Interview: Mohamad Taher

INTERVIEW: MOHAMAD TAHER

BY MESHARI BIN HASAN

Alright, first of all, what is your name and what do you do?

My named is Mohamad Abulhasan Taher. Born in Kuwait. In 2013, I began working on a musical project, an album with various composers who compose video game music. The album came out in 2013 and a second album came out after it. The idea came to me to change it from an internet based music label, a net label, into an actual music production company / label. The reason for me making my label into an actual company is that it’ll give me an opportunity to work with big name video game companies such as Capcom, Square Enix, Nintendo, etc. So in the beginning of 2014, we registered the company with the Japanese government as a Japanese company, Brave Wave. So basically I am the founder and senior director of Brave Wave.

How was working with a company like Capcom, was it easy to negotiate the art direction of the album? (Brave Wave released a remastered album of Street Fighter 2’s

soundtrack

as

a

part

of

their

Generation

Series

http://www.bravewave.net/genseries/) Yes. It was really surprisingly easy. From the beginning, when we approached them, we told them that we did our research into SF2 and there are two camps, one camp is those who liked the original SF2 with the CPS1 board (arcade system board that ran arcade games) with the specific sound, and then a few years later Capcom released a new board, CPS2, which had improved graphic and gameplay with vastly different music and new tracks. And there are those who liked the newer board. Basically, people who liked the CPS 1 board liked it because it was the original one and those who liked the successor board liked it because it had more advanced graphics and improved sound chip. Instead of choosing which one we think is definitive, we thought of releasing them both together. That was our pitch for Capcom.

We wanted to release a definitive Street Fighter 2 soundtrack since it has never been done before. One of the major points in this project is we wanted the participation of the original composers in these albums. So for SF2 we wanted Yoko Shimomura’s (original SF2 composer) approval in every step of the way. She had to listen to our mixes, the masters, and pretty much everything and approve them before we send them to Capcom. It was a relatively simple process. They liked the idea of having both CPS 1 and CPS 2 boards in the soundtrack. When I was doing the art direction with our designer Cory (Cory Schmitz http://coryschmitz.com/), the things that they requested us to change were minimal so our job was to make an appealing product while their job was to make sure that their branding and the SF brand was well represented in the final product. It was fun working on that.

As a follow up, theres this idea that Japanese companies are very hard to work with from the outlook of the non-Japanese. For example, there is what happened with Konami and Hideo Kojima.

I think Konami is an outlier with what they did because with most Japanese companies, that’s not how they deal with creators. The relationship with Japanese companies is different with American ones. We were talking to Capcom USA and they sent our discussions, proofs, and proposals to Capcom Japan. Capcom Japan had the final say in terms of suggestions, requests, approvals, etc. But it was a different process, a different way of working. But it was fun. The challenge is working with other Japanese companies directly which is something I’m trying to do in January. I’ll be meeting with a few Japanese companies with the hope of licensing some of their games and some of their soundtracks. I’m sure it will be a much different process than working with an American or European company.

You’ve had a lot of interviews about Brave Wave, and as amazing as Brave Wave is, I want to know about Mohamad Taher. I want the Mohamad Taher that calls himself a regular guy, which I really disagree with. Have you had any, in relation to Kuwait as a whole or family in specific, criticism towards your work in Brave Wave? Were they supportive, skeptical or indifferent?

My immediate family was supportive; mum, dad, sisters. I’m sure they probably didn’t understand what I’m trying to do but they were seeing that I was passionate about it and I had a vision for it that might not get but do appreciate. But extended family and a lot of colleagues were focused on the return of the work, asking how much I was going to make on this and that. That was the only thing that mattered to them because they saw it as a business, which might not be wrong but I had bigger goals and I had different things to measure than the income. Evidently the first, second, fourth albums didn’t make much. I still have a plan that they probably wouldn’t understand just because they don’t really know anything about videos game composers or the video game industry. There were also a lot of people who didn’t like chip tunes and told me to incorporate Kuwaiti instruments. To me that speaks about what they like not what I like, not to say I don’t like Kuwaiti instruments or Arabic instruments in general but they are trying to cage what I do with what Kuwaitis like while with me what I’m trying to do is having a specific focus that might not have anything to do with Kuwait. With time, especially the SF2 album I think it’ll surprise a lot of them just because they didn’t really have an understanding of what I was trying to do within the industry itself. Seeing something like that make a big splash, to them, they can’t comprehend it.

Was it more of trying to prove them wrong or you just don’t care about them at all?

Well, I work with a team so designing everything has to make sense to us at the same time I can’t say that some part of me isn’t happy about proving them wrong that’s just human nature. I think that’s a big motivation to just take all the — not gonna say hate — all the negative vibes and try to work towards what I have in mind but also hoping to prove them wrong. It feels good to do something right and show them.

What drives you? We talked about proving them wrong, which is in itself an amazing feeling, but what is Mohamad’s motivation? What keeps him up at night, why does he stay up countless hours on emails and on music production?

I don’t know. I know that I like what I do and I like the people that I work with. They understand the artistic process, the design process better than me so it feels good to work with people are sometimes smarter than me. One of the main reasons is that no one is doing what we are doing. Even in Japan, of course they had something called an artist collective who are a group of artists that join up and create some kind of collective which is not a company, is not signed with the government. It’s just a group of people that hang out with each other. When I reached the point where I would bring composers together and give them the amplification and exposure they need in terms of marketing and PR, it feels good to make these people feel appreciated after two, three decades of just being hidden in the dark and feeling that no one really cares about them, feeling that what they do is just a job. So helping these composers is really one of the most important things to me. Seeing them appreciated and seeing their lives’ work finally being appreciated by the public is a very good feeling to me. The other thing is that I simply love working on albums, I like directing albums, I love figuring out which artist to work with, the collaborators, musicians, having a central theme revolving around an album. It excites me a lot even after a few years of doing it every single day. It’s still something that excites me. The idea of directing an album and being a the lead designer or art director is something I think I could do well. Knowing that I could do that well makes me excited to keep on doing it.

Do you see yourself a creative mind? Do you see yourself as a visionary?

I don’t think that’s for me to say. I think that’s what people should figure out by themselves about me. What I do know is that I love design I love music and I love having a strong identity for an album. I love a polished product, a good engineering team behind me. All of that makes me feel good. I love being a part of that. I think to, to answer the first question if I see myself as a creative mind, I think everyone is creative, it’s just about teaching yourself what you need to do about your profession. In my case, I spent a lot of time reading design books, music books, about art direction and leading design, trying to be better at what I do. It’s a learning process, a never ending learning process. But when I compare my first album and

the latter projects I think the newer things are more interesting because I had a better understanding of the tools instead of just trying to do something random which is how I started everything. Maybe I do believe in talent but I believe in just pursuing what you like and strengthening your sensibilities and your skills more than just believing in some hidden talent that came to you from God. That’s being lazy, basically.

Yes. I would assume that you’ve garnered your interest in design since a young age, is that right?

I don’t really know. I know that I liked music a lot back then and of course I liked video games.

Liking design is something, I’m not sure I grew up with, maybe I started noticing it later on.

We all live and breathe design all the time. I did pay attention to stuff like album art and gaming manuals. I loved reading those. Even when I first made World 1–2, which is the first album that I did, I started working on it in 2012. At the time, I didn’t really have any design learning or any directorial training. I was just acting on my sensibilities. I had a specific idea for an album art and I had a few ideas about the people I wanted to work with. It just kind of evolved from there. I think design is one of the things that I started to appreciate and love when I became grown up because good design is usually hidden, you don’t think about it.

Whatever affected me back then, I can’t tell, but growing up reading about design, designers and logos made me see that this is something I am interested in pursuing myself.

As a kid what made you appreciate the art of video games, comics and the such?

What was the spark?

I’m not sure. I just know that it looked really good and — I don’t know it’s hard to say what, it just felt natural to me at the time playing video games. We, me and my brothers, didn’t go out a lot. We didn’t play in the streets. We usually either play video games, read comics or listen to music and I think a part of who I am, since I grew up with it, that I can’t dissect it and try to figure out what drew me into it. But I think it’s just fun.

Keeping the on with your childhood, do you think that living in Omariya (area in Kuwait) and playing video games all day — which is what I did too — did that cultivate your world view? I really hate this question, but, how was your childhood? Was it an environment where art was appreciated and encouraged?

I think so. I think my parents allowed us to do a lot of things that other families didn’t like.

Especially back then, a lot of people who didn’t like video games thought of video games as something that wasted time, affected your studies, etc. But my family let us buy whatever we

wanted ever since the Sega Master System and NES and it was good that my parents understood that our time was different from our time. What made sense to us was different than what made sense to them. For a lot of people, that is a hard realisation to come by.

Parents usually want their kids to grow up the same way they did a lot of them, because of that, deny their kids iPads and all of that. Nevertheless, we were encouraged to read and used to go to the bookstore once a week to buy new books.

The one in Muthana?

No, we used to go to the one in Routha and later on we went to the one in Omariya; Anwar el Omariya. I began with reading Micky Mouse stories, Donald Duck stories, things like that.

Slowly I began reading Agatha Christie, which my mum introduced me to. Before starting to read Agatha, the stories I read were comic and panels but her stories were actual books.

That love for reading continued with me throughout my life until now. I feel with me living with people who appreciate the value of art absolutely contributed to my appreciating and fascination of art. Thing is, a lot of people raise their kids without care and don’t think about what their children consume. I think that even affects the person themselves because in time they grow up disliking reading; connecting reading with being in school. With us, we used to read quite a lot, loving reading, loving buying books. So it was a good childhood in that I had parents who knew what to invest in us.

How is it being an artist when you were in high school, an environment encompassing a wide range of people, interests and personalities?

To me high school was just school. Spent most of my time playing video games and listening to music. I actually remember trying to make music on a Playstation 1 game called Music Maker 2000. It was a lot of fun. I remember making and recording two tracks on a cassette and showed them to my mum. I don’t think I was conscious about being an artist. It was just something cool and interesting to do. I tried writing poetry, obviously it was all crap but it was something I had to do. I don’t think I started caring about what I do, in terms of writing or deigning, until I was maybe in college. That’s when I started writing about video games and recording podcasts. I slowly understood the appeal of doing something that I loved on the side or full-time. Before that it was me soaking in all the games, music, movies and shows that I could. It was subconscious. It wasn’t a conscious effort to do something about the art or being an artist. I think that realisation of wanting to be an artist is something that comes to people at different times. You see people who write or make music when they’re teenagers but with me I think it started when I was in my early 20’s. I started realising what that means.

How did you feel knowing that there is this creative outlet that you can engage with?

It was overwhelming. It still is overwhelming. Maybe a little overwhelming now because when I’m writing I know I can do better. When I’m trying to figure something out in terms of design I know I can always be much better and that alone could make a lot of people quit. I think if there is any joy from it it’s not direct. Its not me being happy while working on something its just — I work on something day in and day out and at some point, when it makes more sense, maybe when we have all the tracks or just a bunch of tracks and we feel that it makes sense, it will click and feel good.

Why do you expect so much of yourself?

That’s just a part of who I am. I don’t believe in talent. I believe in continuous learning. When I first try to learn about anything I know I’m at the very beginning. That thought alone terrifies me. I know that climbing that stairwell is gonna be a very long process. I think I’m handling it better now but back then it was something that sometimes could be motivating but it feels like a huge burden, thinking that you’re always not doing the best you could. That is one of the reasons I like working with a team of diverse abilities and sensibilities because everyone can bring something to the table and everyone can help me realise what I have in mind. I know a lot of people who prefer working alone but with me, working with a team, having something to bounce ideas around with, to pitch stuff to, its a lot of fun than being alone and thinking that I can’t do it at all. Having something like Marco (Marco Guardia, associate director and mixing engineer https://twitter.com/monomirror) with a lot of experience — he was making music since he was 14 — is much more bearable than trying to know the industry on your own.

Did you have any days where you felt your fear of failure was just too hard or too crippling to your work?

So many days. So many days I would think that everything I was doing in BW was pointless and I’m wasting my time with it. At first, I thought that those fears were something I actually believed but not they’re just bad days. Being hyperctical of myself is in my nature. It’s something I consciously think about a lot. I think about failure, not succeeding in what we’re doing. That’s just natural. Being in BW is being a part of daily struggles and trying to cope with the fact that there is no silver plate waiting for us, we have to do all the work.

When you have those days, what makes you bounce back?

Either talking to Marco about it or sleeping it off. Sometimes I need to take a day or two off, or unwind with a show, game or book. I know I’ll slowly get back to it once I clear my mind.

Going back to your job, you work with an oil company. How does the dichotomy of your day job and what you do with BW work with you?

It’s tiring. Really tiring to have two jobs. Sometimes I think one day I’ll just break. And I did have a lot of breakdowns with my health going south. I don’t think you are expected to work from morning to night every single day, which is what I was doing for the past few years. It’s just something I adapted myself to doing. I have a job that makes everything possible to make albums, traveling and doing what I want. I have my own company with my own products that also has its own responsibilities, duties, role to fill in. It’s a lot of work, but I’ve gotten used to it.

How does that dichotomy affect your outlook in terms of your art? Do you get inspired by the oil fields that you work in?

No. No. (laughs) I have no interest in the oil industry. To me it’s just a job. I don’t think it inspires me in any way. Usually when I begin drafting the idea for an album, it’s just something artistic or ambitious. It’s more about the idea rather than an experience. For some reason my own environment, my own job, doesn’t inspire me. Maybe the inspiration is there in a subconscious way but I don’t see it infant of me when I’m working.

There is this theory that says your language can affect the way you think. You speak Arabic and English and learning Japanese, do you speak any other languages?

No just English and Arabic. Mostly English because of my work and friends. I am learning Japanese also because of my work. Even though my cofounder Alex (Alexander Aniel, CEO and

Business

Development

Coordinator

https://twitter.com/cvxfreak)

helps

translate

conversations when I’m in Japan I would like to speak directly with composers and musicians in Japanese without the need for translators. Either planning an album or dishing out ideas to each other, I want to just fully understand what they are saying because it would be helpful for both me and the composers. But yeah, English, Arabic and Japanese. Japanese is gonna be a pain in the ass but it’s gonna be fun to imagine myself fluent in that language. I’ve already memorised the 46 letters in the Hiragana which feels great so far.

Do you think these languages that you speak affects your thinking? Politically, culturally, morally.

Of course they do. I’m not sure that’s something I can quantify or point out exactly. Especially with work, most of my talking is in English. My thought processes are in English most of the time. Even the ideas and the way that I think most of the time is in English, not Arabic. This duality is interesting since there are things you could express better in Arabic and other things that make more sense to me in English. Being able to have this dual thinking is cool. I don’t know to what extent it affects me but I know it plays a huge factor in anyone’s mind.

Are you learning Japanese mainly for business or is it an appreciation for the culture and language?

I love everything about Japan. From the people, the food, the culture. I’m not even sure I can classify my interest as business just because learning the business way of speaking Japanese is really hard. I already have someone who will attend all the important meetings and important business related things to Japan. I want to be able to talk to the composers directly in Japanse. You can say that this is a part of BW; it is a part of the albums we’ve made. But my interests are more humane than that. If I just wanted to create the albums that I make I could’ve just used my cofounder Alex to translate for me. I want to get to know the people I work with more intimately. I want to be able to go out with them, carry out a conversation, spend a few days with them without the need of having a filter between us.

Even the business aspect of it is more personal to me. It’s not about the business it’s about the people.

How does being intimate with your composers affect the songs and process?

I think they would understand me better. I think creating anything is about feelings. The more they feel our collaboration is a collaboration than a business pitch or project the more at ease they’d be feeling. You can still do that with just having a translator — everything I’ve been doing so far was with a translator — but I think going one step further and being able to project what I feel and talk my mind and being myself around them, I think that’ll do a lot.

Let’s talk about Tokyo. You’ve been there many times and you’re intimate with the city. Do you think that cultural shift between Japan and Kuwait affects the way you think or how you see yourself?

I don’t know. I know that every time I go to Tokyo I wish Kuwait was something like it in terms of punctuality of the people, the effectiveness of everything. It’s a whole different experience than Kuwait. It does make me want to live in Japan. I don’t know if it speaks about the quality in life of Tokyo or lack of opportunities in Kuwait but aside from that, I can’t say much.

What I read and hear about Tokyo is that the Japanese people have this stigma with ego or confidence. Does that stigma affects your own ego?

No. I don’t think so. What do you mean about stigma?

What I mean is that I usually read, I don’t know if it’s true or not, that it is frowned upon to not be modest. Is that correct?

I think that’s just something having to do with their traditions. You can still be yourself, but adhere to their rules and cultures. It’s just a vastly different experience than Kuwait. Not to say that Kuwait’s cultural traditions are not respectful of another person but in Japan — it’s

just a different way of living and interacting with people. It’s really great having that day in and day out, if I were living there.

Is it hard to be accustomed to their traditions and their views? From an outsider’s point of view.

It’s probably not easy but from what I understand it’s the only way to properly live in Japan.

It’s just being mindful about the culture and traditions, and be able to flow with that. I’d say that’s the case in most countries. It would be interesting to live there and try to fit their mold.

Do you think living there would affect you creatively?

Yes. In every possible way. It’s a city knows art and appreciates art. There are a lot of designers and museums and things you could to improve yourself as an artist. But in Kuwait, the options are limited. There is not much of a real community of artists. The artists that I know of and follow in Kuwait they are amazingly talented but I don’t feel there is an effective way to nurture their skills like other countries. I think be it Japan or the US or Europe, it’s a vastly different environment. Our surroundings — we live in a city that is not really built for humans, not built for us to walk around with and enjoy, unlike Europe or Japan. These cities are made for humans. That alone makes a big difference. There is cultural awareness of art and artists that is absent in Kuwait. If I ever had the chance to go there I’d do it in a heart beat. I’m not saying that living in Kuwait is limiting me but I think there are a lot more options to explore as an artist than being confined in Kuwait. We don’t enjoy having an abundance or museums and galleries around here. It is unfortunate.

Is it only — in Kuwait — the lack of support or is it also the marriage of politics and art that is hindering? I would presume that, in Japan, politics and art aren’t as connected.

It’s very different in Kuwait than Japan. I don’t know why maybe it’s the culture or the size of the country. I don’t really know. There is none of that elsewhere. I didn’t see that in Japan or in Europe. I think art progresses in a different way in those parts of the world than in Kuwait.

In Kuwait, a lot of things are hindered because of politics and religion. Because of that, it’s harming any possible art movement in Kuwait. If you’re not a part of an established system or collective, in Kuwait, you don’t have a chance to do much.

Do you think the issue is with the interpretation of religion or is it just a cultural thing?

I think both. The culture itself is very — I don’t know the word in Arabic or English.

We are people of the desert. We’re not used to the luxury of art around here.

Of course. Yet when you read history, you’ll read that we had many museums and galleries but I think people’s notion about religion and attempting to include religion in everything is

affecting everything here. But sometimes — I don’t know if I can say religion is responsible about that — I would see books being banned just because one would be talking about religion, social issues or even politics. Sometimes you’d just be talking about philosophy but it would be banned anyway. That is something probably not related to religion, it might be related to censorship and, most importantly, politics. All these things negatively affect everyone be it writers, composers or artists. It’s not exclusively religious or political, there are many factors contributing to it. The result, from my experience, is there isn’t this environment making one feel a part of an intellectual or artistic community.

One of the things that bother me is when people see Arab artists, they are surprised that Arab artists exist and there is this cultural artistic movement here. Even by Arabs themselves, I don’t think there is cultural awareness. Is that a burden on you as an artist? Does the idea of you representing your country affects you?

I don’t care about representing a country or anything like that. At first I was worried about being a part of something bigger than myself but I just don’t give a shit. I don’t see myself as an Arab artist or a Kuwaiti artist. I see myself as a designer, an art director, and as a music director. That’s what my job is. Maybe the kind of ideas and themes that I try to explore with the music albums that we make might reflect my own experiences, and some might not.

Nevertheless, I don’t like to frame them as being exclusive of me being an Arab. My intake is mostly Western; video games, books, etc. Trying to brand myself as a Kuwaiti artist while most of my intake is away from Kuwait is not a fair representation of my inspirations. I don’t see myself as an ambassador of anything. I see myself as a designer and director. Maybe being a Kuwaiti would automatically make people see what I do as a part of being Kuwaiti but that’s not how I see myself.

Why is there this disregard of your labelling yourself Kuwaiti? Is it because your audience is global or is your work something that goes over borders and countries?

Mostly because what I do has nothing to do with my country. It just crosses boundaries and nationalities. It’s just about the work itself, not national identity. My work has nothing to do with me being a Kuwaiti aside from myself being born a Kuwaiti. Maybe one day I’ll incorporate Arabic instruments in our music. Even if I did it would just be due to my knowledge of the instruments themselves. But branding myself as a Kuwaiti artist — to me — doesn’t make any sense because I’m not doing anything traditional that was possible only because I live in Kuwait. What I’m doing is very specific to a community that I mostly interact with online. Being a designer or director is about acquiring skills. I didn’t acquire those skills because I am Kuwaiti I was just born as one. It’s about the work itself and the community; chip tunes, video game music, etc.

Do you think that putting labels on your self is helpful to your artistic process?

I think labels are ways for the outside world to understand what we do. My official role at BW is senior director but for the SF project I was the creative director, the art director, and supervising music. It was a mix of different roles, but we just used one label as a catch all term for people to have an idea of what we do. People can label you based on your work but choosing a label and trying to go that route is probably not a good way to tackle art. You can experiment, do whatever you want and if it goes well for you, you can say that you’re a director or photographer or illustrator. Maybe you’re all of those; labels are a way to identify us and what we do.

Was it hard to make art expect a profit out of it? Does the financial aspect affect your artistic vision?

When I first started I didn’t care much about money. Now that I have a company, the financial return and project cost factors in everything I tackle. But I try to not let that affect the work because if I started working on something and began changing the designs or art direction just because we think that colour would profit us more or that colour would sell more copies, that could have a negative impact on the work itself. It’s helpful to be aware of the market, the sales, and I try to be aware of the people I hire for the collaborations and albums. I could make my own calculations and if I think an album would not sell much I can make the decision of not hiring a lot of artists or expensive musicians, which is fine. Being aware or that aspect is good, but making money from art is very unexpected. We didn’t think the SF album would sell that much as it did. It flew right past all our expectations. I think the difference between me and a lot of creators is that I don’t see what I do as just art. They are products.

We design them with the intent of selling them. They are not something for charity. We do want them to look good, and be as perfect as they could be. I am aware of them being products more than art. Maybe some individual parts of them are art but all of that is packaged into one product. They are created with an artistic vision. They’re not just created and thrown into the void.

Now, last question. When will I get my SF vinyl? (laughs) Probably in March. We got the design proofs yesterday. They look amazing. I’m going to Japan in January to sign the signed edition with Yoko so hopefully they’re be out sometime in March. They look really good!

I can’t wait. I put an alarm, ordered them, and went back to bed.

It was crazy. They were all sold out in seconds.

Thank you so much for your time and agreeing to do this interview.