Conversations with Siraj Husainy

Today we’d like to introduce you to Siraj Husainy.

Siraj, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I started writing and recording music when I was 12 years old. I had fallen in love with bands like Nirvana, Mudhoney, and Cage the Elephant. And would cover them and learn them by ear in my acoustic guitar I got when I was nine. My sense of harmonic Rhythm was very apparent and I quickly because obsessed with power of the drum kit. I made my first drink kit out of a steel trash can, a cardboard box and one of my mother’s pots and would play along to CDs I got from Walmart. When I got to middle school, I would spend every morning in the band room of our middle school and would jam out with my other fellow band rats. Conrad Koch, Noel Stoncius, and Meredith Lyttle (who’s is now known in the industry as MereJane)

We went on to form a teenage grunge band called the reconciles and we played school dances, and I learned quickly that this was what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.

I joined a couple of different bands in high school, all of which remained underground and never say an online debut, but there are plenty of CDs and voice memo recordings of the projects from the 2010s.

Today I Play in and manage a band that I founded with my Friend Andru Wilson (Vocals) Called HeadFirst which started at Berklee College of Music in 2020.

I drew and Painted our band logo depicting a hitchhiking Alien, my first night in Boston on the back of a bookshelf that I tore off to make a canvas.

We went through 2 different lineups before we landed on our current and final lineup of myself in Bass and Vocals. Andru Wilson on Lead Vocals, Shawn Gaskill in Lead Guitar, Coby Conrad on Second Guitar and The one and only Bima Wirayudha on Drum-set. Let me tell you – there is no combination more explosive. The funny part is that Shawn and Andru had already been in a band together called ‘pigeon guided missiles’ at Berklee 5 weeks, and Shawn, Coby and myself were in freshman Orientation together.

Once the final lineup was United, there was no stopping us. The songs came pouring out of me and Andru and Coby likewise. And we were ready to record our debut album, I Believe. We were originally going to record the album ourselves in my home studio, but we ended up being offered a deal to record the Album in Charlestown with Aaron Bellamy of the Abeez, who is the husband of Keyboardist and Berklee Professor Amy Bellamy who was my first professor at college. We owe a lot of our success to them and their belief in us.

Currently, we are in pre-production for our second studio Album, “DeadLast” a compilation of Generational perspectives.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
It hasn’t been the smoothest ride, but we are right where we are supposed to be. We had a decent amount of turmoil in the band when I came down to mixing and mastering our first album which was mixed by myself and Mastered by Guitarist Shawn Gaskill. All we can say on that matter is that if you’re a new band and working in your first album. Find someone who understands your vision and don’t mix and master yourself.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
At my core, I am a songwriter and I work in many different styles from Rock to Pop to hip hop to hardcore to funk, etc. I have a lot of experience in a lot of different styles. I played in Jazz big bands as a bass player as a kid and always was in punk bands. And I studied under the musically omnipotent Peter Klapka. A Czech Native who is known for his work in the band Mahagon, a Jazz-rock fusion band from the 70’s. Klapka ended up hitting it big a couple of years back when one of his songs he wrote was sampled by Pop Smoke in his song Gatty.

I’m primarily known today as a bass player but a lot of people know me for my work in HeadFirst and my solo albums that I have released which are genre-fluid.

What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
The characteristics of my own that I believe that have been the most crucial to my success thus far has been my stage presence and energy with no regard to holding back. I also believe that the only value in any idea is in the using of it. It’s important to be a doer and not a follower.

It’s also important to accept failure. Most success comes from failure.

Pricing:

• $250 – 1 hour booking
• 10$ CD – I Believe (debut album)
• 25$ I Believe T-shirt

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/weareheadfirst
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/sir.reinhard?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/weareheadfirst?mibextid=LQQJ4d
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/weareheadfirst
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@headfirst189
• SoundCloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/abED4AnDFCAT4H2MA

Image Credits
Photo Credits Franklin Grear Cali Cardenas