Traditions
“I compose traditional music, for the most part, because it still lives on.
“The new songs coming out are the commercial songs – they don’t live more than two, three weeks. But people still remember the old songs and they love them.
“The composer of the traditional music spent so much time to put the music together, but now a musician composes fifteen songs in one hour. Everything tends to be commercial now. You make a song, then throw in the market, and see how many CD’s you’re going to sell.
“You know, they can play all kinds of instruments on the synthesizer, on the keyboard. But people like to see the instrument. When you make a sound on the keyboard like a guitar or a trumpet or a flute, the people hear the flute but they like to see the flute. I like to go to the symphony orchestra to watch the instruments of fifty or sixty musicians – I like to watch what they’re doing. That’s what’s interesting.
“With the Arabic band here, we’ve got seven or eight very unique instruments. People love to come and take pictures of my instrument and have me explain to them how it makes the sound. That’s the most important thing, you know.”