The Commuters

History

Zeeshan Zaidi, frontman of The Commuters was born in Canada and raised in the Philippines with parents born in Pakistan and India. While an undergraduate at Harvard University, Zaidi worked as a producer and engineer, producing the first demo for Grammy nominated R&B artist Ryan Leslie. After graduating with a JD from Harvard Law School and an MBA from Harvard Business School, Zaidi worked in the music industry for major labels including Arista Records, RCA Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment. After leaving Sony, Zaidi started work on a solo music project. He collaborated with his childhood friend from the Philippines, Uri Djemal, a New York-based producer (whose parents hail from Israel and the US). The two co-produced Zaidi’s songs at Djemal’s Madpan Studios in Manhattan. Before releasing the album, Zaidi decided to form a band and asked Djemal to join. The two then recruited bassist Ben Zwerin and drummer Paul Amorese.

The Commuters’ first single “As I Make My Way” was released on August 23, 2011. The music video was added to mtvU on September 23, 2011. The single received airplay on many radio stations around the world, and charted at several US college radio stations including #2 on WMUR (Milwaukee, WI), #7 on KCSS (Turlock, CA), and #12 on WRDP (Chicago, IL).

The Commuters were the Artist of the Week for Channel One News in December 12, 2011. On March 28, 2012, PureVolume selected “Rescue” as its “Song of the Day”. The band was also featured by Guitar World and DAWN.

The Commuters are an official partner of the “Football for Good” public awareness campaign of NFL star Running Back Adrian Peterson, as well as the DNA Foundation of Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore. The campaign is designed to create awareness and raise funds for community programs for at-risk youth and to fight human trafficking of minors.