Now this is the difficult part, convincing a room of people to set their sadness aside for a night and bring out whatever joy remains underneath.
In a world that has so much grief to be had, leading people to the water and letting them drink from your cupped hands is a noble deed. Inside Hall 2 of the Alhamrah Arts Council under the spell of Shamoon Ismail, love is simply love. It is not war. It is not something you are thrown into and forced to survive. It is something you experience for as long as you can or as long as the song plays.
And if you’re lucky enough time slows down, the chorus of Taare slowly unfurls in your chest and serves as a reminder to be grateful for what we have because it was something that we once wished for before going to bed. It is not as romantic or as cheesy as a love song from Sam Smith or Ed Shareen but it is worth throwing all else aside to see if dancing would bring us back to life.
Shamoon Ismail is the artist whom everyone wishes would make more music than he usually does.
He has blown everyone away ever since he stepped into the industry back in 2012. From covering Piya Re with Abdullah Qureshi on the Ashiko and Muqeet Khan on the guitar, sitting in a poorly lit room to dropping Tuntuna in 2013, his journey has been a musicians dream altogether.
In an interview for LeSpectra, Shamoon mentioned how fortunate he feels to be doing what he loves for a living. And it perhaps is a privilege to be doing what is loved. It becomes a matter of survival otherwise.
It is as if everytime Shamoon steps into the spotlight, there is a sense of belonging for everyone who is standing infront.
They sway to the drop-beat percussions of his songs; his music makes you feel the movement of the music. I have seen bodies swing from left to right as Shamoon sang Marijuana into the air of a concert. I have seen people dance to the longing the song withheld. Shamoon’s music is, in many ways, shelter to those that have been broken. And at the Lahore Music Meet everyone fell into the arms of Shamoon once more in the auditorium and forgot the heartache that kept them from hoping for love again. Read more from ProperGaanda: LMM ft Fake Shamans- the electronic duo of Pakistan Luckily enough, Shamoon has been creating music a lot more frequently since his tremendous success with his previous EPs like Cookies and Brown Sugar. Singles like Sapne and Taare resonate with his strong fan following; his journey to establish the “ Punjabi Blues ” genre has rewarded him abundantly. He recently dropped Rung this week, which has already started building its own audiences.
The response to Shamoon Ismail’s performance at the Lahore Music Meet is testament to the fact that he’s doing something right-and the Pakistani youth can’t get enough of what he has to offer.