Sufyvn creates avant-garde beats

CAIRO - 6 August 2017: Self taught Sudanese music producer Sufyvn, originally Sufyan Ali, found an undying love for sound alteration to single-handedly create a new type of music, a mix of Sudanese traditional music and electronic music.

Although he was introduced to music at a young age, Sufyvn has only been practicing it professionally for 7 years. "Around that time, I started making beats then I bought some equipment and stuff but before that growing up, I had some music equipment at home like a Casio keyboard and an accordion. I [also] had a small 3oud too but I was not serious about it," Sufyvn shared.

Sufyvn started taking his first steps into the field of music and beats through one of the most popular types of music at the time; Hip Hop music. "I actually started making beats because I used to rap and I wanted to make my own beats so I could rap them. I did not want to buy beats and go to producers … and on top of that, I wanted my own twist and my own touch," he rejoiced.

As he got more drawn into the world of music, Sufyvn's fascination with the sounds and instruments grew deeper, eventually luring him to the world of beats, where he started experimenting and distorting sounds. "I was curious about how the beats are made and I really wanted to get involved especially when it is something artistic and I do not know much about it, I want to learn and get familiar with it," Sufyvan elaborated.

At that point, Sufyvn was dedicating all his time to learning music trying to examine all its dynamic aspects and that was when he slowly started discovering his unique style.
The self-taught music producer relied on his natural instincts to nurture his skills. "I remember that the first software that I started using was fruity loop. It was difficult because there were not many YouTube tutorials out there," he recalled," I just learned through trial and error just practicing by myself."

While he was feeding his growing interest in beats, Sufyvn drifted further away from rapping. Eventually, Sufyvn's style took a complete turn and "morphed" intro something very particular; a meeting point between his east African culture and his electro beat nature.



"The reason I implemented Sudanese music to it [electronic music] is basically because I grew up listening to a lot of Sudanese music… and it was natural like I did not force it," Sufyvn explained. Experimenting with music from an unconventional matter, Sufyvn describes his music "to have that ancient Sudanese sound and do it in my own twist it is like my own interpretation of Sudanese music."

Sufyvn courageously pushed the boundaries of prominent music. "If I am making a song right now and I know exactly what I am doing, and I know exactly what it is going to sound like, then there is something wrong. It means I am still in my comfort zone, it means that I am not pushing enough," he emphasized.

However, his musical epiphany did not happen overnight. It was a slow process that required patience and persistence. His style is influenced by people like J Dilla, Flying Lotus, Jon Hopkins and Aphix Twin. Sufyvn also incorporates sounds he picks up from other musicians in other genres like Tame Impala and Anderson Paak. "A good song could influence my music…because it would be so good that it would stay at the back of my head on the subconscious level," Sufyvn continued.

Sufyvn has also collaborated with other musicians like Toofless, Dubai-based Sudanese rapper originally named Feras Ibrahim, where they joined forces, Sufyvn on the beats and Toofless on the vocals and released an album called "Neospective Glitch" about 2 years ago.



More recently, Sufyvn partnered up with Spotify, award-winning music streaming website and app, along with five other musicians who represent the countries under the proposed travel ban and six American musicians to create a musical movement called ‘I am with the banned.’

Sufyvn paired up with BJ The Chicago Kid to produce a song ‘Thinking ‘Bout You (Sleepless In Cairo).’ "I have worked with other musicians in the past but the experience I had been working on as part of Spotify was life changing. It was amazing being in a professional studio and working with professional musicians, influential people and basically performing live," he cheered.



With the world being smaller than ever now thanks to the Internet, social media has played a huge role in Sufyvn's music career,"People here find out about me through social media. It is the power of the internet. If it was not for the internet I would not have made it thus far to begin with."

Sufyvn's music started resonating with the audience as a byproduct of the rising music scene in Khartoum. Interestingly enough, Sufyvn's music single handedly main music is still to find its way into people's hearts in Sudan who still believe that traditional Sudanese music shall remain untouched.

Nonetheless, Sufyvn does not mind his niche audience because at the end of the day "[Music] is a product and it depends on the consumer and the consumers want something else, and music that they can relate to regardless of how it is made so it is a fair game."