Soundcheck: Fuzon’s playback, payback US tour
Apart from mentoring sessions, Fuzon’s tour gave their fans and audience in the US an opportunity to listen to the rock-qawwali mash up between the boys and the Fareed Ayaz Qawwal group.
Images on Sunday caught up with Shallum Xavier for an exclusive insight. “This particular LA tour was special in many ways as we conducted workshops for children from the under-served communities of LA to share our genre of music and teach them about the progressive culture of Pakistan. We performed for schoolchildren followed by a mega concert at the California Plaza attended by over 2,500 people from diverse cultural backgrounds. Even though some of them didn’t understand the language, they still danced to our tunes.”
Fuzon collaborated with Farid Ayaz and Abu Muhammed Qawwal which resulted in the power of Sufi poetry and the dexterity of Fuzon’s sound being introduced to a new audience.
Music as education is a wonderful cause … and Fuzon played on this theme on their US Tour
“Performing with the Qawwals was a memorable experience for us,” says Shallum. “It was also the first time both Fuzon and Abu Mohammed and Fareed Ayaz performed together on stage. The chants, the Sufi poetry, the beats and the atmosphere made the tour one of the best we have ever performed. The qawwals were very accommodating and overall we received an overwhelming response by a diverse audience.”
And the upside of teaching music to children? “Spending time with children is always exciting, especially when they have a strong inclination towards learning music. It was a great opportunity for us to teach them different scales and raags, which they were not aware of.
“Music is all about sharing and whenever a musician shares his/her experience and knowledge, it creates a strong bond and helps both in terms of passion, vision and goals.
“On this particular occasion, we shared information on music activities in Pakistan, our music legends, on the ethnic music and pop-rock in Pakistan.”
Shallum says there is a desperate need for Pakistan to showcase the vision of young Pakistanis. “It is imperative to challenge and change certain misconceptions about Pakistan and highlight the progressive components, the creative platforms, the talent pool of skillful, hardworking Pakistanis.