The widely anticipated awaited Pepsi Battle of the Bands returned to our TV screens this Sunday. At the beginning of the episode we were given a glimpse of Pepsi's contribution to the music industry in Pakistan and what a long way they have come indeed.
The pilot of the show was headlined by global hearthrob Fawad Khan and our very own style minstrel Meesha Shafi. The panel was rounded off with the immensely popular Farooq Ahmed, the lead singer of the band Aaroh: winners of the very first Battle of the Bands in 2002.
Auditions Episodes:
The charismatic host, Ayesha Omar introduced the eager audiences to the format of the show; and how the tentative winner to be can look forward to a shining, lofty career in music.
The Auditions Episode featured 15-16 super exciting bands from all adept at different genres – some of these prolific bands included:
Naqsh – A band with an attitude with a strong female lead vocalist, Mehak at the heart of their creativity.
Positive - a band that left our judge Farooq entranced with their music. Meesha called it a “beautiful” and “sublime” experience. Fawad said they had a lot of 'soul'.
Jasim and the Pindi boys - Jasim started as a solo artist but after the “Pindi Boys” hit back in 2014, they formed their band. The boys proudly represent the flamboyant city of Pindi and its people. The band feels their sound is very unique.
Kashmir - The band name originates from a song “Rani e Kashmir” that they recorded as previously their band name was different. The band members have their own unique set of inspirations.
The band feels their lead guitarist, Wes, is the crowd puller and popular among the female crowd. Kashmir sings EPs song Hamesha and
Farooq is excited to hear them. Fawad was quick to call Wes a “Rockstar” and calls him the “Slash”.
Bari the Band - The vocalist who is a big fan of Farooq gets excited to perform Yaarah by Aaroh. Bari was a 2 member band.
Madlock - The Lahore band who seem to have their own unique style was quick to point out that Madlock, does in fact have no meaning, and they just loved how cool it sounded. Mehroz takes his journey back to when he was 17 and had a problem called mutational falsetto which gave him a very tough time during his teen years.
Madlock feels that Pepsi battle of the bands is exciting because they get to play the music live. The band sung an original - Aarzoo.
Shajr - Nimra, being the only girl in the band says that
she loves jamming. Shajr wants to show their music prowess in Pepsi battle of the bands.
Soul Anesthetics performance made it clear that even if you are technically sound band, the judges are looking for bands that have their now unique sound.
Aura - Fawad loved their original and Meesha could see the coldplay influence but called it a good thing because they felt original and unique.
OB Positive - A band with a very positive vibe and did a cover of ‘Aitebaar’. Farooq recalled Amir Zaki’s statement where he told Farooq “less is more” and said that this is the perfect example of his words applied in the real world.
The judges concluded the episode by saying that they can see the talent and love the variety the bands had to offer. Experimental music was appreciated and they highlighted the strong on stage performances.
Although just the first episode, the judges all seem to possess very distinct preferences with what they're looking for. Fawad loves the live energy in the stage performances and enjoys a band that owns it.
Meesha noticeably stepped up and acknowledged strong vocals.
Farooq, being the naturally talented musician that he is provided technical help to bands on how to improve their sound further.
With such an eclectic mix of sounds and energies, right from the get go - we are rooted to our televisions, waiting with baited breath till the second episode of the inevitably and justifiably iconic, biggest music battle in the country; Pepsi Battle of the Bands.