‘Common Sense Protects Us’

Faisal Kapadia, formerly a member of the iconic music group Strings, is a smart man. He is not entrenched by the view that music is dead. It is an opinion held by many artists who are middle-aged and no longer as successful as they used to be. Across different podcasts and interviews, they have shared such views and you have to wonder what drives them. Why such a drastic change of heart? Is it the rise of different genres and artists? But that happens with every generation, so the purely negative outlook feels disheartening.

One answer is success. Another is the lack of interest shown by the younger generation. Some do adapt, and one such name is Faisal Kapadia.

Since the disbandment of Strings (the band called it quits after 33 years), Faisal began his journey into music as a solo artist, first by appearing in a collaborative song with Young Stunners in Coke Studio 14. He also made a conscious effort to look at the industry-wide changes and embraced them in his own unique way. All those changes are the sonic layer of his debut album, Zindagi Jahan Le Jaaye.

Recently, Faisal collaborated with Arif Lohar for the soundtrack of a serial. But he didn’t enter without some experience. During his peak years with Strings, the band created the complete soundtrack of Jamshed ‘Jami’ Mehmood’s beautiful film, Moor. He is unfazed by the idea of a partnership because, as a solo artist and as a member of Strings, he has done plenty already.

Just after recording the song in a Karachi studio and heading for the airport, Faisal Kapadia spoke to Instep about soundtracks, working with Arif Lohar, and answered a number of questions patiently.

‘Complement the atmosphere’

Memory can be a tricky thing. How we form long-term and short-term memory, and what we retain can change. Its accuracy isn’t always what it should be but what we believe it is.

If I remember Moor as the group’s original soundtrack, Kapadia politely reminds me that isn’t the case. His experience with an original soundtrack actually began in 2004 as Strings for Spider-Man 2.

“Then, as Strings we did ‘Yeh Hai Meri Kahaani’ for Sanjay Gupta’s film Zinda in 2006 and ‘Aakhri Alvida’ for Shootout at Lokhandwala in 2007. We also did a song for John Day, which was Naseeruddin Shah sahib’s film in 2013. And........

© The News on Sunday