An interview with Soapbass.
Can you tell us a little about your experience? Where are you from / how did you get into music? Was it all internet based?
Hey, I am from Lebanon. I started music at a very young age, there was something about it that was just fascinating for me. So I used to collect all my pocket money as a kid until I could afford to buy an instrument and since I loved rock I got myself a guitar. With books and watching videos I started learning the basics. Later I did take classes but by 14 I had my band and by 16b I started bass guitar. By 2000, Iwas the bass guitarist of ‘Soul Active’ In 2003, ‘Soul Active’ won the Pick FM’s ‘Best Rock Song’ in the Middle East, and we were featured by national television, newspapers and were sponsored by Radio One to record our full album. That’s all I loved back then, slowly I got introduced to electronic music. It was a hobby to DJ for friends and there I Fell in love and with hard work and dedication one day I got a gig. Since then I Poured all my soul into it. Fast forward a few years, I took the decision to focus only on my music, taking my DJing really seriously and started music Production. I am really happy where I am today reaching places I could not even dream of.
Who have been your main inspirations (both musical and in «life»)? And how have they affected your sound?
Well really this is a difficult one. I had many inspirations but I would say really the person that inspired me the most lately were: Pavel Petrov and DJ Lion. Both are really talented, they have achieved to be recognized as international DJ, music producer, club owner, mentors,… Of course who would not want to achieve this!
And really most importantly their sound can be recognised. And really this is what inspires me and I strive to achieve to have my own sound that is recognised as mine among others.
For my music on the other hand I learned that I have to listen to my guts/ So there I get inspired at any moment for really, anything around me.
How would you define your sound?
Well my sound really is chaotic just like myself. I would say I create a groovy hypnotic and industrial sound. My sounds can be perceived as tough, I try to give my sound some caractere.My sound is me!
What can you tell us about your research with the last tribes that still live in the old fashioned way, disconnected from the modern world?
Well to be honest in a way I envy and I don’t at the same time.
I don’t know if it is clear what I mean. But yea basically it is nice to be disconnected from everything and to just live the way it used to be. But then again technology did bring a lot of positive things. in the middle somew.
Simply imagine the progress in the music sector without the modern word and it’s progress you wouldn’t have such beautiful music and sounds.
But yet without the old fashioned way we would just be robots.
So I guess we have to learn to be here. To use all the tolls of the modern world but to keep our humanity
How has your sound evolved so far?
I see a huge difference between my sounds when I started as a producer and today. Since I self taught myself I went through a lot of trial and error. Creating sounds that independently could be nice but all put together created the worst chaos ever. Then with practice and time my sound got better. Still a lot to do but you can already start recognizing a sort of identity or signature in my tracks! Let’s see.
What can you tell us about your last job? What inspired you? What do you want to convey?
Mary Fcking Popins the EP came from an old movie. We were discussing different topics about movies and well I used that part in the movie to give an exemple.So then it stuck in my head for some time. And I just started building the EP around that,
What can you tell us about each song that makes up the Mary Fcking Poppins album? What is hiding behind?
Well the EP has two originals and two that are the remixes of those tracks.
Marry Fcking popins really just came out of a random conversation about London and I got reminded of the part “marry fucking poppins”, I then had a bet with a Friend if I could turn it into a track. And there it is a weird invitation to travel to London. Regarding Machine me, the opera part is from “the 5th element” . A movie I watched and watched again as a youngster. As a young boy I always thought that part should be in a track so when the idea of Marry Fcking Poppins became more of a reality I thought why not do this track as well as it was always a dream.
How are you living the current situation because of COVID? Has your work affected you a lot? Do you think there is hope? I feel like the underground scene will continue to persist.
Well It is difficult I won’t lie but at least I got time to focus more on music production, organising my music library and so on. Of course during the hard lock down it was very difficult but I mean we are in Beirut, a city that never sleeps nor stops partying so yea at some point I was at home always but then even during lockdown we had crazy raves partying from sundown to sunrise, but we took precautions, distances, tests and so on. So we could keep on working, partying but responsibly.
Yes there is hope and underground scene only exists to break rules so as long as there is rules we will be there and even more
What projects are you working on right now?
All I can say is that something really special and cool should be out soon. Keep an eye open!, it is going to be something different and I am sure you will love it.
