Jehangir Aziz Hayat
Peshawar, Pakistan
Jehangir Aziz Hayat's aggressive yet sober tone of vocals along with is hard-hitting riffs have elevated his music across the globe. He is a prominent hard rock musician from the city of Peshawar and has managed to blend the muddy and aggressive overtones of the grunge era with the tranquillity of the Pashtun culture.
Jehangir started to write and compose music when he was twelve years old. He received his musical inspiration from his mentor Sarmad Ghafoor and from him he learnt the basics of playing the guitar. Later he continued to consolidate his skills by using the programme Guitar-Pro.
Jehangir has been very passionate about music and has been influenced by many other artists including Alice in Chains, Dave Matthews Band, Megadeth, Nirvana, Pantera, Pearl Jam, Puscifer, Skid Row and Velvet Revolver. He played his first concert at a very young age while attending the International School of Peshawar in the 1990s.
He continued to sing and develop by playing at various forums where his talent and skills as a guitarist, musician and singer were highly acclaimed. His songs also received independent recognition and outstanding reviews on the popular international music sites like MySongBook. (Notably: “Never Change,” “Show Me Something Real,” “Bringing Me Down,” and “Guardians of the Gates.”)
Jehangir is perhaps the first grunge vocalist in Pakistan to have appeared on the national music scene. He reached the charts in the first week of release of his song, “Never Change.” It was subsequently nominated for the Indus Music Awards (now MTV Pakistan), making him the youngest musician in Pakistan to have been thus nominated for “Best Début.”
The video of the song ‘Never Change’ ranked number three in the Heavy Metal Competition after airing on Indus Music. The video for the song was directed by Zeeshan Parwez and received excellent reviews from renowned music critics. Shortly after being aired, offers began to pour in requesting for the rights to the music to be used in films.
Jehangir has returned to the music scene by the release of his début album, “Read Between the Lines.” The album was promoted with the single “Pretend to Be” which has been aired repeatedly on MTV Pakistan. The album has also been released on CDBaby and iTunes on the 1st of September 2009.
“Read Between the Lines” is a blend of subliminal tones merging with the reality of Jehangir’s soothing vocals. The album itself crafts hostile riffs along with mellow melodies that bring memories of a quietly flowing stream in a verdant forest. Most of the songs in the album define Jehangir’s outlook on his father's life that he finds to be a mixture of peaceful times interspaced with challenges, thus leading to the development of the lyrics. The aggressive tone within “Bringing Me Down” and “See You Soon” creates a new opening in the hard rock genre in South Asia’s music industry while tracks like “Pretend to Be” and “Light the Fuse” bring out an intimate side to Jehangir’s music that is full of strong emotion.