Music
Zahed Sultan - eyeamsound
Zahed Sultan - eyeamsound
Where did you grow up and what is your first music related memory?
I spent the majority of my formative years in Kuwait less a couple of years in India during the Gulf war. My earliest recollection of music was my father playing us the Banana Boat Song (Day O) by Harry Belafonte.
Please describe the sounds and musical influences of Zahed Sultan
They are ever evolving across a variety of regions, genres and artists. But, they all tend to reside in an alternative space and exude a certain ‘truth’.
What kind of music do you listen to?
Anything and everything that moves me.
When did you start making music and how did the situation arise?
It happened organically right after I graduated university. I just couldn’t find vinyl or albums that spoke to the sounds and arrangements I was hearing in my head and so I took it upon myself to start to learn how to translate them onto a medium.
How has your culture and its traditional music forms influenced your musical mind, and how do you incorporate this into Zahed Sultan?
I don't approach writing, arranging, or performing in the context of culture or tradition. Inspiration at a given point in time dictates the form it should present itself in as well as it’s cultural or social reference.
Having only just released your sophomore album eyeamsound, have you noticed a significant growth in your music? Any foreshadowing of new notions you will confront in the future?
Yes, there has been a significant departure from my initial body of work in terms of topically, recording and arrangement wise not to a mention multi-disciplinary approach to live performance.
As an artist in the Arab world, what are some challenges you have faced in breaking into the Western cultures?
The usual suspects: representation with regards to management, booking, and a traditional label. In retrospect though, it has all been part of an evolving journey to derive my own path in music or the arts (as a career).
How has the reflective process of writing political material changed your perspective on cultural identities within music?
I guess I have gained a greater understanding of human struggle – not so much through expressing it through music (as that is merely a vehicle to communicate it to a larger audience) but rather being actively involved in it through an organization (en.v) which I founded several years ago.
Zahed Sultan..eyeamsound
© Thuraya Lynn
Zahed Sultan..eyeamsound
© Roland Ragi
Zahed Sultan..eyeamsound
© Steve Howse
Zahed Sultan..eyeamsound
© Takanori Tsukiji
Can you share a most memorable show/festival/performance and why?
As one can only hope for, year-on-year the favorite performance plaque gets passed on to a newer one. In 2015, the two stand-out performances for me thus far have been:
1.Beirut, Lebanon – RBMA’s 2 Nights Underground because I stripped away all electronics and performed in a traditional rock band format, extremely raw, very loud!
2.London, UK - Shubbak Festival @ The Barbican because we delivered a truly immersive experience that engaged an audience through light, sound, visuals, dance and theatre
Where has been your favourite place to travel and what about your future hit list?
I couldn't say, thankfully I have had the opportunity to appreciate a broad spectrum of humankind on our planet (with still much more to be experienced). Musically though, Tunsia, Palestine, and Iran are on the immediate list. A music-recording project that takes me from East to West Africa is also under consideration as a future endeavor.
You collaborate with many other artists, during live performances and project based. What is your position on collaborations versus solo projects?
I’ve come to realize that collaboration (to me) is the foundation to growth in music and the arts as it pushes you to explore that which you are uncomfortable with not to mention challenge your habits and so called ‘givens’
Are there any specific artists you would like to collaborate with in the near future?
The list is endless, that’s like putting a kid in a candy store and asking him ‘ would you like something?’
What is your writing process like and how did eyeamsound come into existence?
I don't follow a particular process, of late it has been lyrics and melody first and then building the music around it (as I develop more song based material). eyeamsound as a body of work has been in the making for four years and is a culmination of an array if experiences, thoughts, emotions, and ideas.
Is there one track from the album that is particularly important to you/tells a personal story?
Yes, a track entitled ‘Bedoon’ as it tells the story of stateless citizens and the struggles they have been facing over generations to receive recognition as ‘people’ within a given governing body or system.
If you had the chance to revive an artist from the past to guide you as your mentor, who would it be and why? (Does not necessarily have to be musically related)
Nick Drake – as the vulnerability in his words and delivery (vocally and musically) speaks to me above most.
What’s next?
Writing, recording, performing, collaborating, exploring, learning, experimenting, experiencing…
Zahed’s latest album eyeamsound is available on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, etc.
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