Khurram Waqar

Personal life

Khurram Waqar was born on 23 July 1975 and was raised and currently resides in the capital Islamabad. His father has served as a bureaucrat at the top civil posts of the country and his mother is a housewife. He has a younger brother and sister. Though artistically inclined in general, no one from his family had ever ventured into music. He has been supported by his parents, on the condition that he continue to excel at his studies and pursue a professional career in parallel. In turn Khurram fulfilled his promise of acquiring a professional degree from the Carnegie Mellon University where he obtained his masters in Information Systems Management (MISM) in 2003. After returning to Pakistan the same year Khurram started working in the capacity of an IT manager at a multi national organisation and since then has been associated as an IT and telecom professional with various organisations, while spending his spare time in the band.

He is married and has two sons.

Influences

Khurram described himself first picking up the guitar as "purely because of the magic woven by the music of Guns and Roses and lead guitarist Slash in particular". He credits the band for single handedly fostering his interest and lifelong passion for rock music, a musical form that had yet to become widely popular in Pakistan in the early 90s. He is also influenced by guitar artists like Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Jimmy Page, John Petrucci, Eric Johnson and Steve Morse and over the years has absorbed folk and classical influences in his musical repertoire.

Early musical ventures

As an O level student in the early 90s, with his group of close friends, all aspiring musicians, he began his musical career that would become lifelong. Songs like Sweet Child 'O' Mine and Stairway to Heaven were amongst the first songs he mastered. By the time college happened they formed a band named Fantazia. Fantazia had Khurram on lead guitars, Taimur on guitars, Suhaib on vocals, Faraz on bass and Sabih on keyboards was an alternative rock band when rock was more or less an alien concept to most Pakistanis. Pop music had made headway into the musical scene but most people had yet to develop a taste for rock. Fantazia played a mix of covers and originals like 'Ancient Road', 'Race Against Time', 'Naqsh' etc. at various gigs in the twin cities before its members had to part ways to pursue different lines of education.

In Lahore: Coven, Entity and kNuMB

Shifting to Lahore to pursue his engineering degree at UET Khurram did a stint with Coven, the flag bearer of underground rock bands in Pakistan and was part of Entity with Ahmad Ali Butt on vocals, Salman Albert on drums, Qasim Ali on rhythms and Abid Khan on Bass. The underground rock scene in Lahore was slowly but surely making its presence felt with regular gig nights bringing on board budding underground talent. Participating in many such gigs, Entity gathered a loyal following for their potent rendition of covers by Rage against the Machine, Sound Garden and Guns N' Roses amongst others. Anajani Rahain, one of the singles recorded by Entity was their first and only video to be released on TV and ended up making it to no. 3 on the countdown of Indus Music in 2001. Preceding the video's release Khurram had headed to Saudi Arabia for job prospects and composed a lot of mellow, introspective material that was a definite departure from Entity's more aggressive, in-your-face rock sensibilities. Upon his return to Pakistan he established Knumb with Qasim to capture this pensive, brooding side to his music.

In Pittsburgh USA

While in Pittsburgh, USA, to pursue his Master's degree in Information Systems Management, Khurram formed an instrumental band Cocytus with a group of fellow CMU students. The hallmark of the band was it multi cultural/ multi ethnic makeup with Rodrigo Escobar the bassist hailing from Chile, Frank Boucamp the rhythm guitarist from Germany and Ammar at the drums being an American of Indian origin. All band members were masters or PhD students and as the joke went, they could very well have made it to the record books as the most highly qualified rock band in musical history. Cocytus performed in and around the University and had a few gigs in local bars and discos. While in Pittsburgh Khurram also participated in a nationwide talent hunt called guitarmageddon and made it to the Pittsburgh finals where his performance was much lauded by the judges and participants alike.

kNuMb and Root Gate Studio

Upon his return from the US, kNuMb rebanded with Khurram on the lead guitars, Qasim on vocals, Faraz on Bass, Abdul Ahad on Rhythms and Sharjeel on drums to be later replaced by Kami and eventually Fifu. This was the time music and arts in Pakistan were experiencing an unprecedented boom and the music scene was particularly vibrant. kNuMb got to perform in quite a number of concerts in Islamabad and Lahore. kNuMb's hallmark became their mixed set of instrumentals as well as originals like Anjaani Rahain, Lamhe and Majhi while their covers of audio slave were particularly well liked. Around this time a couple of Steve Vai-Joe Satriani inspired G3 concerts were arranged by fans in which Khurram performed alongside eminent guitarists like Faraz Anwar, Sarmad Ghafoor and Zeejah Fazli.

In 2003 Khurram set up a home based music studio called the Root Gate Studio with the facility to record live drums. 70% of Qayaas album and all of kNuMb's material has been recorded there. The studio is meant only for jams and recordings of personal ventures since full-time job does not permit Khurram to rent it out as a professional recording ability; for which it is fully equipped.

Qayaas

In 2008 Qasim, kNuMb's vocalist, shifted base to the US Coincidentally, around the same time, Umair Jaswal came to Root Gate Studio with his band, Silver smoke, for the recording of a TV show for ARY music. Khurram and Umair found an equation and soon afterwards Qayaas was born. They were joined by Sherry on rhythms, Fifu on drums and eventually by Sarmad, an eminent guitarist and music producer. Thus completed the line up of Qayaas, "the first progressive alternative rock band from Pakistan". In the band's own words "Qayaas literally translated as deliberation is not only the name of our band but the essence that encapsulates the entire philosophy behind our music. It is the coming together of individual deliberation on inspirational moments, relationships or life in general that take the form of musical notes. Our music and the words that frame them are essentially a spontaneous overflow of powerful emotion. But that is just the beginning of the journey. The idea or feeling taking birth in one band member's mind is developed and brought to fruition by collective deliberation or Qayaas by the whole band. Five different people, their different moods, outlooks and music philosophies harmoniously blend to form compositions that reflect a coming-together of creative energy. We strongly believe that this creative energy should flow through our compositions and reach our listeners; unadulterated in this wondrous journey by commercial concerns or other shortcuts."

Qayaas has released three music videos; "Tanha", "Pukaar" and "Umeed" which are currently doing the rounds on all the Pakistan music channels namely MTV, Aag, ARY Musik, Oye and Play TV. Their debut album, containing 13 songs, is complete and currently the band is in the process of releasing more singles, teasers promos and brainstorming over video concepts. They are also working on compiling their English material in the form of an album.

In December 2010, Qayaas became the first band from Pakistan to win the Rolling Stone-Jack Daniel's annual rock award for best rock band (Pakistan). Qayaas had the honour of being chosen for the award from a nomination of 25 plus rock bands from Pakistan including some well known names.

Awards and accolades