Hi everybody, hope everyones having a good monsoon. Remember “drench and dance” are the keywords.

Sometime back a band playing crazy Sufi music rock style emerged in Pakistan. Apart from being the first band in Pakistan to record drums live, they were the first genuine fusion band and arguably the first to have introduced Sufi music in the mainstream. I am talking about the “Sayonee” Junoon.

Junoon has sold over 25 million albums worldwide, which isn’t by any means an ordinary feat. The influence of U2 goes beyond their music extending to humanitarian activities and political statement.

We have with us today Shehryar Ahmed, manager of Junoon.

Ujj: Sherry thanks a lot for talking to us.
Sherry: oh the pleasures all mine.

Ujj: well tell us how it all began? how and who got Junoon together?
Sherry: Well Junoon begain with a group of musicians who called themselves Inquilab. My brother Salman used to write songs and was the lead vocalist. They were playing pop and released a song called Jazba E Junoon in 1996. With the cricket world cup and all, that song became a national heartthrob. Then the group renamed itself to Junoon. After the song became so popular we toured the US where we were thrilled to see Western crowd just loving the more Eastern tunes of Qawali and sufi music. We then realized our strengths.

Ujj: and then? take us through all that happened and what made you quit that high paying job in New York and join the team as a full time manager?
Sherry: Then we toured Dubai, where we got in touch with several EMI offices. In 1997 we sang “Sayonee” which took us from somewhere to everywhere. We were invited to perform at the ZEE Cine award, if you remember, in Mumbai which brought us to India for the very first time. The rest is history.

Ujj: do I remember that one ! yes sir I do. I saw whigfield. Saturday night..was hot. You guys were great too
Sherry: ha ha

Ujj: and then you went triple platinum!
Sherry: yes man that was like the biggest thing that ever happened to us. We had thoughts about how we would be received and all in India. Im talking about a time, when crossing boundries of India-Pak was not the most easiest of things to do. But what happened was spectacular and I have no words to describe the kind of response we got from people of India, especially Mumbai. It was just plain sensation to see Bollywood actors and actresses dance to our tunes. I mean, it was just lovely. and then we went triple platinum in the first two weeks of the album release !

Ujj: Theres something romantic about being so popular across borders isn’t it? Tell us something about that.
Sherry: oh yes there is. Its just something one has to do, to understand. My mother was born in Patiala in Punjab so there was always this longing to see our roots and all, but we were not able to do that for a long time. Entry exit was a problem. There were always some VISA problem. We could go to Chandigarh but not to Patiala. In fact we did a concert in Chandigarh in 1998 but we couldn’t go and see the place whee my mother was born.

Ujj: tell us something about your latest album Ghoom Tanaa.
Sherry: Oh its so strange you ask me that. Cause thats completely related to one of the most happy and nostalgic experiences of my life. In 2002 Maharaja of Patiala invited us to perform in Patiala. There we told some people that we wanted to check out the place where our parents lived. It was a small place called Mandi close to Patiala, but we were so busy that we couldn’t manage to look for the place. Then came a big surprise, just as we were about to leave, a person from the media came to us and said that he had managed to locate the place and our old house. He took us to that place and it was just amazing. All of us had tears in our eyes.

An old man in his nineties or something comes up and asks a few people, what the big deal was. and why was there so much media in the small town and that too in front of a crumbling building. That man, Shyam Lal, was told that the grand sons of the people living in the house longs back had come from Pakistan to see it. He came to us and told us that he was a friend of our grandfather !

Like I said it was amazing. My brother, wrote a song on that incident called ghoom tanaa and thats the name of our next album.

Ujj: What a story.Sherry, thanks a zillion for taking out some time for us.
Sherry: I really enjoyed talking to you.

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