#thank u cinemalamet on twt for helping with the translation <3

[taminoarticles]

— Tamino for Libération, 2018 (x) (Original French text)

Tamino, Amir do you hear...

Still unknown last year, the young Belgian singer of Egyptian origin wants to be circumspect in the face of the announced success.

by Gilles Renault, photo Marleen Daniels for “Liberation”published on October 26, 2018 at 5:06 p.m.(updated at 6:10 p.m.)

To well-born souls, value not waiting for the number of years, here comes another Belgian kid knocking at the door of musical fame. The Walloon Infanta Angèle, barely hatched in the light song department for children, likely to titillate the grown-ups, makes way for Tamino, 22, an indifferently Flemish - and mixed-blood - replica of a strong magnitude within an industry in perpetual quest for fresh flesh.

As recently as last year, the three syllables only referred to the Oriental Prince of The Magic Flute, a Mozartian hero pursued by a snake and saved by the Queen of the Night who, in return, commissions him to fly to the aid of her daughter. However, by the grace of the nickname connoted, the obliging ephebe becomes, in 2018, one of the most serious hopes of the European pop scene, ready to capsize the choirs.

A hundred and eighty-eight centimeters of haughty youth, swaddled in an endless black sweater (and unwearable, for a quidam) branded Ann Demeulemeester, matching the flagrant charm of a dark romanticism à la Louis Garrel, Amir Moharam Fouad wears handsome with his left ear ring. But does not seem to make much of it, in the art-deco house surrounded by greenery of the maternal grandparents, where he gives audience on his land, in Antwerp, a few days before the international release of a much awaited first album "based on a harmonious blend of oppositions, hot - cold, bright - dark, western - eastern…”.

Indeed, for months in Belgium first, then in France and elsewhere, all the halls and festivals (Printemps de Bourges, Rock en Seine, Montreux) have been rolling out the red carpet in front of the steep romanticism of the precocious English-speaking prodigy. Germinated in the spring, a song, Habibi, was enough to raise the temperature, an embrocation steeped in spleen, climbing so cheerfully in the treble that it revived this flame once fanned by the late Jeff Buckley - to stick to a filiation which he cannot escape. Since then, the fever has not gone down.

Sitting on a big gym ball behind the grandfather's desk, the neo-crooner deceives it without hesitation, while taking care to maintain the private sphere within a security perimeter: it will be necessary to be satisfied with the minimum service - "a girlfriend, for a long time" - in the taste buds department. Just as the hypothesis of a meeting at home was politely dismissed, on the grounds that the Antwerp apartment into which he moved a year ago hardly represents him, fault, already caught up in the whirlwind of concerts and the recording of the disc, to have had time to open all the boxes.

Conversely, Tamino rightly feels at home in the home of Lucas and “Nonna” Gerda, affectionate ancestors who still brood over the infant whose sleepless hours were brushed with Mozart. The little boy who “transformed the living room into a place of theatrical performance”. The child "often in his bubble who, eager for reading, promised to one day transform into films the stories that captivated him". Then the teenager who, having no Christmas present to offer his grandmother, "went to her room for an hour, writing her a song at a moment's notice" - whose framed manuscript is now hanging on the wall.

Going back in the annals, we come across another Moharam Fouad who, on stage, once caused syncope. Adored actor and prolific singer (his track record counts 900 tunes), the roucouleur who died in 2002 was one of the Egyptian figures of the golden age of Arabic song, in the 60s and 70s. Dogs don't make cats; Tamino has a deep respect for his paternal grandfather, whose guitar he now uses like a talisman; while specifying to have been especially marked, child, by the melodic unction of John Lennon, or the considerations on the life, the love and the friendship of the Prophet, of the Lebanese author Khalil Gibran.

“If I have a role to play today, it's that of a unifier through my music. A large part of the evils that overwhelm our society comes from the ignorance that generates these prejudices fueling rejection and racism", extrapolates the "citizen of the world", not stingy with clichés for which he apologizes, while praising a spirituality kindly abstruse, based on a transcendence that defies monotheisms.

Growing up in a land where the Vlaams Belang - the Flemish far-right party - is fanning the embers of intolerance, Tamino - who, due to his young age, won't vote for the first time in his life until next year , to the municipal ones - prefers to appeal to the weighting. “Certainly, with my head and my name, I know that in the event of a random identity check, in a crowd, it will undoubtedly fall on me. But to be frank, I must admit that I have never had to suffer from discrimination for all that”, assures the ephebe, born of a Belgian mother, anthropologist, and an Egyptian father working today in events, who separate when he is just 3 years old - and his little brother has just been born (two half-brothers will follow, one on each side).

Retaining the "friendliness and open-mindedness" of the first, and the "humor" of the second - a moment lost sight of and today requalified as an excellent "friend" - Tamino assures, as far as he remembers, always wanting to be an artist. Even though the study of languages and behavioral sciences do not leave the high school student indifferent, music is indeed very quickly imposed on his eyes - and his ears - as the "most natural way of expressing himself". The shyness overcome at the conservatory of Amsterdam, where he will perfect his scales at the age of 17, Tamino nevertheless continues to appreciate this loneliness which, in the past, encouraged him to "stay two hours hidden reading under the desk of the grandfather". Or to take refuge in phantasmagoria, at this age when, ordinarily, boys seriously begin to stare at girls.

"Still today, isolation is not displeasing to me, and I know very well how to adapt to silence", certifies the seed of star, whose sincerity does not seem subject to caution. Without this preventing him from adding, a little later in the exchange, that he would see no incompatibility therewith with the fact of "becoming the new Bono". A brazenness that hastens to defuse an ingenuous smile, pushing away the still distant specter of disappointed hopes.

October 24, 1996 Born in Mortsel (Belgium).

2017 Release of the song Habibi in Belgium and first big concert, at the Werchter festival.

October 19, 2018 Release of the album Amir.

November 19 Concert at the Café de la danse (full).

[sophaeros]

— Tamino for Rolling Stone France (x)

English translated text under the cut:

Tamino “Launching Thought Lines"

Discovery of the year in 2018, thanks to an unstoppable single, the songwriter from Antwerp returns with a new, even more original opus. Interview.

By BELKACEM BAHLOULI - Photo ALEKSEI BENUCHI

TAMINO PREFERS TO MAKE his own path and let his music do the talking. In terms of music, precisely, if we oscillate between pop, rock, folk and oriental influences, finding a classification for it would be nonsense. He loves music, musics. All. “We tried to find a label, to compare myself, nothing helped,” laughs the singer from Antwerp. Whether he has a guitar or an oud in his hands, the artist remains the same, he sings, clearly, with passion, composed, thoughtful and with a unique natural grace. Admittedly, music is a family affair for the grandson of Muharram Fouad, a famous Egyptian singer, but regardless of his origins, the universalist aims of the songwriter are clear, he speaks to everyone. With elegance.

⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯

Your new album Sahar, presents a very thoughtful, very natural production and, although remaining in the spirit of the previous one, already brings a kind of renewal...

It's quite different in my opinion. And if, on the music side, we stay in the same atmospheres, I have evolved a lot in the writing of the texts. And above all, for the first time, I really focused on the vocal assonances, that each word could generate its own melody, its own sound transforming into an instrument, while trying not to lose the meaning of the original text. It's a very long job, but it's really exciting. The goal was not fluidity, just music.

Your texts have matured...

They are very well elaborated because, with the pandemic, I had time ahead of me to achieve the result I expected. These new songs are more thought out, more thoughtful than on my previous work. And, as you mention it, I feel like I made my first album a hundred years ago, it's so far away, and it has the same effect on me every time I listen to it. But it allowed to launch avenues of reflection, I am no longer the same, I improved my working techniques and I think that we feel the consequence directly in this disc.

You live in Antwerp, Belgium…

And that's why I sing in English! (Laughs) My French is really not very good… I grew up in Belgium, and I have Egyptian and Lebanese origins, which also explains the presence of oriental sounds, like my oud, in my music. I grew up listening to Arabic as well as classical music and, of course, rock and pop; and I always stay connected to these musics. You know, I love Leonard Cohen, who is one of my main influences, but there are so many others, especially from across the Mediterranean. Even if I have a certain attachment to artists, it is more their music that fascinates me before their personality. Well, Cohen aside! I devoured his biography, written by Sylvie Simmons, a real literary treat, and probably, in my eyes, the best book ever written about him. Clearly, the work comes first.

We've seen you play in groups as well as solo, in Paris, Belgium or Quebec… Do you have a preference?

Ah, it's not at all the same exercise, the repertoire varies, but I readjust. There, in a few days, I'm going on a tour of the United States, before returning to Paris. I leave with my guitar and my oud and I tour solo in small venues. Then, of course, it will be with the group for the next dates at the Trianon. But, overall, I don't really change my style; and I am comfortable whatever the formula. Still, in small venues, you see people's faces and sometimes that intimidates me, whereas in large venues, it's more anonymous!

“Even if I have a certain attachment to artists, it is more their music that fascinates me before their personality. Well, Cohen aside!”

Have you given yourself a career plan?

We have dreams, goals, but also the reality of facts: the creative power over which we have no control. I don't have any crazy career dreams actually. Just doing what I love, but I never say to myself “I want to do that” and therefore produce a certain type of album. I don't work with a slew of producers looking to plan my career, so I just go with it. There, today, with this new album I have reached a certain point and let's see where all this will take me!