A drummer who beats out the rhythm

Nafees Khalfan, a 30-year-old young drummer from Karachi, is eager to shine in the world of music

Sujawal: Music is a universal language that speaks to our hearts, gives an infinite solace to the minds and brings a much-needed peace to our restless souls. Intrinsically imbued with the power to heal the unseen wounds and throbbing anguish lurking underneath the human soul, the making of a piece of soothing music is such a unique art that only a few people can master it with practice, precision and perfection. Nafees Khalfan, who hails from Karachi, is an emerging young musician and drummer and is eager to shine in the world of music, akin to his city of dazzling lights and of a wide-awake nocturnal gaiety.

Khalfan’s heartfelt affiliation with music started in his early childhood, but he had to go through the throes of making his relentless efforts count throughout his music journey. Yes, he is as determined to strut his stuff and go places as he used to be in the phase of anonymity and non-recognition at the beginning of his music career.

Nafees Khalfan, now 30-year old, received his early education from the St. Lawrence School in Karachi. Since his father and elder brother were part of a well-known Shia Ismaili Pipe Band of the city, they used to play musical instruments at home, which fuelled Khalfan’s latent ambition of becoming a musician in the future. Following in the footsteps of his father and elder brother, Nafees Khalfan joined the community orchestra  group where he learned to play a range of musical instruments. However, his special focus was on playing drums.

“My unfettered attachment to musical instruments took me to the St. Lawrence School Band. The band offered me a chance to shape and polish my skills under the supervision of skilled musicians who worked really hard with me on making me an accomplished musician,” says Nafees Khalfan.

That was in 2011, when he started playing drums professionally for a community-based orchestra group. The year 2015 was a watershed in his life when he caught a break and got the golden opportunity to work with Pakistan’s leading music artiste and drummer John Louis pinto, popularly known as Gumbi, who helped him playing all kinds of orchestra drums with rhythmic perfection, including bass, snare, bodhran and many others.

As a lead drummer, Nafees Khalfan has so far performed in many TV shows and concerts both nationally and internationally with such renowned singers as Natasha Baig, Umair Jaswal, Saif Samejo, Zoheb Hassan and Atif Aslam.

He did his Bachelor’s in Business Administration, but then decided to do his Masters in Media and Mass Communication because of his innate inclination towards music.

Talking about his journey he said that initially it seemed a hard task. “When I started people would ask me about the scope of this field but today after 7 years I have achieved more than my expectations. Adding that challenges were countless but with the support of his parents he had achieved something.

In an answer to a question about his favourite drummer and music composer he said that Greek Composer Chyrssomalis Yanni and AR Rahman were his favourite music composers while Gumby is probably one of the finest drummer he had ever seen in his lifetime.

Launching of drum circles across the country and giving a musical therapy people suffering from different psychological disorders are among his major contributions, besides he has trained 2500 musicians across the country including northern areas. “I always keep searching for new tunes, rhythms and beats and it helps me create an atmosphere that attracts music enthusiasts. Nafees has introduced a series of sessions named “Motivating through Music” through which he has conducted sessions for Habib Bank Limited, Careem, Group M, Hashoo Foundation and different educational institutes. A part from that he has appeared on several television show to highlight importance of music and performing arts. In lieu of his services he was bestowed with Battle of Bands Award by IQRA University Karachi and became founder and President of University’s first Ever Music Society. When asked about his future aims he said that he wanted to bring innovations in the current Pakistani music and put himself in the ranks of illustrious musicians of South Asia.

Answering a query about making a career in music in a country like Pakistan, he said that compared to past decades, now things have changed, especially when it comes to making a career in a field like music, but when I started my journey things were quite different.

“ Considering the thriving media industry, now music can be opted as a career choice provided you are an expert in creating and composing the music listeners want to hear. With regards to becoming a drummer, one should have basic knowledge of music and must be able to understand tempo, the beat that one is going to play along with other musician,” Nafees Khalfan said

“Life is all about rhythm. We vibrate, our hearts are pumping blood as we are a kind of a rhythm machine and we should enjoy our life by keep the excessive stress aside,” Khalfan concludes.