Slowly but surely, Abu Dhabi is developing a music scene. And what began as a garage project is now creating opportunities for local bands. Caitlyn Davey met with the brains behind White Cube.
White Cube, the only recording studio in Abu Dhabi, opening doors to bigger and better things for bands in the Emirate.
What began in 2012 as a collaboration between school friends Waleed Shah, Nerses Sanassian and Abrahim Wakhim, in Abrahim’s basement, is now revolutionising the Abu Dhabi music scene.
The studio is helping musicians around the capital get their voices heard. Nerses says, ‘We invite these artists to come to the studio, set them up and record their live jam.’
Waleed continues, ‘While we are recording them, we are also inside shooting a video of that same live jam. Then we sit them down on the couch, with the White Cube logo behind them, mic them up and set them up for an interview. They can tell us how they got together, or what they think of being an underground band in Abu Dhabi.’
Nerses adds, ‘The interview is very much a chance for the band to explain their story, about how they got into music, what their sound is like and where they’re going.’
Abrahim finishes, ‘That’s sort of the theme of it all – to promote the local artists and share the lessons learnt across Abu Dhabi.’
White Cube’s videos and recordings have opened doors for local musicians, as bands have been hired for gigs after venues have seen their White Cube videos. Abrahim says, ‘The local music industry is predominantly free; not many people will pay a band to come and perform. There’s an economy that’s being started because of what we’re doing.’
Nerses explains their concept. ‘What we do to promote our local artists is use multimedia channels to showcase their acts,’ he says. ‘We have both the audio and video capabilities as well as the photography capabilities at White Cube, so we have multiple outlets to showcase our artists. We invite local artists in to showcase their music which is a very important thing to us – we want artists to create their own new creative outlet.’
Abrahim adds, ‘It’s very important to us that the artists have their own creative element – we don’t want people just coming in and singing covers; they can go to a hotel bar for that if they want to.’
But it isn’t as though there has never been a music scene. Waleed explains, ‘We played and performed in Abu Dhabi throughout high school – there was a music scene here. Then we went to Canada together to go to university; we went as a band. We performed there too, then when we graduated, we came back and found that there was no music scene here; it had gone. So when we came back and got settled in our day jobs we started playing music together again.’
Abrahim says, ‘We kind of acoustically treated the room that we were jamming in, and built a small home studio for ourselves. It then got to the point where we were playing songs but there was nobody really to listen to them. So we decided to take a back seat and create a music scene for other people. We are about promoting other people and just spreading the word.
‘After a month of opening it up to the public, we got a tremendous response. Everybody was like, “This is amazing, we really needed this,” and we thought that there was something in this, so let’s do this – let’s make it legitimate. So we went out and we got our trade licence and that took three or four months – then we got the new place.’
White Cube is located in Al Nahyan Camp, having relocated to the premises in November 2013. The team works with various local artists, bands and singers, instrumentalists and rappers – even poets. ‘We are definitely genre agnostic – we have had poets, rappers, beatboxers, a violinist and someone who plays an oud, an Arabic string instrument,’ says Nerses.
When asked about being the only studio in Abu Dhabi, they smile and exchange a glance. Waleed answers, ‘It’s an advantage for us as a brand name, because we are the only ones…’ Nerses adds, ‘But there is a reason we are the only ones.’
Nerses says, ‘The answer to “where do we see White Cube in the future?” is not, where do we see White Cube in the future, but rather – where do we see Abu Dhabi in the future? What we see is a place busy with musicians – local artists performing on a nightly basis, where everyone knows the local band that has that awesome song that is actually heard on the radio. And it goes beyond Abu Dhabi – where people in Dubai recognise Abu Dhabi, the Middle Eastern region begins to see Abu Dhabi – Abu Dhabi has a stamp on music. We have come across so much fantastic talent in the city, that’s where we see ourselves in the future, the context is the city, and White Cube as a part of it.’
Al Nahyan Camp, Email whitecube.uae@gmail.com www.facebook.com/whitecubeUAE
Photography by Angeli Castillo
