Karim got the music bug at a very, very early age listening to his parents’ collection where the likes of The Beatles, Ray Charles, Keith Jarrett and The Bee Gee’s sat side-by-side with Zeki Muren, Fairouz and Oum Kalthoum. Three floors beneath their Raouche, Beirut apartment was a nightclub which pulsated with the spicy Disco grooves that would in those days soon take the world by storm and certainly caught the attention and curiosity of the young Karim. Beirut was an international city in those days with the latest fashions in style and music imported weekly, and as such the modern culture of Beirut was always fresh and Karim’s parents made sure they had their slice of it.
In 1979, as the civil war in Lebanon continued to be inflamed, Karim and his family left Beirut for the peaceful shores of Bahrain, a small island kingdom tucked away in the Arabo-Persian Gulf. It was in Bahrain that Karim’s obsession with music would really take hold. By the age of 11, having tried his hand at Piano and Guitar, he quickly adopted the Drum-set, an instrument to which he’s been true to this very day. Every penny saved was spent on cassette tapes and vinyl records and he fell deeper and deeper under the spell of music. By the time Karim completed his high school education, he was already an accomplished drummer with his sights on California and forming a rock band.
Five years, 1 university BA diploma, four bands, 1000s of CDs & records heavier and many raves later, Karim found himself back in Bahrain working at his father’s super advertising agency, Fortune Promoseven as a copy writer, a job which would bring him back into the creative realm. But as the company became more corporate, Karim became dissatisfied with being an ad-man, jumped ship and went into audio production for TV and radio at Film House. This time the company could not sustain the dreams Karim had for it and within a year and a half he decided to immerse himself wholly in the hospitality field.
In 1995 Karim and a handful of friends were already DJing at house parties and living rooms all over the country and an underground scene began to take root, culminating in the infamous Red on Red party which raged for almost 48 hours. The underground ‘thing’ simply just became too big for all involved and was disbanded and broke up to many smaller pieces. Meanwhile, by early 1999 Karim and creative partner Ken De Souza formalized their first club concept, Likwid (spelled phonetically of course) over a Bloody Mary brunch with Lamees Buali in their kitchen. Tired of the generic, commercial clubs in Bahrain, the two set out to build the kind of place they would hang out in. It had to be funky in design, cozy in size, with an excellent bar servery and a world-class sound system. The bar would serve the best concoctions using only premium products on the speed rail. The music policy would focus on Jazz and House. The venue would have to become an institution and not just a fad. The focus would be on developing and nurturing local talent as well as bringing in top class international artists for regular guest spots. Likwid is all of that and more, it’s a sanctuary for an open-minded crowd that really lets go; the place they go to forget the world outside and become enveloped in the spirit of the music. June 28th, 2000 saw the final fruition of almost 3 years’ of hard work and the special touch Karim and Ken put into the venue has continued to pay off.
Karim embraces the entire spectrum of house music and defines the style of his sets as “the hottest House Music cut with the sharpest Techno†and believes in moving the dancefloor with energy as well as emotion, while firmly supporting quality and nothing but quality, regardless of style. He has grown as a DJ as a result of the many years at Likwid and the handful of gigs in Dubai and Beirut playing for top underground promoters and venues, and continues to have his sights focused on the future. Success was slow, yet steady and strong. This year Likwid will celebrate 6 years of business and dedication to music as well as Karim’s 6-year Thursday night residency. At the time of opening, Bahrain wasn’t ready for Jazz or House music and today both styles enjoy a much wider audience with more venues hiring local DJs and budding bands.
Today Karim combines his work as the Group General Manager of Seven Leisure, which owns and operates Camelot Restaurant, JJ’s Irish Pub, BJ’s Nightclub, Likwid, Club Seven and the Coral Beach Club, Bahrain’s most exclusive and exciting beach club complex with two restaurants, a bar, lounge and gym facilities with his DJing and Drumming. Holding on to a full-time job and a DJ residency, with up to 3 nights a week playing 6 hours a night hasn’t been easy, but that’s the kind of dedication Karim puts into everything that he does. He is today one of the most influential DJ’s in Bahrain and a cornerstone of the House music scene in the Middle East.
