Dreek’s two-decade career culminates in musical film

Dreek started in August of 2002. Over the years, they earned a reputation for being a Dio cover-band, and for their time at DRockstars.

They would go on to cement themselves in the industry with their live performances and their own songs.

The Daily Star sat down with the current vocalist, Zaman Saif and their drummer Hasibul Hossain Upal. 

Dreek. Photo: Taken from Facebook

Could you tell us about your experience in DRockstars?

Hasibul Hossain Upal: In 2007, we participated in DRockstars. For each performance, we would perform an original song, because we had already written a few for our album. After making it into the top six, our vocalist told us that he was leaving the country. Overnight, we had to find a new vocalist and we brought in Saif, who used to play with one of our other band members. With our new vocals, we went and performed for the final.

Zaman Saif: We obviously tried our best, but we could not win because this was a band that had to get a new vocalist almost overnight.

Your musical film, with a trio of songs, seems to have been quite the hit--amassing over one million views each on Facebook. What inspired you guys to make this?

Upal: During the pandemic, we had decided to start recording a new album, but we wanted to bring something new to the industry. That is when we came up with the idea to make the Dreek Musical Film. Saif came up with this idea to showcase how love has many different colours and that it varies between individuals. But Saif started thinking what would the colour of love be for a killer. This is where the story began. Iqbal Asif Jewel bhai really helped us on this journey. After the first and third song, our guitarist had to leave. When we asked Jewel bhai, he stepped in and helped us make the second song. Afterwards, he even decided to be the producer of our next album.

Zaman Saif: We were thinking how a sociopath would do these things. A serial killer loves to kill people and I did a lot of research and learned that for a sociopath, there would be no colour for love. While making "Rong Aloron", we also came up with the third song in the musical film trifecta, "Brishti". After we made these two songs, we decided to make a video for a serial killer story. The third song inspired the overall story and we worked backwards to make the entire film in that way.

What are your thoughts on the current state of the music industry?

Upal: Our local concerts have this problem where we are constantly seeing repetitive line-ups. Even in 2023, we are still fighting to do shows. I am happy that the number of shows has increased after the pandemic. However, even though we have more organisers, they are not bringing new music to the forefront. Instead, these organisers are including bands who they have a good relationship with. I believe this is holding bands back from realising their true potential.

Could you name some new bands in the industry that you like listening to?

We both really enjoy bands like Dads in the Park, Trainwreck and Conclusion. We have actually gone and watched them live. 

What can we expect from Dreek in the future?

We want to do more shows, at least 4-5 shows each month. Production wise, we have done some interesting things with our musical film, during live performances, we will also have some special things planned. Throughout 2023, we will be releasing new songs, along with music videos.