Faisal Kapadia on how Coke Studio saved Pakistan’s music industry

With a career spanning three decades, Faisal Kapadia’s clearest memory as a musician in Pakistan’s pop industry is of a time when it almost vanished.

Speaking to The National, the singer-songwriter and former member of Strings recalls how the arrival of Coke Studio in 2008 came just in time to rescue an industry on its knees amid the country’s political and security turmoil. The television programme, which became a national phenomenon, featured local artists performing eclectic new versions of their songs.

“If Coke Studio wasn’t there, Pakistani pop music would have probably just died,” Kapadia recalls. “For maybe up to eight years it was the only engine keeping Pakistani music alive.

“I don’t think people realise how bad things were, because only a few years earlier the whole scene was booming. There were music channels playing videos, record companies releasing albums and then, suddenly, it all stopped.

“It was like someone turned off the lights. There were bomb blasts everywhere in Pakistan, so no one from promoters to sponsors wanted to take the risk of doing any event. With India essentially stopping all communication with Pakistan, TV channels and radio also stopped airing our songs. That’s when Coke Studio came in.”

The programme, which has now completed 15 seasons and evolved into a live concert series that included a sold-out show in Dubai’s Coca-Cola Arena last year, became a lifeline for the country’s musicians and helped create a new generation of stars, including Atif Aslam, Ali Sethi and Kaifi Khalil.

For Kapadia, who along with Strings co-member Bilal Maqsood produced Coke Studio from 2014 to 2017, the show was more than a national institution. It also became the platform for his own return to the spotlight as a solo singer five years later, following the amicable end of Strings in 2021.

Released in 2022 as the finale of Coke Studio Season 14, Phir Milenge marked Kapadia’s first performance since the band’s conclusion and symbolised the show’s creative reinvention under new producer Xulfi.