We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Siraj Husainy . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Siraj below.

Hi Siraj , thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

HeadFirst, the band I’m in has been one of the most ambitious and meaningful projects of my entire life. I started this band with my friend Andru Wilson in 2020 right at the beginning of the pandemic when we started college at berklee. The band has been through a lot of stages, shapes and places but it has allowed me to learn and love, and hurt and view art and self expression in a way that I never would have known if I never set fourth and believed in myself and music music and my friends that we could make a canvas out of nothing and throw our emotions on as the paint.

We recorded our first album in April of 2022 with this guy Aaron Bellamy who’s the bass player in band called the A-beez in which he plays with his wife Amy Bellamy who’s the keyboardist and was my very first professor at berklee. They took a chance in us and let us record the album for 700$ at their studio in Charlestown with studio dubbing hours being added and down in exchange for being their roadies for any upcoming shows that had over the month we spent recording.

It’s was a really great learning experience as a creative never having collaborated with so many people before, and all of us being the same age, Andru, Shawn Gaskill, Bima Wirayudha and Coby Conrad
All from different parts of the country and the world, coming together and relating to something and growing and learning over it, is an experience I will cherish and never forget. I love that album and those people very much. And that’ll always be a memory that I hold onto forever.

We are now here almost 4 years from the start and it’s just Me Coby and Bima

That was our decision, and we did it because we saw where the music was going and the chemistry that was building between us, and it was truly necessary for our second album that we wrote all together in the span of 2 months.

It was very difficult having to wrestle with knowing we had to split ways with Andru and Shawn for the sake of the music and the album, but I have no doubt in my mind that they will do great things and make the art that they want and deserve to own.

I’ve always believed in this group of people and that’s why I named our first album I believe.

We are now going to be recording our second studio album with a very special producer and these songs have a very strong personality and cohesive nature that I believe is really groundbreaking, and I’m excited to love and learn from it.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’ve been a musician for the past decade, I picked up guitar and wrote my first song in April 12th 2013 and have never stopped since.

I fell in love with music so hard and so fast.

I remember being absolutely obsessed with Greendays dookie after having seen the CD cover in a trip to Walmart with my mom and insisting we get it because it was only 10 dollars. After listening to it for the first time, I went around the house finding anything I could use to make myself a drum set and played along to basket case with rolling pins, a metal trash can and a cardboard box.

I really really wanted to be a drummer, and then I was 14 my parents surprised me my first drum kit, but when I got to middle school jazz band, my band teacher mr. Brunelle said I was way too loud and that there were too many drummers anyways, so he asked me if I had ever played bass. He put the bass in my hands and I immediately started play the tune from Star Wars and that’s when we discovered I had relative pitch.

I founded a band with my friends Merejane who’s a great recording artist today, and Conrad Kock who’s an amazing metal guitarist, and Noel Stoncius who’s a great string player and sing writer even if he will never admit it. We were preteen rockstars and we recorded a bunch of originals in my basement in garage band in 2015 with one microphone and that was my first experience writing real songs.

It’s been really cool now sticking with it and playing a lot of genres from playing jazz to rock to making hip hop and pop and then going to college and now understanding what I was really saying musically.

Music school is a lot of breaking yourself down and putting yourself back together but you come out smart and harder and a damn well rounded cookie, so if you have the privilege and opportunity to experience it, do it.

I also spent 3 years in highschool learning the ins and outs of music technology which quickly turned into me becoming a huge audiophile with a burning passion for recording live sound. And I’m super thankful and appreciative of Professor Matthew Ellard for letting us record in his Advanced recording techniques class at berklee, and sharing his knowledge with me and my band for free.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding aspect of my experience as an artist is how unbelievably mortal I feel after every performance. Music is the most human thing you can do, we are the only species that we know of that can create and comprehend music and have an emotional response, and it is so impactful to hear and see how music that I’ve made with my friends has touched others and inspired them.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I my goal and driving force as a musician is to get as much of this stuff out of my head and into the ears and hearts of other that I can. I experience no moments of silence in my life and I think that is a gift but also a curse. I also think that it is cool that my music will be around long after I’m gone, so people can experience my brain and my thoughts and hopefully it will help them in any regard. Maybe it’ll also help people in the future emotionally, or if anything – just be nicer to yourself and other people

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.weareheadfirst.com/
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/sir.reinhard?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
• Other: https://linktr.ee/weareheadfirst?fbclid=PAAaYnCIMvfB2JcwaS019zQVx_UiOC35M_4H4NffEhdRkaZrSlH6IiJLVAKsM_aem_Ad28z-QveDVjZ_rcD8PK7Vb-i4dRP73alKXeURQ4ZmDM_8wk76JlNrQk_sYTS0HEyZI

Image Credits
Photos from the Raven: Jeremy Klapka