Dubai’s Night Owl: A different kind of sound in the city’s quietest hours
Dubai singer-songwiter Maya Waked trades volume for intimacy in genre-fluid nocturnes
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Three words that describe your sound.
Emotional, familiar, positive.
Night owl or sunrise writer?
Both. The nights are very creative but it's also thanks to my early morning routine.
Arabic lyric or French lyric that still gives you goosebumps?
Je t’aime.
Jazz improvisation or perfectly structured melody?
Rehearsed melody.
A song of yours that feels most like home.
Helmi Ghanilak Bi Beirut.
One city that changed the way you hear music.
Beirut, of course.
Studio lights low or full daylight session?
Love the studio vibes.
The instrument you wish you could master overnight.
Kanun.
A musical influence people would be surprised by.
Russian folk.
Silence between beats, intentional or instinctive?
Instinctive.
What does Dubai sound like to you at 2am?
High music in a car ride after a performance.
Arabic maqam or Bossa Nova rhythm, which pulls you in faster?
Bossa Nova with oriental instrument.
The hardest part about staying authentic.
Resisting trends.
One tradition from your heritage you carry into every performance.
Speaking to the audience with my own language.
If your music were a mood, what would it be called?
Cheerful.
Do you write better from memory or from longing?
My memories are my big inspiration.
The first language you ever sang in.
Lebanese dialect (Arabic).
A note you chase every time you perform live.
The high note.
Minimal production or lush orchestration if you had to choose one forever?
Depends on the piece but I tend to like acoustic intimate orchestration.
When the lights dim at a venue, what shifts inside you first?
I imagine the smile of everyone in the audience.
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