Jaafar blends Western and Eastern sound and storytelling to create music that’s wholly unique and inspiring. In fact, don’t take my word for it; here’s what he told me himself:
“I was recording an album about three years ago which was supposed to be my debut album. I actually put out two singles from that album in my hometown and they did really well and I went to perform a festival there last summer…[My producer] and I were still working on it and I started to realize that I wasn’t really connecting to it.
After I got back to Miami from the festival, I really took some time searching for my sound. I wrote a lot of new music, I explored a lot of different sounds, but I went back to my first love, which is Middle Eastern, Arabic music. I infused that with my songwriting style, which is more Western. I wrote a song called “Daliah”, and it’s actually the second song off this album, and as far as subject matter, it inspired the rest of the album. And when I went into the studio and started working with producers on the album, I knew I had stumbled onto something that I identified with much more than I was doing before. I think that was just a natural growth process.”
Check out the flyer below and if you’re in the area, go support Jaafar!