Zulfiqar ‘Xulfi’ Jabbar Khan has always been on the periphery as a music producer and how the third season of Nescafé Basement pans out could decide whether he continues to stay there.
Over the course of the previous seasons, the show has produced new renditions of yesteryear classics, such as Larri Adda, Mr Fraudiye, and even international songs, including Guns N’ Roses’ Sweet Child O’ Mine.
Xulfi has been associated with Call and Entity Paradigm (EP)
Speaking to The Express Tribune about the upcoming season of Nescafé Basement, Xulfi revealed that this season will have more original songs as compared to preceding ones.
“Not only do I work as a producer on the show but also as a mentor to all these young musicians, which, in my opinion, is a far bigger responsibility,” said Xulfi, the Call guitarist.
He was quick to disregard any comparison to other musical shows being televised lately such as Coke Studio and Pepsi Smash. “Nescafé Basement is different from all these other music shows that are currently happening. Unlike other shows, we don’t have a house band and our music is not focused on a vocalist or any other musician,” he clarified.
He believes that people in Pakistan are no longer used to listening quality music like they did before and over the past few years, the local music industry has declined, something that he is trying to fix.
Nescafé Basement has been dubbed as the ‘high school’ version of Coke Studio. Xulfi feels that this is possibly so due to the “jam-like feel” of the show’s music. “All good bands of the past have created music through jamming. It is the most beautiful way to create music. When you are jamming with other musicians, you tend have a subconscious connection with each other,” he commented.
He further added that unlike other shows, he doesn’t boast of a stellar cast of musicians, but is working with what he terms as the “future of Pakistani music.” What supports his argument is the fact that the average age of Nescafé Basement musicians this season is 21.
For all its success, the show has been typecast for housing more musicians from Lahore as compared to other cities, but the producer aims to break that trend this season.
“This is true to a certain extent, but we have been growing with each year. This season, we have taken things up a notch. We have a few artistes returning this year as well, but along with them are three artistes from Karachi and seven from Islamabad, along with musicians from Larkana and Rahim Yar Khan,” stated Xulfi.
Despite being swamped with projects, Xulfi hopes to release a few solo tracks next year and is also open to the idea of making music for films.
“I would be interested in composing and scoring for a Pakistani movie, but I don’t want to make clichéd music. The directors should come to me with original ideas.”
“Even Indian producers have come to me with offers to compose music, but the kind of music they wanted to make doesn’t appeal to me,” Xulfi said.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 10th, 2014.
Like Life & Style on Facebook, follow @ETLifeandStyle on Twitter for the latest in fashion, gossip and entertainment.