Singing with passion

Across borders

This band of brothers is considered the ‘21st century pop revolution of Pakistan’. Eyebrows rose when these ‘well-educated Pakistanis’ broke societal norm, moved away from mainstream professions, to follow their passion — music.

But Ali Noor and Ali Hamza, who make up the band Noori, marched forward, guitars in hand, and never looked back.

Making a mark

Noori took the Pakistani music scene by storm in 2002 with their debut single Manwa Re. Their first album ‘Suno Ke Main Hun Jawan’ (2003) was a huge hit with Urdu and Hindi music listeners all over the world and introduced the pop and rock music genres to the Pakistani mainstream.

Its content was a departure from the usual diet of mushy love songs and focused on inspiring the youth to do something worthwhile with their lives. It was a record-breaker for any debutant in the history of Pakistani pop music. Not just in terms of record sales, but the band performed over 200 concerts within the first two years of coming out into the music scene.

It is this unprecedented success that paved the way for a lot of educated Pakistani youngsters to come out of the underground and pursue music on a full-time basis. With deep, meaningful lyrics and soul-stirring music churned out by a medley of traditional and western instruments, Noori has nurtured a dedicated fan base.

Noori was in India to perform at the goMAd festival that concluded recently. In a chat with Sunday Herald, Ali Noor and Ali Hamza talk about their journey so far.

“Noori is not just a name, it is a concept. It means ‘made of light’. It is the source of light which helps us see things in existence differently and explore the unexplored,” says Ali Hamza.

“We don’t just want to become rock stars, rather, we want to be able to speak to our audience, to the society. None of our songs are driven by the orthodox themes of love, heartbreaks or heartaches. Instead, we have tried to encapsulate emotions on deeper levels of realisation that would trigger a spark within the hearts of the people and make them act upon the messages.

Our music is our art, and for us, it has a very clearly identified purpose. We don’t believe in art without a purpose and, hence, our music encapsulates a plethora of messages. We have always believed that lyrics should be abstract rather than straight-forward, otherwise people will stop pondering over life,” says Hamza.

“For both of us, the earliest influence comes in the form of our mother playing the Shruti Saagar, a modern South Asian classical instrument developed by our maternal grandfather and ‘renaissance man’ Raza Kazim. Also, Raza’s philosophy moulded our thinking since childhood. We were never told building a career was important.

We were collectively driven by the desire to pursue ‘objective pleasure or happiness’, which goes beyond individual and selfish pursuits,” says Ali Noor. Going by their popularity, these ideas, translated into their music, seem to have struck the right chord with the Pakistani youth.

In 2010, Noori was part of Coke Studio Pakistan and came out with a number of commercial music videos. Noori’s music matured as they journeyed from ballads to rock to pop and finally, to fusion. The duo continues to explore a variety of soundscapes from classical and folk to electronica to even full-scale orchestra. Yet, they believe that rock ’n roll is there to rule.

“We have toured internationally from India to Norway, Canada and the United States. The experience has been exhilarating; we have been able to connect to people through the universal language of music. It is humbling to know that your fans have driven or flown hundreds of miles just to watch you perform. The response of the audience throughout the world has been very encouraging and gives credibility to the statement: music has no borders.”

Music without borders

The band has collaborated with many artistes with some right across the border. “We have collaborated with Indian artistes like Anaida and recently, we did a collaboration with the Indian Jazz folk duo Adil and Vasundhara for the SoundTrek series.

We were the only Pakistani band among Indian musicians like Avial, Lucky Ali, Indus Creed and others. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. We played the instruments while Adil and Vasundhara along with a Rajasthani folk percussionist added their element to our song.

We have also been working on a project with Hari and Sukhmani. It is a very different sound and a collaboration in the truest sense of the word because this fusion blends in the unique sound of Hari and Sukhmani with the musicality of Noori.”

So, what’s next? “We are coming out with our next album soon. Our dream is to make music all our lives and never stop.”