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Vibe with Nasir introducing Arabic pop music to the world
By Haya Najdawi, Jordan News
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27-year-old Jordanian producer and multi-instrumentalist Nasir Al-Bashir, also
known as Vibe with Nasir, says he loved music ever since he was a child; he
would play the violin, piano, guitar and oud almost on daily basis.اضافة اعلان
By mere coincidence, Bashir got to be the keyboardist in Aziz Maraka’s show at The Boulevard in 2017.
“That was my first concert with Aziz Maraka. I played at his shows until late 2019, and at the same time I worked on producing songs with Jordan-based artists such as Issam Najjar, Noel Kharman, Zeyne and many others,” Bashir said.
Bashir currently works at Levant studios, a music studio in Amman.
“When I started here, it was the beginning of the pandemic, but we had the facility ready and equipped with top-of-the-line equipment,” he told Jordan News.
Bashir works alongside Jordanian artists; “everyone is different. Some play pop music, others have an alternative, more of a reggae vibe, there are artists that do R&B or straight up rap, and it is fun because I get to explore different music genres”.
As a music producer, he believes it is important to ensure that he is delivering his client’s vision and not his personal style.
“I try to understand what the artist wants and then try my best to give it to them; it is not necessarily what I want to do, because if I force what I want to do and it backfires, they are the ones who will end up being hurt,” he said.
“At the same time, though, I have been in the music industry for a very long time, so I know what is cool and what is trendy. Whenever we are producing a new song, we have clear conversations back and forth until we settle on the best outcome,” he added.
Is influencer Wessam Qutob’s album an example?
“Qutob does not understand the word ‘limit’, so what was really great about working on that album was not just that he was fun to work with, but that we started somewhere with a certain vibe, and we ended up with a completely different style. Some songs you can dance to while others can make people cry,” he said.
“It lets me, as the music producer, take risks with the work and try new stuff, you know we are not limited to just one thing. Qutob is one of the most hardworking people I have seen. He is also an insanely intelligent human being and very creative, so it is like two creative minds working off of each other and coming up with a product that you are extremely proud of,” he said.
Alternative music and Arabic pop songs have become noticeably trendier the past couple of years.
“I think it is because it has become a lot easier for people to make original music. You do not necessarily need a record label to sponsor you, you can just record from home with your own equipment and upload your own music,” he said.
“Although music was great over the last 10 years, you needed a certain type of music in order to be able to sell, but now we have more room to explore, new people are coming in to try new things, eventually you had indie music, that is now being played everywhere, it is the new mainstream,” Bashir explained.
He believes that indie music “is a way to say who we are as a culture. It is more relatable, we used to make the majority of songs for weddings or national themed, which sends the message that this is all we are, but we have more to our identity; we also fall in love, get sad, want to make money and so on, we have other problems that were not expressed in our music”.
Bashir believes that it was an inevitable development which demonstrates that “now we understand ourselves more”. That is “not a momentary trend, it will keep going”, he said.
As a producer, “I am proud to say that we were able to finally put Jordanian artists on the regional map, and more Arab artists on a global map. It is incredible and I am excited that I am a part of the movement that is changing the way Arab artists are seen globally”.
According to Bashir, “we are working toward something bigger that has identity and is youth driven. I am happy that we are giving ourselves a platform that we built. Hopefully it is only going to get bigger from here forward”.
Read more Music
Jordan News
By mere coincidence, Bashir got to be the keyboardist in Aziz Maraka’s show at The Boulevard in 2017.
“That was my first concert with Aziz Maraka. I played at his shows until late 2019, and at the same time I worked on producing songs with Jordan-based artists such as Issam Najjar, Noel Kharman, Zeyne and many others,” Bashir said.
Bashir currently works at Levant studios, a music studio in Amman.
“When I started here, it was the beginning of the pandemic, but we had the facility ready and equipped with top-of-the-line equipment,” he told Jordan News.
Bashir works alongside Jordanian artists; “everyone is different. Some play pop music, others have an alternative, more of a reggae vibe, there are artists that do R&B or straight up rap, and it is fun because I get to explore different music genres”.
As a music producer, he believes it is important to ensure that he is delivering his client’s vision and not his personal style.
“I try to understand what the artist wants and then try my best to give it to them; it is not necessarily what I want to do, because if I force what I want to do and it backfires, they are the ones who will end up being hurt,” he said.
“At the same time, though, I have been in the music industry for a very long time, so I know what is cool and what is trendy. Whenever we are producing a new song, we have clear conversations back and forth until we settle on the best outcome,” he added.
Is influencer Wessam Qutob’s album an example?
“Qutob does not understand the word ‘limit’, so what was really great about working on that album was not just that he was fun to work with, but that we started somewhere with a certain vibe, and we ended up with a completely different style. Some songs you can dance to while others can make people cry,” he said.
“It lets me, as the music producer, take risks with the work and try new stuff, you know we are not limited to just one thing. Qutob is one of the most hardworking people I have seen. He is also an insanely intelligent human being and very creative, so it is like two creative minds working off of each other and coming up with a product that you are extremely proud of,” he said.
Alternative music and Arabic pop songs have become noticeably trendier the past couple of years.
“I think it is because it has become a lot easier for people to make original music. You do not necessarily need a record label to sponsor you, you can just record from home with your own equipment and upload your own music,” he said.
“Although music was great over the last 10 years, you needed a certain type of music in order to be able to sell, but now we have more room to explore, new people are coming in to try new things, eventually you had indie music, that is now being played everywhere, it is the new mainstream,” Bashir explained.
He believes that indie music “is a way to say who we are as a culture. It is more relatable, we used to make the majority of songs for weddings or national themed, which sends the message that this is all we are, but we have more to our identity; we also fall in love, get sad, want to make money and so on, we have other problems that were not expressed in our music”.
Bashir believes that it was an inevitable development which demonstrates that “now we understand ourselves more”. That is “not a momentary trend, it will keep going”, he said.
As a producer, “I am proud to say that we were able to finally put Jordanian artists on the regional map, and more Arab artists on a global map. It is incredible and I am excited that I am a part of the movement that is changing the way Arab artists are seen globally”.
According to Bashir, “we are working toward something bigger that has identity and is youth driven. I am happy that we are giving ourselves a platform that we built. Hopefully it is only going to get bigger from here forward”.
Read more Music
Jordan News
