Collaborating with Sona Mohapatra with a music video shot in Istanbul, Strings show just how you don’t need a boy-girl video for a beautiful song off their new album, 30.
The year 2019 is here. And yet, there are still those who continue to ponder about the fate of music, the effects of corporatization on music or worse, the death of music. As ominous as that sounds and though there may be issues in the music scene, but the scene is still throwing out incredible content, so it is far from over.
And you don’t have to look any further than Strings, Pakistan’s longest running and much revered music group – who have proven everyone wrong by releasing new songs and new videos since last year after parting ways with Coke Studio amicably - having helmed season 7 to season 10. Celebrating 30 years of Strings, the band named their new album, 30 and began releasing new tracks with their seventh release being ‘Naina’ that appeared in 2019.
Directed by Sohail Javed in Istanbul, Turkey, ‘Naina’ features Sona Mohapatra and Faisal Kapadia on vocals with lyrics by Amir Khusro and additional lyrics by Anwar Maqsood. It showcases another side of Strings, them at their melodic, subtle, searching selves. As for the song, it is beautiful enough to leave a footprint and isn’t one that’ll get lost in this overloading content age where you have access to all sorts of music and struggle to pay attention.
It is also fantastic that the band has moved away from urban life and is singing Amir Khusro poetry and about “the village women” and the “beloved” in the song.
Strings tend to have two sides in their records. The playful numbers, the ones they play at gigs, and the solid classic ballad(s) side that haven’t been surpassed by many other mainstream names like a Farhan Saeed or even an Arjit Singh. ‘Naina’ works because it has many hues, both lyrically and visually. Each time you return to the song, you find a little piece you didn’t hear before or focus on, in terms of its video.
While Faisal Kapadia and Sona Mohapatra complement each other’s voices – making it a sharp collaboration – the video doesn’t contain the boy-girl storyline but is more atmospheric, sonorous with little elements shining. Featuring Bilal Maqsood, Faisal Kapadia with Mohapatra joining them, with the former playing his guitar, ‘Naina’ is a very strong song.
In an earlier interview with Instep, Faisal Kapadia and Bilal Maqsood noted how they try to make their videos different. When it comes to the music videos, noted Faisal Kapadia, “Sometimes, you look at the story of the video and you hope it complements the song. ‘Anjane’ was not typical,” to which Bilal Maqsood added, “When directors present us with a concept for a song, if the video is depicting the song exactly as it is, even we don’t enjoy it. Our songs slowly grow on you. The visuals might be saying something else. The song might be something else. For instance, people didn’t like ‘Duur’ at first because people expect a beautiful girl and a boy having a thing. Our videos are not like that. We push the director to take it to a different space. It is not necessary to abide strictly by lyrics.”
Beginning with the song ‘Sajni’, Strings have gone on to release brand new tracks such as ‘Urr Jaon’, ‘Piya Re’, ‘Mil Gaya’, ‘Hum Dono’ and ‘Chal Para’ prior to ‘Naina’ . All of the songs have been accompanied by music videos by a variety of directors. Seven down, one more to go!
