She's 17, and drums for Malaysian rock legends Search: 'Music is my life'

As the first female (and youngest) drummer to play with legendary rock band Search, teenager Hanifah Naimi Daini is breaking stereotypes that girls can't or don't drum. — LOW LAY PHON/The Star

It won’t take more than a few minutes of listening to Hanifah Naimi Daini’s rib-rattling grooves to get why the 17-year-old was chosen to play drums with legendary Malaysian rock band Search.

The Form Five schoolgirl – a self-confessed rock fan – is a powerhouse behind the drums; a ferocious, beat-perfect, percussionist whose love affair with drumming began before she could even remember.“I started drumming when I was nine,” she says. “I followed my elder sister for her guitar lessons and there was an electric drum kit in the front area of the music school and someone was playing it. It was then and there that I told my dad that I wanted to learn the drums.