"Hai jazba-e-junoon, himmat na haar!"

If you have the spirit of passion never give up !

What the world is saying about Junoon.

'Q' magazine calls them "One of the biggest bands in the world!" Billboard credits them with being "the subcontinent's biggest crossover success after the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan." The New York Times described their music as "Pakistani rock mixed with religious rapture".
Before a performance at The House Of Blues in funky Los Angeles, the L.A. Times spoke of Junoon's "ability to captivate audiences" inspiring Beatles-like reactions. Pretty inspiring stuff itself. They're a pretty inspiring band.



Vital Signs

Salman Ahmad, then a medical student in Lahore, played music while he studied to be a doctor. Flirting with public performance then, one time he was up on stage and launched into a version of Van Halen's 'Eruption'. The crowd remained seated... in shock.

Salman first tasted commercial music success with his group, Vital Signs. These were just four guys playing, in the autumn of 1987, sweet melodies, gentle vocals and a very, boy-next-door image. Salman left Vital Signs just as they were beginning to do really well in 1992. He formed Junoon. To the rest of the world, giving up medicine was misguided, but giving up a potential commercial success to play guitar rock was just stupid. To Salman, it was fate.

Jazba-e-Junoon – The Spirit of Passion


Salman brought to Junoon a young singer called Ali Azmat. Azmat, just 22, had two essentials. A huge rock voice and a warlock like stage presence. Ali had also studied business in Australia and sung with a series of Lahori bands, including Jupiter. (In fact, at a historic meeting of the subcontinent's best bands, Junoon and Silk Route, they performed an old Jupiter hit, 'Dosti'.)

Brian, was working with developmentally disabled adults in New York. Salman asked him to take a sabbatical in Karachi and help work on Junoon’s album. He's now lived there for five years, married a local model and settled down.


Junoon means obsession or passion. For South Asia's biggest rock band, creating rock music that blended Urdu and Sindhi vocals with western rhythms and qawwali influences was not a challenge. The impossibility lay in creating an audience for it! And that would take time. The band struggled, was in financial straits for several years, and ate dal and rice most of that time!

The story started just after they finished high school. Working with the influences of Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and especially Eddie Van Halen, the boys developed a real taste for the guitar sounds of 70's rock.

1996.

Junoon's first big hit was the song, 'Jazba-e-Junoon'. Released in the spring of 1996, the song became the Pakistan Official song of the Cricket World Cup that year. Later, in December, Junoon released 'Ehtesaab' or 'accountability'. And that's where the problems began.


Junoon's in-your-face political satire and comment was too much for the government to turn a blind eye to. The song was banned from PTV, Pakistani State television, claiming that it would destabilise the country before the elections. Needless to say, the ban only fuelled the song's popularity.

Azadi and the accusation of treason, really!

In 1997, Junoon recorded Azadi, the album with which they would win millions of fans in India. Even though it was maybe their fifth compilation, Junoon's first release of their India debut, ‘Sayonee’ burned up the charts across the subcontinent, South Asia and the Middle East. It stayed at the pole position on MTV charts for over 2 months. Breaking records, Azadi went platinum in just 4 weeks!


Later that year, Junoon began their first tour of India. Their first show in Delhi itself was ominous. Mad chaos and irate fans had organisers scrambling to put together more performance dates to satisfy everyone. The rush was to continue. They shattered records for audience attendance and pure wattage. Across the length and breadth of the country, crowds of as many as 50,000 fans thronged stadiums to sing with Junoon.


In an odd twist of fate, the Indian Government began nuclear tests around the time Junoon was touring India. In interviews to BBC, ZTV and CNN, Junoon voiced their anti-nuclear-proliferation stance loud and clear. "In a region mired with poverty, destitution, with millions of starving souls living in pitiful conditions, can we afford a nuclear arms race?" Salman Ahmad asked. "Would it not be better for India and Pakistan to try and inspire each other in the areas of education, health and economic development?" Indians and Pakistanis alike were impressed by Junoon's maturity.


The Pakistani government’s ban on Junoon music though was prolonged. PTV refused to show the audience even clips from Junoon releases. "Your hair is too long" they told them one time. "You are offending national sensibilities," they said another time. Junoon took many accusations in the stomach. "You have blasphemed against our mystical poets," the censor board said, "you have been sacrilegious with our sacred shrines."


Their Indian tour caused things to take a slightly ugly turn. The Ministry of Culture charged Junoon with making comments in India amounting to sedition and treason. The band members denied these charges reminding people of the fact that they’d been victimised since the release of ‘Ehtesaab’ because they chose to speak out against political corruption.

The Great Awards Bazaar...
Not surprisingly, Junoon swept Indian music awards ceremonies across the country. They picked up the Best International Group title in 1998 and performed onstage with international icons like Sting and Def Leppard. They were nominated for the Best International Album for being the highest selling album in both Pakistan and India that year.


Junoon flew straight out of the frenzy in Delhi into the BBC Mega Mela, the largest Asian festival outside the subcontinent. Junoon closed the show on all three days of the Mela and performed at the star-studded BBC Asian Awards.


In March 1999, the Prime Minister of India, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, in a spirit of cross-border friendship, invited the band to perform at the anniversary of his government in Delhi. Travelling in the same gilded bus that Vajpayee had travelled cross-border to shake hands with Pakistan and sign the Lahore declaration, Junoon crossed the Wagah border from Lahore into India. In a very emotional performance before the Prime Minister, they performed the Jupiter hit, 'Dosti' onstage with Indian supergroup, Silk Route.

Parvaaz.

To release their follow-up to the mega Azaadi, Junoon went down to the legendary home of the Beatles’ recordings, Abbey Road studios, London. Here they began to master the tracks that would make up the album, Parvaaz.


Junoon dedicated Parvaaz to the memory of the great Sufi poet, Bab Bulleh Shah who lived in Kasur in the 17th century. The album taps the wealth of Bulleh Shah’s poetry for lyrical inspiration. Salman Ahmad used the Sufiyana Kalam for the debut release, 'Bulleya'. The punjabi poetry in this track is Bulleh Shah’s translation of the verse of the world renowned Persian Sufi Rumi. The poet’s work really shines through on 'Ab to Jaag' and 'Aleph'.


Can a three hundred year old message work with rock music and have relevance to a subcontinent in the techno- throes of the year 2000?
If it's Junoon, of course. While the album’s lyrics remain rooted in tradition, musically, the band’s new sound is contemporary and innovative. Fusing the rhythms of dholak and drums, Junoon creates 'other-worldly' percussion threads that redefine the sound of pop. That's because Salman Ahmad believed in the big sound he kept hearing in this head. "John, Brian and I really worked well to achieve the sonic picture," he says of his visionary arrangements. "I think we’ve been 80% successful in capturing it this time in the studio." For the talented Junoon, they say it’s the closest they’ve ever come.


The quintessential Junoon sound remains though. That's because they pulled out Azaadi producer, John Alec from New York to work on Parvaaz. "We were more professional in the studio," John-Alec says, "and there were fewer blackouts this time round in Lahore."


Ali Azmat's vocals now have a new maturity, O'Connell's bass lines ring with assertion and Salman's guitar only climbs into new frenzies. Ali tried his hand at writing this time, with great success. "On 'Sajna', I was trying to get a completely new sound, something far removed from anything Junoon has done in the past. Recording Parvaaz was close to a spiritual experience for me; emotions ran very high, as we tried out best to get the perfect sound," Ali says.


All the band lent a hand. Bass guitarist, O'Connell threw himself into production, "I love the super- impositions of the rhythms we have used, bringing the bass guitar and dhol together."

To Dust...

They've been called all the words between "Sufi Rock Stars" and "traitors". They've been banned in their own country while awards pour in from around the entire world. "We went through heaven, hell, heaven, hell in 1998. Our awards juxtaposed against the bans and media campaigns against us. But we're all the better for it," Brian muses.

You can hear it in Parvaaz. Junoon spreads its wings way beyond their Azaadi fans. The support tour for Parvaaz will travel the US of A, the UK, the Middle East and they’re probably going back to new territories like Scandinavia where they recently had a few sell out concerts.


Junoon remain one of the most credible, influential and talented bands in the subcontinent. They're the rock in rock-steady. In the end, Salman Ahmad's lyrics from the track 'Matti' say it best…

"Matti mein Miljayenge, Bhullo Naa.

Jayenge tho phir, Laut keh na ayenge, Bhullo Naa"

(Never forget, to dust we fall one day,

we will never return, once we go away.)

Take That had a swan song called 'Never Forget'. Junoon, of course, needs no such composition. They've only just begun to remember.

Line Up:

Salman Ahmad – Guitarist, Songwriter
Ali Azmat – Lead vocalist
Brian O’Connell – Bassist