‘The Silent Rickshaws’ are an Urdu pop duo formed in early 2018, by Steve Miranda and Mansoor Hashmi in Dubai. Steve is the brains behind the arrangements and music production while Mansoor lends his voice and the lyrics to their songs. The sound of the band is very unique yet stays consistent with guitar based roots.
The team at Orange Ink had a chance to chat with the band about what they are up to and what lies ahead for them.
How did you guys end up choosing ‘The Silent Rickshaws’ as your band name? What’s the story behind it?
We wanted the name of the band to be unique and something that would stand out on any social media platform, so having the name “The Silent Rickshaws” did give us that edge since we are the only ones named “The Silent Rickshaws”. Go to google, type “The Silent Rickshaws” and we are the first thing you see.
How was the band formed? How long have you known each other?
We were introduced by a common musician friend and just hit it off when we had a great conversation about music. Mansoor had a couple of lyrics written and Steve had some tracks ready, so we put them together and it just clicked; 7 song in 2 months. We have known each other since February 2018.
What inspired you to enter the world of music and make it your own?
Music has been a part of our lives since childhood and as we grew older, we found music to be an excellent antidote to being happy and stress free. We both create music with our own recipes and styles and amazingly enough, it sounds great when we blend it together.
Every band has their unique attribute, what do you think is yours?
The Silent Rickshaws is made of Western sound Eastern lyrics kind of quality. We implement a Western tune and then bring in the Eastern vocals that give it a unique take on what we want to finally present to our audiences, not just to the Asian community but the Western community too.
The best memory about any musical gig you performed?
The Silent Rickshaws, having just started, don’t have that many memories, but we did go on a music educational road show earlier this year, at a couple of universities, sharing our ideas and how we went about creating and recording music. It was a great experience allowing us to interact with students from various universities in Karachi.
What is the biggest challenge you faced as a band?
We would have to say getting our music out there in Pakistan is the only single biggest challenge we have. Pakistan has given us some great musicians and amazing music with Coke Studio and Nescafe Basement and some great independent artists that live in Pakistan. They have easy access to doing many live shows and opportunities to promote themselves which makes it difficult for us when you are based out of Pakistan, but it’s not something that will stop us from making more music, there will always be new challenges we just have to find ways to get beyond that.
If you guys didn’t become musicians, what would you be doing right now?
Steve: Hmmmm….well I am in the Event industry already and since I am not a full time musician this is what I would love ending up doing.
Mansoor: If I wasn’t a musician I would probably be a video editor, something I always desired to be.
Which musician would you like to collaborate in future?
Steve: Well there are a lot…but if I had to pick one it would be Louis J Pinto A.k.a “Gumby”. He’s an amazing drummer, extremely creative and working with him would be an amazing experience.
Mansoor: There are so many amazing musicians and producers in Pakistan it will be hard to choose only one for me.
What advice would you give to the music lovers who want to form a band of their own?
Steve: It takes a lot to be musician but if you have it in you, then by all means go play the world and don’t stop at anything or anyone that tells you different. It will be a struggle at first, but with practice and having the right guys in the band, sky is the limit.
Mansoor: Be true to your art and enjoy while doing it. Success and fame are just bi-products for a true artist, and also be ready to take criticism
What is the most favorite song that you like to perform?
We’ll there is two from our first album “HAMESHA”, the first being “Zindagi” and then “Humsafar”
You just released your first album ‘HAMESHA’, how’s the response?
It was pretty good actually. We got a lot of good and constructive feedback from all over. People seem to like the blend of what we created in terms of western and eastern mix we spoke about earlier. It’s not exactly something new, but it’s different.
What’s next for “The Silent Rickshaws”?
Right now we are focusing on promoting “HAMESHA” and on the sidelines we are working on a few acoustic singles before we finalize on our next album which we hopefully will release sometime at the end of 2019 or beginning of 2020.
Image Sources: www.facebook.com/Theband.TSR
