For Quick Alerts
ALLOW NOTIFICATIONS  
For Daily Alerts
Oneindia App Download

Pakistan's first girl band strike a chord with the media

By Staff
|
Google Oneindia News

London, December 23 (ANI): Pakistan's first girl band, with Zeb and Haniya as its only members, have created a stir on the back of debut album 'Chup', which recently received rave reviews in the country's major newspapers.

The two girls are ethnic Pashtuns, and their families hail from the town of Kohat in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, a region that has become synonymous with the Taleban and al-Qaeda.

"We've never lived there, but we do keep going back for family functions and get-togethers," the BBC quoted Haniya as saying.

The girls, however, made it clear that they wanted to be recognised for the quality of their music, not their background.

According to reports, they appear to have struck all the right chords thus far because the media has praised them a lot. "It all started five years ago when we were in college in the US and starting writing songs," Zeb said.

The two girls were undergraduate students at Smith and Wesleyan college at the time.

"I started experimenting with different instruments and sounds," Haniya recalled, adding, Zeb had been taking singing classes for a while and we got together to record some songs."

Haniya revealed that they had uploaded their songs on to the Internet, and that it was only after returning to Pakistan that they came to know about their popularity.

"When we got back to Pakistan, we found out that some of the local FM radio stations had actually been playing them," she said.

Zeb said that the advent of local radio channels in Pakistan, which broadcast both local and international talent, gave them further encouragement.

"That got a lot of our friends encouraging us, so we decided to do it more seriously," she added. Though they compose their music together, Zeb has revealed that Haniya is the main music writer and sings in a few of the songs on the album.

The girls credited local musicians for helping them make their album, which generated a response greater than they ever expected.

"We were a bit overwhelmed - it just took a little while to sink in. The first time we played in a concert, we were hooted at initially. But when the music started the response was stupendous. It was gratifying as our music is not typical Pakistani pop," said Haniya.

The band's music is soft with a lot of blues influence and some eclectic pop flavour. They admit they have "much room for improvement". (ANI)

For Daily Alerts
Get Instant News Updates
Enable
x
Notification Settings X
Time Settings
Done
Clear Notification X
Do you want to clear all the notifications from your inbox?
Settings X
X