Faisal Kapadia reveals close bond with Junaid Jamshed

One half of the legendary band Strings, Faisal Kapadia, is one of the most well-known and honored musicians in the industry. With his debut solo album, he begins a new journey. Recently, Faisal appeared as a guest on ‘After Hours with Ushna Shah’. During the show, the host asked, “Singing your songs for the first time you performed live on stage in front of an audience, what was that feeling like? Do you remember that?”

Faisal replied, “A big crowd was there, so big that I would say Strings ran through our show. It was in Islamabad, the first concert, in July 1990. And due to nervousness, my voice gave out, so during the sound check, Junaid Jamshed came to see us. We didn’t know him, he was like Vital Signs. They released the album in November 1989, December, and we released ours. We saw them and got inspired when the music program ’89 came. So we recorded our album too, not knowing Vital Signs.”

Kapadia recalled the surprise and encouragement they received from late Junaid Jamshed saying, “Then Junaid just shows up at a sound check, and I was like, ‘Wow.’ And he said, ‘You know, I have heard your music, and you guys are great.’ Junaid’s presence was a big relief.”

Faisal Kapadia talked about the teachers he and Junaid Jamshed had.

“Junaid was very close to me. We used to share the same teacher, Ustaad Chahat Hussain Khan Sahib, who taught me and Junaid. Junaid was my only partner, and sometimes every two or three months, we would sit together and listen to pure classical music. You usually don’t get a chance to listen to 30-minute classical pieces with friends, but Junaid and I would often sit and listen to something like Raga Darbari or Adana Raga, which he really liked. So he was my classical music listening partner,” Faisal Kapadia added.

Strings was formed in Karachi in 1988 by Bilal Maqsood, Faisal Kapadia, Rafiq Wazir Ali and Kareem Bashir Bhoy.