A Coke Studio House Band grad and now a successful solo vocalist from its last season, Zoe Viccaji returns to Season 7 of a platform which has been a corner stone of her musical journey. Music has always been an integral part of Zoe’s personality since she first dabbling in the art at the early age of 15. At the age of 17, Zoe performed with her first band named ‘Ganda Bandas’ following which she experimented with other bands and acted in the critically acclaimed musicals ‘Mamma Mia’ and ‘Chicago’ in Pakistan. While painting is an art that Zoe majored in, the artist maintains that music is where her heart feels most at home. While studying Art in New York and later at the Glasgow School of Art, Zoe still focused on the musical side to her personality and made time to write songs in between. Now based in Karachi, Zoe has set up her own home studio where she records her own music and collaborates with numerous producers.

Zoe stepped up her role in Coke Studio as a vocalist in season 6 of the platform, after participating on Coke Studio as a Backing Vocalist for the previous 3 seasons, an experience that equipped her with an understanding of Eastern Classical styles and traditional folk that this region represents. This training and exposure to the diversity of sounds led Zoe and her fellow backup vocalist and sister Rachel to train formally in the Eastern tradition of music. Zoe’s work has primarily featured Western stylized music mostly sung in English, however through her experience in Pakistan, she has now shifted her focus to Urdu and is currently producing material that features Eastern sensibilities.

‘Being a part of the Coke Studio House Band has had an influence on my musical interests. I returned to Pakistan from abroad in 2008 and up until that point, I didn’t really listen to Eastern music. Being a part of Coke Studio opened up an entire arena for me where they were exploring all these Eastern Classical songs. At first I had no interest in it, my interest primarily lay in learning about the production side of things. However in all these years, inevitably the way I’d listen to music was affected and I started to feel rooted to our traditional music. I began to explore the music that came before me. I felt that I needed to also stay true to our sound when writing my own music. So now that influence remains to be seen in the work I’ll now be producing.’

Through a series of constant training, learning and experimenting, Zoe is now a featured artist for a second time on the Coke Studio platform.