Following a seven year hiatus, Mizmaar is back with a new song ‘Jee Loonga’ and a new vocalist, Mashhad Sharyar.

Mizmaar.— Publicity photo

It was 2003 when Mizmaar’s debut album Kash was released—the early 2000s were a good time for rock-bands in Pakistan and as a plethora of bands gained recognition, so did Mizmaar.

The badly shot music video for their catchy song ‘Aa Ab Laut K Aa’ was on every music channel and hitting the right notes was a rare feat for the band’s vocalist (in the first album at least), the guitarist’s heavy distortion just wasn’t enough to cut it.

The band was formed by guitarist Kashan Admani with vocalist Rehan, drummer Roger Faria and bassist Russell Owen. But Daniyal Badshah soon replaced Rehan as the vocalist and Alfred D’mello replaced Roger as the drummer.

Kashan Admani.— Publicity photo

Eventually, like most other bands from that time, Mizmaar broke up, but did manage to release a second album called Sitara before disbanding.

This time around the new entrant Mashhad is a student based in Karachi who has received vocal training from his father. It was after Mashhad’s performance in Mizmaar’s studio that Kashan and Alfred decided to include him.

Speaking about the comeback and new song, Alfred says:

“The song was collaboratively written by Kashan, Mashhad and I. We had a hybrid sound in mind for the song since the very beginning when Kashan first came up with the intro riff.”

Alfred D’mello.— Publicity photo

The drummer is hopeful about the new inclusion and believes that he ‘fits perfectly with the new sound’. “'Jee Loonga' is a song about hope, the chances and risks that we take in life and the effort that we make despite multiple failures, and believing in yourself no matter what people say,” he adds.

However the song doesn’t live up to the hype that was created before the music video was released on Wednesday.

With that said, it appears that the band put the seven year time off to good use by finding a vocalist that can actually sing. Although the band’s new sound is the complete opposite of their former pop-rock genre, it’s still catchy in a manufactured-to-cater-to-the-masses pop way.

More than anything, it’s great to see Kashan Admani – who is now a prominent and highly-acclaimed music producer in Karachi – make a comeback and focus on his own music again.

Directed by Admani himself, the video is about restricting oneself by building imaginary walls and its lyrics give the message that those walls need to be broken down as the female character is shown bound in the room and how she manages to shatter them.