Tunisian artist Hamdi Ryder’s combines every musical genre that has influenced his style to get to where he is now

Tunisia’s House music scene might seem relatively new, but it has been growing quickly these last years in the forefront of the Arab countries. This is the case of Tunisia, where DJs and producers as Hamdi Ryder, who had started his music journey since 10 years ago, carried out new sounds as Disco, Electro or House in the country and he began a electronic scene in his city with proposals as Downtown Vibes.

When and how did you get your interest in electronic music? and how did you decide to dedicate into production?

My journey was launched when making hip hop beats at the age of 17. While digging my way through the different related genres, I discovered Soul, Funk and Disco. Then, my attention got immediately taken by House Music for what it held in terms of culture and art, and I’ve dedicated myself to Electronic Music ever since

3 – How do you assess the trajectory you have had and what were the reasons that led you to start it?

As you may know, historically, Tunisia wasn’t really involved in Electronic Music’s culture and that surely makes it hard for any artist to rise locally because people simply didn’t know what it was about. I’m proud today that I managed to both spread some knowledge about House culture and share my individual artistic effort. I’m surely grateful for the environment I got myself into, the people I got to know and who trusted my initial project, Downtown Vibes, my family and all of those who contributed to independently create a scene. This being said, the journey has just started. The trajectory I took was a great starting gun but one has to push things to a higher level. Music as a culture needs certain institutions to encourage people to discover and learn more about Electronic Music. For that, in 2018, we launched Eddisco, the first record store in Tunis, and this year, we announced our label with the same name.

4- What was your criterion when producing your last EP?

“T.U.G.S” is like my resume that combines every main musical genre that influenced my style and guided me to my current state. It sums my passion and inspiration for Hip Hop, House Music and Electro.

5 – Could you recommend a set that you are especially proud of, and that we can see on your Soundcloud or on YouTube?

6 – What can you tell us about the scene of your city? What would you improve?

It’s quite early to set an opinion about the scene in Tunisia but I believe it’s very promising and that, given two factors. The first is that we got a really passionate audience and the second is that we got great artists. The community we managed to create with Downtown Vibes and with the other collectives and artists is solid and very supportive but it will take some time in order to reach everybody. What should be improved is our relationship with governmental establishments like the Ministry of Culture and the different sponsors in Tunisia. We already did prove the real impact we can have and our contribution to the whole artistic scene here. It’s important to finally consider artists as great contributors to the wellness of the nation and to consider DJs as real ambassadors of our identity throughout the world.

7 – Finally, what can you tell us about your present and future projects?

The international collaborations and gigs are surely suspended for now since the air traffic isn’t back to its normal state. I’ll be mostly taking care of our label, Eddisco, preparing the next release after T.U.G.S. So many new and very talented artists are going to be revealed thanks to this project and I can’t wait to see the reactions. The record shop will surely be back too! We’ll be preparing new events and concepts in order to enrich the scene like usual.