Junoon's music , with its unwavering political and spiritual conscience, is attracting increasing attention...writes Humera Afridi.
“If you follow your own personal destiny then the entire universe conspires to make you succeed,” Salman Ahmad, lead guitarist of the band Junoon, often paraphrases Paulo Coelho, author of The Alchemist, whose words, he says, resonate intimately with his own life. “When you follow your heart and your inner voice, everything falls into place,” this Pakistani rock star said matter of factly.
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It is not surprising then that Junoon, a band with an unwavering political and spiritual conscience, has performed four benefit concerts in New York in the wake of the September 11 tragedy. “In a sense I think I was being prepared my whole life for September 11,” said Salman. “The reason I say that is that all the music I’ve written in Pakistan has been a response to extremism in one form or the other – violence, or poverty or a cultural identity crisis. The music on Azaadi (Freedom), Parvaaz (Flight), Inquillab (Revolution) and, prior to that, Talash (Search) was shaped by experiences living in a Muslim country,” he said about the band’s albums.
In an unprecedented gesture, the UN invited Junoon to perform on UN Day. Although this performance was scheduled in spring 2001, well before the tragic events of September 11, it seemed all the more poignant on October 24 when Junoon, together with the Indian band, Euphoria, performed in the august space of the General Assembly Hall.
Appointed Goodwill Ambassador for HIV and AIDS awareness to the UN, Salman Ahmad has taken the opportunity to espouse his social and political concerns that include but also reach beyond issues of health. “I searched myself as to why I should accept this (appointment) because HIV and AIDS aren’t really the main threat to Pakistan though they are a huge threat to the world and to humanity. The main threat to Pakistan is violence and religious extremism. The UN gives me a chance to meet people from different walks of life and at the HIV/AIDS Conference, I suggested to an aide of Mr. Kofi Anan that the UN should really do more for peace. That’s really been my main motivation.
“The twentieth century has been the most violent century in the history of the human race - 150 million people died. I feel that in the twenty-first century, we should make a declaration, and that’s why I thought what’s the point of Junoon playing alone. I suggested Euphoria should play along with us if we wanted this performance to be a sincere appeal for peace. And the concert was amazing. We played before 189 delegate states - us, two bands from countries that have fought three wars! This is the side of the UN I find appealing. The rest of it is just a status symbol which I’m not too interested in,” he explained.
Harnessing his affiliation with the UN, Salman, together with his wife Sameena Ahmad, (a celebrity in her own right) organized a peace concert in Islamabad on October 9 in support of the Afghan refugees. The event was scripted around the theme of Sufism; poems, anecdotes, and songs were presented by Pakistan’s leading actors, sports personalities and performers. Indeed, the effort to organize this event which had been conceived in a few brief seconds over the phone with a UN delegate on October 2 heightened Salman’s conviction in following his intuition. “ I was supposed to go to Australia for an HIV conference and I asked the UN if, instead, I could do something for the refugees and at the same time mobilize the silent majority in Pakistan. ‘When are you thinking of doing this?’ they asked and on the spur of the moment I said October 9 because that’s John Lennon’s birthday and he was an artist I was inspired by when I picked up the guitar,” said Salman, shaking his head in amazement and smiling as he recalled the sequence of events and the serendipity that enabled the idea to be realized in exactly seven days, despite the fact that the bombing on Afghanistan started two days before the concert and all public gatherings had been cancelled by the district administration.
It is only fitting that the racial and religious makeup of Junoon reflects the notion of unity in diversity that the band advocates. Salman Ahmad and singer Ali Azmat represent the Sunni and Shi’ite sects of Islam, respectively, while drummer Luis Pinto and bass guitarist, Brian O’Connell, a New Yorker and high school friend of Salman Ahmad’s, represent the Christian faith. “We’ve always been about this cross-cultural, cross-political harmony,” said Brian O’ Connell, “ and as old-fashioned as it sounds, we’ve always been about bringing about peace and understanding through our music. It’s a reaffirmation that I’m at the right place at the right time and Pakistan is my home,” he said. Even though he receives death threats over the telephone, Brian is convinced that “If you continue doing what you think is good and you get that affirmation God protects you. The message is in the music and that’s our platform. People respond to art and music more than they do to a political speech. Music is much more subjective and it stays with you longer. We’ve been given a gift and that’s our responsibility.”
It appears that the accident of politics may spearhead Junoon’s career in the United States. Although they have yet to release an album in the West, ever since September 11, the band has been wooed by the media, making television appearances on CNN and Bill Maher’s Politically Incorrect as well as appearing on radio shows such as NPR. Rolling Stone magazine interviewed them and VH1 recently completed a documentary on the band, Islamabad Rock City, that aired on October 29 and December 1, and will be shown on later dates as well. Richard Murphy, one of the main producers and writers of the VH1 documentary, and who has been following the band’s career for over two years said that September 11 certainly triggered a renewed interest in Junoon. “Junoon is an interesting story. They offer a different perspective on Pakistan, Asia and the Islamic world. They preach a very different kind of Islam from Osama bin Laden. Here is a Pakistani rock band that is all about Sufism, peace and tolerance and to see them perform in front of hundreds of thousands of adoring fans is to see the bridge between east and west,” he said.
“Junoon did not set out to be anything more than travelling musicians who love playing music,” said Salman, “but now because of the relevance of what we’ve been singing about, Junoon has become a symbol of hope and this light is being focused on us.” It is not likely that the band will get carried away on a wave of media attention – it’s endurance was already tested in India in 1998 when Junoon was hailed as the most popular band in Asia, and the danger of straying has since been diffused. “I’m very confident that the music that I will ever be a part of has to somehow resonate to something more than just charts, Billboard number ones or MTV number ones. Our objectives and goals aren’t driven by this greed of being a celebrity cult,” affirmed Salman.
The combination of rock and Sufi poetry, the delivery of an ancient tradition in a Western format, that defines Junoon’s oeuvre is certainly enticing to a Western audience that is eager for a cultural web that will help bridge the gap between east and west. This powerful combination of musical and spiritual traditions has had a deep impact at home in Pakistan as well, to the point where the band was considered a potent threat to the Nawaz Sharif government that banned them. “ I think what’s happened really is that our voice has steered politics in Pakistan. We’ve had one voice all along which has been at odds with the establishment but now the establishment has come to look at life from our point of view. It’s most interesting that pop culture steers politics now,” Salman explained.
Even Ali Azmat who endeavors to live up to the image of a western rock star in all its variances has evolved into a rebel with a cause. “We are musical guerillas,” he said spiritedly, “and we provide a platform for the silent majority of Pakistan, to give voice to them.”
Regardless of the accident of politics, Junoon’s musical and lyrical expansiveness, its songs about mortality and spirit, its perseverance in the face of political obstacles ensure that this Pakistani band will eventually make an impression on the music industry. “I have complete faith that predestination and free will coexist and overlap. So, there’s no pressure. I’ll just continue to be me and if it’s destined …,” band leader and mentor Salman Ahmad’s voice trailed off and then picked up again with determination: “You have to remain in the moment and be in the moment fully and that’s what I try to do. We’re just folk musicians who are very passionate about our art. All we want to do is play our music for people.”
JUNOON is the most successful Rock Band from Southasia
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