Being different in a world that doesn’t want you to be different – In conversation with Wooly and the Uke

An interview taken from our new digital issue. Wooly and the Uke is an audiovisual artist and writer from South Asia, previously based in Berlin. Born in Lahore, Pakistan, the artist’s socio-political backdrop has profusely influenced her artistic expression, with an ever-growing appetite for creative freedom. Her musical- and visual narratives are seemingly subconsciously placed within distant imaginaries around human fragility and perception and her sound can only be described as genre-fluid. Having recently released her single “Home”, Wooly and the Uke has shared her take on the question what and where is home? 


KALTBLUT caught up with Wooly and the Uke via Zoom and talked about her experiences in Pakistan, being different and how she incorporates all those experiences and emotions into her music. 

Photo by Ikram Khan

KALTBLUT: Where are you right now?

Wooly: I am in my hometown Lahore right now! Pakistan is hot around this time – Berlin could need it a little!

KALTBLUT: I can imagine! I really like your single “Home”.

Wooly: I am glad it resonates with you. Home is the intro to the EP These Days, actually!

KALTBLUT: Oh nice, when is the EP coming out?

Wooly: When the producers are done with it! (laughs) At the moment, I am drafting the audio narrative along with some visual storylines. I believe this project must communicate the dialogue and plea clutched within – that is the only way it will encourage thought or a faint change where it is needed.

In the crucial time of my musical growth, the West had been more dominant in the narrative. In the naïve, black and white, and emotional mind of a young musician, what was less understood here felt easily communicated in the overtly “open” culture outside – the details seemed far less important than the freedom the outside world exhibited.

Photo by Micaela Dunne

KALTBLUT: Do you think your music is more influenced by western music or do you try to encompass South East Asian elements as well?

Wooly: I believe I am the embodiment of the sound I birth and nurture. In a colonial atmosphere of geographical restraint and questioned identities, I have found the influence selective and collective, yet fleeting – be the influence from South Asia, South East Asia, or the West.

In South Asian society, especially Pakistan, most individuals, from a young age, are subconsciously ejecting themselves from their immediate context. The longing to escape often stems from societal policing. I have found personally that to have affected my levels of responsiveness, or appeal, towards those contextual elements you might be discussing. The art, however separate, becomes readily jumbled within the fight or flight.

In the crucial time of my musical growth, the West had been more dominant in the narrative. In the naïve, black and white, and emotional mind of a young musician, what was less understood here felt easily communicated in the overtly “open” culture outside – the details seemed far less important than the freedom the outside world exhibited. Southeast Asia, too well like South Asia, seemed too close on the mental map – the colonial projection and consumption concealed much of the influence from elsewhere, which revealed as I grew outside that bubble.

I want to embrace more.

KALTBLUT: Nice! Coming back to your single, you’ve said that the dark setting is there to do justice to what’s going on in Pakistan. Can you tell me a little bit about that?

Wooly: There is violence. Then, there is desensitization. Then, there is an eerie yet familiar atmosphere of “but this isn’t new!” as if waiting to say, “well, isn’t this new!” The dark setting becomes almost dark comedy in such a turn of events. What is urgent in other societies is stacked lower than the lowest subcategory of human rights in countries where poverty overshadows and often excuses inflicted tyranny.

In such a setting, commenting or revolutionizing through art can also effortlessly be measured in competition. “Of course, it is easier to show your nation’s flaws than to show the beauty of our mountains and rivers! Propaganda!”

No. This is real. We need a mirror, just as much as the play of illusions. There is no one being entertained by becoming entertainment.

Why I like sound – it is an instrument that follows its rhythm of communication and is relentless in its travel – the language spoken, your background or privilege are additional embellishments that give it colour.

photo by Micaela Dunne

KALTBLUT: I’m really sorry to hear that, and as you said, it’s really hard to imagine that, as we’re so privileged here. There are no words.

Wooly: Why I like sound – it is an instrument that follows its rhythm of communication and is relentless in its travel – the language spoken, your background or privilege are additional embellishments that give it color.

For me, I am communicating my message to you through frequencies, which I can only hope you receive and understand.

The message is universal.

KALTBLUT: Do you see Pakistan as your home or Berlin?

Wooly: I am learning, slowly yet surely, I am home.

In Pakistan, the class disparity makes some see others as aliens. In a foreign land, you are an alien. The difference between an alien and a fellow is that of conformity.

I want all of us to look around, to recognise the burden each carries in secrecy – the guilt, like shackles, heavy with each secret. We carry many homes away from home – homes within people, places afar, and within the clouds where we feel safer than reality.

KALTBLUT: That seems to be the case when it comes to immigrants and refugees in Western countries. You see all those articles praising refugees who came here from Syria for example who learned German within one second and are juggling eight different jobs to prove that they’re “worthy” of being here. It’s horrible. Tell me a little bit about the video for “Home”. It’s a very dark video, too.

Wooly: Home is an ode, as much as it is a plea – to accept those less understood, less accepted, the unlucky to be deemed otherly. There are countless lives taken, shaken, or gently pushed under a veil. The cloth is grief turned shelter from inflictions and labels – outlander, suggestive, too less, too much, too strange, too sexual, too damn different.

I want all of us to look around, to recognise the burden each carries in secrecy – the guilt, like shackles, heavy with each secret. We carry many homes away from home – homes within people, places afar, and within the clouds where we feel safer than reality.

KALTBLUT: How would you compare the Pakistani music industry to the German?

Wooly: The local music industry of Pakistan squeezes more personal resources out of the musicians. There is art, there are artists, but also dwindling infrastructure to support music production and distribution. The previously popular record labels have exited, fundings make a rare appearance and piracy triumphs.

However, globalisation has bridged the newer artists with the vision of musical achievements elsewhere. They are connected with the image of what could be and should be their future, too. This has stimulated a spike in creating those platforms that lack.

In Berlin, music facilitation revolutionised as a long-held priority.

In Pakistan, the industry is reinventing itself, and is adamant to get what it deserves.

KALTBLUT: And would you say that Pakistani musicians are singing in their native language, or is it still very Anglo-centric?

Wooly: The naïve or more intellectually colonized bubble is bursting. I have observed it to become increasingly “sexy” to take ownership of your origins. There is an atmosphere of fusion, and to use language as symbolism.

KALTBLUT: I find that interesting, because European musicians are slowly embracing their native languages and are embracing their cultures again, such as the South-East Asian collective Daytimers in the UK for example.

Wooly: I find that inspiring!

Photo by Ikram Khan

Being different can be like the arcade game where a mole pops up randomly, and someone has to whack them. If you’re lucky, you are noticed but go unscathed back underground. If someone strikes, there might be applause and a reward on your fall.

KALTBLUT: Isn’t being “different” very dangerous?

Wooly: The “differences” are treated in distinctive ways depending on if underground or screaming overground. There are preferences laid in concrete. However, most individuals are increasingly adapting to creating safer personas, channeling energy into finding loopholes.

Being different can be like the arcade game where a mole pops up randomly, and someone has to whack them. If you’re lucky, you are noticed but go unscathed back underground. If someone strikes, there might be applause and a reward on your fall.

KALTBLUT: How can you pursue your music, which is quite personal, in a climate like that? 

Wooly: In such conditions, the juggling of façades and play of words can be a smokescreen. This act can be called performance art supplementary to the art created!

It can be frightening to dance in the face of danger, be it turned away from the monster or looking it in the eye. You can migrate or choose to express while staying – either case is still a reminder of the contextual presence. However, knowing that resilience and collectivity exist between you and what is ahead can be of consolation.

I aspire to find a free voice.

KALTBLUT: It’s awful, I have no words. You’ve mentioned your EP earlier, will the whole EP deal with those issues?

Wooly: The E.P. These Days hopes to instil curiosity and questioning while also putting tales of lost love and hopes of rejoicing on the table – a tale familiar to many regardless of borders.

Stream Wooly and the Uke’s single “Home” here.

Cover photo by Micaela Dunne

Wooly and the Uke’s socials
Instagram: @woolyandtheuke
Facebook: @janatsohailaziz
Spotify: Wooly and the Uke