5 Minutes With Asad Qizilbash Of Swaras (Interview)

By Hasan

We normally see artists and bands playing a particular niche of music. But if you’re looking for versatility, and a sound that blends world music into one concoction. Look no further.

Swaras (“The seven notes of the scale” in English) is a semi classical pop/rock band from Toronto, Canada, formed in June 2009 by Asad Qizilbash who is also the lead vocalist and composer of the band’s music.

Swaras consists of only two band members Asad Qizilbash and Hassan Bokhari.

I caught up with Asad and asked him a few questions.

1. How was Swaras born?

I have done a lot of theater in my childhood/school and I wanted to do something with music but didn’t want to start without learning it, so I started learning classical music some two years back. I knew Hassan as we used to work together but then lost touch, got back together again through Facebook where he posted his guitar solo…

Infact, this one

I saw it, liked it and asked him to jam, when we jammed the first time, we composed two tracks. And that’s how the journey began…

2. What do you think of the underground music scene in Pakistan?

It is very good, in fact in certain cases it is better than some of the mainstream artists. Aag band is a great example; Qayaas, Irtaash and Overload are others who produce excellent music.

What you call underground in Pakistan we call Independent here in Canada, meaning with no label. Underground sounds like an underground mafia or something like that haha. I mean some bands/musicians are excellent than some over hyped mainstreams ones….

3. And what success has Swaras had, as an Independent?

Well we fell that the control is always in our hands so we can take our sweet time to release our tracks. Our strategy is to keep our listeners hungry but raved up and to deliver something they never expected from us.

I don’t believe in releasing albums rather singles, but each of them with videos because in my opinion, videos get more attention than an audio track even if it’s a simple and inexpensive video…

I think the key to our success is that we are doing something what no artist has ever done before in the world, i.e. fusing a country’s instrument in each of our composition and it’s never repeated.

For instance, our first track “Aag Kuch Aysi Lagi“, has African conga drums fused into it. Our second track “Jo Tum Kaho“, the one with the video has Italian violin. The third single “Kya Khushi” (to be released soon), has Spanish guitars and so on. These instruments will not be repeated in our new ones.

…So I guess, to offer something new to the listeners and every time is the key to our success.

Keep supporting us as ‘Without you we will be nothing…’

All our music is free and you can download or listen at:

Official website

Facebook Page and Group

Youtube Channel