Cigar boxes. That's where his roots lie.
The ethnic riots of '83 had brought the country to a standstill, and a young school boy of 13, Tareeq Musafer was at home due to school closures. He was at home, watching Thank God It's Friday when he saw a DJ in the movie. A curious Tareeq found himself replaying the scene over and over, trying to comprehend what was going on.
"I was always interested in music, because my parents were quite into it," he remembers. An electronically savvy Tareeq managed to create himself a mixer, using an old cigar box as a housing. There he learnt that he could seamlessly mix two tracks which had the same tempo, by fading them into each other. And thus, this DJ was born.
Tareeq remembers his first public performance. "Back then, instead of carnivals, schools would organize 'beat shows,' and my first 'beat show' was at an interact function. We had a music stall, and I took my contraption and did the whole music, and announcing thing." He says his parents were not too keen on the idea, and he used to experiment before they got home after work.
After his O/L examinations, he moved to an International School, where he was exposed to more music, and familiarized himself with the art of DJ-ing. There he got together with a couple of friends and did the school social.
Subsequently he moved to Australia, due to the political situation in 1989, and it was in Australia that he was paid "properly", in 1991. He cites this year as the turning point of him moving from being an amateur, to a professional. "I've never had another job other than being a DJ, or being in the entertainment industry. I've never done a 9 to 5 job, more like 5 to 9 job," smiles Tareeq as he remembers the past.
After purchasing his own turntable, he realized that the DJ work was getting serious, and then a series of international gigs and tours followed during the early and mid 90s. "This was when the UK underground music was hitting Australia. This is what we refer to as House and Garage. It was called underground, because it was not main stream." He was a part of a consortium of about 40 DJs, who toured Down Under till around mid 90's.
That's Tareeq in the past. And at present, he is actively involved in the entertainment industry in Sri Lanka. Tareeq has completed a book titled "Learn to be a DJ: The art and science of being a good DJing." The book is something he was working on for a while. The book started in 1994, when he found out that a two week course on DJing costs over a thousand Australian dollars even at the time. He started writing at the time, but it didn't come through.
"My mom told me a couple of months back, no more club life, no more coming home early morning", and she suggested that Tareeq start an Academy for DJing. He liked the idea, and started working on a curriculum. "That's when I realized, why don't I complete the book?"
Now the book is ready, and the Academy will be up and running from the September 1.
What can students expect? Tareeq's dream for the Academy is not to put out more DJs, but professionals for the entertainment industry. They would be brought to a hub where existing young media talent would come together, to give experience and their new ideas to the new batch who would be taking over the industry in the future.
The Academy will be open to the public from the September 2 at No. 24, Averihena Avenue, Polhengoda, Colombo 5, and Tareeq is ever willing to talk to anybody about his book, and the Academy.
He can be contacted on 0777373077 or tareeqm@gmail.com. To use his own words, the book and the Academy are his ways, of "giving back.”
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