Irfan Iskandar is a drummer who is well-known for his British Rock drumming style. Started drumming at the age of 10 after years of learning and playing keyboards. As a boy who grew up in several army camps, he received his early drumming knowledge from army friends who were in the army combo. He had gained further music knowledge and drum basics from his music teacher during primary school years in Johor Bahru. The teacher was S.Jibeng’s keyboardist, one of the famous singer during the Pop Yeh Yeh’s era.
He then went to university and graduated IT course, but still pursuing his dream of becoming a musician as he met few friends with the same music interest during varsity days. He formed a band with his uni-mates and began to play gigs for annual dinners and corporate events.
Heavily influenced by British musician, his accent of playing is combination of British rock, Psychedelia and Rock & Roll.
In 2002 he started his first session job for a ska band, Roots Rule and played few gigs in KL. The lead guitar for Root Rules was the session guitarist for ACAB. ACAB was about to record their first Malay album entitled Bangun and they have not found a drummer that fits the band’s attitude. Megat of ACAB had asked the guitarist to find the most suitable drummer for the band. He then introduced Irfan Iskandar to Megat. Irfan was auditioned for the first time and Megat got hooked-up with his drumming style very quickly. They began to record Bangun after two weeks of rehearsals.
After Bangun was released, Megat went to UK to further his studies. Soon after, Irfan Iskandar was on the look for new opportunities and was offered to play drums with The Times.
He recorded first album with The Times in 2005. He recorded 3 albums in total with The Times during his time with them. While playing with The Times, Megat came back and formed a new band The ACAB and Irfan Iskandar laid the drum tracks for them.
In 2009 Irfan Iskandar left The Times and started session for Bittersweet as a backup drummer. Not long after that, he had formed his own band called Relay with former The Times’ member who had left the band years earlier. At the same time, Bittersweet was looking for a permanent session drummer. Irfan Iskandar had joined the wagon and played with them until 2018. Irfan recorded one album (BTSWT) with Bittersweet which was released by March 2016.
As for current projects, Irfan Iskandar is now attached with Toko Kilat his side project Da Vagabonds with Noh Salleh of Hujan & Herri Hamid of Bittersweet.
Malaysia Drum Day 2022 was supported by Kementerian Komunikasi dan Multimedia Malaysia(K-KOMM) through Dana Kandungan Digital, Program Muzik Malaysia 2021. The program was produced under the Ecosystem Grant which focuses on the talent development stage as well as the platform of a project that involves the creation, production, collection and publication or generation of content in the music industry whether the content is published in collaboration with an institution (university/college/government body or related agency).
The event was held on 24 and 25 October 2022 in Experimental Theatre, Aswara. 10 artist drummers plus 6 guest performers highlighted their talent and skills as well as sharing their ideas and experiences working in the industry.
#malaysiadrumday2022 #danamuzikmalaysia #DKD #Danaekosistem #kkomm #MDD2022
31 янв 2023
