Representing his Najdi Bedouin roots and residing in the West Coast of Saudi Arabia, the aptly named DesertF!sh makes his debut on Thawra Records this month with a 4-track EP including a remix from label friends Pomme Rouge. An audio-visual artist, music producer, DJ & Live Performer who is always in pursuit of quality sound in the studio, and on the stage, Nasser Alshemimry has been a key member of the Kingdom’s limited yet booming electronic music and arts scene. With several releases to date and a plethora of prestigious commissions and art installations in the audio visual arts medium, including commissions by Misk Art Institute and Ithraa World Heritage Center groundbreaking collaborations with the likes of Imogen Heap, the Saudi audio pioneer has rightfully earned his stripes and has proven to be a creative force to be reckoned with, in the Gulf region and beyond.
Welcome to DMC – where in the world do we find you at the moment?
Thanks for having me! I currently reside in Jeddah, on the West Coast of Saudi Arabia.
Here in the UK, the electronic scene in Saudi isn’t one we hear about all that often. Is it a flourishing scene?
It is most definitely flourishing to say the least. It’s quite a young and budding scene, and has a unique situation in contrast with the international scenes. Music and Entertainment events were prohibited since the early 80s and recent reforms have changed that. Saudi’s new direction is “Vision 2030” with the goal of modernizing our society and re-cultivating our culture. Saudi’s tourism scene is also flourishing, and in response we are focusing on music and entertainment events as a new contending destination in the region. These changes brought out all the talents out from the underground and are bringing in new artists and djs into the scene.
You have Najdi Bedouin roots – is this something that is a strong influence on the music you create?
I believe identity is an important aspect for any individual. I chose to represent my identity through my alias, considering the limited number of Saudis in the global Electronic Music scene. When it comes to the music, it sometimes has to do with my roots depending on the project. Since I work on both commercial and personal projects the Arabic side tends to be on the commercial side for a local audience. Sometimes I like to incorporate those elements in my personal projects when the occasion calls for that, like my Ep “Desert Dweller”. That was heavily inspired by my return to Saudi from studying abroad.
You also work in the visual arts, can you tell us about some of the projects you’ve been involved in?
I launched a startup called “Desert Dream Audio Visual” in 2018. I started serving the Arts and Media industry as a consultant bringing artists works to life with my technical and software background. Eventually I was invited by the Saudi Art Council to exhibit. I work mainly with Interactive Audio Visual Installations. Now I’m working with the various art institutions in the country like Misk Art Institute, Ithra, and the Ministry of Culture. Building installations for commercial and personal projects, while simultaneously operating my studio for Audio services.
Last year aside, have you toured as a DJ in many other countries? And do you have an ultimate goal in terms of the events you’d like to be playing?
So far I have not had the chance to tour abroad. Been building my career in Saudi as the scene is booming, but really looking forward to heading out there and tour. Would love to play at festivals like Sunwaves, Epizode, ADE.
Tell us about your Complex Arguments EP – what was the inspiration behind this one?
This EP is a collection of tracks from 2019 and 2020. During that time I was inspired alot by what I was playing in my sets. The inspiration came from my return to Djing after a long break, due to corporate life. When I started playing more and listening on the dance floor, it helped me develop a stronger ear for club music. Hence, I proceeded to really study all kinds of standards and track structures and adding my own twists here and there. This resulted in a shift in my production approach which was a bit more experimental before that.
Track link: https://thawrarecords.fanlink.to/complexarguments
To our western ears there are definitely sounds in there you don’t hear that often in most house music… can you tell us about the instruments or gear you used to put the EP together?
For this EP I pretty much used my entire studio gear collection. Lots of eurorack modules, Elektron Dark Trinity, MS20 mini, Juno 60, and some samples from splice along with the recordings. Noteworthy items: Eurorack: Braids Osc, Rings, Basimilus Iteratis, Morphagene Granular Sampler, Jellysquasher Compressor, Erbe Verbe fx. Besides that, I like to create lush textures as a foundation of the tracks while sprinkling some stabs and chords on top. For the Latent Space track, it has an interesting baroque type of counterpoint melody with 3 layers from basimilus, manis, and MS20. Complex Arguments makes heavy use of Granular sampling and modal synthesis to creat those textures.
Why is maintaining a connection to your roots important to you?
It’s quite important to remember where one comes from. Representing my roots and country to spread a peaceful message of music and dance around the world to show the cultural appreciation of Saudi to the arts and change the negative outlook people have with their preconceived notions and stereotypes about the kingdom.
What else should we be looking out for from you this year?
This year I will be focusing on production and releases following this new approach, while trying to reach out to my favorite labels (I really want to release something with Simple Things Records out of Russia). My last release came out recently on Label PL7 in London, and my upcoming Complex Arguments EP comes out on Thawra Records in a few days. Also I’m working on lots of new graphics and glitch art to make music videos, stay tuned for the music video for Complex Arguments!
