FARAZ ANWAR – Interview

Interview with Pete Devine of Pete’s Rock News and Views (https://petesrocknewsandviews.com)

PD:  How would you describe yourself or your band as an artist?

FA: As an artist I try to capture my emotions, experiences from life and translate it to my music and I want people to see everything from my window things they don’t understand I wish my music could help them to see clearly from my point of view.

PD: Can you tell us briefly about your background – i.e. where you’re from, how you came to make music, etc.

FA: I started my journey from (Pakistan) where prog rock music is in ignorance. It was really hard cause in the nineties when I started to play guitar

There was no internet so all I can do was to search new music listen to it & learn from cassette player. As I mentioned before I started my guitar playing journey from 1990 & I still couldn’t find a good musicians to play with so I decided to take matters into my own hands and play every instruments by my self.

PD: Who and what inspires you to make music, both in terms of musical and other influences? What do you like to write about in your songs?

FA: I must say that first band that influenced me was abba my father brought few albums of Abba I kept listening to one song called “chiquitia” the outro of that song really blew me away.

Second inspiration came from my brother who was into western music, in his collection I found kansas albums I liked kansas because they were completely different from abba lots of sections, changes, odd time signatures etc.. I think my prog influence came from these bands like kansas, rush, marillion, yes.

Then 3rd artist that inspired me was yngwie malmsteen I wanted to play like him and here I’m now.

My music is a combination of every music I heard

From abba to pink floyd, air supply to dream theater its all in there and the experiences I had through out my music journey the problems I faced, my anger, love, depression, anxieties speak it’s self through my music. what I have seen from my childhood living in a city like Karachi where there’s violence everywhere its all in my music it’s automatically come from within me.

PD: What are your aspirations as an artist?

FA: I would like to have a good band which unfortunately I haven’t found yet , I want to keep making music cause when I die I want people to remember me from the work I’ve done. Also would like to do a world tour.

PD: What is the proudest moment in your music career so far?

FA: I think proudest moment would be when I made my first prog rock record ‘Abstract point of view’ and then that album got released by Allan holdsworth label Gnarly Geezer Records.

PD: Promoting one’s music is such a challenge these days, especially with so many new artists emerging from bedrooms in the day of the home studio. How is that going?

FA: Yes it’s tough to stand out but I think nobody can be you,  music I make is for my own satisfaction and I do it for my self not for others so it doesn’t matter if you get the break through or not, at least Im living the life the way I wanted , and in my opinion success can’t be measured by money and fame, for me my success is my music which I always dreamed of making & I’m doing it now .

PD: And how do you book and promote your live shows and tours? Any performances coming up?

FA: I played last time was in the US in 2018 after that few concerts came but the budget was not good so I decided not to do it, I used to to do lots of shows but that Era was different cause my songs were on TV channels and all the promoter they contacted me to do shows but in Pakistan there are no management companies, no labels, no professional sound engineers so basically it’s a very horrible music scene and no good musicians around . Honestly now I lost interest in playing live music, maybe when I move abroad then I’ll think about playing live .

PD: What do you think about downloading music online? What about streaming sites like Spotify?

FA: Everything has its pros and cons I mean it’s a good thing for new artists that they can share their work with millions of people but if you ask me music lost its worth I used to buy CDs cassettes alot and I know the value of an album but this new internet generation they judge the artist life’s work in 2 minutes in our Time we used to listen to the album for months people have no patience now. I like the 80s & the 90s Era more everything was better information, content was less but original.

PD: What song do you wish you’d written and why?

FA: There’s always little bit of something in most of the songs which you always want to redo but I think when ever I tried to redo the song it lost its essence I think right thing to do is leave the way it is and move forward.

PD: Is there anything you don’t like about the music industry, which you would change if you could?

FA: I just wanna say be original stop copying others at least make your own guitar tone. In today’s world most of the new music I heard was all sounds the same if you hear audio production, drums sound, IR guitar sounds even singer’s lost their original voice. In 80s & the 90s everyone has their own sound if you hear Phil Collins drums you know that he’s playing the drums same if you see guitar players like Steve vai, yngwie, satriani you can hear the tone difference but now buy an Axe fx and download the tone and you are good to go . I really want to change that.

PD: So, what are you working on at the moment?

FA: I’m working on my new prog album which will be release next year hopefully, it’s a bit different from the last album ‘tale of the lunatics’. My new work will be surprise for fans.

PD: Where can we learn more about you and buy your music/merch online?

FA: It’s available on most digital online platforms like Spotify iTunes etc.. Just search faraz anwar and you will find all my albums there.

FARAZ ANWAR links:
Band/Artist location – PAKISTAN
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