Growing up in Saudi Arabia, big parties were a rarity. We usually had small get-togethers at someone’s private compound or villa with our beloved local DJs (who weren’t the greatest to be fair), but hey, it did the job. Fast-forward nearly seven years later, and suddenly Saudi Arabia is going through an “artistic renaissance”, as MDLBEAST’s Chief Creative Officer Baloo likes to describe it.
MDLBEAST arrived onto the scene to historic effect in 2019 as the first-ever organisation dedicated to properly enhancing the music and event sector in the kingdom. These private events began seeing the light of day as MDLBEAST hosted two mega-festivals since inception featuring international megastars, whilst spotlighting local artists on the line-ups who finally found the support they needed. The inaugural festival gathered more than 400,000 attendees with the sequel amassing nearly double that figure with a crowd of 720,000 in 2021.
MDLBEAST has also created ‘XP Music Futures’, a first-of-its-kind conference in the region, gathering leading industry figures to address vital music topics whilst supporting and educating Saudi musicians, producers, engineers, party promoters, event organisers, and nearly anyone involved in the music process on everything they need to know to grow in their space.
The conference holds talks, discussions, and workshops on different aspects of the business and infrastructural side of music such as PR, journalism, management, artistic direction, masters, royalties and more. Last year’s speakers included the likes of Swizz Beatz, Steve Aoki, Afrojack, NWA’s Arabian Prince and Tamtam. This year’s edition, over the course of three days at Jax, Diryah in Riyadh, will host the likes of music executive, artist manager, and author Mathew Knowles (yes, as in Beyonce Knowles’ dad), Palestinian-Chillean superstar Elyanna, artist and label owner Hardwell, and Saudi Arabia’s first female DJ Cosmicat, amongst many others. (SceneNoise will also be hosting several activations, panels and events during the course of the conference, so stay tuned for that).
This year, in the lead up to XP, the ‘Xchange’ series commenced - an opportunity for selective industry leaders to get together and discuss ways to improve the music ecosystem in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East, identifying hot topics that will stay relevant later on to discuss during XP. The first event was hosted in Jeddah back in June, with the second being held in Riyadh in September, focusing on sustainability, well-being and diversity. The latest Xchange was hosted in Dubai this October.
SceneNoise was invited to the pre-conference workshop during the second Xchange in Riyadh, in which I was assigned the task of joining the discussion on further legalising the music scene in Saudi Arabia. It had been nearly four years since I had to evoke my Saudi residency, and knowing that I’ll be back in Saudi Arabia for this conference gave me an unexplainable joy that I left the country as a student and I’ll be returning as a music journalist at the place where I was brought up and spent nearly my entire life in. I didn’t know what to expect but I knew that I had the right background information and context given that I was part of the “illegal underground party scene” in Jeddah back in the day.
The key points we discussed were the importance of music education and its accessibility, the opportunities for governments to support through scholarships, policies as well as licensing and permits, the need for music business management skills and mentorship programmes, the significance of having more music venues to increase artists’ followership, the lack of qualified talent managers in the region and their importance to build a career in music. Before the event kicked off, I found myself surrounded by multiple journalists, DJs and artists, with everyone geeking over various aspects of the scene.
The workshop kicked off with a session of ‘Ignite Talks’ with prominent personalities offering their experience to debate the legalisation of the music scene in Saudi Arabia including co-founder of Travelling Panther and TTP Retreats Princess Fahda Bandar Abdullah Al Saud, co-founder & partner of LYMM Bandar Al Tunisi, director of music & talent at MDLBEAST RECORDS Matthew Dicks and operations manager of MDLBEAST Rayan AlRasheed. Princess Fahda and Al Tunsi handled the discussion on the legality of organising events, whilst Dicks and AlRasheed discussed their expertise in curation and organisation given their roles at MDLBEAST.
“It’s just natural as a Saudi to want people to come in and experience my country and be able to give them the best possible experience”, Princess Fahda explained on the nation’s new found embrace of public parties and commercialising events to locals and internationals to attend, rather than keeping them hidden underground.
Matthews Dicks on the other hand discussed the change in music genres as politics criminalise or decriminalise the music scene. “The lifecycle of sounds tends to change as things become more commercialised,” Dicks said. “You can’t push your brand too public”.
Midway through the workshop, I had the chance to talk with MDLBEAST’s Chief Creative Officer and resident DJ, Baloo, to further explore the goals the music behemoth’s hope to achieve, as well as his humble beginnings within the Saudi scene. Baloo was the type of kid to collect records rather than toys and hand out mixtapes to his schoolmates (in other words, the type of friend I’d prefer having around). Baloo was one of the main founders of MDLBEAST’s monstrous festival ‘Soundstorm’ when he was approached to work on the branding and concept of the festival.
Baloo began DJing back in 1995, when he moved to the US to pursue his undergraduate degree. “Honestly, I never looked at this as a career. It was always a passion for me,” he shared. A typical story for most of his generation who are often led towards other more socially or culturally accepted professions. “As much as I would love to have a full career in music, having this role at MDLBEAST is honestly a lot more inspiring for me. Why worry about one career when you can create thousands, right?”
His humility and sense of humour made conversation with him seamless throughout the festivities. “If it doesn't come from passion, it's not authentic and it's going to show,” Baloo added. “Your audience needs to see your passion and your authenticity, and that comes through when you are someone who is very passionate about what you do.”
Baloo was also one of the people who witnessed Saudi during the underground party days. “Honestly, for us, it's becoming more of a personal thing, like it told me what my life purpose is, you know?” Baloo shared. “Having played behind closed doors all that time. Like the way I see it, whatever we're doing today is going to support the 20 year old artist that's looking for this, looking at this as a career and that's something I couldn't have when I was 20, so that's how I'm treating it. If I had started in my education, I would've learned music production. I would've taken a different path, so I want to make sure that that path is available for the younger musicians in Saudi and the region.”
Following this enlightening chat, we were grouped into four groups, with each group taking rounds in discussing four different topics: How do emerging event organisers need to be prepared for organising parties safely for their quests, and the scene at large? What are the current obstacles to organising parties in Saudi? How do we maintain the authenticity of the scene as policies and measures are implemented? How does a party permit enable the music scene to expand?
We took turns at each table opening up problems and solutions that face each of these issues, and how we can collectively work on each of them. The night was brought to a finish with three electrifying performances as Saudi spinners Bluepaper and Agha along with Egyptian producer and DJ Fulltone offered their eclectic selections to end the XChange workshop with a bang.
XP Futures 2022 will be taking place at Jax, Diryah, Riyad from 28th-30th November.
For full line-up and tickets click here.
