Talha Asim Wyne lost a major resource of his musical education when the Pakistani authorities banned YouTube in 2012. As an old adage goes, adversity tends to bring the best out of creative people; it should come as no surprise that Talha still continued to flourish as an artist.
The artist who performs under the pseudonym of Tollcrane was recently selected for the Red Bull Music Academy (RBMA) sessions to be held in Tokyo from the 1st to the November 14 this year.
Musicians have been shortlisted by the RBMA jury to attend workshops by renowned artists and produce music in the Academy’s custom-built studios. Apart from that, the musicians will also be performing in a series of events at some of the city’s most iconic venues. The RBMA sessions have been divided into two turns to accommodate the 60 musicians, with the first term already in progress from October 12.
Talha, who is ecstatic at being given the chance to attend the sessions, has termed it as a “once-in-a lifetime experience for any musician.” The electronic musician who was also a member of the band //Orangenoise will be performing in Tokyo on the November 2 and was honoured to be amongst the few musicians selected to perform at the RBMA sessions. “It definitely is a window into the world of professional music and how things are done through proper methods,” Talha told The Express Tribune, “It will be a huge learning experience just to sit through the lectures, the studio time and of course performing for a foreign audience is something I’ve never done before, so I am really looking forward to that.”
RBMA sessions have previously been held all over the world, including Berlin, Cape Town, Melbourne, Barcelona, Rome, São Paulo, London and New York City. Talha is the third Pakistani to be a part of RBMA with Aaman Mushtaq and Sheryar Hyatt having featured previously.
He further added that despite representing Pakistan at the sessions he did not deem it necessary to mould his music to make it sound more local. “I don’t find it necessary to go with a fixed mindset, such as adding any particular element to my music to make it sound specific to a region. I explore sounds and go wherever they lead,” said the electronic musician.
Plenty of alumni of the RBMA have gone on to make a name for themselves such as the Los Angeles-based soul singer Aloe Blacc and Hudson Mohawke, the Scottish producer behind the musical styling’s of rappers Drake and Kanye West.
Despite Talha’s genre and style of music he has not yet become as popular in Pakistan, he has managed to craft his own unique style of music and is looking at the RBMA sessions as a learning experience to test his music in front of new and diverse audiences.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 30th, 2014.
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