#18 - FARAZ ANWAR - Living Legend

A for Aleph Podcast

In this episode of The Aleph Podcast, A For Aleph Founder Umair Dar invites a man that is considered one of the most important guitar players and musicians in Pakistan's History, Faraz Anwar.
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.
FOLLOW FARAZ ANWAR:

• Official Website: farazanwar.com
• Bandcamp: thefarazanwar.bandcamp.com
• YouTube: farazanwarofficial
• Spotify: open.spotify.com/artist/4WFQS...
• Instagram: thefarazanwar
• Facebook: thefarazanwar

FOLLOW MIZRAAB:

• YouTube: @farazanwarofficial
• Spotify: open.spotify.com/artist/0h96R...
• Deezer: deezer.com/en/artist/5642...
• Facebook: mizraabofficial

Listen to Abstract Point of View:

• Apple Music: abstract-point-of-view
• Spotify: open.spotify.com/album/16raK5...

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A for Aleph is a unique creative collaborative space and initiative based in Karachi, Pakistan, that is focused on the patronage and empowerment of the arts and foster the growth of independent contemporary artists from across the region in order to heal, evolve and expand our collective consciousness, the Aleph.
More here: https://linktr.ee/aforaleph