Irtaash: Calling it quits

Islamabad-based band Irtaash decides to disperse.

Irtaash — comprising Yasir Jaswal, Farooq Shah, Umer Sohail, Muhammad Talha and Ali Nadeem — has decided to call it a day as a band. Pakistan’s music industry has previously seen musicians like Aunty Disco Project (ADP), Karavan and Jal doing the same and now Irtaash joins the bandwagon.

Koolmuzone.com quotes Jaswal as saying, “It saddens me to tell you that Irtaash will not be playing, performing or making music. We are disbanding. We might individually follow our musical calling but not with Irtaash, maybe later on in life, but for now it’s a wrap. It’s been an emotional 10 years but it’s been worth it.”

The band was formed back in November 2001 when it performed for the first time on stage with Jaswal on vocals, Shah on lead guitars and Kaiser (who was part of the band’s initial performances) on rhythm guitars. According to pakmediarevolution.com, the band made its initial recordings at Grey Matter Studios Islamabad. Their single, “Kali Raatien”, was the most requested song on FM 101 in 2002 and remained in the top 10 song category for eight straight weeks in a show called “High Voltage” on FM 101.

In mid 2011, the band released their debut album Kala Safaid Aasmaan, which received a lot of applause from their fans. Although the band has been disbanded, there are chances that they might release one last music video for their single “Khauf” as they released some video stills a while back.

(With additional information from koolmuzone.com)

Published in The Express Tribune, October 28^th, 2011.