Life
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Madurai
Thiruvananthapuram
Striking the right chord
|
A guitarist from Pakistan tells MANDIRA NAYAR how he managed to pull off the `hardest job in the world'
|
Aziz Zor Ur Rehman Ibrahim is probably not a name that most people tripping to the sounds of an electric guitar would ordinarily remember. A guitarist from Pakistan, Aziz has already secured a place in rock history by playing with Stone Roses -- a band that laid the foundation for bands like Oasis. Not really what you expect from a rock-star either, Aziz reminds you of the boy-next-door who just acquired a guitar and discovered he could actually play.
While his name might not be familiar to most Indians yet, but his music certainly will be. Playing a "fusion'' that he calls "Asian Blues'' he blends rock with softer eastern notes to create a fresh sound -- that sounds like something that most people would have heard before, but yet is new and exciting. A bit like the feeling of déjà vu, Aziz fingers strum the guitar effortlessly, but it is just "mohabbat'' with no musical training at all.
"I have been playing since I was seven. It was just love and not the money. My brother taught me a thing or two, the rest I learnt from magazines and tapes. I have had no training. Everyone dreams of playing on stage and being a rock star, I did too. But I never thought I'd be musician. I wanted to play basketball and study. My father was not very happy when I decided to become a musician,'' says Aziz who was here in the Capital recently for a concert at British Council in collaboration with the Rock Street Journal.
Asked if his father was happy now that he has made it in the rock world, he laughs. "He's okay. But he is not so happy because he wants me to get married. The girls he finds me are always twice as big and taller than me. I don't like women that are taller than me,'' says this six-foot tall guitarist.
He might be waiting to score with his father, but he managed to win over his audience. From playing to the gallery with a few words in `pucca' Punjabi with no trace of his British accent to strumming his strings to amuse a little girl in the audience, he did what very few rock-stars manage to do -- strike a chord with his the crowd that went beyond his music.
"I think music should be honest. Like poetry should be honest. There might be some mistakes when I play on stage, but I like them. For me music should come from the heart,'' he says.
He might have been able to find the right rhythm with his neighbours, but it was not easy for his "honest'' music to be appreciated when he first started playing for "Stone Roses".
Having replaced John Squire, the guitarist in the band, he soon found out that music couldn't bridge all borders. Battling hate-mail and racism, Aziz managed to pull off the "hardest job in the world'', he feels that it might not be the easy living in Britain, but he is better off. "It might not be easy, but otherwise I could have been hungry and dying if I was not here,'' he claims.
Playing with "punk rocker of tabla'' as he describes his band member Dalbir Singh Rattan, he could always pose for the poster-boy of better Indo-Pak relations. While his grandparents were originally from Amritsar, he was born in Manchester. "I think that the two countries have always been close. I just visited Pakistan for the first time last year and I really enjoyed it. It is just the Governments and politicians that claim that make the differences,'' he says. And like his new album "Lahore to Longsight", he is bridging the gap between continents with his music.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Life
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Madurai
Thiruvananthapuram
|
