Sketches of Sindh

Suddenly, there were The Sketches. The two member band hailing from Jamshoro bring together Saif Samejo’s deep, throaty and serene vocals, with Naeem Shah’s quiet but sharp guitar sound to set Sindhi poetry to rock music. While they have made one or two videos, most of the Sketches fame has come through the internet with their facebook page, their casual jam videos and other stuff that admirers have not only expressed to have loved, but have also shared and spread around. Very soon, and quiet unexpectedly, Samejo and Shah were seen crooning on this season’s Coke Studio – a boost to their career and a commendable thing in itself. Pakistan Today spoke to the band to try and dig up where they came from, and what they are about.
What is the line up of your band? The Sketches: We are a two member band, with Saif Samejo as vocalist and Naeem Shah as guitarist while we both compose melodies and write lyrics together. In our upcoming album we are doing more of an experimental sound and this time the Alghoza (a kind of ‘been’ and a typically Sindhi instrument) will be used along with a sarangi, dholak, flute, chang and various other regional instruments. These will be mixed with the regular Western instruments, which we normally use and play.
How did you guys meet and decide to form a band?
TS: We met in the University of Sindh, Jamshoro, where (Saif) was studying English Literature and (Naeem) who had newly shifted from Sindh University to Mehran University (CEAD) was majoring in Fine Arts (Sculpture). We met through a mutual friend. At that time Naeem was already in another band simply called ‘Under ground’ and Saif, too, was in a band called The Sketches. After some time we both became closer friends and met everyday. The best part was talking about music to each other and finding out that we both had a common and deep love for Sindh our homeland and our culture and we both wanted to do something to promote our language and culture as well as our music and poetry which purely belonged to Sindh. This became our binding force in The Sketches.
What is the genesis of the Sketches?
TS: We began with playing a combination of pop/rock/ ‘sufi’ and folk music and then systematically turning more towards sufi and folk rock. We were even known as being a pioneer of ‘Sufi-folk rock’ because although there were bands who were playing rock with sufi lyrics (known as sufi rock), what we were doing was actually a mix of sufi poetry with Sindhi folk and rock music blended together to give it an out of the box approach. No one has done this till now. We are more into soul music. For us, melody is very important but our songs basically revolve around poetry. The songs we try to produce are easy-listening yet say something of importance. An example is of the song video “Dastkari” where we have focused on an individual’s story who is considered abnormal in our society. Then we did another video, “Maujood”, which is the poetry of Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, where we tried to express that everyone has the same God. Later we did a video ‘Kaanton Ki Deewaren’ based on freedom of expression where various Pakistani musicians were depicting this issue.
Sindhi has a limited audience in Pakistan; why did you choose to sing in Sindhi?
TS: Sindhi does have limited audience but music itself has a huge audience. We believe that music has no language. It is a magically fast and most effective way of communication. Music has the power to connect you to each other. So while we believe that one particular language has a small audience, we also believe that our Sindhi music was being ignored and slowly withering away. It has been slowly becoming commercial but there is hardly any art in it anymore. At least commercial music should be good to listen to! So we intend to do it and represent our folk culture which has always been our inspiration.
Who are your musical inspirations then?
TS: Well, there are various western artists and bands who we are inspired by but here in Pakistan it’s the legendary Allan Fakir, Sohrab Fakir and several other folk musicians of Sindh. Meanwhile, from the more mainstream outfits we love Vital Signs, Junoon and some other classics. These were the people we were inspired by when we were kids! But the music we hear from our hearts and our inspiration comes from our beautiful Sindhu River, our bewitching desert sand dunes and the mountains and winds of our beloved Jamshoro along with the entire valley of Sindh.
Are you politically or philosophically inclined? What are those ideas? There are many things come to mind like the relationship between individuals and society, the limitations of freedom (should there be any?), state intervention in an individual’s private life, and the individual’s rejection or acceptance of authority. Not everyone is interested in these questions but they are important anyway and they need to be answered too because they affect us all. Everyone has a political philosophy, and we strongly believe in one thing: to respect the Government and act upon what it says and be progressively obedient because mostly we speak and act on things we don’t know about ourselves. Consequently we are used by somebody else. So we need to educate ourselves. We also lack of faith and this should be improved.
Coke Studio must have benefited you in terms of learning, experience, and also promotion. What would you like to say about your experience with Rohail Hyatt as a music producer, and how did you feel you performed?
TS: Coke Studio was like a dream come true for us! It was without doubt a huge source of learning as well as promotion for our music. We had a great experience with Rohail Hyatt because he is an amazing music producer and a gentleman. Creative work needs hard work to succeed and in the end that is what produces the best results. We chose to perform Shah Latif’s ‘Waai’ as it could illustrate the virtue of our land and it could be something very different to listen to. We feel it showed our originality too. ‘Mandh’ which is a ‘Waai’ attracted Rohail the most so we changed it around and in the end we could not even begin to describe how it felt to listen to and see ourselves on television! Mandh has the kind of feeling as if we are sitting near the Sindhu river or on the mountains of Jamshoro. This Waai becomes imbued with a strange kind of relief on a single acoustic guitar where vocals alone surround the aura of this imaginary scene.
Do you guys perform live?
TS: We do play live but haven’t yet played out of Sindh. We did some gigs in Karachi, and Hyderabad, and performed in various schools and colleges but now the band definitely plans to perform more here and there.
How are you thinking about your future?
TS: We believe that The Sketches is a trendsetter and an original outfit that has the ability to let us fulfill our own private dreams. We believe that our musical ambitions will be valued and take root in our music industry.