Part 2
Could you describe your creative process on the basis of a piece, live performance or album that's particularly dear to you, please?
The creation process is completely different depending on what I'm producing and the creative theme at hand.
When creating my album Soul Of Winds, the goal was not just to make music but it was really to make a trip in a universe rich in melodies, in harmonies, in styles. I wanted to create an album that will make listeners dream and make them travel while staying in their seats. Even here, the process of creating each single was very different. Sometimes it’s very fast to make a single with such magic fluidity.
Take my collaboration with DJ Producer Amine Mlal in our collaboration ‘Classic’.
We agreed on the name as soon as I received the structure from Amine Mlal. I directly thought of introducing the saxophone on it because the structure reminded me how simple and good and groovy this piece of House Music was. After having added percussion elements, some melodies and harmonies, I was done.
However, when I worked with producer Soulzak on the single ‘’Sufi‘’, it was more complicated.
The idea was there, but the challenge was to layer a Ney Sufi that is renowned for its sad and delicate sound, over an electronic structure in the Afro House style with the right energy for it to translate to the club. So at that time the process was initially to create the basic structure, then we had to set up the structure of the Ney Sufi to be able to adapt the different sonorities and melodies by adding a good bass line and some percussions for more grooves.
The creation of this single was made in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, so the creation was made from a distance. But as we understand each other intuitively, it was not very difficult to collaborate.
Listening can be both a solitary and a communal activity. Likewise, creating music can be private or collaborative. Can you talk about your preferences in this regard and how these constellations influence creative results?
Creating solo music is good, it can be creative and it also allows us to 100% reveal what we feel in our soul through this creation. As someone who produces a lot of spiritual and ethnic music, I release the depths of my soul through the creation of music. On the other hand, collaborsation is also very important to reach an unlimited, even more rewarding level of creativity.
I am DJ / Producer but I am not a singer, and I am not a musician who plays all musical instruments. So I will often call on collaborators, sometimes in the role as backing musicians or fully-fledged features. It allows me to carry out creative projects and reach a more enriching cultural level. It’s all about feeling.
For example, on my Soul Of Winds album I had the opportunity to collaborate with the diva 'Kawtar Sadik' who is both a singer and a DJ. In our collaboration, she did not hesitate to honour her Moroccan roots while merging this with electronic music and the wind instrument ‘Bamboo’.
It was both creative and enriching in the sense that we worked together on the arrangement of the musical production and the details that go with - rich in harmonious melodies both electronic and funky. It also allowed me to discover more about the Amazigh [an ethnic group indigenous to the Maghreb region of North Africa] and their story. The result was our single ‘’Maktoub”.
How do your work and your creativity relate to the world and what is the role of music in society?
Art and music are fundamental human functions. Humanity and art cannot function without each other. We have the ardent desire to create, whatever the nature of our creations, whether they be small or large. Interaction with sound is inevitable, be it to create something with it or simply to enjoy it.
People have always found music important in their lives. The same is true for classical music or modern music. These two types of music have immense value for our society. Music is not only pleasant to the ears and the mind, but also nourishing for the soul.
It has long been said that music gives an emotional response. The characters found in music, to varying degrees, can affect a person’s mood. Music can improve a person’s mood, excite them or make them calm and relaxed. Music also allows us - and this is important - to feel almost every emotion we have in our lives.
Art can be a way of dealing with the big topics in life: Life, loss, death, love, pain, and many more. In which way and on which occasions has music – both your own or that of others - contributed to your understanding of these questions?
I completely agree on the point that music can be a way of dealing with the big topics in life, which is also the case with many of my musical productions.
Taking the simple example of one of the singles of my album “Skanja''. Skanja is the tool with which one presses the hip that vibrates in the GHAITA. This wind instrument which is frequently associated with the bendir [a wooden-framed frame drum of North Africa and Southwest Asia] and often used in groups of tbal wal ghayta, during happy events in Moroccan families. Joy and happiness are expressed by me and Mehdi Nassouli in this vibrating song.
This is also expressed in my collaboration ‘’Fight‘’ with YADEE & Martine Labbé.
Listen to her beautifully sung lyrics:
‘’Fight the fight you need to fight to survive
You’re the master of your own destiny
Take all you get and make your history’’
How do you see the connection between music and science and what can these two fields reveal about each other?
The emotions aroused by music are rich and strengthen bonds between individuals.
Beyond the emotions it evokes, music has powerful effects on the brain. It stimulates its plasticity, reinforces the “dialogue” between brain areas, treats disorders of motor skills, language or memory.
Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?
It is important to know that to produce music, there is already the psychological parameter that is very important. The state of mind at that time plays a crucial role. It is obvious that it is not just a question of turning on your coffee machine, putting water into it and filling your cup of coffee (laughs).
Through my music, I express many feelings, sometimes of joy, happiness and celebration but also sometimes of sadness, anxiety and many other feelings. It is difficult to express a personal feeling through music, it takes a lot of inspiration, a lot of elements, and a lot of patience especially. This is because to produce music you have to have the patience to test and try several elements like cooking. You have to try several ingredients and try several before making a good recipe.
Characteristically I am a very calm person, not too talkative, the music allows me to express everything I cannot express in more ‘’mundane tasks.‘’
Music is vibration in the air, captured by our ear drums. From your perspective as a creator and listener, do you have an explanation how it able to transmit such diverse and potentially deep messages?
A wave is a phenomenon of propagation, of a disturbance. The sound wave is a vibration of the air that propagates in the air, this vibration is produced by a sound source. This vibration can be picked up by a receiver (microphone, ear, etc.). Analysis of the signal transmitted by the receiver shows that the frequency of the vibration is the same as that of the source.
When an instrument vibrates, these vibrations move through the air reaching the ears and causing the eardrumto vibrate. Our brain perceives this as a sound. These vibrations are measured by Hz (HERTZ).
