His work is as teeming as his personality. There were no dull moments. The stories ‑ from rats to riches - poured out even before the enjoyably unguarded Q&A began. For a man of his stature, offering to carry the crew's gears was admirable. "We got this. We'll treat you like the star you are," musivv founder Marcus candidly said in denying Rayan his chance to suit up as a musivv crew. To which he replied, "We are all one!"
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backstage
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musivv.com’s digital magazine dedicated to honoring the men and women behind the stars.
march 2021
“Don't overcomplicate it. The rest is what they have in mind
backstage
Rayan
Bailouni
On The Right Track
Hit-maker Rayan Bailouni's boutique studio in Tecom acts as a chemistry lab where his masterpiece concoctions are formulated at strict high standards. Surprise would be a given if extreme caution is observed upon entry to disintegrate an individual's audio dysfunction. Plastered with acoustic panels, one would notice the frames of accomplished records from when he started his music production journey and the blank spaces that would soon be filled with more.
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As a musician, he is an all-out head-banging rock and metal fanatic. But in contrast to the dissonant and the chaotic sounds of what he mostly produces with his local (and sporadic) band Coat Of Arms, Rayan expanded his horizon by dipping his creative hands in the larger pool of R&B and Hip Hop. He considered the region's supply and demand for the said genre an open door to explore instead of a creative-killing limitation.
We are all one!
Collab
Collaboration is one route he is keen on taking - and has taken - and talks no opprobrium of. His earnest dream to bring the city closer together through music exhumes following his sentiments. Eyes lit up in recalling 'Divine' as his most memorable project spending time in the studio with the UAE's big names. "We have Menon, Freek and Mohflow talking about how they started and where they're gonna be. All of these guys ended up where they said they're going to be which is crazy!"
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Rayan metaphorically states that the local music scene is like a 3-year old toddler in the dynamic cycle of life. While the rest of the Western musical world has already reached adulthood, "because UAE is such a young country" he believes the learning stage for the entire music industry is vital to reaching its full potential. "You wanna try everything. Anything you see in the shop you pick it up, you try, you play with it." There are hurdles inevitably while going through the process of evolving as an industry. He remains optimistic. "I don't think we have a problem [as an industry] that can't be solved in time."
You wanna try everything
The tension between making a song sound astonishingly profound and allowing an artist to bloom in the process is always at the back of Rayan's creative mind. It's the tug-of-war between a Ferrari and a Charger truck. One performs exceptionally well on speed and the other on strength and power. "If anything you're doing is blocking the singer or artist like they're fighting the song to feel it, then you never get a good song out of it." It's a producer's task to see both the beauty of a Ferarri and the strength of a Charger truck. Bailouni knows that well. And it's safe to say that artists who desire to work with him know that he knows.
In a saturated arena of music producers, his name stands out when it comes to delivering relevant-sounding records in the UAE's local independent music scene. With 400 - and counting - songs produced since his first record production stint in 2016, Rayan Bailouni also known as Rayan Producer is on the right track in becoming the country's sought-after producer. 