Canadian-Pakistani Artist The Spellz: Exploring Cultural Diversity Through Music

Canadian-Pakistani music artist NAS, better known by his stage name The Spellz, was recently selected by the prestigious online platform GlobalRockstar.com as the Artist of the Day. He is currently also in the running for Emerging Artist from Canada, online voting for which is currently open at www.globalrockstar.com/artists/the-spellz

The Spellz is a Pakistani born artist, who has lived and been raised in Lahore and is currently living in Canada. With a strong vision to become an international musician, the influence of various cultures is visible through his music. Incorporating poetries of great poets such as Baba Bulle Shah and Ahmad Faraz as a part of his meaningful lyrics, The Spellz wants to make music which goes beyond being just entertaining. He would like to inspire the English, Urdu and Punjabi speaking populations globally, through strong inspirational and motivational messages in his songs.

Speaking about his music, NAS says, “I do not make music. It’s music that actually makes me. It defines my spirit, individuality and originality.”

The Spellz is a multi-talented musician who composes, writes and sings his own songs. Being a true reflection of the cultural diversity inherent in Canada, his music experiments with Western Rock and Eastern melodies and sometimes a fusion of both. He declares Guns and Roses, U2, Metallica, Nusrat Fateh, Abida Perveen, Junoon & AR Rahman as his biggest influences in music, which can be seen through his songs such as Life is Fine (an adaptation of Langston Hughes’ poetry written during the anti-slavery movement in United States) and Bada Ishq which is a sufi kalaam by Waris Shah & Bulle Shah.

A passionate musician, Nas started his musical journey in Lahore with an underground band in 1999. Life took him to Toronto in 2004 and the battle of settling down in a new country began. In 2012, Nas was working for a multinational corporation in New York and while everything in life was in place, there was emptiness inside. Upon some deep introspection, he discovered that music had been his true passion all along and he missed the fact that he wasn’t doing the one thing that he loved the most. Regardless of the fact that he had no band, no musical connections in North America and not even a guitar, he followed his heart, quit his job the next day and relocated back to Toronto. He started connecting with musicians and producers and finally laid the foundation for The Spellz. To improve his skills as a vocalist, he has been taking vocal coaching and has been learning other aspects including composition & production. The first song released by The Spellz was Master of My Fate, which was the FIFA world cup theme song and an adaptation of William Ernest Henley’s poetry of the same name.