Mohamed Rai – Water, Drumming and Silence

Podcast
by Thomas Burkhalter

In the third episode of Norient’s podcast Long Take: Life as an Artist, we meet Mohamed Rai, a session drummer, handpan musician, and former scuba dive instructor from the Maldives. He tells me what it means to work as a musician in the many tourist resorts, and he talks about his love for water, waves and silence. His friend Hanan drops by and leaves to catch the ferry. Listen to this episode on Spotify or on YouTube.

Mohamed Rai started drumming when he was three years old, encouraged by the musicians in his family: his grandfather Ibrahim Ahmed (Molhudhoo Thuthu), and his uncle Nashid, front man of the well-known band «Zero Degree Atoll», who passed away in 2016. Mohamed studied graphic design in Sri Lanka. He left the dense capital Malé and today lives on Thulusdhoo island, where he runs an Airbnb (that I recommend) and recently opened the music venue/ restaurant The Shore Shack. We talk about the lack of respect artists receive within the community, how important people like his physics teacher Shifaz aka doctor who became a session musician were, to give him the courage to pursuit his own path. And Mohamed talk about his love for the silence, the waves, and the birds of Thulusdhoo, and the changing soundscape of Malé.

Find all outtakes in this playlist.


Credits

Host: Thomas Burkhalter
Sound: Daniel Jakob, Melodies In My Head
Mix and Mastering: Daniel Jakob
Graphic Design (Cover): Pamuditha Zen Anjana
Editorial support: The Norient team and Rebecca Favale

The podcast «Long Take: Life as an Artist» dives into deep conversations with artists from across the globe, focusing on musicians and sound creators. Hosted by Norient founder, anthropologist, writer and audiovisual artist Thomas Burkhalter, it explores the personal journeys of these artists – their aspirations, successes, challenges, creative processes, and perspectives on the world. The podcast is minimally edited, offering authentic portrayals of each artist, revealing the person behind the art. It serves as a valuable, freely accessible resource for anyone researching music, sound, culture, and politics.

The podcast is funded by

Biography

Dr. Thomas Burkhalter is an anthropologist/ethnomusicologist, AV-artist, and writer from Bern (Switzerland). He is the founder and director of Norient and the Norient Festival (NF), co-directed AV-performances and documentary films (e.g. «Contradict», Berner Filmpreis 2020 + Al-Jazeera Witness), and is the author and co-editor of several books (e.g., «Local Music Scenes and Globalization: Transnational Platforms in Beirut», Routledge, «The Arab Avant Garde: Musical Innovation in the Middle East», Wesleyan University Press). He teaches regularly at universities, and runs workshops for arts institutions. Since 2022 he produces the Norient Mixtape for Swiss National Radio SRF3. Currently, he is working on his new music duo «Melodies In My Head», and on the podcast series «Long Take: Life as an Artist». Follow him on Instagram, Research Gate, Academia.edu, Bandcamp, Spotify, or Meta.

Published on November 13, 2024

Last updated on November 13, 2024

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Belonging
Music Business
Soundscape
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