Art, nature and humanity as immensity in the search for inspiration

AMMAN — Sufian Assaid still remembers "the first guitar my dad brought to the house. Nobody knew how to play and that is when I decided to learn"; he would then go on to establish himself as a musician playing bass guitar in 2002. اضافة اعلان

"My first musical projects were playing metal and heavy metal. We dreamed of touring the world and being the next Megadeth, but it did not happen," he told Jordan News.

"Being a musician by profession is not well received, and therefore it is difficult to make a living out of it," said Assaid, adding that to survive in the music industry, in Jordan, musicians come up with projects, but hardly consolidate bands with a long history, like Autostrad.


(Photo:Handout from Sufian Assaid)

"I went back to making music with a group of friends and it was a project for joy," said Assaid, who returned to playing bass for the lineup "Luis and the Amigos", where they experimented with folk and dance harmony.

"This band was all about interacting with the audience. They do not care about musical composition, just having a good time, but that did not stop us as a band from having amazing four years, concluding with the return of the vocalist to Spain," he said.

This experience helped Assaid grow as a musician; he returned to the stage in 2021 as part of the Musiqa 3al Daraj lineup, playing with musician Kamal Musallam.

"It was time to do something that would make me a better musician. I had an idea for a bass line, I have always been interested in odd time signatures, so I was with my friends from the band Luis and the Amigos, and we started jamming," said Assaid. They would soon start working for a musical project called "Shams", a jazz fusion band that will release its first full-length project in 2022.


(Photo: Handout from Sufian Assaid)

According to Assaid, the music scene in Jordan is going through a time of transition.

"There is hope for new bands, there is room for music," said this musician for whom "if you pay attention, everything around you is part of music: the heartbeat, the sound of the fan, and the bit you hear in the background."

Growing up in a middle-class family, he grew desiring a better life.

"My family could not afford to pay for my education, so I started looking for scholarships to pursue my higher education," said Assaid, who graduated in the field of accounting.

"That was not the profession I desired, but along the way, I found the elements that encouraged me to do wonderful things, things that conveyed something in my life," he said, adding that "I am attempting to give life purpose. I have always been exposed to art, sports, and nature. I knew I had to keep trying things that made me feel alive."

Working in accounting, he recognized that this was not what he really wanted, and unexpectedly found himself in the humanitarian field.


(Photo:Handout from Sufian Assaid)

"I started volunteering at the Princess Basma Youth Resource Center in 2009. Being exposed to the conditions, seeing the way some people lived in Jordan made me reconsider so many things. I wanted to look for a solution to the things I witnessed," said Assaid, who continued to work on projects at the Jordan River Foundation, as well as for the Madrasati Initiative (which helps develop public schools in Jordan).

Assaid started being more attuned to the atmosphere around him, and went into extreme sports.

"I was part of the National Cycling Team, I was diving, and I was a mountaineering and climbing instructor. It was crazy," said Assaid, who would one day be hired for the UNESCO “Siq Stability Project” to climb the rocks in Petra and install new security systems in the area.

"That was a real dream. I was one of five climbers who climbed inside the protected city reaching places that no one had seen before, and places that I was the only human to reach after the Nabateans," he said with great delight.


Read more Music