music & me

A few years ago, I managed to steal my friend's guitar (sorry, Ahmed), and keep it in my possession for 6 months before he was able to pry it out of my hands. In that highly productive time, I taught myself basic guitar and rapidly resurfaced ear training I’d developed as a child through self taught basic piano skills and parentally mandated singing of simple scales.

I eventually taught myself to play the guitar and experimented with different styles of music. Recently, I stumbled into Indian Classical Music and Classical-Rock fusion and have, for the most part, adopted those styles of singing as best as I can. I've written a handful of songs. A lot of English rock. Some Hindi. My greatest influences in music have probably been Atif Aslam, Sukhwinder Singh, and Javed Bashir. I guess my style of singing is a blend of these three, which you may see from my posted videos. I've been singing now for a couple of years. Hopefully my growth will be evident on this page as I continue to post more videos in the months to come.

 

	Tere Naina from My Name Is Khan at Vanik Samaj Diwali Festival 2010
	Here, I'm singing Tere Liye by Atif Aslam from the movie Prince at the Vanik Samaj Talent Show
	I was a guest performer at the 2010 Indian Vocal Contest. I had competed in 2009 (a couple of the videos are below) and was called back to present a song I'd sung in 2009 for the "Love" themed round. I sang Haule Haule from Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi
	As promised, this is the toned down version of the classical Eri Ali Piya posted below. I made this a bit more mainstream. The background music was all produced/arranged by me. I used western instruments to give it a modern touch.
	Here I sang Desh Mere at Dundas Square in Toronto for India's Independence Day Celebration. My orange sweater reeks of patriotism.
	I sang Pehli Nazar Mein by Atif Aslam at the Vanik Samaj Diwali Festival.
	This is a performance of a classical love song: Eri Aali Piya in Raga Yaman. This version has a lot of heavy classical in it. I'll prepare a more mainstream version and post it shortly.
	I performed an emotional sufi song called "Maye Ni Main Kinnu Akhaan" written by Shah Hussain for the 2009 Indian Vocal Contest's Mother's Day themed quarter finals round. This is the version sung by Atif Aslam.
	I ranked in the Top 5 of approximately 120 entries of the 2009 Indian Vocal Contest in Toronto! This is my performance of Krazzy 4 at the Item Song round.