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| Asadullah
Ghais uses the cello to express himself |
Despite
its history as a classical instrument, the cello probably won’t be
heard much in pop music in the near future. But that hasn’t
stopped one young Muslim from taking up the instrument in an attempt
to express himself musically as best he can. Gha-is Abduljaami is a
19-year-old college student at Stanford University. His music
however goes well beyond his young years and as he looks to the
future, he sees a career filled with musical expression. Abduljaami
spoke with IslamOnline recently about the cello, his life, his
outlook and his aspirations as an up-and-coming musician.
IslamOnline
(IOL): In America, music is not something Muslims are well known
for. We do not have icons such as Umm Kulthoum or pop stars such as
Amr Diab. What's it like to be a minority within a minority
[musically speaking] and what are your aspirations as a musician?
-
Gha-is Abduljaami: Being a Black Muslim within the music world
is very exciting for me because even though I am one of few, I feel
that I can make a big impact on the lives of my audience, especially
in the black portion of my audience. Because of the way that music
makes it easier to accept what is heard, the messages that I have in
my music are actually given thought by my audience.
If
I were to stop a member of the audience and tell them to stop doing
a certain un Islamic act, they might look at me funny or become
offended, but if I sing the same message to the same person it has
been my experience that my audience, even if they don't agree with
me on the issue, will take the time to actually think about what I
said.
A
few months ago I realized something that made me very happy. I
realized that as a result of the acculturation of Americans I am
able to plant seeds in the minds of my audience members. I have the
ability to bring the truth and bring good to people while still
being musical and entertaining. I have become a messenger of truth
and my level of success has and Insha' Allah will continue to be
high.
All
of the wrong that I see I can speak against and not be seen as an
enemy of my fellow Americans. Through research that I have done, I
can say that this part of American culture is a result of European
and African music traditions combining. The European music tradition
had music as art and not necessarily something that represented the
plight of the people and African music traditions had music as a
part of life and a direct result of the condition of the people. The
combination of these two gives you what we have today – a music
tradition where the music represents the plight of the people, but
at the same time can be treated as entertainment. I feel that with
my music I try to be musically pleasing but still socially and
culturally conscious.
As
for my aspirations for my music career as a
singer/songwriter/musician, Insha'allah I plan to continue with my
career until I lose the ability to speak the truth and still be
successful as an artist. Only Allah knows how successful I will be;
but I hope that I am able to reach as many people as possible,
especially the people of the Black community and the Muslim
community. I want Black people and Muslims everywhere to realize
that there are people in the music world that are not driven by
drugs, sex, capitalism, or star idolatry, and who are fighting for
right with all that they have. I, as an artist, intend to continue
on until my abilities to help others with my music reaches its
limit.
*
What sparked your interest in music? At what age did you start
playing and when did you know that music was something you wanted to
make a lifelong pursuit?
-
The reason that I started with music is because it came so naturally
and I enjoyed making music. I started playing music when I was
eight, but prior to that my mother encouraged my creative spirit and
supplied me everything I needed to draw and paint. From the time I
was very young, she would always say that I would be an artist and
my mother did her best to allow my talents to mature and to be
expressed.
The
first instrument I played was a song-flute, which is just a cheap,
plastic recorder. That was when I was eight and it was part of
school program. I played that instrument until it broke, but my mom
bought me another one for Eid-ul-Fitr when I was nine.
My
next instrument was the keyboard. It only had about fifty keys, but
it was well suited for a ten-year-old. This instrument was a
graduation gift from my mom. I played this instrument constantly
until I was introduced to the cello in junior high school. I started
playing the cello when I was eleven and I actually chose the cello
[over] the violin, viola, and bass because the sound and tone of
cello appealed to me. I did not mind that it was big; in fact the
size made it that much more appealing. I was drawn to the deep rich
sound that the cello made and I fell in love with instrument.
I
played in the orchestra all the way through junior high and I
practiced everyday, even in the summer, and brought the cello home
everyday at my dad's request or order. By the time I reached high
school I realized that I wanted to learn more. So with the consent
and financial support of my father I began to study the cello
privately in the summer before my sophomore year.
Also
in my freshman year I began to practice the guitar. I primarily
studied classical guitar techniques to separate myself from the many
other guitar enthusiasts at my school who just played popular rock
songs and who basically had no knowledge of the guitar other than a
few chords. I practiced the guitar in all of my free time while
still continuing with cello. However, as a result of my increased
level of cello studies my focus on the guitar slowly dwindled. I
still played it in my free time and still do whenever I go home.
I
also would like to mention that my mother bought me my first guitar,
an electric guitar, with a built in speaker. I still have it at home
along with my classical guitar that was given to me by [my]
orchestra teacher in high school. I continued with private lessons
and played in my high school orchestra for my freshman, sophomore,
and senior years and the All-city orchestra for my junior and senior
years. I continued with private lessons until my senior year when my
father refused to let me take lessons any longer as a result of our
not-so-good relationship.
When
I came to Stanford I started taking private lessons again and I
joined Talisman, an a cappella group. I took lessons all through my
freshman year at Stanford and I sang with Talisman only until
February of 2001 because I was unhappy with the way the group was
run (creative differences, seriously).
I
should mention that in all of my years as a musician, improvisation
[has] played a huge role. I was able to make the music that was in
my head a reality. I did not think of pursuing music for the rest of
my life outside of mastering the cello because I did not feel that I
could help people with it. At least not until spring quarter of my
freshman year. It was at that point that my vocal music and
instrumental music came together. I decided that I wanted to write
songs and be involved in the music industry, but not as a performer.
I did not want to be a performer because I did not want to be just
another album in a music store.
My
full desire to continue in the music world did not occur until I
found myself in the rainforest in Barra Del Colorada, Costa Rica. It
was there that I realized that I would not be just another album on
the shelf if I targeted my community and not a faceless music world.
It was in Costa Rica that I truly found a connection between my life
and music. I began writing songs about my life and my wants and
needs, things that I had been unable to say to the world before.
*
Your main instrument is the cello. While it may be a popular
classical instrument, most people don't associate the cello with
what's new, hip and cool; especially in the pop-music driven
American music scene. What brought you to the cello and does it
matter to you that you don't play a so-called pop instrument?
-
As for what brought me to the cello I think I already answered that.
The idea that the cello is not hip or cool is in my mind a
misconception. The cello is all over popular music today from rock
to rap, but because of the difficulty in learning the cello there
has not been a large enough group of cellists to truly make the
instrument mainstream. An instrument such as the guitar is much
easier to learn and therefore much easier to love. Even though the
cello is in popular music and its sound is hard not to love, I am
still upset that the cello is not in the foreground. It is always
used for accompaniment, but I take the cello and bring it to the
front. I make it, in addition to my singing, the feature of each of
my performances. I hope to encourage others to love the cello for
all that it's worth; but I do not wish to see the cello made so
mainstream that basic technique is abandoned.
*
Define your type of music. Where does it come from, creatively
speaking? And from a musicological perspective, what are the roots
of your music?
-
I would define my music as being blues and R&B with a dash of
funk. Creatively speaking, my music is a result of my natural
ability to improvise with music, whether vocally or instrumentally.
The way that I sing has been influenced by Marvin Gaye, Micheal
Jackson, Al Green, and various muezzins that I have heard making the
Azan. In a musicological sense, my music emanates right from my
spiritual connection to this world. Whatever stimulates my spirit,
whether good or bad, I sing about or play about.
Basically,
I write about my life and all of the forces present within in my
life. With respect to the cello, since conveying a message with
music that is devoid of words can be quite vague, I would say that
my instrumental music is a product of my spirit channeled through my
physical and my vocal music.
*
Who has influenced you musically?
-
Along with artists that I have already mentioned, I would have to
say that Colin Miller, a guy that I jammed with in my freshman year
of college, influenced me greatly. When I jammed with him, he used
to really feel what he was playing and I would watch him and wish I
had a connection to music like his. Then I found that connection in
singing and later on with playing the cello. I figured how to make
the music I sang and played mine.
*
What contemporary artists are you listening to now?
-
I could not list all of them because I probably could not name them
off the top of my head so I will have to say that I am listening to
different kinds of music right now – rock, hip-hop, techno, etc.
*
In the music business, everything is marketed by genre. If you were
pressed to place your music in a specific genre, what would it be?
-
If I were pressed to put my music in a category I would put myself
in R&B, since I sing and my music culturally speaks to the
African-American population.
*
You have said before that your music is personal to you and that you
don't create anything that isn't "true" or based on your
personal beliefs, values and understandings of the world around you.
Explain that more?
-
The music that I create comes straight from my spirit and is always
exactly what I feel and based on my beliefs. It just depends on if
it is vocal or instrumental. As I stated earlier I have to think
about the vocal music because the words I say are very important,
but I also come up with songs that are full of undeveloped ideas and
so I don't record them.
*
Since music is so personal to you, how does Islam impact what you
do? Is any of you music intentionally Islamically themed, or does
Islam come out in a more subtle fashion?
-
Because my music is so personal and since I constantly strive to
follow Islamic law and the Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) my music
is always in accordance with my faith mainly because my practice is
regular and any music that I make has to be consistent with my
regularity. I would say that all of my songs intentionally have
Islamic themes because my moral paradigms are based off Islam. As
for songs that praise Allah, I have only written one. Until I began
to write from what I felt spiritually I combined my love of singing
and my love of Allah with Dhikr. I admired the gospel choirs because
they worshipped Allah the way that I wanted to, but unfortunately
their idea of who God is and my idea of who God is were quite
different.
*
What themes are most prominent in your music?
-
The themes most prevalent in my music are a combination of the
feelings I have about my life and issues that exist within the
African-American community.
*
You
are currently working on an album that should be ready within the
next year. What can we expect from that and what is your overall
goal for that piece of work?
-
The album that I intend to put together will be made of up songs and
my spoken thoughts that I have recorded. I intend to introduce the
music world to a new sound and to proclaim myself as a force to be
reckoned with. I hope to bring freshness to a rather stagnant music
world that just mass-produces music with no sense of originality.
*
You have expressed interest in not only continuing to play music,
but also to produce and work on the business end of the industry.
Which part of the industry holds more interest for you and what are
your long-term aspirations?
-
I will have to say that being a performer appeals to me because I
get to directly interact with the people who I am speaking to. I
don't think that performing and producing are as chronologically
separated as I may have made them seem. I want to perform and
produce because in order to make the biggest impact I need to have
connections inside and outside of the music world. The reason I
don't produce now is because of the lack of equipment and knowledge
of that equipment. As for getting involved in the business end of
music, I feel that getting involved in it is important because it
decides the way music on a large scale is represented. In order to
be most effective I will need to also have a firm hold on money and
resources. Money gives more people the incentive to do the right
thing, not necessarily all though. For instance, if there were more
money in the black community you might see more cellists.
*
Your performance name is Serat. Explain how you arrived at that name
and how your family background and personal life have shaped who you
are as a Muslim and as a musician.
-
My stage name is Serrat which is a derivation from the name of the
Caribbean island of Montserrat. I came to this name through a desire
to separate my stage life from my regular life and to accurately
represent who I was as an individual.
All
of my life I had struggled with who I was ethnically. Throughout my
childhood I was teased about my dark skin and called
"African" and "Jamaican", but not in a positive
sense, but in a way that basically meant "you are not one of us
even though we're all black". So those terms were used as
insults and were really hurtful because they were used to ostracize
me in the only community that I wanted to be involved in.
I
went on to still think of myself as African-American, but did not
really know what it meant to be something that I was not considered
part of. When I went to junior high school I literally became
separated from the black community because I was put into the
predominantly white honors classes. School was the only time that I
was exposed to a social setting other than my family so that played
a larger role in my life than may be expected. I continued into high
school in the same predominantly white honors classes and I still
had this desire to have something that I truly felt a part of to
call myself.
Being
American meant nothing to me. There was no national religion or
official culture, so being American to me was very vague and
unspecific. Then when I was sixteen-years-old I realized that I was
half Montserratian and I discovered an identity that explained my
features and complexion and made me proud of who I was. I discovered
a specific culture to identify with. African-American culture was
too broad to me and very dependent on the area of the country that a
person lived in. As a result of all the discoveries that I made then
[as well as] last summer in Costa Rica, I adopted the name Serrat.
Also the name Serrat works really well on stage because of the
rhythmic potential that arises when Serrat is spelled out. S - E -
double R -A -T, who's that? It's that Kat Serrat.
*
When it's all said and done, what is the musical legacy you would
like to leave?
-
Isha'allah, I would like to use my role as a performer, as a
producer, and as a business man in the music world, to influence as
many people as possible and to bring as much good to the world as
possible even if I don't benefit with material wealth. I intend to
work in this fashion until I die. I once told my younger brother
that I wanted to take a chunk out of the world before I died. I
guess the chunk that I intend to take out is the evil portion.
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