I am Nafeez, and I am the drummer of Arbovirus, assistant professor at Daffodil International University, and the owner of Beshi Joss Drums. I came up with the name, the whole concept, when one of my snare drums got stolen from a video shoot. I was actually devastated when that happened. And I was thinking of ways to accommodate my music and everything because at that time I didn’t have enough money. I had a bit of knowledge about carpentry and so thought maybe I should try and make one myself. And when I made my first drums, I thought maybe I should commercialize this, it might be a good business. And that’s when the whole idea started; I started the business in rage and despair, haha!
2) What is the story behind this interesting brand name?
Different people are accustomed to saying certain phrases. And, I used to say ‘beshi joss’ a lot. So, at first, I thought of calling it ‘Joss Drums’, but then I was like, “Okay, but why not call it Beshi Joss Drums?”, which would be sort of a bit step forward. So, that’s how I came up with the name, it’s just based on something I used to say all the time. It also helps me do the branding easily. Because I’m a marketer, I teach Marketing, and I have been in this industry for quite some time now, I know the name helps from the marketing angle quite a lot.
3) Tell us about your products and target customers.
My products, at the moment, are musical instruments – guitars, drums, and cajóns. These are the 3 things that I make. But every now and then, if someone gives me something really out of the box, I never say no, I try to make them because it’s a custom shop where you can get customized musical instruments.
There’s this guy who lives in Thakurgaon, and all of a sudden he gave me this video of something that was almost like a cajón but it was not really one. He was like, “You have to make this for me.” And I’m like, “Okay, no worries, I’ll try and do my best.” And I did.
There was this another fellow who gave me an idea of making a cajón with drums on top of it. So, naturally I named it a fusion of drums and cajón – dajón. And, that became a product too.
I also often talk to a very respectable drummer who is the first female drummer of Bangladesh named Georgina Haque who asked me for products and stuff as well.
So my products are in the lines of guitars, bass, bass guitars, electric guitars, drums, and cajón at the moment. But I wish to have a bigger portfolio in the future.
And, my target customers are anyone and everyone who is interested in music or wants to play/learn how to play a musical instrument. There’s no specific age group as recently I got an order from a 5-year-old – of course, he didn’t order it itself, his father did on his behalf, but also I got an order from a 65-year-old, which I never even imagined I would. So I don’t think I can limit my customers to a certain age group, even though I did think about it at some point. I realized that music has no specific age, so why should my customers? I mean, my own son could be my target audience too – Okay, not really, he’s only 2 years old, but he can actually play a really good forebeat which I’m really amazed by.
4) What are the marketing and the promotional strategies that you follow to reach your customers?
When I started my business, I used to promote it whenever I was up on stage when playing the drums for Arbovirus. I used to get on stage and say, “Joss” to which the audience yelled back, “Beshi joss!” and of course I had to make them practice this habit, haha! I used to teach them how to say it back to me and, at the end, tell them about Beshi Joss Drums where I sell drums. So yeah, I tried to ensure that the audience at each and every concert of ours were familiar with the name. And, even the rest of the band helps me now for which I’m very thankful to them.
Most of the marketing strategies are carried out on Facebook. The venture does have a website but most of the interactions are done via Facebook where we got most of our orders through and transactions are done using bKash. I employed a few people to keep track of these.
5) What would you recommend to amateur drummers to improve their skills?
The only thing I say is to try and practice. ‘Beshi joss’ aren’t just two words, they have a meaning too. Not everyone can become the best, the best is only one, but everyone can become “beshi joss”. The only thing is you have to try, try, and try. Even if you fail, you should keep trying, thinking about succeeding someday. So, the whole point of Beshi Joss Drums is to give people a chance to try.
I tell every amateur drummer who is trying to become a professional to keep trying.
6) How is Beshi Joss Drums contributing to the local communities? How does it encourage the youth to get involved in music?
What happens with the local community is that I try to use my platform and the fact that I’m someone who is known.
The pandemic has caused everyone to feel frustrated, myself included, and we realized that there isn’t much in Bangladesh to look up to or be motivated by, you know. It gets monotonous to be doing the same thing over and over again every single day, and so we need something to break out of that monotony. But how do we do that?
We need to get engaged in some activities which we look forward to everyday, and I think music plays a big role in that. There seems to be a misconception that people interested in music take drugs, are alcoholic, or are obsessed with being high – which is definitely wrong!
Music actually keeps you away from any form of intoxication as it itself has the power to heal, but our local community doesn’t seem to grasp that yet. I mean no disrespect to anyone but it seems to think religion is the answer to everything. I have nothing against religion, I’m a pious man, but I don’t think that religion is the only solution, there are others as well. There still seems to be a type of negativity towards music in our country, and I try to promote the fact that music is good, which is tough.
Whenever I meet a young aspiring musician when I pass by them playing an instrument, sitting at the corner of a street, and they recognize me, instead of showing them attitude, I sit with them for 5-10 minutes to jam and take photos with them. I try to encourage them as much as possible in these little ways. I try to give them what I never got but wished for.
7) How did you get involved with Arbovirus in the first place?
After being done with my Master’s degree in UK, I came back to Bangladesh. At the time I was a member of a blues band called Rusty Rumblers. I used to be a part of underground music for a long time, and so I knew Arbovirus – everyone knew one another as the underground circle is pretty small. So when they heard that I was back, Chishty basically introduced us, as in got us together to jam. That’s what happens when a musician meets another one, we just jam to this song and that song. But, it was sort of a blind audition where I didn’t know that they were interested in me. After jamming for a while, I saw Ronjon bhai and Sufi taking a bit to discuss something, and then suddenly Ronjon bhai asked me to join the band. I really wanted to play with them for a long time, I used to watch their videos when I was in UK too. And, although Arbovirus hit the stage after my band did, I really liked them. So, it was sort of like a dream come true for me.
8) When did you start the venture of Beshi Joss Drums?
In September of 2015, I started my research and development. And, we started production by the very end of that year.
9) Do you manufacture the products by yourself or do you outsource them? How do you ensure their quality?
We do both. I will make parts of the product, like the shell of the drum, with Bangladeshi wood but then we need to use materials, like stainless steel, which I bring from China as they aren’t manufactured locally. And, the product quality was never questioned.
10) Since you’re cutting down trees, which may play a role in global warming, what do you do for the environment to counteract the effect?
The fact that I’m a teacher, who’s always talking about global warming and environmental pollution contradicts the idea of me cutting down trees to make drums, haha! It’s a bit hypocritical, and so I try to plant trees now and then. There are plants being taken care of around my village area, but since I’m not directly involved in their cultivation, I try to facilitate the process. I don’t mind planting trees myself but I don’t get the time to and so ensure that others do.
Also, in the near future, we are taking an initiative to produce cajóns using the plastic that people are throwing away. We’ll make a few to see if they’re stable enough for the initiative to be continued. So, let’s see what happens.
11) Tell us about any of your experiences with Beshi Joss Drums that you’d like to share with your followers.
I feel that very every day is a “beshi joss” experience – everyday I’m learning, everyday I’m making. The thing is that I don’t think I have completely figured out myself and it took me a while to understand myself as much as I did. And, when I started to, I realized that I get satisfaction only when I create something and see the result of it. For example, when my students graduate, get good jobs, and come back to meet me with sweets, there are no words to explain how I feel at that moment. If you’ve never experienced something like that, you won’t understand the feeling. You feel like crying with pride and joy, going “Yes, I’ve done it!”
Same in the case of manufacturing. When I see materials being turned into musical instruments giving the desired sound or note, the feeling is priceless. Yes, I may not be making 3 lakhs a month but what I’m doing is extremely satisfying.
12) What pushed you to open a factory two months into the COVID-19 pandemic?
The factory was there since 2015, and I had closed it down when the government announced that Bangladeshis would be practicing self-quarantine. This hampered everyone financially and I realized that I need to stay sharp to come up with strategies so that I can help those dependent on me as well as my employees. And, once the restrictions were lessened, we launched a product that received a great response, providing us with a moderate profit. The next month, we saw it providing a better profit, and even greater the month after that. And, after launching guitars, the business started booming. So, I’m very overwhelmed by the response, in a good way, of course, but I wanna keep going at it, and figure out how easily and how quickly guitars can be manufactured.
The type of drums being used at wedding ceremonies are being produced in Bangladesh for a long time now. But the way I’m making drums, and even sending abroad, nobody has done that yet. A lot of people have created guitars in Bangladesh as well but nobody has manufactured them in a massive manner. Melody is now trying to come up with acoustic guitars, but they’ve been in the business for a long time. So, I’m trying to do all of that on a grand scale using my own savings.
The designs I come up with are original, and I’m learning all of it myself. The process of making each musical instrument is time-consuming. A cajón is relatively easy to make – it’ll take about 3-4 days to make 10-12 of them. A guitar takes about a month to be created. When it comes to drums, it takes me 3 weeks to only produce one snare and 1.5 months to create an entire set. Since we’re making them using wood, we have to consider the season, the type of glue, etc.
We’ve sold about 100 snare drums and 6 drum sets – all of them got us glowing reviews. Soudwise, our drums are superior to the ones found in the market these days. In a way, I actually created the market for my products. Before Beshi Joss Drums, nobody thought about getting customized musical instruments. Maybe a few created some personally but nobody did it commercially like me.
13) You are the drummer of Arbovirus as well as an assistant professor at Daffodil International University. Tell us how you organize plans or prioritize your work.
If you’re asking about how I manage – I don’t, I mismanage, haha! Sometimes I think to myself that it would have been great if a day consisted on 36 hours. It isn’t possible to do both and then give time to family in a day.
Family should always come first. I understand, and sympathize, with everyone losing their near and dear ones to the virus but the quarantine had some positive factors too that I truly cherished. I got to spend a lot of time with my son, which I don’t think I would have if there wasn’t a pandemic. That father-son bond between us has strengthened and now you’ll even find us taking showers together. It is true that my income isn’t up to the mark lately but I genuinely enjoyed the time with my family.
It is yet to be considered how I’ll juggle these once the pandemic is over, I’m still living in my fantasyland haha!
14) What are the long-term plans of Beshi Joss Drums? Do you plan on expanding to other locations?
Location, yes. I’m trying to shift the factory to my hometown by the end of the year. And, I want to try out any and every kind of instrument. If China can so easily create things, why can’t Bangladesh? But yes, I won’t be able to do it on my own. I’ll need support from customers and target audience, and there needs to be many stakeholders in terms of supply chain, as in someone needs to be the bridge between us and the materials that aren’t easily accessible to us. Also, we need to work on our assembling skills, in every sector, except maybe the garments sector. There’s a lack of the need for perfection.
