Music doesn't exist for us. We exist for music: Arafat Kazi

Drummer Arafat Kazi's philosophy on playing his instrument of choice, the drums, is quite the opposite from the loudly dressed individual you might typically expect to see on stage with the Attempted Band, the Watson Brothers, and now the ensemble band Hothat. Arafat loves cool and controlled strokes on the drums. 

"I practised on the drums in a way that would not wake up my pet cat," he said. The other reason is that drums can be played melodically while not being loud. This allows a drummer more control.

"Essentially, drumming is just timekeeping. But how craftily a drummer does it makes all the difference," he added, while showing us a few of his soft playing tricks on the drums. Fun fact, he brought his own cymbals and snare, all the way from Boston, USA, where he lives now. 

Arafat collects rare drum pieces wherever he finds one. He has over 50 snares and around 5 bass drums. Name any and he probably has one. 

"After my master's degree, when I was sick and miserable, all I did was buy drums. I have Stuart Copeland's octoban, I have 80s disco drums. I love this, you know!" Arafat said.

The beginning

Around 1991 or 1992, when he was no more than 11 or 12 years old, as he was only beginning to discover the timeless rock and metal genres, he was introduced to Thick as a Brick, a Jethro Tull album. It contained a 42-odd minutes long song. 

This album was what got him hooked to progressive rock – a genre that Arafat defines as" a Dream Theater mishmash with heavy metal," which is all about experimentation and exploring new sounds.

Such was his passion for music that in 1999, he voluntarily paused his university studies to learn and enhance his drumming skills. Around the same time he met Cryptic Fate vocalist Shakib Chowdhury – who he addresses as his 'Guru'. 

Arafat was introduced to the advertising industry by Shakib as well. Arafat was adopted by Shakib as an intern at Asiatic 3Sixty, where Shakib was employed. His abilities in both music and advertising improved. A couple years went by. In 2001, he enrolled at Boston University in the US at his parents' insistence, but dropped out once more.

Thereafter, Arafat returned to Bangladesh, but this time, with an advantage.

 "From America I got the best resource for coming back – I wore half pants (just for laughs) and could speak English with an American accent. In Bangladesh, this alone can add an extra 5k to your salary. I got into Bitopi just one day after the launch of the DJuice campaign. Because I'm so weird, I get so much credit and I did not have to lift a finger," he said, laughing hysterically.

After Bitopi he joined Radio Foorti as their first ever employee and designed their first musical database. Years passed between with music and honing his advertising skills, but life was about to throw him a curve ball. He gained weight – a lot of weight, 238 kgs to be exact. He also got sleep apnea. Obesity and sleep apnea cost him his job. 

Additionally, he returned to the US and discovered that he was too ill to perform music or work. He resumed his studies out of resentment and finished his master's degree in one go this time. He started working as a freelancer as his health was beginning to improve.

To lose his abnormally high body mass, he needed to go under surgery. Surgery took place but the food habit worsened, necessitating another surgery. Two weeks into the second surgery, both his legs went bust, as he was trying to run up a small hill in Boston, feeling pumped by Kate Bush's 'Running Up the Hill'. 

"Running Up the Hill turned into falling down the hill," he said, still being humorous about such a mishap. The injury tied him to the bed for three months. Depression settled in and all this cost him his marriage. But he shrugs all this off as a 'part of life' now.

He used the negative experiences to fuel his determination to turn his life around. He started going for strolls 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 – Attempted Band, a band which is still making music. Attempted Band broke up in between and Arafat approached Shakib Chowdhury to create another band.

"Okay but it has to be a band with the stupidest name you can think of," Shakib told Arafat.

"What could be a weirder name than 'The Watson Brothers' in Bangladesh!" wondered Arafat. Thus, started the band's journey. The band initially used two Attempted Band songs and only after that, a few originals came along the way.

In 2002, Arafat, Imran and Farhan set up the instrumentals and later Shakib Chowdhury added the vocals and the lyrics, thus creating their debut album 'Ohom'. Even though it was released in 2003, it was not until 2014 the album was truly discovered by the fans.

Arafat and Imran picked up the Attempted Band where they left off. Interestingly, both of them were living in different corners of the world and therefore, had to record remotely. The first album was clumsy. Then they covered Lucky Akhand and Souls songs. Slowly as their band got better, they made a concept album called 'Agun o Moushumi', basing it on the 'Hiru Mastan' from Green Road.

"Hiru bhai, a six feet tall guy walking around with a bamboo stick in Green Road at 9 pm, said to me "I am just going to finish him off today" out of rage; and we just made an album on Hiru bhai's exploits," Arafat added. That album came out in 2020. 

That brings us to Hothat

"Last year my friend Zakku (Zakir Hossain From Conclusion), and I used to vent to each other about life. I decided to come to Bangladesh and work on another Attempted Band album and another album with our friend Tashfee - who has the best voice I know of."

Arafat rented a practice pad for the initial stages and gradually musicians from all over the band scene gathered and jammed all day. The final tally of musicians ended up reaching sixteen!

For recording Arafat rented a farmhouse on AirBnB, which was far away from the city, with fresh food available all the time. They let the environment carry them further forward.

"For four days there was no other obligation for us but to play. It was a mesmerising experience there and Hothat was born there. We played there, recorded there, wrote the lyrics there and made the music video there as well!", said Arafat, being almost childishly happy just from the memories of the birth of Hothat.

Hothat's first album, 'Hothat: Shobaike Dako', will be available on Spotify and YouTube on 1 January 2023. The band and the album was officially launched through a concert at Bangladesh Liberation War Museum on 5 August.