FARAZ ANWAR | Living Legend | Aleph Podcast | 18

In this episode of Aleph Podcast, we had the honour of inviting the legendary multi-instrumentalist, composer, singer/song-writer and virtuoso guitar player ‪@FarazAnwarOfficial‬ The conversation is about Faraz’s journey into the Pakistani music industry starting from his early days of career to what he is doing currently. Umair Dar gets into the details of Faraz’s musical endeavours, inspirations, achievements and how it’s been for him working on various projects over the past 3 decades!

Chapters
0:00 - Introduction
9:05 - The First Band Experience
17:40 - Berklee And Other Endeavours
20:49 - Beginnings of Mizraab
23:59 - Executing The Originality Of A Vision
32:02 - Garnering The Attention Of A Mass Audience
36:42 - Teaching Career And The Importance Of Music Theory
48:25 - Proud Performances
51:55 - Memorable Shows

Faraz Anwar started his music journey at the age of six, when he saw Yngwie Malmsteen, the Swedish guitar virtuoso on the TV for the first time. This led him to pick up the guitar as his main instrument. Mentored by another Pakistani great guitarist, Adnan Afaq and inspired by the likes of Allan Holdsworth, Paul Gilbert, Steve Morse & John Petrucci along with the aforementioned Malmsteen. Faraz started playing guitar in 1990, he then went on to do session guitar work as a recording artist as well as in their live bands with a some of the legendary musicians and bands from Pakistan including Ali Haider, Junoon, Fakhr-e-Alam, Junaid Jamshed, Sajjad Ali, Strings, Noori and Nadeem Jaffri to name a few. His first international live performance was with Sajjad Ali for his album Babia. In 1996, while he was in Pakistan, he sent his instrumental demo tapes to ‘Berklee College of Music’, Boston, resulting in winning him scholarship but due to some personal issues he could not go. Later as an acknowledgment, they presented him with “Outstanding Musical Achievement Award”.

Apart from his work as a session player, Faraz Anwar formed the Pakistani Progressive rock outfit Mizraab, in which he was the composer, producer, guitarist and lead singer. The band released their debut experimental album ‘Panchi’ in 1998, and went on to release Maazi Haal Mustaqbil in 2004, getting significant airplay on local and international music channels and thereby garnering a significant fan base. In 2001, his solo instrumental album “Abstract Point of View” was released on Gnarly Geezer Records, founded by his hero Alan Holdsworth. Also in 2004, Faraz, joined forces with Babar Sheikh to form metal band “Dusk”. The band toured Czech Republic and performed 13 concerts in few parts of Europe in 2006/2007.  Faraz has also made multiple appearances in Coke Studio - the first time was in 2011 when Faraz performed "Kuch Hai" with his band Mizraab. In 2014 Rohail Hyatt again invited him to play in a song “Malhar” followed by another performance of his song "Ujalon Mein" in 2017, season 10.

Most recently Faraz has been focusing on his solo career and released the album 'Ishq Ki Subah' in 2020, followed by the concept album 'Tale of the Lunatics' in 2022. He is currently working on another solo record.

Directed, Shot and Edited by Ali Muhammad
Assisted by Zahra Hassan Shah

FOLLOW FARAZ ANWAR:
Official Website: https://farazanwar.com
Bandcamp: https://thefarazanwar.bandcamp.com/re...
YouTube:    / farazanwarofficial  
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4WFQS...
Instagram:   / thefarazanwar  
Facebook:   / thefarazanwar  

FOLLOW MIZRAAB:
YouTube:    / @farazanwarofficial  
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0h96R...
Deezer: https://www.deezer.com/en/artist/5642...
Facebook:   / mizraabofficial  

Listen to Abstract Point of View:
Apple Music:   / abstract-point-of-view  
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/16raK5...
Amazon Music: https://www.amazon.com/Abstract-Point...
Discogs: https://www.discogs.com/release/83270...

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