The earlier 21st century was a good era for rock-bands in Pakistan as a lot of bands made their way into the industry gaining recognition, Mizmaar being one of them.
Mizmaar, a rock band hailing from Karachi was formed by a guitarist Kashan Admani in 2000, with Daniyal Badshah as the lead vocalist and Alfred D’Mello as the drummer.
The band, however, rose to fame with their debut album ‘Kash’ that was released in 2003, producing two hit singles for namely ‘Kash’ and ‘Laut Ke Aa’.
Later in 2007, their second album,’Sitara’, was released worldwide with ‘Hai Pyar Kya’ and ‘Sitara,’ being the hit songs, however, the latter was chosen for a Hollywood film ‘Dragon War’ as a title track for the movie.
Unfortunately, in 2008 the band became inactive but made its way back 2015 after re-launching a new single ‘Jee Loonga’ and a new vocalist Mashhad Sharyar.
During the process of rebuilding their brand, the band was presented with the opportunity to collaborate with several celebrity singers. Moreover, the band focus is on featuring a different singer in every new single.
Earlier, Mizmaar collaborated with Dr Palash Sen of the Indian band Euphoria for ‘Ae Dil’ which was released last year on Independence Day. The song mainly celebrated the spirit of independence and peace for both India and Pakistan fostering ties.
Keeping up with the trend of collaborating with different artists their recent collaboration has been with the legendary Shubha Mudgal, for their single ‘Jogi’.
Resultantly, the feedback received has been overwhelming and the band seems to be really happy with it.
The lyrics of the song are very exquisite. It reflects the plight of the human race today and seeking to God. It’s also about the injustices that are happening in the world, such, as wars and terrorism. It only has a slight Sufi undertone to it.
While talking to Pakistan Today (PT) about the cross-border experience, Mizmaar’s frontman Kashan said, “It’s always great to collaborate with artists and musicians from different parts of the world.”
“Working with Shubha Mudgal was a very inspiring experience. Every line she would deliver would be just perfect and it became a challenge to select the final lines in her voice,” he added.
Despite being borders apart, Mizmaar and Shubha managed to record something that is a treat for all the listeners. Thanks to technology, things have relatively been easier for everyone including artists during cross-border collaboration. Better put by the man himself ‘it was like recording with an artist in the same studio,’ as the recording session with Shubha took place over Skype calls.
When asked about a memorable experience during the recording of the song, Kashan said, “While recording the song we would hear the recorded signal a little late and that made the song sound extremely funny.”
“There are more collaborations in store for future, we collaborate with a different singer for every new single and we shall reveal more details very soon about the co-productions, so keep a look out for more,” he elaborated.
After revamping their music and brand, Mizmaar makes sure that there is going a whole lot more for the fans to look out for
“We are currently working on a lot of new and interesting music. We will release a lot of songs this year,” he added.
Giving fans their take on promoting art with current conditions Kashan says that in 2003, there was a boom in the music industry and independent artists had more opportunities for exposure. However, that’s not the case anymore, as there is not much work happening on the independent front.
Thus, Kashan Admani concludes the interview by sending out a message for his fans, “Keep supporting independent music and buy their music legally. The fans are our driving force and without your support, we won’t be able to make more music.”