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00:00Salaam alaikum everybody.
00:24My name is Jerome de Ligero.
00:26I am a professional musician, producer, and artist, and I am going to do a live performance
00:31in a few minutes at the Unscripted, hosted by Jay Abbo at the Agora.
00:38Welcome to my office.
00:40I started playing music in church because my mother and father are heavily involved
00:50and my father is the musical director, so he taught me a lot.
00:54I started out on the piano, but my father stopped paying for lessons because I wasn't
01:01rehearsing or practicing.
01:03And eventually when I was 13, I started playing the guitar, I started playing in church, and
01:10I remember the first time I played at the service, I was so nervous, my knees were shaking.
01:16But now I'm doing it full time, so it's okay.
01:20I've been playing music since I was 13, so I've been playing music for about 13 years,
01:27and full time, professionally, 7 years.
01:31The local music scene over here in the UAE is still developing, but there is growth.
01:35There is growth, there is a lot of promise.
01:38I see a lot of opportunity in the next few years.
01:42So the advice I'd give for people who are trying to put themselves out there would be
01:47put yourself out there.
01:49Find out where shows are happening, find out where local musicians are playing, and it's
01:57all easy to find if you just search on Google.
02:01Go to events, go to jams.
02:04Another beautiful memory was when I opened for Jacob Collier at the Expo, at the Jubilee
02:10stage, and I cried on stage because there was this overwhelming rush of emotions, and
02:16the only thing I could do was cry and be humble.
02:27Hi, my name is Monique.
02:28I live in Dubai, I'm from South Africa, I've been living in Dubai for about 15, 16 years.
02:36And I am a performing artist, I'm also a teacher of the performing arts, and I have two children.
02:44My story really very much is, my background is, I studied in the performing arts, and
02:50I worked in South Africa as an actress, as a singer, as a musician, and came over to
02:56Dubai about 15, 16 years ago, and have worked in the industry ever since, all over the UAE.
03:03I'm a singer, I play the saxophone, and also a bit of percussion.
03:09And then, a couple of years ago I formed a small events company with two other partners,
03:16and we were, we had a lot of fun with that actually, so we got to write tailor-made shows
03:22for corporate events, for weddings, for hotels.
03:26So we would write the shows, direct the shows, source all the talents in Dubai, and provide
03:31entertainment for these events.
03:34But yes, busy life, yeah, obviously being a mother as well, with two girls, and having
03:39to navigate being a mother over the years, that dynamic has changed for me certainly.
03:45After COVID, it definitely affected the industry, but we've all had our challenges, as anyone
03:51has, and it's very exciting.
03:55It's exciting to live and work in Dubai, because again, it's multicultural, different nationalities,
04:02and we get to work with different sorts of music, different genres of music, which is lovely.
04:07I've even had, again, the privilege of having to work in Arabic weddings, which has been
04:14amazing, and that's challenged me, let's say, or forced me to step out of my comfort zone
04:20and learn Arabic songs, which has been amazing.
04:25Well that's Julian, and we're going to play an original, the song is called Skations,
04:29and we're practicing for an open mic at the stage.
05:00So, I think starting out, you know, as I was kind of branching out of church, you're kind
05:07of looking for opportunities to find musicians, and the open mic nights, so shout out to The
05:13Fridge, they were the first platform that, they used to organize these things called
05:19the Concert Series, and this happens twice a month, twice, sorry, twice a year, and for
05:25a month, and we feature artists, and the more established artists get the main act,
05:32but people who are in it for the first time, looking to make new connections, try to form
05:39new bands, they'll be the opening acts.
05:42So those shows are really important to build confidence, and to meet new people, but I
05:50think it's just, you try to meet, meet, meet as many people as you can, and the people
05:55that you like, you hold on to, and I'm very fortunate to be sitting next to some people
06:00that I'm very happy that I've held on to in ways, and some new friends as well, and that's
06:07Julian, that's the name of our band.
06:10We started because we loved Rohan's music, and we loved hanging out with each other,
06:20and we were just really looking for an excuse to meet up and play more music.
06:24The reason that we started the band was, one, yeah, let's try it out.
06:28We played a show together, performing Rohan's original music, and that felt awesome, and
06:35we saw this opportunity, we decided to go for it, and then Moses asked a very important
06:40question, do you want to win it, or do you just want to have a good time, and I think
06:45that...
06:46We did both.
06:47We did both, yeah, but that was the driving factor, the fact that we enjoy playing with
06:54each other, we respect each other as musicians.
06:56And it's still a question that I have, I don't know if I've figured out how to write songs,
07:01I don't know if I have a method to give you, because every song is different, I've had
07:05songs where it comes out in like 10 minutes and it's done, I've had songs that it's taken
07:10years to finish.
07:11I think the Battle of the Bands gig was one, just going into a competition where you're
07:18like, hey, you know what, let's have some fun.
07:20We didn't really think about winning it, but it was nice to be like, hey, wow, this
07:28could go somewhere, and obviously we have similar interests, Rohan and I love The Beatles,
07:35all of us love John Mayer, so it was nice to kind of like see each of our sounds and
07:44how it kind of like mixes together.
07:50So, yeah.
07:51It was nice.
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