SA
I’m so glad we finally could make this happen, thank you for being here this evening. How are you feeling? Can you describe your energy today?
M
I know, honestly so happy you wanted to do this, I really appreciate it! Today: my energy has been balanced.
SA
Balance right now is so crucial given the circumstances. Can you tell me a little bit about your background? Where did you grow up? What did you want to do when you were younger + how did you get into music?
M
Yeah right now, the only thing I have been focusing on is my health, and my peace of mind. Time is crazy right now. I am from MetroDetroit, just a few minutes north of Detroit. I have lived around here my entire life. When I was younger, I actually did say that I wanted to be a rapper. Obviously I don’t rap haha but the obsession with hip-hop and beats started early. My mom had a piano in the house, and I would just sit next to her and listen to her play, and I eventually just started messing around with it. One thing led to another, I got a drum set from an old neighbor, taught myself to play, and then just kept growing from there.
SA
Sounds like a very organic progression, did you teach yourself how to read music as well?
M
I actually do not know how to read or write music. Honestly, I don’t really ever know what notes I’m even playing. I was just sampling records and figuring something out to play over them on the instruments.
SA
Ok wow, my mind is blown. My parents tried to get me to learn the piano but I always struggled with reading music and so ended up kind of just learning by ear. We grew up around a lot of gospel and hymns (raised Christian) + eventually my parents would take me to temples and arangathams for friends’ weddings and performances where I was introduced to more ancestral forms of music making – this really informed my love for sound, less lyric, more vibrational. If and how do you think about your production as a form of ancestral transmission?
M
Oh wow, yeah I was going to ask what your background was. That is interesting because my mother is Christian, and my father is Muslim, but we grew up going to church too, and eventually stopped because for me, it just didn’t make any sense. That style of worship does not resonate with what I know is within my own bloodlines. But my ancestry and familial history is actually the largest inspiration and influence for my work. I believe my understanding for music and percussion solely comes from that. Tonality, rhythm. All of those things are a huge part of Algerian and Indian culture. In the language, in the music, in the food. I don’t think I would be able to have the kind of relationship I do with music if it was not for my ancestry.
SA
Right – yes!! I’m Tamil, my parents fled Sri Lanka during the genocide in the 80s and made their way to England then Australia. What I’m hearing from you connects so deeply with me, especially knowing that you don’t really work through a ‘rigid’ form of reading/knowing music – it’s almost like a feeling that just comes through your tapping into your own lineage. A direct transmission.. Has making music allowed you to connect deeper with your lineage?
M
That is a lot of moving around, it must have been really intense for them when they initially fled Sri Lanka. I can’t imagine what that must have been like. Precisely. I don’t know why I feel so comfortable with the language of music, so that is really the foundation of my understanding, at least to my own knowledge. My environment also contributed, but really only until I started surrounding myself with other people who made music. I think ever since I seriously started to consider the message and meaning in my music, I began to look back into my roots, and reach out to my family back home. Moreso my father’s family in Algeria just because we have a more immediate connection with them. My mother’s side never really connected us with our family in India. But again, the music has allowed for me to connect with that side of me in a different way.
SA
I feel you, I don’t know what my lineage is like past three generations because conversion and colonization messed it all up. Meditating on carnatic music was one of the first ways I was able to feel a deeper link with my histories. I think it’s so beautiful to think about how we’re led to this art form as a way to reestablish that connection.
One thing we’re thinking about at Studio Ānanda is sound healing, the way that sound can facilitate the clearing of energetic blocks on a mental, physical, emotional and spiritual level. I grew up a pretty depressed kid and one of the only ways I knew how to feel was through sound. I was 8 years old and sobbing to Nina Simone and bhajans and then to experimental electronic stuff like Gold Panda – the raw climatic sounds really helped me articulate and experience a lot of suppressed emotion. When we think about Indigenous practices around sound, meditation and healing has always had this kinship with sound. Whether it be Aboriginal Australians using the didgeridoo or Tibetan Monks using sound bowls, there is a lot to say about the way the experience of sound manifests not just through the audio but also the frequencies and vibrations.
Is this something you think about when producing music?
M
Colonization is more than just stealing land, it destroys the identities and mentalities of people who have experienced so much violence. They think if they change, they will stop experiencing it, but it’s not true. It’s so sad, cause now look at us. When we have children, how are we supposed to pass on the stories and traditions? In a way, music is one of those traditions. A form of storytelling. It actually makes perfect sense that these tones and vibrations arranged in specific rhythms is like…unlocking something buried deep within our hearts. It is like cheat codes. The information we were not supposed to find. The physics that the colonizer tried to steal and hide from us. So yes, I completely believe that these frequencies, when played with intention, can ultimately heal and free us. The repetition and ritual of music is so sacred. It holds a power that can truly transcend our consciousness. I have actually been reading this book on Sufism, and it’s whole focus is explaining that the concepts professional musicians use for playing (specifically the Sufi drummers), are also the concepts they use to exist in life. Like harmony vs. dissonance. Tone and rhythm. It makes so much sense. I think you would love that book. It is by a person name Hazrat Inayat Kahn. I will send you a link to it after this!
SA
Ooooof yes – please share.
There is so much more we could talk about about the uncovering of ancestral wisdom by tapping into frequencies + I really want to keep having this convo with you.
I want to just hold space for how I actually discovered your music because I feel that in itself is such a testament to how our communities build and grow. My dear friend + a spiritual mentor for me, Travis, sent me & it became something I was listening to quite frequently, especially in the mornings as I meditated + stretched. Khalil Gibran wrote something about how “the reality of music is in the vibrations that remain in the ears after the singer has stopped singing and the player has stopped plucking the strings.” I felt that so intensely when I was passed on your art as a form of love. I then passed it onto a couple of my close friends who also said they felt like this was a piece of heaven – like this communal exchange to raise vibrations.
What importance do you place on sound as something integral in community building + fostering strong networks?
M
Wow, I am honestly speechless right now. It’s crazy to hear that it resonates with you and so many people I have never actually met before. That is the power of music though. You said it spot on though, just in terms of the testament on how our communities move. In the same way that we are trying to find ourselves, we are also searching for people who are on the same journey. People who are looking for one another. We have all been torn apart through colonization, and manipulation. Music is one of the last few things we still have to communicate honestly. That and food. Music has led me to create so many crazy relationships. So many intersections of different lifestyles and backgrounds have come together and built something beautiful through music. I always say, it’s just physics. The gravity that pulls us together is music.
SA
So so so beautifully put, Omar. What a grounding and healing art form you have created, thank you. I could talk to you for hours about this – but I want to be mindful of your time so, to end, what are three things you’re listening to right now that are helping you find the aforementioned balance, and who are three dream artists you would want to collaborate with?
M
Again, this couldn’t have been any more proper. Just fascinating how we even got here haha when you sit and think about it, it bugs you out!!! Makes you wanna know, “How???” But right now, I have been listening to a TON of , he has this series of 3 LPs called the , and all 3 of those records are absolutely integral. I have also been listening to a lot of lately. Seriously always blown away everytime I put his records on. And lastly, really mainly listening to my own stuff. trying to see how a lot of these new ones sound together for a project. I feel like I am already working with who I’d be dreaming of. I am blessed to be surrounded by so many inspiring people. Seriously, thank you for reaching out to do this Prinita. I appreciate talking to you so much, and I will definitely send over that book!!