Sherry Khattak isn’t worried about fitting a pre-set mould or topping the charts. He’s also not interested in releasing music that he can’t relate to. As the 37-year-old releases his debut solo album Ghar over a span of two months, he only seems to care about being authentic and observing his fans’ reactions to his music.
The album features no collaborations — it was just him, writing, recording and producing in his house in Lahore — marking a major shift from his previous work as alternative rock band Karakoram’s lead vocalist and guitarist, producer and audio head for Coke Studio Pakistan seasons 14 and 15 and, most recently, co-curator and producer of Humnava.
The exposure to these projects and musicians is what helped him get to this point in his career, says Khattak. “Doing everything myself, like recording the guitars, playing bass guitars, arranging drums, everything — I wanted to push myself to do that.”
The majority of the tracks on the album are in the rock genre, as one would expect from an artist who names Linkin Park as his dream collaborator. Going into this article, I was worried my review wouldn’t do justice to the album as someone who doesn’t usually listen to rock. But, as it turns out, even a non-rock-enthusiast has much to look forward to. The introspective lyrics gave the songs a relatability factor that had me playing ‘Qaid’ and ‘Qayamat’ on loop.
