Issue link: https://bluemagazine.uberflip.com/i/25233
When you say "secular," do you mean people who don't... How are you as rock stars perceived by the general population in Pakistan? SALMAN: Twelve years ago, mass murders had more respect than musicians in Whereas before we played secret gigs with 10 to 12 friends out of fear of rel igious extremists coming and breaking our instruments, now we have rock concerts which attract 30,000 to 40,000 people. In the USA, the music industry has traditionally been associated with sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll. How does this play into your lives and your music? ALI: For us it's coffee, masturbation & rock-n-ro ll. Lots of coffee, lots of masturbation, lots of rock-n-roll. BRIAN: Sex and drugs have no place in any career that you want to take seriously. We are musicians by day and by night, there's no other nine-to-five job. We take our music very seriously. We're not just musicians, we're ca rrying a social, a political, a religious message-we're carrying a message. What we sing about is good. SALMAN: God! ALI: It's all a myth [that rock musicians are all interested in sex and drugs]. Financial advisers or bankers or marketing people-many people are more interested in drugs than we are. We, as rock stars, just represent a sort of wildness which everybody wants to achieve. But if you go around NYC, you' ll find stockbrokers with eight balls in their pockets, doing cocaine. There are many who are drinking like fish, calling up hookers, whatever. They have the money and they think that's how to spend it. SALMAN: It's too easy to pin it on rock stars, al l decadence and debauched life. But there must be temptation for you, when you're onstage and the first ten rows are beautiful women throwing themselves at your feet. SALMAN: Unlike Western audiences, we don't have groupies who will go tear their clothes off. There's a lot of silent admiration. This is the cool thing about the East, it's behind a veil. The East is a different flavor: very si lent yet very deep. It's about expressing your desires-including lustful desires-in ways where it's beautiful. Through romantic poetry. Through the glance. It's al l in the gaze. A woman can sit in front of you at a show and her eyes will say everything. She doesn't have to rip off her clothes. It's very veiled, and that's the beauty of it. Speaking of veils, tell us about the situation of women in Pakistan? BRIAN: It's fantastic. Take a look at my wife. Look at Salman's wife. Independent, self- made women, professional, leading in their fiel d, mothers ... SALMAN: Independent, free to choose their profession, housewife, mother-really tak- ing charge of the home. Making a name for themselves in society. Brian's wife is a very prominent actress/director and she wears so many other hats. My wife is a doctor, a social activist, a TV presenter- and she doesn't have to wear a veil if she doesn't want to. She doesn't have to wear a scarf if she doesn't want to wear one. Is this the general standard for women in Pakistan? SALMAN: The mistake the West makes when they look at third world countries, coun- tries like Pakistan, is that there's a great socioeconomic gap. Opportunities for poor people, whether they're men or women, are far less than for affluent or middle class families. So if you go to middle class families, you'll see working women, kids going to school. The poor people are the ones who are struggling. Its really tough on [poor] women, because not only do they have to run the house, they have eight jobs. A mar- ried woman with four children will be cleaning house for her whole neighborhood and she'll go out at seven o'clock in the morning, leave at 11 at night, has to feed her hus- band and her children, come back and do that seven days a week. Can't her husband feed himself? SALMAN: The husband is holding eight jobs together also! This is not a gender issue, it's a poverty issue. Continued on page 62 SALMAN: ... have faith in God. People who don't have faith in a higher power. Atheists? " Pakistan. Musicians had such low social standing. But because young people have gone into the arts, rock and pop music has real ly become a potent force in Pakistan. UN L IKE WE S TERN AU D 1- ENe E S WED 0 N' T HAVE G RO U PIE S WHO WI L L GO , ~ft¥H~~E6~F. " -SALMAN AHMAD PAKISTAN FACTS Population: 150 MILLION Religion: MUSLIM: 90%, CHRISTIAN: 8%, OTHER: 2% Per capita GOP (1998-99): $441 Languages: URDU (NATIONAL AND OFFICIAL), ENGLISH, PUNJABI, SIND HI, PUSHTU, BALOCH Government: MILITARY. PARLIAMENTARY DEMOCRACY SUSPENDED ON OCTOBER 12, 1999. Literacy rate: MEN: 50%, WOMEN: 25% (WOMEN IN RURAL AREAS: UNDER 10%) Governmental spending on education per person, per year: US$10 (AVERAGE US GOVERNMENT SPENDING ON EDUCATION, K-12: $6,189) Percent College Educated: 10% Internet Access: NATIONWIDE 30%; URBAN AREAS 90%; RURAL 10% JUNOON FACTS Years playing + performing: 11 JUNOON: MEANS "PASSION" IN URDU JUNOONI: A jUNOON FAN, SOMEONE OBSESSED WITH jUNOON NUMBER OF RECORDS SOLD: 5 MILLION (PLUS MILLIONS PIRATED) NUMBER OF ATTENDEES AT RECENT CONCERTS: TORONTO, JULY, 2001: 16,000; NYC, AUGUST, 1998: 20,000; NEW DELHI, APRIL, 1996: 100,000; WEMBLEY, MARCH, 1998: 12,000 COUNTRIES PERFORMED IN: 20 MUSIC MOST SIMILAR TO: SANTANA POPULARITY IN SOUTH ASIA MOST SIMILAR TO: STING OR U2