Listening to Pakistani Sufi singer Abida Parveen has often been described as a divine experience, but the singer says she often hopes that rulers in India and Pakistan would listen more carefully to her message of peace.

“In Sufism, there is only peace,” Parveen said. “I have always believed that music and the arts is the best way to achieve peace.

“When I sing, I sing of peace, of harmony and culture.” Often called the heir to the legendary Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Parveen is today perhaps the world’s most renowned Sufi singer.

Profile

Name: Danish Rahi
Age: 26
Location: NJ / USA
Education: Bachelors of Arts
Occupation: Designer / Singer / Producer
Interest(s): Visual and Performing Arts
Music Genre: Pop

Since how long have you been practicing music? When did you first pick up an instrument?

I have been practicing music since childhood. I remember waiting for my turn to play my sisters keyboard when I was five.

Did you acquire any formal training or was it all self experimentation?

I never took any courses in music, not much was available in those days in Pakistan for pop music. So it was mostly self-experimentation, and help from my senior musician friends and books.

Fuzon, a band of three multi-talented performers - Shafqat Amanat Ali, Imran (Immu) and Shallum Xavier - all filled with a passion for music, have merged their varying abilities,

creating some of the most promising sounds to come out of the Pakistani music scene. Their music is a reflection of today’s generation, a blend of the East and West. Fuzon has been lucky enough to hit all the right notes with their debut album Saagar.

Although tunes like Ankhon Kay Saagar, Teray Bina and Akhiyan are romantic and hummable, the self-titled songs in raagas like Khamaaj and the torrential Malhaar are definitely the cream of the lot.