Hafeez turns musician
Rising actor Hafeez Mikail has fallen in love with singing after portraying a musician in his film debut, writes Dennis Chua
HE “knew little” about playing the guitar and his singing voice was “like that of a chicken’s.” But after two months of training for his film debut in actor Hafeez Mikail, 25, would love to launch his own album someday.
“It’s been a 180-degree turn. I wasn’t into singing when I first acted in 2014. This film totally changed my outlook. I love singing now,” he said, when met at a recent Press preview of
Last year, Hafeez successfully auditioned for the role of Adil, the Astro Shaw film’s protagonist who sings in his own street trio called Simfoni Dalam Poket (Symphony In A Pocket).
Singer, composer and lyricist Monoloque, who plays his mentor and composed most of the 21 songs in the soundtrack, coached him extensively for the role.
Hafeez intially thought he would be lipsyncing, but producer Syahrul Imran and director Syed Khairul Fariz insisted that the cast who played street musicians or buskers actually sing live.
“Playing a musician is a role I’ve always wanted. However, I wasn’t prepared to be a real one,” said Hafeez. “Syahrul and Syed Khairul were adamant that I take a ‘crash course’ with Monoloque.”
Hafeez (left), who plays Adil, with his fellow cast members.
GETTING HIS GROOVE ON
Fortunately, music director Monoloque was very patient with Hafeez. “Initially, I sang out of tune and my finger-work was atrocious. But Monoloque got my on-screen band mate Anas Ridzuan, who’s a busker — to help out, and he made learning a lot easier!”
Mastering the guitar was painful. Hafeez strummed until his fingers were swollen and bleeding.
“A few of my fingers had plasters on at times, but I finally got the hang of guitarpicking.”
He also spent hours watching videos of Monoloque and Anas singing, and gradually began to imitate them. “Luckily, I know how to appreciate good music. My parents exposed me to rock, pop and R&B when I was a kid and I grew up enjoying the music of Datuk Sudirman Arshad and Datuk Jamal Abdillah.”
Monoloque and Anas took Hafeez busking at Avenue K in Jalan Ampang, and Sogo in Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, between filming scenes.
“Passers-by recognised me, and some asked if I had switched jobs.” To this, Hafeez replied that he would give fans a surprise in January.
“Next year, Monoloque will be performing with Simfoni Dalam Poket at a few venues. I’m ready, and hope to cut an album soon.”
Besides Monoloque and Anas, the lead actress is singer-songwriter Daiyan Trisha. She also gave Hafeez tips on performing in public. “Daiyan showed me how to communicate with the crowd. She said I should never look away. Otherwise, they’d think I wasn’t interested.”
ROMANCE OF THE BUSKER
Syahrul decided to make after observing musicians around Central Market and Sogo. “Astro Shaw decided to make a story that appealed to teens since teen romances are popular,” he said.
Syed Khairul said they cast Hafeez and Daiyan as the duo had a strong following amongst teens. “Fresh faces make teen romances believable. However, for it to ‘come alive’, we’ve cast many household namesinsupportingroles—AzizMOsman, ManBai,LuqmanHafidz,JihanMuse,Mark Adam, Zain Hamid and Altimet,” said Syed Khairul.
The main actors were coached by Sobri Anuar; likewise, Miri-born musician Stephanie Jessica Terry who plays Hafeez’s drummer.
Astro Shaw head Najwa Abu Bakar said was filmed in Johor Baru and focused on street musicians, who were mostly students.
“Hafeez, Anas and Stephanie performed the theme The other songs include
and said
Najwa, adding that will be screened in 70 cinemas in Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei.
“Fifteen new songs are in the film, which was wrapped up in 25 days in mid2016.”
Monoloque rearranged four songs for the soundtrack, namely Fikir), (OAG), musik), and
Sarip). He composed (Rausyan (Salam(Datuk Ramli
and dchua@nst.com.my Hafeez enjoys playing a musician in the movie.