It’s now a full decade since I am promoting underground musicians via texts, spam emails :D and since the arrival of orkut on social networking sites. PMR, UMR, J4Jumpy, KoolMuzone, PakiUM and others can somehow give me credit for their visitor development. In January, I was asked by an Indian Media Group to be part of their International Screening Panel for a Battle of the Underground Bands. The post “The decade long affair with pakistani underground music finally pays off” is pretty much self explanatory.
Those who know me well have an idea that I only promote young and underground musicians. Once they are famous and into the mainstream media, I abandon them. Same is the case with other promotions that I do including local technical and software products. During the screening process, one of the other judges asked me why I never took Band Management professionally. After all I have connections with both B’s, the Brands and Bands. My answer was simple and straight. “Because I love staying underground and only promote those who need promotion.”
Lately, few of my family members and friends who are now abroad working or studying sent me few requests for songs and I eventually had to make up an Online Music Repository for them. This made me think over the process again. Why bands contacted me before the age of social networking? They needed technical assistance to promote their songs online. Now things have changed with more awareness amongst us all about web tools. They have their fan pages on Facebook where they can upload music, pictures and videos. Also they can update their fans and interact with them. So practically people don’t need that “ROOFI” anymore and I am really happy things have changed for good. I remember JAL’s "Aadat". This is one of the biggest promotions that I have done in my life. The song was released in underground circles in 2003 and it took the band around 15 months to take the video to masses. That’s why Basim, on of my college friends taunted me with this. “Tu wohi ganay sunta hai jo koi naheen sunta and baad mein wohi 2-3 saal hit ho jatay hein and har koi sun raha hota hai”.
Cutting it short, one of my best friends recently convinced me that you should continue the practice even if things have changed and in fact bring all musicians on a single platform where fans can come and interact with them. So we thought about the idea of Groove Resort.
Groove Resort, a project of ROOFExpress is a social networking place for artists and their fans. It primarily acts as a bridge between the artist and music listeners. It has potential to become a powerful music community to share any music related information. Artists can register for free and share their musical experience through blogs and other sharing tools. The artists can provide information about upcoming shows, add albums, add fans, add photos, add videos (also embed video links via YouTube), create customized profile page and do other related tasks. Moreover artists can even give iTunes and Amazon links to buy the original work.
Any internet user can come onto musician’s profile page and can listen or download (if allowed by the artist/band) their work or videos. Registered listeners have privileges to create a customized profile, add photos, add albums to favorites, comment on blog, and do lots of exciting stuff.
Once you will sign up for your account, you will get to know about dozens of options that are available to you. Groove Resort would be a complete failure unless and until supported by artists and their fans so now it’s up to them how to make use of it. I have done my part so that no artist comes up to me and say “Roofi Bhai/Jigger, mera gaana and video upload kar dein and please post this as your status. I need your support to hit masses. Aap sirf apne doston ko promote karte hein.” They now have all the control in their hand with this automated system. Ending this post, I would even request the mainstream artists and bands to also consider it as an option to promote their music and show the rest of the world about the strength of our music community.
There have been speculations about it since I joined Aeon Technologies. But till now, I have been maintaining balance between both things. However now its time to officially announce that I would be leaving the active management of DesignMyWork and 13th March 2010 would be my last day as the CEO of this company. PrintMyWork affairs were already transferred to Salman and Shigrif back in October 2009. The reason of leaving DesignMyWork is somewhat the same as of PrintMyWork. Though being a techie, I am an admirer of design and beauty, yet admiration of great designs and art work doesn’t add any value to the company. I want to enjoy whatever I want to do professionally and somebody who dreams about innovative products was finding it really difficult to adjust in services of low cost projects. Yet the experience of jumping into an industry of which I had no idea was truly marvelous and I thank all my employees, partners, friends and mentors for being there when I needed them. The tenure taught me the designing issues, HR and Financial issues, problems in the BFA/MFA curriculum here in Pakistan as well as managing the Design HR. You surely cannot treat a designer as a software developer and apart from that awesome designers are really scarce these days. This venture would certainly help me in future with my professional life.
The problem with design business in Pakistan is that a design which might be awesome for one would be pathetic for the other and as Steve Jobs says that “You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new”. Also that “Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works”.
Most of the time people called us and said “2 Din Mein Website Banna Dein” without even realizing what pain one has to go through while making an original design. Even if you see our website, we did a wild experiment with it. Everything was developed from scratch. Even the music was specially produced for the website. But most of the clients don’t understand and perhaps the post http://theoatmeal.com/comics/design_hell on OatMeal explains it beautifully. Also we were being tagged as a web design firm and that’s why we have been very selective in taking projects. We tried to maintain our focus on original graphics designs. Our initial idea was even to provide the IPhone Developers & Application Builders with original designs and music as most of them are currently using the ones copied from web.
Now that I am becoming busy day by day, its becoming increasingly difficult for me to manage things. I am shedding off most of the extra affairs, volunteer activities as Saad Bhai, Khurram Bhai, Adil Bhai and Irfan Bhai advised me to concentrate on one thing instead of putting my legs in multiple boats. This also means that I would also be reducing my frequency of guest lectures in universities. I have one plan on mind at the moment and I want to concentrate all energies on that and Aeon Technologies.
DesignMyWork is however still the brand of ROOFExpress. I have not yet finalized to sell it off or to keep it with ourselves as a freelancing/full time firm but all I know is that I am done with it.
When i did my first venture, one of my mentors and friends Adil Saleem told me that 99% of the employees are not happy with their work environment. Knowing that i always kept my attitude at home whenever i came to office. I open/close doors for them myself, make tea for them and throw frequent office parties to make sure they are comfortable. Even though i don't smoke, i stand with them at the "Soota Gate" and discuss affairs other than the office work. Games, Social Networking sites are not banned on network. You can do whatever you want to do provided you are giving the input required from you. Even when i hired at DesignMyWork, i hired everyone on their "Expected Salaries" without a bit of negotiation.
Being a music fanatic myself, i have been generous in providing my office colleagues with headphones or small dual speakers so that they can enjoy music to keep themselves up. Recently i walked into my office in the morning after a quick nap and i was like :S and :/ to see the following song being played on 2 office systems. Still trying to figure out what "Sitams" i have done.
If there was one album that I was waiting for since long apart from The Rising’s, it would definitely be “GunKali” by Kaavish. I have been following this band from the day it released its single “Bachpan” on some Pakistani music websites. Moreover, I have listened to all their songs done for different plays as well the jingles for various advertisement campaigns.
The album, GunKali was released on 15th January 2010. Thus I recently got hold of a copy and frankly it doesn’t disappoint you. Jaffer’s mature vocals complimented by Maaz’s music have truly created wonders in this album and it is extremely difficult to figure out the best song. All the songs are fantastic, up to the mark and not ones done by learners and amateurs. That is why the album is selling like hot cakes. Hats Off to Jaffer and Maaz for producing such awesomeness in the tough times as well as Fire Records for believing in them. I can surely rate “GunKali” amongst the best albums of this year.
I wake up cursing the developers that I told them that I am going to sleep at 6 a.m. Can’t they just let me sleep for few hours? As I see the cell phone screen, the call is coming from an Indian number not in my phonebook. Yawning, I take the call.
Friend: “Hey, Rafaeel there?” Me: “Yes, who’s this?” Friend: “Dude, I am ******** (name not being mentioned deliberately). How have you been bro? Seem busy with your new ventures.” Me: “Hey, whats new? I am good. What about you?” Alah Blah Talking …….. Friend: “Hey, I called you because I need a favor.” Me: “Ofcourse, I know you have some work. Else tum itne achay jo you’ll give me a call.”
Laugh (both ends) Friend: “So now that you have figured out, can you tell me when we can have a talk on Skype?” Me: “At anytime convenient to you. I am not that busy guy. BTW give me an idea what’s the issue?” Friend: “I have now joined this Media Group, (name not published) as an Associate Producer and we’ll be doing an underground battle of the bands here in India.” Me: “Oh! Great!” Friend: “Well there are large numbers of entries, like 200+ and I want you to be part of our International Screening Panel to shortlist them.” Me: “What? Me?” Friend: “Yes.” Me: “Dude, I am not the right guy for this. First of all, I am not a musician. Secondly, I don’t have time. However, I can refer few good people to you whom you can contact for this.” Friend: “Listen! I don’t need them. I need you. Regarding you not being musician, I don’t care. All I know is that you were the first guy from whom I got to know about Noori, Jal, Roxen, Call and the band of your close friends, The Rising. BTW where are The Rising people? :D Its been quite some time that you are promoting underground bands and I know your opinion would not be biased because if I only take in musicians, they’ll be inclined towards their own genre. I know you listen to all types of music, so you are perfect to be part of our panel. Your second excuse is quite lame. I know you always have time for good music. Hope things get better and in coming years we'll organize Indo-Pak Battle Of the Bands. Any more questions?” Me (reluctantly): “Fine! Details?” Friend: “On Skype. I’ll ping you. Amongst the 8 screeners, 4 are outside India. You all would have to judge the bands on the basis of music maturity, lyrics and image etc. I’ll send you the evaluation sheet. We’ll either upload all the 209 demos or courier you the DVDs.”
I woke up analyzing why God is pushing me back into the underground music scene one way or another while I have kept quite a distance from it for last couple of years. There were few other signs in last few days as well which led me to go into my old room (now a store) and open the things that I abandoned long ago. I captured few shots with my camera few of which I am uploading to show my craze for music in my teenage life. At that time, internet was all on dialup and CD’s market was still emerging. Also PMR, J4Jumpy, UMR and other music promotion sites were just starting up. I used to download the songs from some local website at 2.3KB/s :P and then manually record them via "Line In" on empty tapes so that they can be played on home and car music systems. I marked every cassette with the RMC number. RMC stood for “Rafaeel’s Music Library” but now these audio cassettes filled in almost 5 bags RIP due to my busy schedule and the new gadgets & computer systems.
Audio Cassette Line In System - 1 (Speakers still used. Cassette playing abandoned)
Audio Cassette Line In System - 2 & 3 (Totally Abandoned)
Music CDs
RMC Collection Image -1
RMC Collection Image -2
RMC Collection Image -3
RMC 8: Indus Music Album featuring Ahmed Jehanzaib's first song
RMC Collection Number 5: Top Underground Songs (perhaps 2003) including Noori and EP
These things took me back into the memories that how SHODA I used to be after making people listen “Ali Noor and Ali Hamza” songs in early 2000. Aadat by JAL was actually released in late 2004 and I remember how me, Hamza (Aitchison, Hammy’s friend) used to sing it during A-Level days on Acoustic in Summers of 2003. EP’s “Hamein Azma” and “Kahan Hai Tu” and then how I used to make people listen “Yaadein” by Roxen in 2005 before its release. Basim in the college life used to say me that “Tu wohi ganay sunta hai jo koi naheen sunta and baad mein wohi 2-3 saal hit ho jatay hein and har koi sun raha hota hai”. :) Also few of my friends used to say “Why you do all promotions for free? You should charge for such promotions and making us hear this crap. Nothing is FREE in this world. There are always strings attached.” So I feel today I have been paid up for promoting these underground bands (now the stars).
Lets see how things turn up in future. I have listened to 7 demos and 2 of them are covers of Pakistani songs :D.
I heard Roxen singing this song at RockBall 09 and i was like "Wasn't this verse in Omer Nadeem's song 'Dil Ka Diya'?"
"Bujh Hai Gaya Yeh Dil Ka Diya, Teray Bin Lagay Na Mora Jiya"
Recently, Roxen has released the video of their version "Bujh Hai Gaya" as well. Apparently, Omer Nadeem was the former drummer of Roxen and was working with Haider Haleem on a separate project "Sifaar". As per my information, Omer composed some 5 songs in the album Roxen-e-Deewar which were
1. Chaltay Rahay (formally owned by Sifaar), 2. Jag Chor Diya 3. Aaj 4. Tu phir Aao 5. Sapnay
Is Roxen's version a rip off or the true thing? I am still looking for some official statements, blame games etc. because both sides are somewhat playing cool at the moment. Omer was caught up in the Atif Aslam and Gohar Mumtaz controversy as well.So, he might think thousand times before stepping up.
By the way, I personally think that Omer Nadeem's version is way better than Roxen's :)
Call The Band is releasing the video of their song "Ho Jaane De" on AAG & Geo TV Network on 14th February 2009. The video has been directed by my favorite Umar Anwar. Enjoy!
Faiza, the bandeya girl suffers a relentless blow to her name and her talent, while the incorrigible Khawar Jawad enjoys his 2 minutes of fame, marketing Faiza's composition as his own. The masses know her as the Bandeya girl, but long before that, Faiza was already composing and that was when "Kahan Hoon Mein" happened. However, a business split resulted in a jilted Khawar releasing the composition as his own. In order to right the wrong, Faiza released the song this October. However, due to lax copyright rules in Pakistan, she might not be able to do much, while her song gets publicized, sold, mixed and remixed without her consent in other countries, all without single credit to and the link
This may not reap any monetary benefits for Faiza, but will help in correcting a moral wrong. Stop Piracy. Download her song with HER name and more importantly, HER consent, from here.
Comments are also welcome at Faiza Mujahid's Page on Facebook.
