Before ‘Na Tutteya Ve’ (that features all-female artists from Coke Studio 2020 in one song), a similar effort was first made during Coke Studio 11. While the song ‘Main Irada’ didn’t feature every female act featured in that particular season, it was historic in the sense that for the first time there were equal number of male and female artists on the floor, including house-band members.

The song was composed by Haniya Aslam who also co-wrote it (with Bilal Sami). During season 11, she was also a member of the audio team and featured as guest musician when needed.

Haniya Aslam, apart from being known for the album Chup with Zeb Bangash, has other accomplishments including the song, ‘Dobara Phir Se’ (also featuring Ali Hamza on vocals) off Mehreen Jabbar’s film of the same name and producing the grungy anthemic ‘Maa Behn Ka Danda’ for Garam Aanday.

Inspiring a generation of female musicians in particular, Haniya Aslam is back with new music. With the song ‘Ayi Re’, Haniya has both announced her return to music and to Pakistan in subliminal fashion that is her forte. But at the same time, both – whether we speak of the audio or the video – are different than anything Haniya has released before.

While the music video creates a trance-like universe, with its streets and lines going forward, the audio is nothing like Zeb and Haniya. It’s an admission that she has returned from another realm and if we take it literally, that realm could be Canada. As the song continues, it’s the story of what’s going through Aslam’s head. To give it away would be a mistake, but the song with its slightly grungier sound is a surety that Aslam has a lot more to her sonic landscape than past efforts and acoustic sounds.

Like musicians of her generation such as Ali Noor, Meesha Shafi, Ali Hamza, Haniya, too, has something to say and is using music to articulate those experiences, thoughts, personal narrative and so on.

To learn more, Instep briefly spoke to the artist. An excerpt from the conversation...

Instep: What are the feelings and emotions behind ‘Ayi Re’? What inspired it?

Haniya Aslam: ‘Ayi Re’ started out as a thinking process. I was trying to understand the past 10-15 years of my life, in which I saw so much of the world. I saw success and fame, I saw struggle and anxiety and heroes who turned out to be human like everyone else. I saw what it meant to pursue dreams, and that attaining dreams was sometimes as difficult as not attaining them. And most of all I learnt that patience is everything.

Allowing things to happen in their own time is essential. Through all of this, music has been my guide and my purpose. This song, I suppose, is a reflection of that journey, and the feeling of joy and freedom that music has gifted me with.

Instep: Is it a single or part of a larger EP and when is it due, tentatively speaking?

Haniya Aslam: I do have some other songs I’m working on, but I’m not sure if I’ll release each as a single or make them an EP. I’m not actually sure it makes much of a difference. Very few people buy albums anymore, and even fewer will listen to an album from start to finish. In any case, yes, there is new music in the pipeline! I’m hoping to release a couple of collaborations by early 2021.

Instep: After ‘Main Irada’ and producing ‘Ma Behn Ka Danda’, what would you say is the musical direction and narrative you want to put out?

Haniya Aslam: When I went to Canada and reached out to the local music and audio community, I found some groups of women musicians and engineers who were incredibly supportive and helpful. Even now if I have any questions, I first reach out to a couple of them who are my informal mentors. On returning home, I knew I wanted to be as supportive to the younger women in Pakistan who are trying to break into the industry. Most of the music I’ve worked on since returning has a strong feminist streak running through it, whether that’s ‘Main Irada’, ‘Ayi Re’ or Garam Anday’s single. Even though this isn’t something I actively sought to do, women’s empowerment has certainly been on my mind and has been impacting my decisions.

Instep: Like your contemporaries, what would you like to say?

Haniya Aslam: It is about the phase of life we’re in. We’re all successful, mid-career artists with families, and as such one’s focus and direction changes. My 20s were all about learning and exploration, 30s were more about fine tuning my direction and honing my skills, and now in my 40s I have a better sense of what I want to do, what I don’t want to do, and what my priorities are. I can’t speak for others, but I feel a sense of calm, which I didn’t before, and it allows me to sit back and attempt to see the larger picture, and explore the larger questions. And as I see life and people in a new light and have new realisations, I’d like to turn them into songs and share them with my listeners.

Instep: What else are you working on these days?

Haniya Aslam: I’m currently producing an EP for Harsakhiyan, which is sounding really warm and beautiful. I’m also working on two original songs, which will be collaborations with some of my favourite younger Pakistani artists.

Other than that, I’m busy with audio-post for a few web series, for which I’m training some very promising young engineers.