RockLite goes compact

Pakistan did have a shortage of bands – maybe once upon a time. But since the golden days of Co-VEN and its line-up changes, to the Mekaal Hasan Band, now on its fourth album, there has been no shortage of good, upcoming bands as well as established ones. One look at various seasons of Pepsi Battle of the Bands and True Brew TV will tell you that both kinds exist.One example is Islamabad-based music group RockLite. “It’s kind of like Murree Lite,” laughed Rizwan ul Haq, without revealing more about how he came up with the band’s name. After introducing RockLite as a band that can conjure delightful pop-retro songs such as ‘Kon Hai Woh’ and ‘Ghussay Vich’, both released with music videos- the former directed by Zeeshan Parwez and the latter getting nominated for an award as a short film -RockLite is reinventing itself again.Going more compact but still led by Rizwan ul Haq - who worked with Vital Signs on their second and third album (Vital Signs II, Aitebar) – the band’s present line-up has shifted. Apart from Rizwan ul Haq, the chief songwriter, producer and composer and vocalist Bilal Ashraf, RockLite now includes the late folk legend Tufail Niazi’s grandson and son of Babar Niazi (of Niazi Brothers fame), Jehangir Niazi, aka Jaanu, also on vocals and a female singer called Bakhtawar Ghaffar, also known as BG. The decision to add these vocalists had to do with the fact that Rizwan felt he needed to bring younger people into the band, lending the band to a fresher sound. “In terms of popularity, Bakhtawar is known as BG,” Rizwan told Instep. “She’s very talented; she’s the next Aima Baig; she’s the next Hadiqa Kiani and she is the next true pop female artist of this country, InshAllah.” He reiterated, “She’s talented and she’s gifted but the best thing about her is she’s totally into the scene, into the music, she doesn’t care about anything or what anyone thinks. She just wants to go as far as she can in her musical career. She’s brave, self-made and courageous.” “Our first song, presently on rotation on radio, is called ‘Khud Mein Zinda Reh’; it speaks about her and she’s giving out an inspirational message to all the girls out there that ‘don’t care about what others think, be alive in your own self, even if the society puts you down, don’t feel down, learn to be happy within your own self and you’ll live a happy life’.” The song is a shining star; it’s a lovely little pop ditty, engineered crisply and lives up to its words. “Apno ne moo mora/Hum nein bhi sab chora” – it’s a powerful song and marks the next stage of RockLite. It also has a video in the pipeline, confirmed Rizwan, while taking to Instep. “I discovered BG; she does jamming with a lot of other young talented musicians in Islamabad. I was really inspired when I heard her vocals for the first time and I knew there and then that she has a lot of potential and I am honoured at the prospect of producing her music.”Expanding on the band further, Rizwan noted, “We have three vocalists now. Jehangir Niazi, aka Jaanu who in his genre brings semi-classical pop to the table; we have BG who sings very light classical and soft-pop and Bilal, who is more of a pop vocalist. So there are multiple-genre vocalists in the band now.”In the meantime, the single, ‘Boondh Boondh Paani Paani’, which is about the scarcity of water,with a video directed by Zeeshan Parwez in his trademark style of animation, is also finished. Both the song and video (made available exclusively to Instep) are a step in the right direction during these times where information overload means living in a constant paradox where the more you learn about climate, the more you realize how little you know. Zeeshan’s ability to add a human element to the music video, should it release soon, will be perfect for the climate action movement that is developing in Pakistan. Lahooti Melo is dedicated to the issue of climate in its next edition and a climate march is also coming up later this month. RockLite is in talks with a beverage multinational for sponsorship with regards to this public service message taken by the band. Rizwan is hopeful about the prospect of sponsorship. As for the rest of it, Rizwan has gone back to the drawing board in terms of writing songs and the latest iteration of RockLite has made new songs. Apart from Rizwan on guitars, RockLite has a permanent keyboardist called Tahir. When asked about bass and drums and how they will figure in the compact session and live line-up, the veteran guitarist explained, “Tahir is on keyboard. I’m on guitars; I’m also the composer, and producing all the songs. We’re recording all the songs at my studio, which is called Gemini Studios in Islamabad.”On a concluding note, Rizwan added, “What I do now is I’ve made the group more compact and convenient. I produce the music in the studio. I produce the drum and bass tracks myself in the studio. When it comes to live performance, it’s the four of us on stage – Rizwan, BG, Bilal and Jahangir aka Jaanu. I have a sound engineer called Saqib Zaheer. He’s in the studio as well as on stage; Saqib triggers the tracks through a laptop. So the vocals are live and so is the guitar but the bass, drums and keyboards, we trigger through the laptop. It means lesser noise, more organized sound and that’s what I like personally. I like that it’s balanced even when onstage and the setup is compact.”The songs are composed by Rizwan with Tahir in the studio. “We work together, he works out his parts and I work out mine and we fuse them and then when it comes to the rest of it, Saqib’s part takes over because he is the engineer. He records and sequences the tracks.”

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