Drummer Arafat Kazi’s philosophy on playing his instrument of choice, the drums, is quite the opposite of the loudly dressed individual one would typically expect to see on stage with the band Attempted, the Watson Brothers, and now the ensemble group Hothat. Arafat likes cold, controlled strikes on the drums.
“I practiced the drums in a way that wouldn’t wake my cat up,” he said. The other reason is that the drums can be played melodically without being loud. This allows the drummer more control.
“Essentially, the drums are just a stopwatch. But a drummer’s cunning makes all the difference,” he added, while showing us some of his sweet drumming tricks. Fun fact, he brought his own cymbals and snare from Boston, USA, where he now lives.
Arafat collects rare drum tracks wherever he finds one. It has over 50 snare drums and about 5 kick drums. Name one and he probably has one.
“After my masters, when I was sick and miserable, all I did was buy a drum set. I have Stuart Copeland’s octoban, I have an 80s disco drum set. I love it, you know!” said Arafat.
The beginning
Around 1991 or 1992, when he was no more than 11 or 12 years old, when he was just beginning to discover the timeless genres of rock and metal, he was presented with Thick as a Brick, an album by Jethro Tull . It contained a song of approximately 42 minutes.
It was this album that got him hooked on progressive rock – a genre that Arafat defines as “a mish-mash of Dream Theater with heavy metal”, which is about experimenting and exploring new sounds.
His passion for music was such that in 1999, he voluntarily interrupted his university studies to learn and perfect his skills as a percussionist. Around the same time, he met Cryptic Fate singer Shakib Chowdhury, whom he referred to as a “guru”.
Arafat was also introduced to the advertising industry by Shakib. Arafat was adopted by Shakib as an intern at Asiatic 3Sixty, where Shakib was employed. His abilities in music and publicity improved. A few years have passed. In 2001, he enrolled in Boston University in the United States at the insistence of his parents, but once again dropped out.
Subsequently, Arafat returned to Bangladesh, but this time with an advantage.
“From America I got the best resource to come back – I wore half pants (just for laughs) and I could speak English with an American accent. In Bangladesh, that alone can add another 5,000 to your salary. I walked into Bitopi just a day after the DJuice campaign launched. Because I’m so weird, I get so much credit and I didn’t have to lift a finger,” he said with a laugh. hysterically.
After Bitopi he joined Radio Foorti as the first employee and designed their first music database. Years passed between music and honing his publicity skills, but life was about to throw a curve ball at him. He gained weight – a lot of weight, 238 kg to be exact. He also had sleep apnea. Obesity and sleep apnea cost him his job.
Additionally, he returned to the United States and found he was too ill to play music or work. He resumes his studies out of resentment and completes his master’s degree in one go this time. He began working as a freelancer as his health began to improve.
To lose his abnormally high body mass, he had to undergo surgery. Surgery was done, but the eating habit got worse, requiring another surgery. Two weeks into the second operation, both of his legs broke as he tried to climb a small hill in Boston, feeling pumped by Kate Bush’s “Running Up the Hill.”
“Running down the hill turned into falling down the hill,” he said, still humorously about such an accident. The injury tied him to the bed for three months. Depression sets in and it all costs him his marriage. But he ignores it all as a “part of life” now.
He used the negative experiences to fuel his determination to change his life. He started walking with his dog, Moushumi. He started seeing a therapist, engaged in intense workouts and reduced his weight to 145 kg.
back to music
Around 1995, in seventh grade, he formed his first band – Expected Band, a band that is still making music. The Tentative group split up in the meantime and Arafat approached Shakib Chowdhury to start another group.
“Okay, but it has to be a band with the dumbest name you can think of,” Shakib told Arafat.
“What could be a stranger name than ‘The Watson Brothers’ in Bangladesh!” Arafat wondered. Thus began the group’s journey. The band first used two songs from Expected Band and it wasn’t until after that that a few originals came along along the way.
In 2002, Arafat, Imran and Farhan put together the instrumentals and later Shakib Chowdhury added the vocals and lyrics, creating their debut album “Ohom”. Even though it was released in 2003, it wasn’t until 2014 that the album was truly discovered by fans.
Arafat and Imran picked up the group of attempts where they left off. Interestingly, they both lived in different corners of the world so had to record remotely. The first album was awkward. Then they covered the songs of Lucky Akhand and Souls. As their band improved, they created a concept album called “Agun o Moushumi”, based on Green Road’s “Hiru Mastan”.
“Hiru bhai, a six-foot-tall guy who was walking around with a bamboo stick in Green Road at 9 p.m., said to me ‘I’m just going to finish him off today’ in rage; and we just did an album on the exploits of Hiru bhai,” Arafat added. This album was released in 2020.
This brings us to Hothat
“Last year my friend Zakku (Zakir Hossain From Conclusion) and I used to talk about life. I decided to come to Bangladesh and work on another album by Attempted Band and another with our friend Tashfee – who has the best voice I know.”
Arafat rented a practice room for the early stages and gradually musicians from across the band’s scene came together and jammed all day. The final count of musicians ended up reaching sixteen!
For check-in, Arafat rented a farmhouse on AirBnB, which was far from town, with fresh food available all the time. They let the environment carry them further.
“For four days we had no obligation but to play. It was a fascinating experience there and Hothat was born there. We played there, recorded there, wrote the lyrics there there and made the music video there too!” Arafat said, being almost childishly happy with nothing but the memories of Hothat’s birth.
Hothat’s debut album “Hothat: Shobaike Dako” will be available on Spotify and YouTube on January 1, 2023. The band and the album were officially launched during a concert at the Bangladesh Liberation War Museum on August 5.
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