Music is a Meeting Point

Hybrid Records’ logo is evocative and provocative: the head of an electric guitar wriggling its way to the heart of a tambourine. This is not about music fusion, it says, but creation; marrying traditional music with contemporary instruments to produce not just a completely new sound, but a bridge between cultures. The company is the brainchild of Ahmed Azzam and Mohamed Ghorab, themselves a product of two cultures. In 2009, they set out to create a whole new genre that would rediscover the nation’s musical heritage and infuse it with the spirit of the 21st century. Born in Cairo, Azzam grew up in London where he started studying music at the age of seven. Over the past 15 years, Azzam has lived in San Francisco, California, where he worked as a session drummer and music producer at his recording studio Arabic Breakbeats. During the course of his career, he has collaborated with many award-winning artists such Chaka Khan, Jerry Garcia and Joss Stone. Ghorab’s youth was split between Egypt and the US, and after he graduated from the Cairo American College in Maadi, he moved to Spain to study at the City University of Madrid. After a stint as a TV producer for the Cairo branches of international advertising firms, he founded Tree Films in 2005, which produces documentaries, commercials and other TV programming. When Ghorab and Azzam met in America seven years ago, they discovered that they share a common goal — to use the eternal language of music to break down cultural barriers. They dreamed of a modern project with a deep-rooted Egyptian flavor, creating songs that would appeal to Eastern and Western audiences alike. Thus was born Hybrid Records, with offices in Cairo and San Francisco. First step: find the talent. The duo spent five years traveling the country to track down artists practicing the myriad forms of traditional music. “We were really looking for true, unheard of, authentic talents; covering Egypt from border to border, tribe to tribe,” Ghorab explains. “Through regions such as Nubia, Al-Saaid (Upper Egypt) and al-falaheen (rural) areas. We’ve searched different cities; Port Said and Behira; desert towns from Siwa to Arish; and we’ve realized that Egypt has still got incredible, musically artistic talents from vocalists to all kinds of culturally historic musicians.” The Hybrid team found that because the musical traditions were being handed down to new generations by practice, this heritage remained mostly unrecorded. Some of the music was on the verge of dying out, as children of the old singers took more modern jobs instead of carrying on the family profession. “Our aim was to deliver to the Egyptian people the voice of its youth, as well as the older, culturally lost generations — the core of Egypt’s true identity. We want to show people the truth — that it has, in fact, not been lost,” Ghorab continues. “Though we might live in a ‘globalized’ world today, we can forever maintain and understand our roots and identity through music. Furthermore, we can export our culture to the world with a new refined image that would help bridge the gap between the Middle Eastern and Western cultures.” The Hybrid team recorded the traditional tunes, then began re-synthesizing them into a modern sound with electronic music. Hybrid Records’ first major album Zenouba showcases this bridge between old and new, East and West. The first single, “Yama Dagit” (Whenever It Hammers), features the vocals of blind singer Aref Shawky, dubbed ‘Stevie Wonder of Upper Egypt’ by music producers. Shawky’s vocals reflect feelings as old as the Pharaohs, with bluesy lyrics describing the day-to-day pressures from which people suffer. Instrumentally, “Yama Dagit” fuses the musical mysticism of Upper Egypt reflected in the sounds of the rababa (spike fiddle) and nay (bamboo flute) with western funk and hip-hop elements, including bass guitar and synthesizer. The video, currently on Melody, uses a kaleidoscope prism effect to visually morph the traditional and modern musicians. The next single is even more more ambitious, featuring Azzam with Iraqi oud musician Naseer Shamma on a remix of Elsira Elhelalia (Elhelalia’s Legacy). The album has a number of other colorful talents like Reda Shiha from the Delta, Salma Elasal and Adel Mohamed from Sudan, Hassan Elsoghayar from Nubia and hip-hop artist Donia Massoud from Port Said. Through their San Francisco office, Hybrid Records has also signed with other European and American music producers not to mention contemporary artists like Indian DJ Teenu, the Egyptian band Digla and oud composer Georges Kazazian. Hybrid has also cut a deal with Ioda, a subsidiary of Sony Records International, to distribute Hybrid’s repertoire to more than 400 websites. It seems to be paying off, as Hybrid’s website received 160,000 hits in December alone. “Album sales are in decline so recording companies like ours promote their artists throughout the digital media,” said Ghorab. “Back in the 1960s, musical bands used to go on tours to promote their albums. But right now, […] hits on YouTube and similar websites promote the band in sometimes viral campaigns. Ring tones, sponsors and royalties are the basic sources of income for recording companies nowadays.” Because major websites such as iTunes and Amazon do not yet offer legal downloads through Egypt-based internet providers, Ghorab made a deal with Mazzika.com. “It is the legal portal here in the Middle East with a large library valid for legal download. We, like other companies, receive royalties when users download our music. I think it is the first step for us to enter the digital audiovisual sales market,” he says hopefully. Ghorab also uses his marketing background to promote Zenouba and Hybrid. “We know that pop music, and I mean Egyptian pop, dominates people’s listening habits,” Ghorab admits. “But I am sure our new musical blend will be of interest to different ages and tastes once we complete our releases. Through social networks on the internet, we tend to build a personal relationship with our audience.”