The recording duo Syed "Saadi" Ansar & Imran Khan have been friends since they were 16 & meet at Forest School, Snaresbrook while studying for their GCSEs. During lunch, breaks & after school they would spend hours in the music school writing songs and learning about song construction, scales, melodies, harmonies & almost anything that would enable them to write songs like their musical idols.

Imran had started teaching himself guitar at the age of 12. "One of my cousins took up learning guitar and I used to be round their house all the time in those days, they lived just down the road. He was learning on this Spanish classical guitar and when he didn't play it I did! It was easy to play because of the nylon strings. Come As You Are was the first thing he taught me, haha so cliched! So anyway when I learnt to play chords that's when I started writing songs."

Imran was particularly inspired by Oasis, specifically Noel Gallagher's songwriting.

"The first solo I worked out was Supersonic. And the song I practised playing barre chords to was Married With Children." Meanwhile Syed was learning guitar having borrowed one from his dear & loved late friend John Griffith whom was a maths teacher at Epping Forest College, whom Syed took private maths lessons from in his house in Harlow.

"I remember we'd just finished up the statistics lesson he was showing me, and I think it had come up in conversation about the guitar anyway he sat me down with one his guitars and put a chord book of popular hits in front of me. I picked out a song and with his help I started trying to learn the chords. He was the kindest man you'd ever know and to my surprise just told me that I could borrow that guitar, so I took it home and started really going for it!"

So with their instrument of choice Imran working out every note that came out of Noel Gallagher's guitar & Syed learning Radiohead, Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana and Foo Fighters songs. Inspired by each other's contrasting tastes, their collaborations would invariably result in something unique.


"I remember listening to Some Might Say on Radio 1, it was March 1995 and it was their first number one. I'd been blown away by Definitely Maybe and watched Whatever on VH1 and MTV continuously.....something happened during the chorus....the best way to describe what I felt is pure ecstasy. From then on I knew what I wanted to be."

Meanwhile Syed found the song / melodic prowess of Thom Yorke's, Kurt Cobain and Beck inspiring. "I used to borrow CD's off Jack & Jason who lived about four doors down the road from me! I remember being a kid listening to Pearl Jam, and Nirvana on my Sony Walkman CD player, and just being amazed the energy, emotions life and soul of the music"
The Birth of Eclipse Imran slowly got better as he began to write melodies and chords for complete song but did not have any lyrics. "Lyrics I've always found difficult, even now." However, he discovered that his brother, Omar, used to write poetry and had a book filled with many poems. "It was weird 'cause as I was learning guitar he'd been writing these poems. He was living at home at the time so when I borrowed my friend's guitar and he heard me playing every day he told me about his poems." The two bonded through their love in particular of The Beatles, Oasis, Queen and Nirvana. They called themselves Eclipse.

Imran and his brother amalgamated their separate talents giving birth to a huge number of songs that Imran still sings to this day. "They have to be heard, some of the stuff is really good." This led to Imran and Omar in 1998 making a 5 track demo CD in a hired studio. "We hired an engineer, a drummer and a bass guitar. I learned bass 'cause I was forced to but I fell in love with the instrument. I became a much better bassist in 2005 though."
Lacking focus and direction the demo didn't make the required impact. "The songs were great but it was a bit rushed as we had a budget to stick to. It was all a huge learning curve and gave us some valuable recording experience." The studio sessions were attended by Syed Ansar, who was getting to understand what Eclipse were all about at the time. Syed being highly impressed with what he'd seen and heard joined Eclipse as their rhythm guitarist. "I remember being in this beautiful studio surrounded by equipment and there being, no longer really used, a tape room!! I didn't have the faintess idea what was going on, or why we had to sit there for hours and hours listening to the same bit again and again !lol"

Syed even from the earliest age of 5 loved all things electronic, spending hours taking things apart to create other electronic devices. Now influenced by what he'd seen in this beautiful studio with the direction of music started to devise ways using all the hi-fi equipment that was available in the house to record music demos, - Syed's real passion music technology was born. "I took Susie's old hifi and connected it to my cassette recorder, and created a primative multi-tracking device and it worked!!! I've still got the song I made that on my iTunes. Nothing to Lose!"

Suzana Ansar (Syed's sister) a professional singer whom started working with major artists like Clotaire, State of Bengal, ADF and performing a rare set for the late legend John Peel (BBC). During a recording session with Sam Zaman (producer for State of Bengal) very kindly offered to lend a 4 track mini-disc recorder to Syed to help him along the way. This soon became the centre piece of Syed's recording arsenal, and the two spent long hours recording songs using acoustic and bass guitars. Through the use of whatever recording equipment it may have been the pair embarked on their long journey, honing and developing the concepts of their sound.

The pair temporally disbanded as Syed Ansar went to The University of Leicester to study Computer Science BSc and Imran Khan went to Exeter University to study Law. During Syed's second year of studying he discovered some great computer audio editing multi-tracking software called "Cool Edit Pro", to which he then incorporated the mini-recorder as his mic pre amp and created his first computer based audio recording system. On their summer vacation from university the two started to collaborate more in making music continuing to record a number of demos on the computer as home studio technology developed.

Though being 245 miles apart (Exeter and Leicester) Syed and Imran continued sending each other songs and new material through the post.

INTRODUCING - KHANSAR - 2001 In June 2002 after Eclipse had disbanded in 2000, Khansar was formed. "We'd always written stuff separately but after KHANSAR formed we started writing together" Imran recalled. Syed "Saadi" Ansar & Imran Khan formed the joint collaboriation where they would now both write songs.

The next technology leap - January 2004 After completing his Computer Science BSc degree Syed then furthered by doing a masters in Finance MSc and on graduating went to Bangladesh with his family for a holiday. It was hear on holiday where Syed drewup and sketched the master plans in a book he'd bought over there of how the next leap in audio recording would be.... and with it was born the initial seed of Suzana Ansar with KHANSAR.