[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)

[Dawn Blog entry #2] Backstage Access: The mad genius of Aamir Zaki

The mad genius of Aamir Zaki
Madeeha Syed revisits her interactions with one of Pakistan’s best guitarists.

They say he is one of the greatest minds that the Pakistani music industry has ever harboured, that his talent knows no bounds. Speaking his name inspires awe from those who have only heard of him and an acknowledgement of his music virtuosity from his contemporaries. ‘I am somewhat of a genius,’ he had once said to me about himself.

[ Dawn Blog entry # 1] : Backstage Access

Fashion in the time of turmoil
Madeeha Syed considers the disconnect between the fashion industry and Pakistan’s socio-political circumstances.

It took a while for me to figure out why the turnout at a recent fashion show at Karachi’s Pearl Continental Hotel wasn’t as high as one had anticipated: after all, some of the most established names in the industry were showing, including Khaadi Khaas, Hasan Shehryar Yasin, Maheen Khan and Nomi Ansari. One of the conclusions I came to was that people were scared….