Pakistani singer Zebunnisa Bangash of the duo Zeb and Haniya was exposed to music in her childhood through live performances by Afghani, Turkish and many other sufi and classical singers. She chats with Divya Kaushik about being inspired by folk traditions from across the world
Breaking stereotypes and all similar clichés are definitely not for her. She is high-spirited, extremely sweet, focussed and ambitious woman on a mission to explore folk traditions and sounds from across the globe. She presents them in the language that may not be understandable by the majority but the rhythm and melodies are appealing globally. Zebunissa Bangash of Pakistani group Zeb and Haniya that shot to fame through Coke Studio terms India as her “second home” now. Thanks to her Bollywood commitments and other collaborations she has been a frequent traveller here. She performed at South Asian Band Festival. “It’s been a wonderful experience to keep coming to India since 2009. We were struck by how many people know our music. They were warm and friendly. Since then I have been frequenting Mumbai a lot doing work with some big names. I have had such diverse experiences, I explore different sides to musicality and new opportunities and it’s been overwhelming,” she says and adds that the best thing about a city like Mumbai is that it embraces everyone. “I believe whoever has talent gets an opportunity here to grow. Rest things said are blown out of proportion,” she adds.
Zeb and Haniya have millions of followers worldwide today. Zeb says that she is living a dream that they never really dreamt. “It happened all by accident. Haniya and I are cousins and we were together in States. One day we were feeling lonely and homesick and it was snowing outside. She was strumming guitar and I was humming. Just to keep ourselves happy we made some songs and we didn’t expect anyone to like them. Haniya is computer science major and a geek. She uploaded some music on some South Asian social networking websites and then went all the way to Pak. When we came in summers to Pak it was playing on the radio. That’s how it started. We just thought it was one of the things but then journalists started writing about us. We were encouraged by musicians like Mekaal Hasan. Then first album came. Before we actually started performing we had an album. And then we performed in Coke Studio. It was only in 2009, just before coming to India that we decided to seriously pursue music.”
The singer recalls her first performance in Pakistan at the time when there were hardly any female singers. She reminisces, “We started performing at a café in Islamabad and then in lahore. A lot of people were excited as we were not doing covers but our own songs. We were not really dressed up, we were wearing salwar kameez so we were not any quintessential rock chic. Everyone was surprised. We got a lot of support from people. They encouraged us to think out of the box.”
Zeb grew up in a family of music lovers. Her love for folk tunes and sufi poetry is rooted in her childhood. “I am ethnically Pathan and grew up in parts of Punjab and Pakistan that people do not get to know. My father was in the forces so I went to places like Gilgit. Music came to me through my family, specially through my grandmother who had a beautiful voice, she was a poet and she used to write in three languages. I didn’t see many performances on stage but since my grandmother was a keen listener she would make sure that at any Eid function or wedding we have live musicians. I witnessed greats like Sabri brothers to Khan brothers perform. We even had live musicians from Afghanistan and Turkey. Music was a part of my upbringing. I come from a large family and each had a distinct taste in music, so I got introduced to new genres and I got to hear music in different languages,” says Zeb who believes that it is wrong to see music through the prism of politics. “Just because you write a song about a women freedom doesn’t mean that your country’s politics particularly fall into that. Now it has become fashion that development agencies come to you where to do a song on issues, social or political. I don’t do that. I do a song that I feel like making. The essence of art lies in subtlety.”
When they stepped in the field of music the duo realised that people have a very diluted idea about the Northern music of Pakistan. When they decided to go ahead with their famous song Paimona, they were warned that since people will not understand the language, they will not like it. “But we thought that if we can appreciate it, so can others and it emerged as the most popular song. When we performed it on Coke studio, we got a rubab player from Afghanistan to play with us and that version did even better. That was an exciting discovery for both of us. We realised that we should not self censor ourselves. At times we do not create something because we do not give the audience enough credit. Now 50 per cent of my work is in language that nobody knows, but they are songs that people love. It is not important always to understand the language. Pashto is my mother tongue and I heard Dari being spoken all over when I was growing up, my grandmother wrote poetry in it and in the 80s when a lot of Afghan refugees came to Peshawar, they nurtured the environment. We had lots of Afghani bands coming and plying Farsi and Dari poetry in our house. I also didn’t understand those songs but loved them,” she adds.
Zeb and Haniya have a band based out of Brooklyn which is a world music outfit working with folk musicians from Eastern European and Ottoman traditions. “We are doing many folk collaborations and I look forward to discover tunes from across the world and let the people connect with them,” she concludes.