How’s it going Patta! Of course I can. I am Jamal Sul aka
Moving Still, a Saudi/Irish producer and DJ based in Dublin, Ireland My first ever recollection of music as a kid was in 1993 when I was living in Jeddah, Saudi. My mam used to bring back loads of cassettes and CDs from Ireland. She had this one CD
Now Dance - The Best of ‘93, it had so many amazing classics like All That She Wants - Ace Of Base, Sweat (A La La La La Long) - Inner Circle, Wind It Up (Rewound Edit) - The Prodigy, Cappella and their frantic U Got 2 Let The Music and Do You See The Light (Looking For) by Snap. This CD got played in the house for a very very long time. My mam was a huge 90s dance fan so we always had dance music playing in the house.
The one EP that really got me wanting to know how to produce was Myreim by Dark Sky. I remember being in my mate Dave’s house, he had just picked up a few records from All City Records in Dublin and when the first song kicked in, I was completely blown away - I said to myself “holy shit, this production is incredible”. It was so fresh and had everything I liked at the time - Garage, UK Funky and even nods to Electro and UK Bass. The last song on the EP “Gaddagive'' was the first time I heard an Arabic inspired song in this genre of music and man, I wanted to hear the song over and over again. I went the next day to buy it and it was gone, sold out! I was devastated. I have included this song in nearly every set as a reminder of what got me into production and pushed me to bring my Irish and Saudi heritage into my music.
That's very kind of you! Honestly, I started doing edits purely for myself to DJ and for fun. I find chopping songs for edits very meditative so I just zone out and it comes together very very quickly. My process for choosing a song is nearly like an obsession - I spend quite a long time digging into old 80s/early 90s Arabic tunes to find something that doesn’t have a lot of elements but has a westernised disco feel to it. From there I imagine how I can make the original song pop - I create a simple drum pattern just to give me an idea what to do with it and then spend a few days chopping the song to pick my favourite parts. Once I get the arrangement done, I bring out the bass and sure I am just bringing out what the original song intended and I try to do that with the utmost respect. The whole process happens quickly as I’m always pumped from the HINRG of the song and it makes me work incredibly fast. I'd say I spend more time mixing the track than making the song!
I am a huge fan of Fatima Al Qadiri, everything she touches is gold. The way she uses her heritage in her music is mesmerising and she does it with so much love, depth and texture. It’s sick to have representation in the scene from an Arab woman. She recently put out her album “Medieval Femme”. The entire album is inspired by female Arabic poets from the Middle Ages. The textures are so beautiful with her use of old antique instrumentation, and she uses space so skillfully in her music. I love that she works around a concept and builds around it creating lots of imagery. Her music is timeless. If you haven’t heard her then you should!
So I mostly work with Ableton as my main DAW and with some favourite VSTs like Sub Boom Bass and more recently Taqsim. When it comes to hardware I don’t work with drum machines at the moment, I mostly sample my drums as I prefer the layers I can make with samples and how quickly I can do that. But I do have a soft spot for synths and sometimes I feel like I’m the video that came out a few years ago with Legowelt where he says the word “synthesisers” like a million times hahah! I’d say my go to synths at the moment are the Yamaha Oriental A350, Juno 106 Boutique clone, Roland JX3P and Roland D50. I have all my synths cabled up to a mixing desk and have the Big Sky reverb going in as “sends” to all the channels. I am running out of room at this point! I’ve heard Behringer are making a LinnDrum clone - I have to say that is something I am dying to get my hands on! It all depends on what I am making, whether it's an original or an edit. For originals I usually try not to overly complicate things and I stick with one or two synths for a song, and then use VSTs to layer on top of it. Especially if you have a crackly/shit sounding synth, you can make it sound incredible with a bit of processing. I like that grit from a terrible sounding synth adds character and warmth to your mix. I do love VSTs in combination with hardware as you can create really fun layers. It helps make hardware pop when I want to get a certain sound and create more movement. Hardware for me is great to get the initial jam out and get all the loops recorded, and then once I am done I use lots of different VSTs to layer on top of it. Then I try to get any sort of arrangement done so it's easier to jump back in once I come back to it. Or sometimes, If I am just lazy and want to de-stress, I write and jam out quickly on the laptop. Uffff this is such a hard one because there are too many!! If I had to pick someone off the top of my head it would be Bas Bron aka Fatima Yamaha. I met him a couple of years ago in Dublin when he played and he was so humble, super sound and gas! He said I was like his doppleganger! He even got me to walk out from backstage to confuse people into thinking that it was him. I think he would bring so much energy in the studio and I can already see the type of song we would write together if it ever happened.
It’s a very tough question. I can only speak from my perspective as an Arab man that is also Irish and straight, as this might be an entirely different experience for someone else within the LGBTQ and/or wider POC community. From my experience I think the Dublin scene is definitely on the right track in terms of being a multicultural space. I do think there is so much more that can be done to bring change and bring more inclusivity to it. Representation within the scene is very important and it gives younger people reassurance that there is a place for them when they have a role model. I can only think back to the Habibi Funk gig in Dublin of how nervous I was and probably cynical of how that might turn out. Bringing your culture and heritage into your music is a super personal thing so it's not surprising to be worried in a predominantly white country how people might react to it. It honestly opened my eyes a bit and I was pleasantly surprised at how multicultural it actually was - both the audience and the artists that played that night. I definitely didn’t think anyone in Ireland would be interested in hearing full blown Arabic edits or originals, that's for sure. I think It's refreshing to hear such diverse music in Ireland these days and that's what I miss so much from pre-COVID. I just hope we can get back to what we all do best super soon because it’s being in those spaces that helps fuel creativity. Yes, radio is so important - especially these days. When you don't have gigs or spaces to hear music together I think radio gives the connection that a lot of us are craving at the moment. It's a safe space where you can share your digs with everyone. For me it's family! I do two main radio shows: my Khalas show on Dublin Digital Radio which is an afternoon of favourite bangers, and my Sabah ll Noor show on Radio Al Hara which is my Sunday morning breakfast show of slower jams. Both of them are so important to me because they give me something to look forward to each month. Doing radio gives me hope and keeps me sane and I only hope it helps anyone who tunes in.
I’ve been quite lucky that my music has been played by the heavies and I am always so blessed to have their support! My music has been played out by Palms Trax, Hunee, Skatebard, Nabihah Iqbal, CC Disco, Barbara Boeing, Charlie Bones and Esa Williams. I am not going to lie, every time a video emerges I get goosebumps that they are playing an edit or an original of mine. I am forever grateful for their support and it really is a wonderful feeling to see thousands of people dance to something I made in my home. It definitely has got me teared up many times.
I have a couple of releases due before the end of the year, one with LA based label Discostan where they have invited me to edit two songs from their recent repress of synth pop masterpiece “Disco Se Aagay”. Working with Nermin, Feisal and Discostan has been such a wonderful experience and I can't wait for everyone to hear them. If all goes smoothly it should be out by the end of September. I have also finished an EP which should be coming out with No Bad Days very soon. I don't want to give too much away but the EP is a love letter to my home town Jeddah. Working with Jake and Gabriel has been really lovely and they are so supportive. All I can say is the EP will have you screwfaced from start to finish. The last thing that I have coming up is something I’ve put my heart and soul into, and it’s going to be a freebie to thank everyone who has supported me since I started. It’s three edits from the “all stars” of Egyptian Jeel music - the songs are super personal to me for various reasons and I hope they become special to anyone who hears them. It’s my first real self-release so things are up in the air on dates, but stay tuned to my Instagram, I have some really exciting artwork and visuals (courtesy of Lebanese artists Tracy Chahwan and Carla Aouad) to accompany it!
