Part 2

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

When I am not on tour, this is what my day looks like:
I wake up at 6.30 (my kids jump on my bed like in milk adverts)
I make breakfast and take them to school until 8.30
I do some paperwork and emails until midday.
Then I head to the studio where I stay until 4.30.
Pick the kids up from school and play with them until 7.30 - 8pm.
Then I go again to the studio until midnight or sometimes less.
I rarely go out, but I do lose a few hours on social media before falling asleep around 1 am.
 
Could you describe your creative process on the basis of a piece, live performance or album that's particularly dear to you, please?

If I have to describe the production process on Bedouin Burger's track  “Taht el Ward” for example, then I’d go about it this way:
Lynn Adib first recorded the vocals with the lyrics on a session. The track itself holds a deep, intimate and personal story, related to Lynn’s experience and the departure of a loved one.
I spent two days beatboxing at first over her vocal flow (I don't beatbox well but it allows me to decompose a vocal flow into a coherent rhythmic sequence). Then I wrapped that with some riq (arabic tambourine) music on the sequences that I felt were suitable for her flow.
After that I doubled the percussions with electronic kick - snare and hats then analogue deep bass sounds to amplify the beat. Next, I added some fun FX to spice the whole thing up, always keeping in mind to never interfere or compete with Lynn's vocals as they form the living pulse of the track.
No doubt that through the whole process Lynn is in and out of the studio selecting the good propositions and weeding out the bad ones. We do all of this while dancing and tripping on the track.  
 
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 prefer and revere collaborations. I essentially interact socially and emotionally through the musical creative process which gives me the biggest pleasure in life. There are certainly moments of solitary work but it's needed to come to then return to the other musical partner with solid propositions. For example, my solo project is my least developed project, because I hate working alone. I feel weird about it. I feel it is weak and that I only achieve great results through teamwork. And sharing it on stage with friends is so rewarding.

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

My music is about my experience throughout the struggles of the regions I lived in. I lived through so many wars and conflicts. You can hear it in my sound, in my mellow vibes and lyrics. There is tragedy and there is humor. It's this subtle mix that forms my identity.
I hope my music can inspire youth to be free to write in their own language even if it's clumsy. It's important to use all the languages we speak, as they add so much to our creativity.
I feel that music can help people emancipate themselves. It can promote tolerance and understanding of our multicultural world, especially that every part of the world has its own amazing ways to dance, sing and play.

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 totally relate and Lynn would be perfect to answer this question. Personally, I lost many friends in tragedies and it inspired a lot of music. Most of my work was about conflicts, decline and loss. It allowed me to heal through listening to those tracks and digest the problems I was going through.
 
There seems to be increasing interest in a functional, “rational” and scientific approach to music. How do you see the connection between music and science and what can these two fields reveal about each other?
I wouldn’t say no to an opportunity to work with scientists to further explore this. I am sure I would learn a lot, but to be honest I haven’t come across it.

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?

Creating music is about assembling a set of vibrations that affects us in a physical and spiritual way and the impact it has on our brain is pretty fascinating. I can travel through time and reconnect emotionally with a precise period of my life depending on the music I hear. I've been reading recently that through sounds we can hear echoes of distant galaxies and vibrations containing undeciphered codes to understand.

Music is vibration in the air, captured by our eardrums. 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 realized very early that every object resonates at a certain frequency. I was always fascinated that objects in my room or studio would vibrate to a certain note. A resonance is a physical response to a cyclic wave. I think this applies to every particle in the universe. Artists are able to create resonance in people in such a way that we respond and connect to it. It's one of those misunderstood wonders; resonance and harmony.