“We’re a music production duo. Our style is a mixture of electronic and organic music.” – Taha Malik
As the debut video of Kostal makes way from the Internet to the airwaves, Instep catches up with Taha Malik of Kostal…
By Maheen Sabeeh
Instep: What can you tell me about Kostal?
Taha Malik: Kostal is Taha Malik and Omran Shafique. We’re a music production duo. We first met in 2002 while working on many side projects. During the recording of Mauj‘s debut album at my studio in Houston, Omran and I would write dance and hip hop style records. As our library of ideas grew, we decided that we should compile the best and make an album of them. Of course, Kostal is much more than that now. We are currently writing/producing for other artists, movies, commercials, and any other projects we can get our hands on. The collective manifoldness of our musical backgrounds allows us to experiment with all types of styles and genres, from French rappers to rubab and tabla, to jazz-fusion, rock, Arabic… anything really. We love it!
It is every begum’s darkest (domestic help-related) fantasy come true. With ‘Jaan Jaye’, Kostal’s hip-hop ditty that first became popular in 2006, we are treated to a colourful peek into the secret life of the cook and maali (gardener) in those gloriously unsupervised moments which every employer fears, and none has any idea about.