Music
From banging on utensils as a child to playing in front of the world, drummer Aahad Nayani traces his story of his hard-earned success and discusses his latest collaboration with Red Bull.
“My mother used to tell me that I would go into the kitchen, pull all the utensils out and use the dough roller as a drumstick to play the pots and pans. There were days when I would come back from school and she would sing while feeding me and I would be banging on the utensils pretending that it was a drum kit,” says Aahad Nayani, whose name often comes up when talking about the best drummers in Pakistan.
Establishing himself among the cream of the crop particularly in the last decade, Nayani is no new name to the world of music.
The young drummer has worked with the who's who of the Pakistan music industry and needless to say, is now one of the most sought-after professionals.
From playing utensils as percussion in his childhood to performing in front of millions, Aahad Nayani’s journey has been nothing short of spectacular.
He recalls his interest in drumming began at the age of two after he saw his father play the instrument as a hobby. At the age of 10, he joined his school band, wherein he was the youngest member. Yet, he faced numerous challenges on his way to the top.
From not being able to afford a drum kit to giving up his studies, scholarship and cricket – a sport he was very much involved in before he decided to take drumming professionally.
Aahad Nayani recalls the time when his father bought him a second-hand drum kit to start practicing in his childhood. A year later, he requested his father for a new. As he kept getting better at playing it, he asked his father for another one yet again. However, this time around, he was not able to afford it.
After refusal from his father, the now-renowned artist asked his uncle for a loan and got himself a professional drum kit.
It is not the usual kind of music that everyone is creating. It's different and new and I don’t think anyone else has ever worked on these kinds of tracks before.
Soon, he was being offered live gigs with bands which eventually led him to a musical relationship with Strings and an endorsement from a drum company.
“In 2008, I met Faisal Rafi who introduced me to others. Two years later, there was a TV show called Azm-e-Alishan where I was a part of the house band and Strings were the judges."
"After five days of recording, on the last day, Strings asked if I would like to perform for them to which I instantly agreed. From that day onward, the graph has only gotten higher.”
He credits the legendary Strings for bringing him into the limelight and then leading to performing in another branded TV show.
From being into pop, rock and progressive music to perfecting his hand at eastern fusion style, Aahad Nayani became an all-rounder who can play several genres.
While the 32-year-old has learnt a lot from other musicians in the industry, he says he does not have a mentor as such to look up to.
He's self-taught and used YouTube to learn whatever he knows today. Even when the website was banned in Pakistan, he found ways to get online drumming lessons and honed his craft.
Aahad Nayani continues to get better each day. His latest work is a collaboration with Electronia Producer/DJ Faisal Baig, one of the pioneers of electronic music in Pakistan.
The project titled ‘Red Bull Presents Faisal Baig and Aahad Nayani’ sees the two perform a fusion of electronica, house and percussions in six never-heard-before tracks.
“Faisal (Baig) and I had been planning to create something together for a very long time and when I met the Red Bull team, I was glad to know that our mindsets matched."
"They were kind enough to take this initiative forward and didn't intervene in our creative process - something that most companies do,” says the drum machine (as Faisal Baig calls him).
“When we finished working on this, I was surprised at what Faisal had created. I hadn't worked with EDM before so what he did was truly amazing. EDM required me to be on the grip and the tempo had to be solid but I believe I did a good job. All the tracks are equally important for me and I love all of them.”
While Red Bull released the first two tracks and behind the scenes of the project, Aahad Nayani shares what fans can expect from it.
“This music is not for everyone but also for everyone. It's a mixture of everything. There are total six tracks - five songs and one melodic drum solo."
"Out of those six, one is a ballad, another is a commercial song, one is all progressive, the other one is EDM, so it's basically a mix of everything. So now, it depends on how people react to it. But I also want to point out that it is not the usual kind of music that everyone is creating."
"It's different and new and I don’t think anyone else has ever worked on these kinds of tracks before. So, there is a chance that some people might like it a lot and some might not like it all. Our audience is very diverse and they like different things. That being said, I feel like there is surely something for everyone,” he notes, optimistically.
