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Name: Mohamad Zatari
Nationality: Syrian
Occupation: Oud player, composer
Recent release: The Mohamad Zatari Trio's new album Istehlal is out January 27th 2023 via Zehra.
Recommendations: I would recommend any local music from weddings or village markets, wherever in the world.
As for a book, this would be very subjective, Cities of Salts by Abdul Rahman Munif was the first that came to my mind.

[Read our Sara Eslami interview]
[Read our Avadhut Kasinadhuni interview]

If you enjoyed this interview with Mohamad Zatari and would like to find out more about his music, visit his official website. He is also on Instagram, and Soundcloud.

Zehra · MOHAMAD ZATARI TRIO - Desire

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?

Well, I, awarely, joined the world of sound at the age of 15, I guess in 2002, by deciding to play oud and borrowing my brother's instrument.

However, I started to train my ears unintentionally way before, when I was a little kid, listening to my father inventing / humming some funny songs while working as a house painter, trying also to imitate songs on an old keyboard, as well as having a darbuka for picnics. I must have also been intrigued by instruments I’ve seen at my grandparents’ house. And I remember paying attention to some local soundtracks at the age of 7-8.

Hmm, I think, as a teenager who experienced some class differences early in life, that I was quite inspired by artists like Sheikh Imam from Egypt, who used to criticize the system by his songs, which he created hand in hand with the poet Ahmed Fouad Negm.

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?

It's difficult to get detached from the visuals in our subconscious when we hear sounds.You know, there are ppl who literally see colors when they hear sounds. There is even some kind of music notation in which they use shapes and forms. And I guess that colors are the ambition of music, of sound. Colors are more direct and faster to recognize.

However, for me, and it depends on what I’m listening to, it's often like a monstrous energy that covers my whole body and tries to access it from the chest.

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

I dare to say that this journey, of “self discovery” or whatever it's called, is one of the most fascinating aspects of being an artist. It permanently provokes questions. Personally, moving geographically from one place to another has influenced my opinions, my aesthetic thinking and many factors like social mirroring and self awareness. You are never just yourself.

I think my main obsession was always about being exposed to new environments, pushing my comfort zone. So here it comes, I started the journey by learning classical instrumental Arabic and Ottoman music while at the moment I’m into exploring new sounds and promoting improvisational concepts and non written music. Still searching.

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.

Hm, I think living in Aleppo the first 20 years of my life has given me the first brick in choices and decisions I took later on. Everything else is a kind of building up on that base and kind of attempting to identify all the sounds, visuals and contexts I had in mind those 20 years.

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music and art?

Honesty in translating feelings and ideas as primitive as I can. Boldness in expression.

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”?

I’m more into messing up tradition. You need a reference in creation to start from. The future for someone is a tradition for someone else.

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?

Maybe obsession and patience? Absorbing ideas as much as I can. Your mind will definitely filter what you need and what you don't.

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

Well, I'm a coffee addict, so I wake up in the morning, walk my dog Noe (Noah) in the park and sip some coffee. Back home I stick around the instruments, grab the oud and spend some time with it, trying some colors on the piano. If I have some crystalized ideas I write them down. Generally no systematic practice. A lot of time on social media. I’m a lazy reader. I mostly cook my food.

In the evening I start to find an event to attend, mostly movies, art movies, and I go to the cinema more than to concerts by the way. Or I hang out with close friends. They are few, I have social anxiety even though I spend a lot of time with ppl.

Could you describe your creative process on the basis of a piece, live performance or album that's particularly dear to you, please?

Well let's talk for example about Mohamad Zatari Trio.

We approached multiple ways to reach the final repertoire. With “Black Tea'' I had already set a form and a certain technique, like modulations and polyphony. We played it several times in that form. Later on I added some new different sections because I felt the need to break the piece at some moment. At the end of the piece, also later on (at the minute 02:40), I decided to use the tabla as a Davul / Tabl with a very cheerful dabke rhythm.

And the completely different scale we played and the last second actually wasn't my idea, it was Avadhut’s, the tabla player. And I stuck to it haha.

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?

It depends. There are pieces whose sounds I had already imagined and written down directly, sometimes I improvise alone, record and transcribe. Many times it happens that I start grooving with musicians and we build things up together.

Recently I’ve been enjoying random improvising with friends / colleagues, extracting an honest sound with no special scope. Each one is diving in his/her/their own world yet still connected.

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

Hmm, I can't deny that I pour a portion of anger into my music. The world is absolutely monstrous and unfair and I sometimes start from this point.

Regarding the second part of the question, as you know, music is used by many institutions and organizations like religions, armies, states, minorities and even companies in order to impose a certain package of ideas. Music is everywhere and anywhere.

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?

It’s not just music itself that provoked questions about these topics for me. Generally the human being is challenged to question, in the most critical and honest way.

I guess that being involved in artistic life is all about keeping yourself open to questions. Dealing with them, these questions and topics, comes mostly subconsciously.

How do you see the connection between music and science and what can these two fields reveal about each other?

This is too big a question for me haha.

I mean, you know, sound is an essential phenomenon in science, so both music and science are quite related. Science could be a way to decolonialize music as well- I’m happy that the microtone is getting a good space recently in musical discussions, which for European musicians and listeners is still only a scientific matter, no emotions attached.

Science could also be an inspiration for composers and musicians. Not just in sound study manners, but also in other fields. Like, for example, you can get inspired by many facts about the human body from which you can extract some forms to structure your work on.

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?

Music can easily manipulate your brain and feelings, depending on your life experiences and cultural codes. The way you perceive a piece of music is completely different than how I do. It also needs both a creator and listener.

Such a complex procedure. You use music when you want to say things you can't say in any other way. It's the urge inside. I don’t underestimate the great cup of coffee though. :)

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 is able to transmit such diverse and potentially deep messages?

Because of the cultural links. Our minds always try to relate the sound we hear to our experiences and dig into our memories.