Faraz Anwar to release solo album after 12 years

For him, session playing is nothing more than an office job

KARACHI: Ask any musician in the country and all they will say in response to the question about releasing albums is, “Madness.”

With little hope in sight, most artists have resorted to releasing a single or two every now and then, majorly to tell everyone that they are still there.

The old school Faraz Anwar, however, is still in business without having released anything for years. Numerous musicians have come and gone but Anwar and his band Mizraab have somewhat weathered the crisis that engulfed the music industry and turned into a permanent dilemma.

For the guitar virtuoso, singles are spoilers. “A single only tells half the story and it gives away the entire sound of your album,” he told The Express Tribune.


He has hence decided that it is time a solo album hits both physical and online stores. “This is our bread and butter. We have to do it. Things will stay the same if we don’t release any music,” he added.

What spurred him into action, in his own words, is the extended delay. A lot has changed ever since the ace guitarist put out Maazi, Haal aur Mustaqbil. “It has been what 12 years since the last album. That’s a lot of time. Those who started out alongside us have now taken up acting so you can imagine what happened.”



The new album, most probably titled Ishq ki Subh, will be more of a mixtape and  is expected be out in a month. “It has instrumentals, pop rock, progressive rock, rock tracks.”

Anwar hates to admit that the average Pakistani listener does not exactly have an understanding of music. “Hence I have deliberately tried to keep things simple. The album is something that both old fans and new listeners will appreciate equally,” he maintained.

 

For the money

Anwar has been playing sessions, both credited and uncredited, from time immemorial. Of late, he featured on the acclaimed albums of Abbas Ali Khan and The Sketches as a guest musician and can be seen on stage at almost every Sounds of Kolachi show these days.

While he may have been involved with some of the most promising Eastern and fusion music acts, he took no time in admitting that he does not fancy that sort of music one bit. “Session playing for me is primarily to keep the stove burning. When you are playing for another band, they are the bosses who decide how things should go about,” he said. For the Guitar Idol 2009 finalist, session playing is nothing but a nine-to-five office job.

In his own words, Eastern music never intrigued the guitar virtuoso, who came up with tunes such as Kitni Sadiyan and Ujalon Main. “Eastern is not my thing. My parents even tried to get me some training in classical music but I never found my calling with it,” Anwar added.

With record labels vanishing and live shows not happening, Anwar had resigned to life in the UK and that caused the hiatus. “When I came back, things were starting to get better. When I play shows today, I see a whole new generation in the crowd.”

While he does feel that (his kind of) rock music in essence isn’t exactly being made in Pakistan, there are some underground acts that are making some very exciting music. On the other hand, he does not exactly appreciate the whole Sufi music wave. “It has become more of a commercial gimmick. You can easily tell the fake from the real. There’s no honesty in what is being churned out. It is not Abida Parveen wala music,” he added.


Another aspect of Anwar’s songs that make them so good is the poetry. He laughed and said he himself has never written any. “There is this friend of mine, Adnan Ahmed. He wrote lyrics for the first and second albums and he has written for this one as well. And he is not a professional. He just does it because he loves doing it.”

Anwar may not be the most accomplished of singers, he can sure identify what’s wrong with many vocalists these days. “It seems they are singing Urdu songs in English,” he laughs.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 22^nd, 2016.

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