Meet UAE's thriving musicians

Gulf News

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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.

07:52Yeah.

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