as a song and as a music video. To get both things right for a band that is still finding its feet in the music industry is a major plus and one hopes to see more of Kashmir in the future.
