THOUGH all of them happen to be teenagers, this Rock group from Batamaloo area in the City, has shown maturity at shows across north India; be it in Srinagar, Jammu or even New Delhi. Every time they performed, the audience was enthralled.
 Meet the five members of Kashmir’s first ever youngest Rock group, Sign the Signature of Music. While Sayed Rahi Omair and Qasam Dar(both 17) are the lead vocalists of the band; Azaan Mullick and Hamzah Wani prefer playing guitar while Muneeb Khan (17) likes drums. Interestingly, this young group conceived some five years ago, entertains the audience in a variety of English, Urdu and even Kashmiri Rock.
 Is Kashmiri specialty Chakri, a kind of Rock? “No,” says Rahi.
 “They are altogether different. This is why we planned to introduce this novelty in our music so that the listeners get a feel of their  vernacular in the entertainment,” he adds.
 Rahi says a key reason of introducing Rock in Kashmiri was that when the target audience gets a specialty in their mother tongue, it touches their hearts.
 “This is all what we have been doing,” he and other members say.
 The team is inspired by famed vocalists like Shafaqat Amanat Ali who is known to have introduced fusion of Classical and Rock.
 “We have tried innovation on the same lines,” the group members say.
 Their novelty seems to have played the trick. In no time of the first few shows, the group got offers to perform at Government Medical
 College Jammu and even the plush PVR New Delhi.
 They also performed at Indian Red Cross Society hosted event at Womens College Jammu. Sign the Signature of Music, which is being taken as the youngest Rock group in north India, is all praise for their Gurus as they don’t forget to hail the contribution of their music teachers: Bilal and Irfan.
 But for now, the group finds it difficult to manage working in their homeland.
 “Well it isn’t because of any threat…people love us the way we love them but then lack of sponsors is making us think the other way,” the Rock group members say.
 Lack of resources to market their art has gone so tight, that sometime back, the group says, they couldn’t release the CDs of their first official number Mein. Finally Mein was uploaded on the Youtube.
 In less than a week, they got over a thousand clicks from the fans.
 But then the group says: “See if we stay back the same way, we might have to wind up. But then we won’t let our art die.”
 Sign the Signature of Music plans to shift to some metropolitan City like New Delhi and Mumbai.
 This, as per the observers, could be detrimental for the local music industry and of course the budding talent.
 “At such a young age the group has proved its mettle, but even before they attain adulthood we are making them leave their homeland. What impact will it have?” argues a prominent singer.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 27 Feb 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 27 Feb 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 28 Feb 2011 00:00:00 IST