ohail Hyatt is the personification of happiness.

The weather – where he is – is nothing short of blistering, but he walks on, open to the discomfort because of the clarity and transformation he feels, leading an organic lifestyle. It includes “so much to do” and he isn’t talking about Velo Sound Station 2.0. He is talking about a farm. I did – unfortunately – forget to ask him about any animals or moors but nonetheless he sounds like a happy camper.

Whether located in the hills or a maximum city like Karachi, you cannot remove Rohail Hyatt’s fan following and artistic value even if there are detractors.

A great deal has been said about Coke Studio (Pakistan). The changes made to the producer’s chair over the years, the show’s design to recruiting well-established artists and offering emerging ones a space, cover songs versus original material, successful and non-successful collaborations as well as the creation of stars through this particular vehicle, have all been discussed endlessly.

In its 15th year, Coke Studio is still going strong. In fact, after its last run, expectations have never been higher and to the relief of fans, it is coming back.

And yet, the components of folk, ghazal, classical and eastern methodology took a backseat in season 14 in most respects.

From seasons one to four, the executive producers (Rohail Hyatt, Umber Hyatt) made sure the music series was fascinating and each track was put out after careful deliberation, particularly in terms of contemporary and eastern hues within the songs.

But season five saw serious changes within the larger structure of Coke Studio including a solo executive producer in Rohail Hyatt. By season six, he took the show out of the country, but a terrific season was welcomed in an abominable fashion, something that had never happened in previous years.

Changing hands, the production gig first went to Strings for four seasons (seven to 10), followed by Zohaib Kazi and Ali Hamza (season 11) for one season, before going back to Rohail Hyatt for season 12 and 13 and finally to Zulfiqar ‘Xulfi’ Jabbar Khan for season 14. The Xulfi season opened to enormous success last year, in and outside the country.

Rohail Hyatt, after a break from the limelight, made a comeback in recent years and has moved on to Velo Sound Station. But as Coke Studio gets set to release a landmark 15th season, asking him how he feels about the evolution of the music series does feel like an apt question.

“Sometimes we have to leave what we know to find out what we know.”– Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey

What made him leave the show after the sixth season of Coke Studio; was it a self-imposed hiatus on making music, and if so, what made him come back to the music series?

Rohail Hyatt doesn’t think about things in binary terms. Talking to Instep, he reflects on the show and uses an interesting analogy to describe the backstory. “The way I see it, you have a time – just like any living thing that breathes in and out. When you’re breathing out, that is what people see (like ‘oh, he is doing something’), and when you’re breathing inward, it seems as if we’re doing nothing. But breathing inward is as important as breathing outward, right?” he says.

“Those are not periods of being dormant. Those are periods of learning, reflection. I was never meant to come back to Coke Studio after season six,” he clarifies. “But the brand was on the brink of shutting down the show after season 11.”

For Hyatt, who calls Coke Studio his baby, coming back became inevitable. An international ally, he remembers, asked him to come back and handle it for a year. “I agreed to do one season.”

However, when coronavirus became commonplace, for safety reasons, Coke Studio 13 was recor-ded remotely.

“Doing season 12 [and in some ways even 13] was just going back and helping a project that needed help; it was not about coming back into Coke Studio in any way.”

Rohail Hyatt says that he’s always thinking about what to do next; when and what to exhale, and then with this shift of venue in life, he was in no mood to work in a certain way. But another ally asked him to look into Velo Sound Station 2.0. after Bilal Maqsood turned down the offer. And so came the Rohail Hyatt version of the music series we’re watching these days. Of course, he will tell you that credit belongs to the artists, directors, and his role is that of a mentor and guide.

In the early days of Coke Studio, what was visible prominently was the presence of folk and traditional artists, something which was lacking in the otherwise brilliant season 14. That may just be my perspective but compared to even season 13, it felt as if the songs went towards a modern scale with very little to offer in terms of folk music.

“Traditional and folk music is our responsibility; it is the responsibility of the government who should care about the fact that these traditional art forms are dying and something needs to be done about it. All of the cultural heritage departments of the government like Arts Council of Pakistan, and Lok Virsa are doing as much as they can. But it’s not enough. Things that don’t evolve and change in time die their natural death. The onus also falls on folk and traditional artists and whether they are reinventing themselves with the times or not.”  

How does Hyatt see this shift in Coke Studio as well as the declining future of folk music, the last generation of the creators of certain local and regional instruments, and the generation that seems to be dying out?

“From my perspective, we’re talking about two things. One phenomenon is that folk, classical and traditional music is dying. It was always dying but it seems it had a little short-lived stint with Coke Studio. The other phenomenon is the choice of artists by brands. Why do they choose certain artists or songs?

“Traditional and folk music is our responsibility, it is the responsibility of the government who should care about the fact that these traditional art forms are dying and something needs to be done about it,” he says.

“Professionals work commercially. That’s how they survive. If I am a music producer, I’m not doing charity. I have to make sure that my time is premium and I get something back from it. I can do charity to a limit – likewise there needs to be a business end for folk to survive. All of the cultural heritage departments of the government like Arts Council of Pakistan, and Lok Virsa are doing as much as they can. But it’s not enough.

“The other side to this is why has it lost its appeal? I faced a lot of this during Coke Studio. It is very difficult to get traditional artists to embrace change. For example, a bandish ends somewhere between 45 minutes to an hour. But do you have the time to sit down and listen to it?”

Rohail Hyatt compares it to Velo Sound Station and notes that if a song went beyond 3 minutes, an alarm would ring in his head because it felt too long. “In Coke Studio back then, some of the traditional songs had hit the mark of 8 minutes or 10 minutes or 16 minutes such as ‘Kangna’ by Fareed Ayaz and Abu Mohammad qawwali troupe.”

It was, as Hyatt remembers, a different idea at that time, where the effort was about bridging old with the new.

“Things that don’t evolve and change in time die their natural death. Their utility is consumed. It’s no longer practical. The onus also falls on folk and traditional artists and whether they are reinventing themselves with the times or not.

“Brands are not in it for the love of music. The sooner we realize it, the better. They are in it for the love of selling their product. And that’s okay. It’s not evil. They are marketeers and we create a formula for them. At the same time, an artist gets a song [or more], they get marketed; it’s like offering a package to them where it is clear that this is what the artist gets and this is what the brand will get and this is what the public will get: quality entertainment.

“I feel a brand is not responsible for a folk artist who is in the ruins unless there is a commercial angle. They are not Lok Virsa so I don’t hold brands accountable, especially at a time when record labels have fizzled out.

On the flipside, they do have certain responsibilities.”

As we make a segue to Coke Studio in particular and a landmark 15th year after a much-lauded 14th season, I ask Rohail Hyatt what he thinks of Coke Studio given how many music series have come and gone but Coke Studio is still standing?

“Stronger foundations tend to last longer because they can go through the contradictions and survive them. Coke Studio had a literate depth to it. For me, Coke Studio was unraveling everything that I was coming across in life, and it was more than one phenomenon like frequencies, spirituality, our roots and what it means to be a Pakistani. It was a melting pot. Coke Studio was a celebration of multiple cultures that reside within, and call Pakistan home. It was a presentation of those ideas. We have – at my last count – 38 languages, dialects. It was happening on a different level.

“I feel Coke Studio would’ve died if I had continued to do it. Because I have my own limited perception and thinking. I don’t have the capacity to keep regurgitating old or new stuff or my style of music. I often said that we need to find someone to take over. I was very happy when Strings (Bilal Maqsood and Faisal Kapadia) came onboard.”

If perception is power, the perception that followed once Strings took on the role of executive producers, was about Rohail Hyatt’s departure from the music series. He, too, remembers, it was seen in a negative light.

“But it is BS. I had done what I could do. In season six, I was going in an international direction; and it was Coke Studio Global. The reaction I was getting was incredible but a brand has its own parameters. Their dynamics didn’t allow for that to happen so that was then.

As for the longevity of Coke Studio, it depends by how it’s refreshed. We had gone out of the way to make sure the music was live on our seasons. Coke Studio 14 wasn’t live. Now it is a hybrid of sorts; it’ll always be my baby so the bigger it gets and the more places it goes, the more joy I feel.”