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My earliest memories of playing music are on my tiny 2 octave piano that I got for my 6th birthday. From then on, the keyboards got bigger and so did my involvement with my music. My first band was at age 14, and it was called Amadeus. We used to play in school and do shows around Islamabad but never did any commercial concerts. I wrote my first song, 'Qadam say Qadam' , for Amadeus in 1987 and we managed to get in on local radio as well... a big achievement for us school kids back then... After that, we managed to get a break on national TV with Music Channel Charts, when Ghazanfar Ali offered to make a video for our song and also include it in the MCC audio releases.
After that debut performance on TV, the band broke up and I started doing shows with several local bands. Unable to settle down with any band, I started experimenting with vocals and got very good reviews. That's when I decided to go solo and compose my own album.
Meanwhile, I had completed my Bachelors in Computer Science and had been working as a freelance multi media designer and 3D animator with several companies. Around 1999, I met with Najam .. and he suggested that he would like to use my songs for a drama serial that he had planned for Lipton. One thing led to another, and Lipton Hamsafar, the serial was aired last year with my song Doorian as it's theme song.
This is when I got my first major break when Khurram Jamshaid of BMN records signed me up for a 3 album contract, the first ever that BMN had done with a debut artist. I went into recording in early 2002 at Angels Digital Sound Studio, and was lucky enough to cut an extremely well done album with Khalid Islam. BMN released the album, titled Humsafar in December 2002.
Ironically, my songs have spread more so over the net than through the shops. I've already made two videos for the tracks "Bewafa" and 'Jaane Kya hay' which are being aired on most of the local channels here in Pakistan. These days, I'm working on the third video and lining up some major live shows to promote the album locally. Work on the second album has already started and I should have that in the can early next year, inshaAllah.
Wish me luck!
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