Zaki Ibrahim: telling stories through music

by PDBY Staff | Jul 31, 2012 | Entertainment

MELINA MELETAKOS

Like her music, Zaki Ibrahim is difficult to place. Perdeby caught up with the Canadian-born singer and songwriter before her stellar show at Arcade Empire to reveal a timid, pensive soul behind the fierce performer and to talk about her debut album, Every Opposite.

You’ve said that Every Opposite is an album full of contrasting concepts. Would you like to elaborate on this a little?

It’s not too cerebral. It is just what it is but I did recognize it as being a theme and then kind of built on the story and the album does tell a story. It’s very contrasting. I think every human being has contrasting thoughts. If you ask someone, “Where exactly is it that you firmly stand?” there are some things that are absolutely solid and some things that you’re just like, “I don’t know”. I’m a growing and curious being that is going to continue to question and contradict sometimes, not on purpose but it is existing. One thing doesn’t exist without the other, so I like to always observe those things.

What was it like working with Tiago Paulo as a producer on the album?

It was great. He’s a picky artist, as am I. In a healthy way we butted heads, which was to be expected in a few different ways. And then sometimes we just had a party and we just got lost. I would be like, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, what song are we working on here? Okay, let’s get back to the topic and focus.” But it was great fun.

You’ve said that you’ve seen your work as building bridges, acting like a cultural connector. How do you think you have done this?

I think because my music is a representation of who I am. In a lot of ways, it is my way of expressing who I am and I am a traveller, I am a connector. Music, I feel, helps make those connections in a lot of ways. I mean, it helps me travel and connect up worlds between Canada and South Africa and now beyond. I’ve been able to use music to connect to the rest of the world in a lot of ways and vice versa, music has connected me to a lot of different experiences and cultures.

A recent review of you new album, Every Opposite, in Rolling Stone said that with the album you’ve allowed your “signature trip-hop-soul to drift into more fitful urban soundscapes”. Was it a conscious decision to steer your music in this direction?

No, I think it’s inevitable for my sound to change because I’m growing. I feel like there is a lot to be expressed and a lot still to come. I guess it’s not surprising to me that it’s going to go in all sorts of different places and I wouldn’t box myself into saying anything like “trip-hop” or “urban”. But I express using a foundation of my reference points which are coming from an urban and a trippy kind of background. I’ve grown up in a few very different places. In the land of fairies on Vancouver Island, it literally could be Narnia, where you get lost in the woods for hours. And then you get pretty hard cities and living in the real urban kind of situations you know, like living very opposite ends of the spectrum which this being my first album, Every Opposite, it’s very much a reflection of who I am and those opposite ends of the spectrum.

You’ve brought the track “Something in the Water” to life in the form of a short film. Why did you decide to do this?

“Something in the Water” hasn’t actually been made into a short film yet. There was a video; I guess it was a film piece that was done for “Something in the Water” in Toronto with a couple of good friends. As far as a short film, the album itself is a story that is being put together and hopefully in the works now, directed by Zandi Tisane, who is a budding director here is South Africa. I’m excited to see what she does. She just shot another video for the song “Go At It”, which is on my album as well. But as I was writing the record over the last few years, it kind of came together. In my travels, I continue to have this concept, this story following a character. It’s a story based on some time in the future where free thought is banned. The theme of the story and the album is to do with free thought and expressing yourself in any way that you can just to make sure that you stay true to yourself. I could get into the story but it’s actually quite a long sci-fi thing. Are you very into film?

I always have been. Now I’m just nudging a little bit into it by writing my stories and make them come to life more and more. I love the idea of making music for film. Film has often inspired music and as music can kind of set the tone to a film, a story can be told through music. You also write your own poetry. Are there any poets that have played a stand-out role in shaping the poetry you write?

From Maya Angelou to James Matthews. One of my favourite poems by Langston Hughes is “A Dream Deferred”. There’s a song that I haven’t released yet that is inspired by that poem. I just kind of got into poetry and I wasn’t even calling it poetry, more just like free writing.

When Perdeby interviewed Tumi Molekane in February, he raved about you. What do you think it is about your music that has Tumi and the rest of the world so enamoured?

I pay them big bucks [laughs]. I’ve known Tumi now for a long time, from before I really took the music path seriously and I think he’s seen me grow in a lot of ways. And he’s been encouraging in a lot of ways as well. I guess he’s seen the talent and he’s been able [to say], “Come on, keep going, keep going”. We’ve been able to be sounding voices for each other. You know, “How does this sound? What do you think of this?” That’s always great to have, to be excited not just by people saying, “You’re great, you’re great,” but also critique what you are doing and give you real feedback and be excited. I can see that he is genuinely excited about the creativity and the talent that’s there. And the rest of the world? What do you think the magic ingredient is that you have?

I try to keep it as real as possible. I feel like I have quite an appetite for fantasy and sci-fi. My imaginary world is also quite vivid, so I like to kind of take people to other places with music as well. Some people have described it as being cinematic and descriptive. Someone once described it as being sucker-punch music because it’s all sweet and lovely and then it’s just like boom, all serious, heavy facts in the middle of like a lullaby type of song.

You’ve confessed that you are actually a very shy person. How do you go from being that person to getting onto a stage and sharing what is a very intimate performance?

Performance has always been a good challenge. When I perform, I feel that it’s quite raw and it’s quite intimate, so it’s like I’m exposing myself in a way. Getting ready to do something like that is almost nauseating. I used to be a lot worse. Obviously I’m always jumping onto stages so it’s almost like a moth to a flame kind of thing and I am going to get burned. But somehow, you can’t keep me away from the flame. I used to actually get nauseous and I would miss the cue, miss the beginning cue, and the band keeps going. But I’ve used that in the past because it’s happened to me a few times. I only really started performing a lot in Toronto and people have said that Toronto is one of the toughest crowds in the world. For some reason, it just has this really tough, hard crowd. It really takes a lot to get into. I kept using that to challenge myself and I used my shyness in a few ways in a show concept where I stood there and as long as it took me to get into my zone and comfortable on stage, my backing singers and band were kind of lulling me into it with, “Come on Zaki, it’s okay, you can come out.” They would speak to each other on the mike saying, “Is she going to be okay? When is she going to start? Man, this is taking too long!” First of all, I’m late. I’m a very late person and always late for everything. I’m late getting on stage and then I stand there and I get frozen because I’m scared of the crowd. And then I let go, and it flows. If I can properly connect I can feel comfortable and look at the faces in the crowd and feel the connections. It’s like we have a connection right now. I’m going to show you myself and that’s a really intimate and difficult thing to do. I’m speaking from my heart and I’m saying things that I truly believe in, which are not always the easiest things to confess. That’s the shyness part I think, because it’s a very raw experience.

Photo: Hendro van der Merwe

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