Our Recent Conversation With ‘Haiqeem’

We recently interviewed Alternative Singer/Songwriter Haiqeem. We are sharing the interview here with our readers.

Twist Online : Please introduce yourself to the readers and how and when did you first get into singing?

Haiqeem : Hey guy’s, I’m “HAIQEEM”, Al Hakeem Muhammad II- where I mostly have been going by my middle name most of my life so that became my stage-name and eponymous name of this band. I first started singing officially when I was in pre-school where soon I was in a youth choir performing school based gigs up until I was a pre-teen where I transitioned over to a youth Orchestra where I studied the Bass-Violin, then later Guitar, then bass guitar where I had been blessed with the opportunity at the tender age of seventeen to officially enter the music industry.

Twist Online : Who or what inspired you as an artist growing up?

Haiqeem : For the who, in all honesty I had a huge love affair with Enya as a toddler that transitioned over to my mother’s light rock play list of quite a few light-Rock acts along the lines of Bob Dylan, very large amounts of Alanis Morissette- who is still a very prominent influence in my music today, Dido, Celine Dion, Tracy Chapman, Patti Labelle, Michael Bolton and Luther Vandross, by grade school. At nine I purchased my first album which was Britney Spears’s “Oops I did it Again”, before I went back to my mom’s light rock playlist, only to leap from that full faced into Nu-Metal by means of Disturbed, Korn, Slip Knot, and over to Japanese pop and rock music such as Utada Hikaru, Gackt, Anna Tsuchiya, Miyavi and Ayumi Hamasaki. Somewhere in the mix of Dido’s “No Angel” and the Britney Album, I entered a singing contest of which I won first place. So at nine years old, I had solidified the purpose of which I was born for.

Twist Online : Our reader would like to know more about your band members and their roles in the band?

Haiqeem :  HAIQEEM, was originally a solo product, and after is my name. However in this genre presenting ‘ourselves’ now as a rock band as the songwriting and creating process is constantly evolving to include my band mates. Nonetheless, HAIQEEM, despite being very encompassing of my own persona is actually a rock band; i.e. Marilyn Manson. Firstly, let’s start with Bass- The person whom I’m listening to mostly when singing live, Bo Hutch who is a virtuoso Bassist who has a very stellar and prominent musicality and a very strong ear. Shelby P. who’s been with HAIQEEM for almost as long as Bo is a fluid guitarist with a chameleon like musicianship as in all honesty after performing the same songs every night I find myself changing arrangements every now and then and he follows right behind me on the Treble clef and is an adequate source of musicality. Ultimately, last but not least L. Lockhart Jr. who is rumored to be ‘the best drummer in Dallas’ is an astonishing amount of world-class percussive talent.  need not neglect the fact that having these guys on the ‘HAIQEEM’ team and are an  explosive edition to the rest of the full-length record; as a Rock Band.

Twist Online : Your first single from upcoming EP “Don’t Give A Damn” was a success. You will be happy with the response you got.

Haiqeem : I do have mixed feelings with the ‘success’ of “Don’t Give A Damn”; whilst operating in a world of MTV and so forth without shooting a video… Yet for the lead single to the record, to be kept off the Hot 100 and out of the Mainstream Top-40- So it’s totally like ‘bummer’. Then again, the single will be ‘rereleased’ at the beginning of next year with a video.  In all honesty, we are counting our blessings having scored a top-50 Adult Contemporary National Airplay Charts hit with it, but surly there is more of where that came from.

Twist Online : Tell us about your recently released second single from Without My Permission “So Deep” ?

Haiqeem : “So Deep” is a ‘grunge-revival, post-grunge, alternative pop-rock’ track that is about the disintegration of plutonic relationship. Those of us creative ambitious types can be interpreted as a force of ‘light’ and sometimes when that ‘light’ get’s ‘too bright’ that ends the relationship due to the ‘other’ having significant unresolved issues. That’s what “So Deep” is about to an extent, other then the fact that sometimes when one meets a toxic person and is showered with ‘love bombing’ and general infatuation only for that to be quickly turned into a form of resentment relating back to ‘unresolved issues’ as reflected in the opening lyric “Here I Am, I want you realize what we had before, ‘the fall’.”

Twist Online : So now your 3rd single is due from your EP. Any expected release date?

Haiqeem : Indeed the 3rd single from the EP is in a genre that I refer to as “Trap Rock”; which is basically an Alternative Rock song that fits into the subgenre of Post-Grunge that has significant elements of the Trap Genre lacing the production in it. The name of that track is “Fly”; it’s actually about the law of attraction and we’ve been using it to close shows. Although not released just yet it is a crowd favorite.  We’re looking at a ‘back to school’ release date for “Fly” for bright young minds to tune in to something constructive, creative, and fresh. I hope that “Fly” is significantly more impactful then it’s prerequisites as it in a way sets the tone for the rest of the record.

Twist Online : Do you like performing live or working on music in the studio?

Haiqeem : For me it’s fifty-fifty.  I get the same anxiety and self doubt the moment before I step on a stage as before I step into a booth. I’m like “Please lord, let-“ Then all of the sudden I’m ‘right at home’ connecting with my audience or scoring a new melody. Either way it’s my home.

Twist Online : Any future projects you are working on?

Haiqeem : Tons; A couple of such I am not liberty to speak of at this time, for that I do apologize; however the songs are coming in droves. I am also planning on rereleasing a couple of my original novels that are currently right now going through developmental edit’s as we speak. So, back when I was officially a kid of all of the stories I’d written and self-published. I wrote a novel called “Undead, a New Life”; about you guessed it, vampires. I wont go to far into detail until after it’s released, and a Manga series to my original “I Am What I Am”; In a perfect world I’d be able to promote these at the same time as Without My Permission, but we’ll just have to see how the cooperate aspects plan out.

Twist Online : Are you on Social Media? Your fans would love to follow you.

Haiqeem : Endlessly, www.facebook.com/haiqeem , www.instagram.com/haiqeem , www.twitter.com/haiqeem , and www.haiqeem.com Thanks for having me.