Formed in 2001 in Lahore, Pakistan, The Mekaal Hasan Band is one of those bands who have stood the test of time. Audiences around the world have enjoyed their distinct-sounding music, which blends classical sangeet, jazz and Sufi rock. Both of MHB’s studio albums – Samporan (2004) and Saptak (2009) – received a great response, and they will soon be coming out with a new album titled Andholan.

Gibson India recently caught up with Mekaal Hasan, MHB’s founder, composer, record producer, sound engineer and lead guitarist.  

Your band is not only very famous in Pakistan, but also in India and among overseas desis. Tell us a bit about Mekaal Hasan Band’s journey.

From 1995 to 2000, I was pursuing a career which was predominantly as a guitarist playing instrumental music, and pretty much all the material and writing approach was based off stuff I had learned at Berklee [College of Music in Boston]. So, there was a lot of instrumental tunes featuring modal material with quirky time signatures and passages written specifically with a guitar sound but also centered around a band sound. In that time, around 1997, I think, the legendary drummer Billy Cobham heard my music and liked what I was doing with arrangements and ideas, and we hence began a three-four year process of me writing material and him checking it out. Eventually, I went to London to meet Bill and while there, I was contacted by a guy named Pete Lockett who had heard my music on Bill’s site. Pete and I met up and he told me he was a multi-percussionist who had studied South Indian classical and had incorporated that approach to the drum set. We talked about the possibility of working together and subsequently managed to get the British Council to back a short tour featuring Pete, his band The Network of Sparks and me. Since I was pretty much the only songwriter/composer in the lineup, it fell to me to write music which the ensemble could play. I immediately realized that playing my instrumental tunes would not allow us to explore Pete’s area of expertise adequately, so I went about putting together a lineup which could play eastern classical music but with a compositional approach not too far away from the instrumental music I was writing. That in essence was how The Mekaal Hasan Band started, and ever since then, the idea has been to work traditional material into a progressive contemporary writing approach and sound.

You are a Sufi rock band. Tell us a bit about your approach towards music composition: do you compose first and then fit lyrics to a tune, or other way around? Since most of your lyrics draw from Sufi lyrics and folk songs, are most of the members of your band well-versed in folk literature, music, and Sufi poetry?

There are roughly three ways which I go about writing. The first is that you have a traditional melody and you adapt that to its related modal equivalent and write according to the raag/modes harmony. Such an example would be “Darbari” or Sampooran (“Aiman”) or “Ya Ali.” The second is that you have a modal piece of music and you think or write a melody which would fit that scale, such as “Bandeya” which is primarily a Mixolydian sound with small harmonic changes here and there. The third approach is that you have a free-form melody or music arrangement and you write according to the changes in either the chordal structure or the melodic content. A tune such as “Chal Bulleya” would fit into that category, where the lyrics are traditional, but the song itself is in no particular raag. Of course these are generalizations and I often mix up the three approaches in a given tune.

For those of our readers who are unfamiliar with your band, could you please tell us a bit about each of your current band members: you, Asad Abbas (lead vocals), Mohammad Ahsan Papu (flute) and Amir Azhar (bass)?

Asad Abbas joined us in 2010 in February, replacing our previous singer. Asad’s background is folk and he comes from a family of folk singers. Mohammad Ahsan Papu and I were judges on a talent show in which he was singing – the show was called Pakistan Sangeet Icon – and he was so impressive throughout that entire program that when Javed left, I thought it would be a really good idea to start with someone young and fresh. I really liked the way Asad brings a sweetness and soulfulness to our music and I think there is no better way to encourage and develop amazing talent like this than by making him a part of the band’s sound and music.

Papu I have worked with for over 15 years and we often used to see each other at recording sessions. When I had to write music with an eastern classical base, I could think of no better musician to have on board than him. He is truly a master musician and a mentor to me and the other guys in the band. A lot of the doubled guitar/flute stuff you end up hearing is his stamp and without him the band would not be as unique as it is. For the new record, which we are working on, we started orchestrating flute parts much in the same way as some of my favorite bands orchestrate horn and brass parts, so that will be something very cool to look out for.

Amir Azhar joined us around four years ago and was Papu’s suggestion. Like Papu, he comes from the film music scene in Lahore, and he is an unbelievable musician. Funnily enough, his principle instrument is mandolin, and he started playing bass along with that. He is a great guitar player too! 

How has the audience response been to Asad as the new vocalist?

The audience really loves Asad because he has such an energy and feel good vibe with the audience and fans. Asad’s very first concert with us was in Paris, then in Toronto, then in New York, and then we came back to Pakistan to play, by which time he had developed his own approach to the material. We played at the South Asian Bands Festival in Delhi in December 2010 where once again Asad entertained the fans to no end. He’s worked very hard at learning all our material, and in this Papu has to be thanked because he is the one who broke down the classical element for Asad and literally taught him the songs which he is now singing. Asad’s strength is his talent, soulfulness and energy and Papu really harnessed his talent by making him learn some pretty difficult material. With his guidance and time that he gave to him, it enabled Asad to get a firm command over the rather wide range of material we do.

Your music sounds very distinct with a beautiful fusion of jazz, classical sangeet and Sufi rock. Tell us a bit about how you came up with the concept for this distinct overall sound.

I think my own influences and ideas about good writing really show up on the band’s work. All the bands I liked seemed to write music in which all members were actively important towards generating a unique sound and style. Not many bands have their own identity, but I think after a decade of doing this, our band has a very distinct sound and style. The trick is to balance the different elements in the band in the music and making sure everyone is playing what compliments the music, so that the song is not just about the vocals but about all the instruments having a voice and a place in the music. This is a hard thing to achieve and I think one’s aesthetics have a lot to do with this.

You studied music in Boston. How much has that influenced you?

Greatly. Berklee really taught me about harmony, modes and scales and voicings. That knowledge really paid off when trying to work with eastern classical material and interpreting that with a jazz/rock approach. 

Have you formally learned classical sangeet, too? Many of your compositions are raag-based, such as your compositions “Darbari,” “Albela” and “Andolhan.”

I am a big fan of classical music, but not a practitioner of it like Papu, who is a master musician. A lot of our music uses traditional sources as a reference and musically we build off that. With our previous singer, we had more classical influences in the melodic content, and with Asad we’ll be bringing in more folk influences along with the classical sound we already have there. 

There are so many bands in Pakistan. How have you seen the rock music scene evolve over the years?

There are a lot of good, talented bands coming in from Lahore and Islamabad especially now. Somehow, Pakistan has this creative fire that seems to burn higher, and relents and keeps refusing to die down, even in these most difficult of times for us as a nation plagued by the terrorist and extremist forces which would have us demonized and known for terrible things. Young people are really into music and the Pakistan music scene is perhaps the most unique thing to happen in our country. One wishes to see all kinds of talent playing and connecting people through their music world over. It is in fact, high time that Pakistan and India started doing real across the border musical collaborations to bring our countries closer. I know I sort of diverted from your question, but if we are to talk of evolving then this music needs to be taken out of our backyard and shared with music lovers all over.

How have you seen your band evolve over the past decade?

I think currently, MHB is probably the oldest and certainly one of the most respected bands in the country and I would like to believe that we set high standards with our approach to what we do which has directly given us our status. I think the music and band has an integrity which comes from years of being committed to not give in to cheap, substandard music and to always make sure we do not repeat ourselves. Too many bands and artists play if safe and end up writing the same kinds of songs stylistically, and I personally want to keep writing material that is interesting for us to play and for the audiences to listen to. 

Are you a Gibson fan?

Gibson was kind enough to let me use a Les Paul Studio which I tracked the entire new record we are working on with. Great instrument, and as it happens some of my favorite guitar players have played Les Pauls. You know, guys like John Sykes, Gary Moore, Jimmy Page, Al Di Meola, etc.

What are some of your favorite bands in Pakistan and India?

In India, I recently heard Indus Creed and they were amazing. It was a thrill to hear Uday and Mahesh live, because I remember hearing them back when I was a young guy just getting into learning the instrument – the learning process is continuing to this day.

In Pakistan, bands like Co-Ven are awesome. They remind me of bands like Soundgarden, Rage Against the Machine and Jeff Buckley all in this amazing original mix. There are also funk rock bands like Mauj, electronic-meets-The Police type bands like Sajid and Zeeshan, eclectic folk and pop bands like Zeb and Haniya, and exciting classic rock artists like Shahzad Hameed. Do check all of them out!

You’ve won numerous awards and have performed a lot, and have also performed in India where you have a big fan following. Tell us about the experience of performing live. Is there any particular place/venue where the response has been best?

India is amazing to play in! It seems we have a fan following wherever we play, and I would love to tour and work with Indian artists as much as possible. The response is overwhelming because it seems people really love the soul and emotion that this band’s music generates on CD and live. One of the smallest gigs we did was also one of the most memorable and it was a few years back at the Bombay Press Club. We were supposed to do a 30-minute showcase for the India media and we ended up being asked to keep playing. From 30 minutes we ended up playing over three hours with Kailash Kher joining us for a impromptu rendition of “Allah Ke Bandey.” Too much fun!

The flute is very prominent in your compositions. What are some of your favorite combinations of instruments played together?

Hmm, this depends on who is playing what, with who and in what context. I personally feel the flute is possibly one of the most lovely instruments from our side of the world. I feel the time has come to take these very traditional instruments out of their usual settings and create new palettes for their range, timbre and arranging roles, which is precisely what we have been trying to do with the instrument. So, we end up using the flute as a woodwind section with roles being split for the lower, middle and higher registers, much like a brass section would. And on occasion we also use distortion to give it this unique almost shehnai-meets-slide guitar sound which you can hear on a track like “Bandeya” on Saptak, our latest record.

Tell us a bit about your upcoming projects. Are you coming out with another album soon?

The third MHB record will be called Andholan and will be out at the end of this year. We’ve already tracked it and our vocalist is laying down his tracks. There is a possible exciting addition of a female Indian artist/singer in the lineup too, so more on that as and when we can put out something for all of you guys. I have long felt that the two countries should unite our talents and so I am putting my money where my mouth is and trying to make this happen.

For more information on The Mekaal Hassan Band, visit www.mekaalhassanband.com