India-Pakistan come together for music

Long introductory guitar riffs, edging towards the heavy side, gravelly but melodic vocals and hard-hitting words have always been Call frontman Junaid Khan's signature style. Unlike other popular Pakistani bands like Jal or Fuzon, Call's sound has always been on the heavier side. And has always been an inspiration for India's own indie rock band SPUNK!. While Junaid made a name for himself with heavy vocals that grab you by the throat, SPUNK! got its own steady following with their unique rock renditions of Bollywood classics like Urvashi, Oh Haseena, Tum Kahaan and Vande Mataram. What tied these two bands together over the years was the genre they followed – the same heavy Hindi rock.

Calling On Inspiration

Call had been an inspiration for SPUNK! since they were in school. So when time came for the band to finally put together an album of originals titled 'Aarambh', they wanted to do something special. A collaboration with Khan seemed like the perfect step to take.

"I remember when Call released their albums around 2005-06 and their approach towards rock totally blew us away. SPUNK! also has a sound that's not mainstream and commercial," explains the band's drummer Abhinandan Mukherjee. "I got in touch with Junaid since he's been a huge inspiration from the time we started playing music."

"A band's first priority has always been writing and recording new stuff and it went the same way for us," explains bassist Rahul, who was the brains behind some of SPUNK!'s upcoming singles. "The decision to record originals is not a fresh idea that we got in recent times but we finally decided to come out with one."

Making It Happen

It was Mukherjee who reached out to Junaid through Instagram. Mails were exchanged, Junaid loved the music that SPUNK! plays, and the rest is history. The track – 'Talaash' – which is the first of SPUNK!'s debut album was shot in Nepal with the help of a local production house. The video work was done by Bangladesh-based studio, Glitch, thereby bringing four countries together with the power of one song. "I can't explain in words how beautiful it was. We had a couple of buffer days before the work started and we discovered that we were all the same," recalls Mukherjee. "There wasn't a single moment when we felt that there were clashes of ideas. There was a lot of flexibility when it comes to work flow. We knew it would be an unforgettable experience going in and it was. India, Pakistan and Bangladesh were one at a point in time and we are still one in spirit."

United We Stand

Although this is not Khan's first international collaboration, he too was blown away by the experience. "When I heard some of the tracks that they sent over, I was amazed," says the singer. "The genre they were in was exactly like the one that I had been following for years. I knew that we would be in sync when it comes to sharing ideas. When I heard their music I immediately said yes to this collaboration."

The ability of a song to unite different peoples has always been one of its greatest powers. And for the artistes who collaborated for 'Talaash', there was never a thought given to different backgrounds or political tensions. Art, of all forms, says Khan, goes beyond politics. "There's tension between our countries but we artistes look beyond that. Artistes from here [Pakistan] and from India will agree that we love each other, we want to interact with each other, meet each other," he elaborates. "We think alike, we look alike, we are actually just two brothers who have been torn apart. This song will come out as a message of peace. When they see musicians from both countries enjoying themselves for the love of music, for the love of unity, they will feel that these bichde hue bhais need to be at peace."