[Dawn Blog entry #2] Backstage Access: Shacking up with music (part one)

Shacking up with music (part one)
Madeeha Syed gets through high security for a backstage peek at the most elusive recording studio in town.

I  drive several miles out of the main centre of the city, cross a bridge into an area dominated by warehouses and industrial mills and arrive at a venue marked only by a tiny sign. The only thing that gives the location away are the number of cars parked in front and the comings and goings of personnel with identity tags around their necks.

I announce my arrival via a phone call to Selina, who’s the official PR rep coordinating the (very few) guests, and she asks me to wait until she comes outside personally. She then runs me through the rules I know from last year: no photos, no blogging, no talking, and no taking information or anything else outside. Then, she makes a cryptic call to the people inside and, just when it’s the right time, brings me inside one of the large warehouses and escorts me upstairs into the gallery from where the mastermind behind the project, Rohail Hyatt – known to everyone inside as ‘Pa’ – and his team, are visible hard at work on the main floor.

— Umber & Rohail Hyatt (Photo by Rizwan-ul-Haq)