Episode 7 - Jimi Elgohary, Co-Founder of Mistikal

Great events don't happen by accident—they begin with creativity, storytelling and a clear purpose.

In Episode 7 of The Backdrop, Michael MacLennan is joined by Jimi Elgohary, Executive Creative Director and Co-Founder of MISTIKA, to explore how culture, creativity and storytelling combine to create meaningful live experiences.

From his early career as the frontman of pioneering Arab indie pop band Salalem to leading award-winning festivals, ceremonies and immersive productions across the Middle East, Jimi shares the experiences that have shaped his creative journey. Together, they discuss audience engagement, cultural programming, creative leadership, nurturing regional talent and what the future holds for live entertainment.

Whether you're an event organiser, creative professional, marketer, venue operator or simply passionate about live experiences, this episode offers practical insights into designing events that resonate long after the audience leaves.

Recorded at Asian5, One Central, Dubai.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome back to the backdrop. This week on the show, we're joined by Jimmy Elgahari. He is executive creative director and co-founder of Mystica. With more than two decades of experience across the Middle East, Jimmy has become one of the region's leading creative minds, producing award-winning live experiences that blend culture, storytelling, performing arts, and contemporary entertainment. Jimmy's journey began as the frontman of pioneering Arab indie pop band Salalim before evolving into a career creating festivals, ceremonies, immersive experiences, and cultural initiatives for governments and major organizations across the GCC. Today, Jimmy works at the intersection of culture, creativity, and strategy, developing experiences that celebrate identity, elevate regional talent, and create meaningful connections between people and place. This will be an amazing conversation about creative leadership, cultural programming, and the power of live experiences to tell stories that resonate long after the event ends, and Jimmy, thank you very much for joining us. Ahlan Wasalan de Komfi, the backdrop. Very nice to have you. I finally get a chance to use this. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

Um I'm good. Very good to have you. And this is a really Zaek is Egyptian accent, by the way.

SPEAKER_00 1:43

That's why I specifically said it's a kif al-hal, you know, exactly. Uh especially for for you. So uh so Jimmy J I M I. Yes, it's familiar names. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:54

Jimmy, I when when I when I like check into hotels and stuff, I say it's Jimmy like Jimi Hendrix.

SPEAKER_00 2:00

Yeah, it's an easier way. I usually say Michael McClennon, like John Lennon with the Mac. Um, they laugh and say, I don't know what you're talking about. Yeah, exactly. Uh so great to have you here. This is really fun for me because we do a lot of these episodes about events, and you are in the events industry in your own way, yeah. Um, and it's really fun because I can't think of anything I love more besides my family than music. Yes, like I I live and breathe music, and everyone that knows me knows that besides all the guitars on my wall, it's just I just absolutely love everything about music and love all music. And it's so nice to be able to have a conversation with uh a really established musician producer, and someone knows what they're talking about uh when it comes to music. And when I had um Nadeem Jamal on a while back, uh, which was a great discussion, wasn't so much into music, but he's your partner on this ride.

SPEAKER_01 3:03

He's also a musician, though.

SPEAKER_00 3:04

He is a musician, and he sent me some of the Spotify stuff. Okay, good. Really amazing.

SPEAKER_01 3:08

He doesn't usually share that.

SPEAKER_00 3:10

Yeah, he shared it. It was really, really amazing, really impressive. Um, I was like, wow, that's Nadeem. That's incredible, really incredible. So I uh I'm really glad that I could get you on here and we can talk a little bit about something a little bit different, yeah. Still events related, because you and Nadeem created something called Mystica. Nadeem touched on it a little bit when he was on the show, but I wanted to get a little bit more uh get get expand a little more into this uh from your perspective. And if you can tell me a little bit about Mystica. Mystica.

SPEAKER_01 3:48

All right. Um, well, thank you for the nice intro. Um, I appreciate it, and I'm very happy to be here. Um so well, myself, Nadim and Murad, uh Murad, yes, our third partner. Um, we the three of us met through work in events. And uh at the time I was based in Cairo uh because I was working in events and I was a touring artist as well. So I had to be in Cairo to be around with the band because we would tour around Egypt for like during the high seasons, and it worked well because high seasons in in the UAE was uh low seasons in Egypt, and vice versa. So I would be working all year long, basically. Um, and I met Nadiman Murad through friends, through a friend who who was also a freelancer in the industry, uh called Cherbil, who I really admire, uh one of my best friends. And um at the time they were starting Event Lab, which was which is a staffing agency, as you as you know. And basically I've just shared my CV and said, help me get some jobs, and I'm getting married, I need some money.

SPEAKER_00 5:00

That's the way.

SPEAKER_01 5:02

So I got yeah, so I got my first job with Event Lab here in in Abu Dhabi in 2014. Yeah, it was a big heritage festival, right? And that's a key point here heritage festival, because yeah, that was my first experience with working in a cultural event that's focused on heritage, which will play a huge role in what Mystica does at the moment. Um so that was like 12 years ago, and uh I got that job with my wife as well. We both uh were event freelancers at the time. So I did music and I did events at the time, and I was just figuring out things, you know. Uh my band wasn't touring as much as it was, and I was finding myself succeeding more in the world of events. I'm giving you the root story. So we're starting from it's perfect, from way better. Yes, so uh so that all it all adds up in the end, you know. So um I got that job, uh, we're put on a team, uh, I was part of the team that was managing the site on the festival, um, mainly operations, um, a little bit of production here and there. And I started like uh, you know, uh UAE is not familiar, is not unfamiliar to me. So uh because I grew up in Abu Dhabi, I was I went to high school, I went to school. Uh my parents moved here when I was zero years old. So yeah, um I just moved I was in Egypt. I moved to Egypt when I went to university. Yeah. And then I started a career there, and then I came back here. And then basically I would get hired for uh freelance events uh during the high season through Event Lab, and then I'd go back to Egypt to tour. I started a booking agency with my wife as well in Egypt to represent independent artists that are not from Egypt but had they have a fan base in Egypt, and we'd facilitate their bookings and touring into Egypt uh because we were like that kind of bridge. We crew we created that kind of bridge, especially with Jordanian artists, Lebanese artists. That's also where I gained my experience in the bookings of uh artists and talents, the world of bookings, and I've created my own approach to it, basically. So you have a nice network, yes, and because uh because I'm I'm an artist myself, that's right, yeah. So I I built the the idea of the business around the fact that if the artist is not at their best shape, mental state, wellness, taking care of the nitty-gritties before they go on stage, probab most probably your show won't be good enough. Right. Won't be as expected. Because people overlook the small details, yeah. Promoters, uh booking agents, tour managers, they uh everywhere they you know because it's become because in the in the Middle East or the Arab world, we don't have a music industry that is built on infrastructure, it's built on a want. Yeah, it's there's no foundation, yeah. It's just trial and error. Everyone's putting their efforts, but there's no that there was no school to teach music management or or music business or all of that. Everything I I learned it with experience. Yeah, I'm an I'm an engineering graduate, so I I I'm but most importantly, you're a musician. Exactly. Uh and I'm a musician by practice. I didn't even learn music, I don't know how to read notes.

SPEAKER_00 8:29

For example, when you're starting a business like this that's really, really bent on or really sort of um platformed on music and cultural music and all of that, it really, really helps to know what you're talking about, have your finger on the pulse in a really organic sort of way.

SPEAKER_01 8:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:46

Um, you know, when you go to a restaurant, and if it's good, if it's really, really good, quite often it's owned by a chef. You know, it's a lot of the great restaurants are owned by chefs. Yeah, not someone that's like you know what, I want to open a restaurant. So exactly, you know, but so if you know what you're talking about and you know the DNA of the musicians, yeah, you can operate at it probably a lot more sincerely and efficiently.

SPEAKER_01 9:14

Exactly. And it's not just that, because uh what I didn't know I possessed at the time, yeah, uh was the talent to have both parts of the skill in my brain, yeah. The skill of being an entrepreneur and the skill of being an artist, which are two not necessarily two things that go well together within one human being, because you know it's a thin line, you know, to become a person who looks at the business side of things, yeah, and and also understand the nuances behind how to treat an artist, what to say, depending on the caliber of the artist, depending on and what about the musicians? Are the is this artist that are these uh band members just session musicians or that or are they his friends or her friends? You know, there's a lot of human factor in dealing with artists that I carried around as an artist, and then I injected it into the culture of the company when I started in Egypt. And then, you know, it's relevant because what Mystica is today started when both Event Lab started and both my own company started in Egypt. Because what it is at the moment is is like a a blend of a blend of both. Yeah, because then I met Nadim and Murad and I understood they kind of guided me through the I the how to build a successful business basically because they did it with Event Lab, right?

SPEAKER_00 10:43

But and Nadine doesn't stop.

SPEAKER_01 10:44

So Event Lab started way ahead. I had I did my own experiments in Egypt. It was amazing. I built a name for the company in Egypt. Independent artists knew who we were and what we do. And because I had the network from the days when I was touring with artists, I would be able to talk to the right people and you know, you know, make make good deals for them, take care of them, make sure that I'm also profiting from from this as well.

SPEAKER_00 11:10

This is what I mean about being being in there, being in their place, you look after them as well and you make sure that you're you're you're sort of seeing it.

SPEAKER_01 11:17

And it was very important interest. Exactly. And it was very important for me that I don't want to start that I didn't want to start an artist management agency because then it would be a conflict of interest for me. Because why would I manage other artists when I need them manage myself? Yeah, you know. So I strictly focused on bookings and touring, which was a specific uh uh function. And then meanwhile, I also worked with Event Lab on events. Come 2018, my music career wasn't doing so well. There was a lot of tension in Egypt post-revolution, right? Um, it was tough to make a living and live peacefully for a while over here. Yeah, um, and I was making a good name for myself here in the events industry as a freelancer. Yeah. Uh, and I by that time I had worked with Murad and Nadim on multiple projects on site, and we built this a friendship relationship, yeah, a brotherly friendship relationship. They saw what I was doing, they saw I saw what they were doing, we were inspired by each other.

SPEAKER_00 12:16

But you know what Nadeem had mentioned in on the show that he was recently on was that the event lab was born from a need, it was born because um he was a freelancer himself and he was having trouble finding work, and he felt like he was sort of lost at not lost at sea, I guess. What was the term he used? He said that you know he had defend for himself, you know. He had he was left to his own devices.

SPEAKER_01 12:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:40

And he and other other freelancers, so he said, you know what, enough of this. I'm gonna create something to help everyone. So nobody's in the same position I'm in. At least I'll have a few more resources to to to go to. Yeah. I think from you, from a from a musician perspective, it seems like that's the same way Mystica was was born, where you said, you know what, the the industry needs something, the music, the music industry, but also how you can incorporate this into um, you know, having them at events for for cultural entertainment and all of that, and getting a spotlight on on cultural music.

SPEAKER_01 13:16

Yeah, well, that was a start, but then it evolved. Yeah, yeah. What you said is absolutely correct. There was, we were still figuring out what the need for this is. It was like Murad and Nadim had started a few entertainment ventures as like an you know, Event Lab does staffing and recruitment, but because both of them come from a performing arts background, but Murad was a dancer, Nadim was a was a musician, they were both, you know, playing with the idea of doing something in the entertainment world. Yeah. Uh but the difference between what Event Lab did and the entertainment world at the time was that there was a lot of competition in the entertainment side. There wasn't a lot of competition that at the time with staffing and and recruitment. So we had to test the market. So what happened is that in 2018 they called me and they said, we want to start you know pushing the entertainment department into the market and see how it evolves. He see how it grows, and we we want you to run it, to build it and run it.

SPEAKER_00 14:16

Let me ask you this. So you are like a as they say, a died-in-the-wool singer-songwriter. Yeah, you're you're you're a musician, you're a singer-songwriter, yeah, you're just a music, music guy. So when you, but you're an event guy.

SPEAKER_01 14:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:30

When you are at an event, do you feel the event? Do you see the lens through, do you see it through a certain lens? Do you feel the event through a certain filter as an event person? Or do you see it more, or do you feel it more as a producer, musician type?

SPEAKER_01 14:48

Okay, that's a very interesting question. You know what? I was actually thinking of the answer to that question at uh at home. Um I discovered later on uh that that was an impressive. I remember the moment that happened and how I thought to myself, oh wow, my imagination is back. You know, that moment was when I was curating my first festival, cultural festival. So I grew, I I built an experience in heritage and culture events through working through with Event Lab as a freelancer. But I tried different roles, you know. One one time I'm in operations, one time I'm in production, one time I'm in logistics, one time I've dabbled with different roles, and then came the role that triggered the idea that okay, I need to focus on this now and nothing else, which is when I was the entertainment lead or the entertainment programmer for a cultural festival. And how that happened is that I was was I was supposed to create no book the artist, okay, do the research, find the talents that fit with the event narrative, that you know, all of that due diligence, of course, that had to be done at the beginning until the point where I confirmed the artists, I'm gonna book them now. And then the next step is to schedule the entertainment throughout the event. So scheduling the entertainment throughout the event meant that I had to consider sound leak, I had to consider prayer times, I had to consider spatial, you know, to avoid crowd bottlenecks, to create also some sort of uh pop-up activations or performances that pull crowds from wherever it's crowded to spread the crowd around, like kind of like orchestrating the festival. Yeah, and then what happened is that in my mind, I went, I opened the map, yeah, the site map, and I just went into the map in my mind, and I just imagined myself looking around, you know how it is like in VR, but it was in my head, yeah, right? And then I started noting, you know, here there should be X, here there should be Y. Yeah, okay, prayer times, let's lock them in so that we avoid five to ten ten minutes before and ten minutes after. And then, you know, there's also the soundscape. So there was a music track playing across the speakers in the uh across the festival. So I needed to know when to lower this zone volume because there's a you know flash mob at a dance show happening here or whatever. So um, yeah, to answer your question, that that moment that was, I think, in 2019.

SPEAKER_00 17:38

No, that's that's the create, that's the creativeness in you.

SPEAKER_01 17:41

I mean, when you the creativity in you, when you see things that's when I realized I want to work in entertainment, and you don't need VR only, and exactly.

SPEAKER_00 17:48

And then so, yes, I am in the so it's either a gift or you need to be assessed by a doctor, but um, you know, yeah, I know people, like I know events people, not musicians, but I know events people that are you know, they get an idea for a stage design and they'll have a like a napkin, they'll take a pencil and they'll start dropping it out. I want this, you know. It also happens when I'm writing songs, it just comes. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, and you get inspiration. Some people hit you in the middle of the night, you like yeah, have a you have a melody in your head or something like that.

SPEAKER_01 18:18

And I realized also, like, I do the most creative stuff when I'm under the pressure of time, it's not a good thing. Really? It's not a good thing because I have high anxiety levels because of that specific reasons. That's a gift, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:29

But usually because you get that sort of that that writer's block when you're trying to, oh no, no, I've got you know, gotta get it done. You know, it's it just happens. So, but you're making your own music now, you're back to making your own music. Correct. So so as a musician, again, when you're when you're at these events and and you're you sort of um you know when you're at the events and you're creating something for the guests, what do you want them when the lights are out, they're in their cars, heading back home. What do you want them to think about? What what kind of memory do you want them to have?

SPEAKER_01 19:00

Well there's there's what I want, and there's what the client wants. Ah, yeah. And therein is the rub. You always have to think, yeah, you always have to think about that because okay, so luckily, and I will say that you know, I'm very happy and proud and very lucky to have some projects uh that we've you know worked on for multiple years with clients that allow us a little bit of creative liberty. And I just want to take a step back and just close the question, the answer to the question about what Mystica is all about is just because it all ties in together now through building the business from when it was a department and event lab till 2023 is when we realized our niche, what our niche is cultural entertainment production, and what cultural means it includes everything from uh from uh language to heritage to you know forms of art that are all kinds of performing arts that come from history and the streets and the the blend and the fusion of modern art with with traditional art and you know music. Yeah. Naturally, as you said, that the music is always part of what we do because of naturally our backgrounds. Now, um year after year we found ourselves excelling in events or enter uh projects where our input is to provide uh uh an interpretation of the the vision of the client or the vision of the uh show that we're putting together, whether it's an our own show, our own show that we're presenting for an event, or you know, because we create our own IPs or something for a client. What we do is visual interpretation that is very well connected with uh authentic factual cultural background. This is based on the fact that we have that experience from years of working on such events, yeah, and learning from each event and expanding the knowledge, years of research and the the global standard know-how. Mix that all together is that we found that's what Mystica is about, more or less. Which in the functions, in the in the in the in the company functions, we have artist bookings, show production, show control, show management, uh casting, and and and then creative ideation and all of that, you know, fun part of doing entertainment. There's a lot of mechanisms as well. And we're we're still growing. I wouldn't say like we're we are where we want to be. But since we found the niche in 2023 and launched the Mystica brand, yeah, it's been uh beautiful. Ride and full of challenges. And I think it excites us when there's a new challenge that comes and a new project that you know helps us expand also our know-how and expertise. And so far, I mean, we've been doing all right. Um, and we're also about culture and collaboration. So also how we how we present ourselves is this is what what we truly believe in. And collaboration is one. We we believe in healthy competition, we believe in in you know making the relationship, the in not forgetting the human relationship, whether between us or a collaborator or a client, that's how we can get gain the trust uh to be able to expand and and show our creativity in a way that uh serves the project. Number one is we want to serve the production itself or the show itself. It's not about our egos, it's not about my idea or their idea. This kind of culture, I believe, has been missing from our industry for a very long time due to the the fierce competition, right? Which is fine, it happens in any sectors, right? But it's always nice to, you know, it's it's always good to just sit back and try to look at it differently because the connection is very important. The connection between us is very important, and there's there's there's um there's a goodness that comes with that.

SPEAKER_00 23:31

I don't think any I think any I don't think there's anybody or any company or any any professional organization that does not want competition secretly. I think you you need that. Um but you know there is the there is the sort of the the passion that you have for what you're doing and and everything you just said in terms of how you want to operate and how you want to grow. But again, like you rightly said before, you can operate under your own steam and create something incredible, but you also have have to adhere to what the client wants. Exactly, and that's gonna change from client to client to client. So having said that, when you are creating a brief or applying that brief in execution for for an event, now I'm asking you, Jimmy, not Nadim or Murad, but in your from from in your in your mind, where where do you see the importance, the emotion that they'll feel after something that is beautiful and emotional, or something that is you know, something that is upscaled and and and driven by technology and wow, and or something that's more sort of you know there's no there's not one recipe, honestly. Uh and it also depends on and I mean not adhering to a brief. Yeah, I just mean like if you could create something, what's more important to you? Is oh okay, is it the beauty of it, something at smaller scale, or is it something that you know what I have all of these tools at my disposal, like lights and sound, and so much I can do, and the greatest dancers in the world, and fireworks and drone show and all this kind of stuff? Is that important to you, or is it really just getting back to the basics and the roots of of the beauty of the art?

SPEAKER_01 25:25

It's it's what will impact more, you know, the the whoever's viewing what we're creating, what kind of impact that will it leave on that person or that group of people who are watching it and uh what kind of impact it would leave on us as a group of people who are working on this on this production? So um if the purpose of the production, if the purpose of the show is to uh instill you know a specific emotion or evoke as a specific emotion, then our job here is to do that. However, if the if the the purpose of it is to, for example, uh you know be a spectacle or a grand spectacle, yeah, then we would we would do that in our in our way though. You know, it it wouldn't involve I don't think we our approach is always like what's flashy and and shiny and big. I don't think that's the approach but you find yourself negotiating with the client sometimes, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:22

You know what? You don't need this. This is what you this is what you want, this is the feeling you want with this is the end result. But listen, you don't want you don't need that. I mean, again, this is what you know, something that Nandaban mentioned for event lab in a totally different subject within a totally different subject in terms of hiring people. You don't need that many people, you don't need this, you don't need that you'll save the client money, but not about saving money or anything like that. But are you able to convince most times that clients in in the direction that they need to take instead of what they probably want at the beginning?

SPEAKER_01 26:56

Look, it's very important to be honest about about about what you think as that's also something with the culture here, too.

SPEAKER_00 27:04

Though when you're in a boardroom, yeah, I in in anybody that's been here for a long time knows that if you're dealing with governments or anything, any any organization that is that is strong within Arab culture, yeah, they want it to be don't fool around. I want to know I you know be honest, be sincere, and I'll be sincere with you.

SPEAKER_01 27:24

Yeah, um I always get put in that position where I know my idea works the best, yeah, or I know our collective idea is the best idea for a specific you know scene for the show, for example. It always happens where we are put in the position where an order comes from above, it needs to be in that way, which is not the way we want it to be, right? To protect the integrity of the work, we have to be honest about the risks. You know, if we do this, XYZ may happen, yeah, and be honest about it. Even if the idea that I want to push is also a little bit risky, I have to also uh you know lay out as lay it out as it is. Yeah. And whoever is the decision maker would be making, would be able to make the decision based on an informed, you know, uh uh it made make an informed decision based on facts. Yeah, now how that affects the show and how that affects how we feel about it is a is a different story. But at the end of the day, the number one thing that we always make sure that we align with with our clients is are we all in it for the for protecting the integrity of the work? Right reasons. Uh are we all in it for this show or for this production to be in the best form it should be? If we are aligned on that, then the whole process is what should happen to get there. Yeah, if what where we get there is you know 80% of what we as Mystica would have wanted it to be, but we were not the final decision makers in the end, and this is what it is now, we're also happy because at the end of the day, that 80% would have been done to the best of our abilities, you know. Right. So I've learned really, I've I'm telling the this is this is the truth. I've learned in this industry, there's you can be two things you can be a company, an agency that uh works, you know, submits pitches and wins projects with clients and produces shows and and entertainment and become an agency for a client and do build the business in that way, or you could be a business that does their own shows, like Certi July, or big the big companies that are built on the fact that they create their own shows and then they create their own IPs and they become a big name. Yeah, in which case you become your own client, or you know what I mean? So um I'm we're trying to do both now. We're trying to start building our own IPs so that we have our own, you know, you know, outlet of uh creating projects that we feel passionately about and have the final say on decision making on, yeah, and at the same time balancing it out with working with clients on projects that we also love, right? But we are not the final decision makers, and we accept it as well and give it the best that we can. And this is you know, it works in in both ways. At the end of the day, um it's a it's also again about building these relationships and creating events that creating uh shows and entertainment that leaves legacy with people and leaves an impact with people. And sometimes, you know what? That friction that happens with the with any client and then ends with a result of something that is a compromise between both sides. A lot of the times you you realize, oh, you know what? It's not so bad. Yeah, what just happened, you know.

SPEAKER_00 30:47

I think most times uh anybody, I think most would agree that oftentimes if if a client is choosing you, it's because of the work you've done, because you maintain the integrity of what you know of each show, and that's why they're choosing you. They're not just looking you up on yellow pages or getting a recommendation and then saying, you know what, I need you, I know what you guys do, toss that aside, you're doing this now, you know, and then put you in a in a sort of an awkward position. But I think they do hire you because of the level that you work at and because of the creativity level, yeah. And what's happening in Dubai now? Yeah, I was gonna say, is it are you have you become a specialist now with with the Emirati music scene and the Emirati art scene?

SPEAKER_01 31:31

And I wouldn't say a specialist, I mean you know, uh, I have some knowledge, I have right some good amount of knowledge about Emirati culture and heritage through my work in that in the in the in the cultural sector.

SPEAKER_00 31:44

It's just off the charts.

SPEAKER_01 31:45

Now it's such a what's interesting here about the UAE is that uh they are very proud of their heritage. And me growing up here makes me feel the same way because you know I've I've seen the country grow as well.

SPEAKER_00 32:02

My wife is born and raised expat here as well. Exactly. She's this is her home.

SPEAKER_01 32:05

So yeah, I've I always felt connected to the culture and heritage here, especially because I had the also growing up, I had Emirati friends in school and stuff, and um um, but now I'm very proud of the work that we've done over the years. Uh we also pushed boundaries a little bit. We, you know, I I I tried a lot a lot of times to blend uh UAE culture with other cultures uh through my work in Expo and other heritage events, you know, making dialogues between different forms of art. Uh I always found the passion infusing. You know, I I like to find common grounds between um uh performing arts from different countries, especially music, because I just feel that somehow, somewhere down the history uh long, long time ago, it was all one thing and it just kept branching out and branching out. What I mean is music and beats. It started as one thing, it's just the form of communication, form of expression, and it started dancing out. I'm very interested in that. Um and it's been uh a great uh journey of exploration working in in on festivals and events where I can get uh uh study more about forms of art from the UAE and from the region and see how we can develop them further and how can we what needs to be preserved and what form can it be preserved in, and meeting the artists and artisans who make it their life mission to preserve these arts, especially here in the UAE. Now, in the region, you know, that's a whole other story. You know, if you want to go to check out what what's happening in Oman and Saudi Arabia is very rich with performing arts heritage, yeah. Uh of course, Egypt, Levant region, like Palestine, Lebanon, uh Jordan, and and Syria, there's a lot of you know uh common but also different forms of art. It's very interesting when you dive deep into it. So um I'm passionate about this, and that's also one of the things that um drives me to learn, keep learning more, and push my team also to expand their knowledge in that in that area because it helps us come up with ideas that are kind of unique and authentic in their own way.

SPEAKER_00 34:32

They're very authentic when you think of when a lot of bands or artists uh in in the West say, you know, our you know, my my influence was, you know, the older ones now, my influence was the Beatles, was Elvis Presley, was and then now it's like oh my influence is you know Casabian or whatever, or Arctic monkeys or something. Yeah, but in this region, the influence goes back a few thousand years before Elvis and the Beatles, and it's grown, you know, like organically and and naturally over time. 100%. Um, and those the styles of music have been there long before I'll give you an example.

SPEAKER_01 35:10

One of the things that I'd done um it was very interesting. During Expo, we were in charge of all the um all of the heritage performances in the UAE Pavilion and in the KSA Pavilion. Right, right but in the KSA Pavilion, uh we were tasked with every once in a while, they would let us they would tell us we're inviting another country pavilion to come over in their national day, and we want to do a mashup between our heritage group and their heritage group. And we did a lot of mashups. Yeah, one of the best ones that I think came out of nothing was we we merged um a traditional form of uh maritime art from Saudi, maritime performing art, folk dance from Saudi Arabia. Uh it's called Elliwa. We m made a sh mashed it up with an Armenian rock band.

SPEAKER_00 36:13

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_01 36:14

Yeah. For a show that's 15 minutes long, where it was part Saudi, part Armenian.

SPEAKER_00 36:19

How did that work? They played together or they just sort of handled it.

SPEAKER_01 36:22

We had we had four minutes we had four days to come up with something. Oh, okay. And rehearse it and deliver it. That was like insane. Basically, I just put the rock band with the group in a room, they don't speak each other's language. Yeah, I only speak Arabic with the Saudi guys, the Armenians don't speak English that good, but we we were able to communicate. Right. And then I was like, you play something, okay, you play something, and then I just let them play something until I found something that could work with something that they play. Yeah, and I'm like, okay, play that beat, okay, you play that. Yeah, all right, yeah, this section, do this, and it just but eventually you sang up and you six the international language, right? It was needed to build, yeah. It was so funny, but uh um, yeah, it unlocked something in my head.

SPEAKER_00 37:09

But uh yeah, I mean, you could have you could have created an album throughout that whole expo for each one of the national days. I wish I had thought of the best of absolutely. I wish I had recorded all that thing. That would have been very cool. Well, uh thank you so much, Jimmy. It was really, really cool having you here. Really great to have it was kind of a I love talking about events. Yeah, this was thank you especially refreshing for me. Um that went by so fast, man. It did, yeah. It did, yeah, exactly. Yeah, I was I think it's yeah, when you talk about something that you really have a passion for and and uh myself as well, it's really easy to go on and on and think we could probably sit here for about three hours, yeah, put the cameras away and just chat and chat. Not saying that we won't, but um, thank you very much. Thanks for watching. What's next for you? What are you doing?

SPEAKER_01 37:55

Uh good question. Um, well, I just well on the music side, I just released my first debut album by myself. Uh it's on my Spotify everywhere. Amazing. I just I just had to send us a link, we'll get it up there as well. I just had an album launch show here in Dubai. My first ever show in Dubai was really nice about a few days ago. Actually, actually, yeah, it was like uh yeah, on the um Tuesday, last Tuesday. It was fun. I had fun playing. It was my first time playing a show by myself in many years. Yeah. Um, so that's on the music side. I'm back to touring a little bit, you know, here and there. I'm excited about that, making music. Uh for Mystican, we're uh we're we're working on a few very interesting projects this coming season. Hopefully, we'll be part of big mega uh cultural festivals and events that are hopefully award-winning. We're we're nominated for an award at the Middle East Event Award for Best Arts and Culture event for one of the events that we did from the Ministry of Culture. So we'll find out in August 20th if we win the award or not. So fingers crossed. It's our second nomination. So amazing.

SPEAKER_00 38:58

Yeah, that's incredible. So uh we'll we'll have all of your information, we'll have that in our in our um uh on all the socials and and uh really uh happy that you guys exist as a group because it's much needed and so happy um you found the time to come by.

SPEAKER_01 39:16

Thank you so much for having me. You were lucky because Egypt was playing this morning, so I had to wake up early.

SPEAKER_00 39:20

Oh, that's right. I have it on my Forza app, and I kept watching the discourse.

SPEAKER_01 39:24

Yeah, yeah, we're we're we're uh we're off to the knockouts. Well, great. Thanks so much for it. Thanks, Jimmy. Thank you. Pleasure, thank you.

SPEAKER_00 39:33

The backdrop is hosted by Michael McClennan and produced and edited by Dan Powell. Recording live in One Central Dubai.