In conversation with .. 8!

Where are you right now?
I am in my hometown Lahore right now!
Pakistan is hot around this time – Berlin
could need it a little!
I can imagine! I really like your single
“Home”.
I am glad it resonates with you. Home is the
intro to the EP These Days, actually!
Oh nice, when is the EP coming out?
When the producers are done with it!
(laughs) At the moment, I am drafting
the audio narrative along with some
visual storylines. I believe this project
must communicate the dialogue and plea
clutched within – that is the only way it will
encourage thought or a faint change where
it is needed.
Do you think your music is more
influenced by western music or do you try
to encompass South East Asian elements
as well?
I believe I am the embodiment of the
sound I birth and nurture. In a colonial
atmosphere of geographical restraint
and questioned identities, I have found
the influence selective and collective, yet
fleeting - be the influence from South Asia,
South East Asia, or the West.
In South Asian society, especially Pakistan,
most individuals, from a young age, are
subconsciously ejecting themselves from
their immediate context. The longing to
escape often stems from societal policing.
I have found personally that to have affected
my levels of responsiveness, or appeal,
towards those contextual elements you
might be discussing. The art, however
separate, becomes readily jumbled within
the fight or flight.
In the crucial time of my musical growth,
the West had been more dominant in
the narrative. In the naïve, black and
white, and emotional mind of a young
musician, what was less understood
here felt easily communicated in the
overtly “open” culture outside – the
details seemed far less important
than the freedom the outside world
exhibited. Southeast Asia, too
well like South Asia, seemed too
close on the mental map – the
colonial projection and consumption
concealed much of the influence from
elsewhere, which revealed as I grew outside
that bubble.
I want to embrace more.
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