New York City’s First Muslim Arts Festival
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zerobridge
zerobridge is a New York-based indie alternative/rock band formed in 2001. The band draws on the Kashmiri roots of lead singer Mubashir Mohi-ud-Din and his brother and drummer, Mohsin. zerobridge is named after an actual bridge in Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir. Other band members include bass player Greg Eckelman, who joined in 2003, guitarist Jay Barclay, who joined zerobridge in 2007, and keyboardist Paolo Arao who joined in 2008.
No Epiphany (2001) is zerobridge’s first self-released EP, featuring a 12 and a half minute instrumental with samples of “Chalte, Chalte”, a song composed by Ghulam Muhammad for the film Pakeezah, a popular 1972 Indian "Bollywood" film. The band’s first full-length debut, eponymously titled zerobridge, was released in 2003. The track "In Exile" explores the ghazal, a centuries-old genre of Persian poetry, and the band cites the intellectual influences of Agaha Shahid Ali, Salman Rushdie and Edward Said. The band is currently in the studio working on a full length album for release later in 2009.
When brothers Mubashir “Din” Mohi-ud-Din and Mohsin "Mo" Mohi-ud-Din founded the rock group zerobridge, they were inspired by musical giants of both the west and the east: U2, The Beatles, The Replacements, The Clash, Joy Division/New Order, Bowie are all cited as influences, but Din also points out that South Asian music like The Sabri Bros and Hindi film composers such as R.D. Burman, A.R. Rahman, and Nadeem Sharavan are just as important to the group. Today zerobridge has five members, as Din and Mo have been joined by bass player Greg Eckelman, keyboardist Paolo Arao and guitarist Jay Barclay.
The family of the founding brothers hails from Kashmir, the contested territory between India and Pakistan that is, at times, the subject of their music. “The song Suffering Moses is essentially an ode to Kashmir,” explained Din, while other tunes such as Late Bloomer “are about life in general.” With kicking beats, soaring vocals, and a musical style that defies easy classification (and now with two independent releases behind them and a new full length album on the way) zerobridge is a critical contemporary addition to the Muslim Voices: Arts & Ideas line up.
Listen in on an exclusive interview with lead singer Din on his influences, the impact of Kashmir on zerobridge and what the group is striving to say with their infectious music.
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