Name: Ghoula

Nationality: Tunisian
Current release: Ghoula's Demi-Écrémé is out February 10th via Shouka.
Recommendations: Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 17 "Tempest" : the piece that changed my life. After listening to this sonata, I knew that I wanted to learn to play music.
The second one is a book, Stambeli: Music, Trance, and Alterity in Tunisia, Jankowsky. Mr Jankowsky wrote a super book on the North African music “Stambali”. Music of trance and healing came to Tunisia from the time of slavery. A very interesting book for musicians who want to explore a different kind of music.

If you enjoyed this interview with Ghoula and would like to stay up to date with his music, visit him on Instagram, Facebook, and Soundcloud.



When did you start writing/producing/playing music and what or who were your early passions and influences? What was it about music and/or sound that drew you to it?

I started learning piano at the age of 5 at the conservatory of Sousse in Tunisia. My first production was as a beatmaker when I composed instrumentals for a rapper when I was around 14 years old. My main influences are: Massive Attack, Radiohead, DJ Shadow, RJD2, Fatboy Slim, Aphex Twin.

I think I was born to play music because when I was a child at home we got a Casio calculator with a chromatic scale and I was playing a lot with it and my father saw that, so he took me to the conservatory and boom! I discovered the real piano.

Thank God he didn’t take me to a maths class.

When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening and how does it influence your approach to creativity?

I think seeing shapes and objects is more of a dancer’s thing. For me it's more about the personification of each sound. Every sound is a character and all of them together constitute a dialog and then form a story.

The amazing thing about sampling is the ability to isolate the sound you want and use it differently.

How would you describe your development as an artist in terms of interests and challenges, searching for a personal voice, as well as breakthroughs?

As a musician I try to communicate in my tracks an energy that talks to anybody even if you don’t understand the lyrics.

In my opinion sampling North African and Arab old records is a real challenge because we used to listen to many DJs and producers who sampled blues and jazz but in the Ghoula project I use very different material.

Regarding the last point, breakthroughs will come with work. (laughs)

Tell me a bit about your sense of identity and how it influences both your preferences as a listener and your creativity as an artist, please.

When the idea of buying records came to me, I started to hang out in Tunisia and search for record shops. I don’t know why I found a lot of German vinyls, not sure who brought them here. I really don’t know. I also found Arabic ones, from Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Lebanon, Egypt and Libya.

In 2015 I said to myself let’s try to sample some stuff, but will I sample the German records or music I already know??? It was evident to me that I would choose to edit the music I grew up with. The second motivation is that nobody had done this before.

How would you describe your views on topics like originality and innovation versus perfection and timelessness in music? Are you interested in a “music of the future” or “continuing a tradition”?

The music of Bob Marley was perfect and timeless, not contemporary music. Nowadays we are far from timeless music, everybody tries to be original and tries to bring innovation. Sadly we live in a time where everything is ephemeral.

The Ghoula project is original for sure because if you give the same samples to someone else the result would be different. I think every artist is unique. I think I created a sub-style in the word of sampling because sometimes people recognise my music without seeing the artist name.

I can’t say that the Ghoula project is timeless but I spent a lot of time seeking perfection. And to finish I think perfection is really subjective.

Over the course of your development, what have been your most important instruments and tools - and what are the most promising strategies for working with them?

That’s a funny question for me, because my best tool is the glue we use for wood. Cleaning and restoring records starts with the glue in my process. I start to spread it on the surface of the record and then I leave it to dry for 24 hours. The day after it becomes like a thin transparent film, when you remove it, it takes away the dust from vinyl grooves.

I need to add there are many products in the European market to clean a record surface but I was in Tunisia and you cannot find any of those products on the local market. So you have to use the DIY solution and wood glue does the job for me.

Then I digitise the record and to do that I use apps to declick a little bit the sound, although sometimes I don't. It depends on the quality of the record.

Take us through a day in your life, from a possible morning routine through to your work, please.

Thank you for this question but I try to kill routine not the opposite. (laughs).

If it’s a flea market day I will start with that, fishing some cassettes and 45s and then I go home to discover what my net caught. If I got something interesting I will start sampling it immediately. If not I take a deep breath and I go to the coffee-shop and have an existential crisis.

If it’s not flea market day I will take from my record collection and try to find one that inspires me. Some days I'll feel tired of technology - so I practise playing Guembri which is “a traditional Tunisian instrument” for hours.

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?

I always start a song alone. I need that moment of autism and nobody will take it from me.

But when I understand where the song goes I invite friends to join me. Why? It's always a pleasure to share your work with others and it will always enrich my work. I need to explore other paths and sometimes you need this friend that will show you this path.

How do your work and your creativity relate to the world and what is the role of music in society?

I think my music repairs the relationship between people and their heritage in a subtle way.

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?

Sampling and cooking is the same thing. It’s all about the ingredients you use. If you want an Indian dish put curry, if you want a Tunisian one put harissa.

It’s easier for me to sample Arabic music because I know all the ingredients very well and I also add my secret ingredients.

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?

I think now we count on hard drives and servers to save our memory, but back in the day music was doing the same job.

Music and oral transmission save stories like those preserved and recounted by our grandmothers. Music saves and records how people flirt, music preserves how people are enjoying life, music saves how people feel and think about death, about sadness and more.

I think we can understand the lifestyle of a region only by studying its music.