21 Questions with Amman’s Big Murk

It did kinda start there - I’ve been playing drums since I was 11, but a couple of years later, I found out about electronic music (I was listening to alot of Skrillex and Aphex Twin), and I remember discovering that you need DJ decks and a mixer to make electronic music. 

I eventually figured out I needed to get some DAW software, and downloaded a very Ipad-esque “music making” app on my laptop. It was one of those where you just select ready-made loops and piece them together. I made a Facebook page and convinced two of my friends to join me and we became a group. We made like four tracks on that app, before getting into FL Studio (<33333!!)

At that point I was starting to create pretty regularly, and I transitioned into purely making trap beats.  I dropped a full length album recorded in my closet with one of my friends as a duo act, before producing three tracks on an EP by grime MC’s Saskilla and Ten Dixon. 

Later on I connected with Haykal (A Palestinian artist), he was the first rapper from the regional scene to hop on one of my beats. The track we collaborated on is called “Tisal,” and I consider that to be my first proper introduction to the world as a producer. I made that beat when I was about 16.

Big Murk

To this day I work with a mouse and qwerty keyboard. I play better keys on a typing keyboard than a midi controller or sumn like that, I’d love to get some gear ASAP though.

When I got into it early, everyone was older than me. A lot of my friends who were musicians or DJs used to warn me about not letting anybody son you or try to claim you under their label/collective cause I was eager to work, and I feel like I kinda overdid it at the time. I ended up not taking no chat from nobody, which was a lil ignorant but saved me from a lot of BS still.

When I was really young though I had a music teacher at school who I learned a lot of musicality and discipline from, she had been teaching and directing the school band for like 25 years. I've never been yelled at so much by one person; she made me a better drummer and musician in general and if it weren't for her, I'd still be drumming/spitting off beat, so shoutout Ms. Johnson.

In middle school I listened to Odd Future a lot, as well as grime legends like D Double E, Skepta, Wiley. I had a super hardcore MF DOOM fan phase in high school, I even got a tattoo of the mask.

The lack of infrastructure for musicians and artists can really be a huge “inspiration-killer” for us, but at the same time because we are only a select few that create this type of music, it's been relatively rewarding because it didn't take long for me to start building a name for myself. I feel like if I lived in a big city where there's a huge number of people doing the same thing, I might have not felt as heard and maybe got discouraged in my earlier stages. It's also dope that we all know each other and collaborate quite often.

I think the relative emptiness of Amman in terms of musicians (not to take away anything from the handful of extremely talented artists we have) has given me and fellow artists alot more freedom cuz there's less to compare to or use as reference. We don't have many pretentious or snobby people, or “art school kids” typa people, so I think that's a good thing. There's less worry about how your sound will fit in or be received - at the cost of a more limited audience of course - but that's fine by me for now.

Also, because of border customs, good gear is really hard to get your hands on; this led me to get comfy with a “no-gear” setup.

I was lucky enough to have my own laptop since I was very young. I was able to develop a distinct taste thanks to endless unmonitored Youtube browsing since I was in 6th grade. I was also extremely lucky to have my own drum set, and go to band practice after school for a good seven years - it gave me enough background knowledge to get into music production without too much of a learning curve. 

My father was the first person to show me Hip-Hop - which was the first genre that I really remember being inspired by. He played a lot of early 2000’s R&B as well. I have videos of me in diapers dancing to a Lil’ Kim track playing on the TV.  I also remember being obsessed with the track “How We Do” by The Game, rewinding it over and over in his car (he had a bootleg CD full of tracks like that).

I was already very obsessed with Rap, then in 2015 I stumbled across a BBK grime set. I was initially drawn to it because of how hype the crowd was, it was fast and high intensity, the beats were so different - so much more bouncy, and it was so satisfying how the DJ was switching between different beats while the MCs were spitting. Every time a new beat came in or the next MC got the mic, it was so satisfying and exciting,  plus hearing a UK accent for a change was kinda refreshing.

I try to make one beat every single day, and at the same time too, around 6-7 pm. Some days I do three in a day and sometimes I don't get on the laptop for weeks. I used to start every beat by digging for a sample first, but in more recent years I've been levelling up my composition skills, after I figured out finger patterns for the laptop keyboard for certain go-to chords. I’ve been really into emo-type melodies with many layers lately, you'll hear a lot of that on my instrumental album when it drops.

I make the hardest beats when I have a ton of work to do and shouldnt be making beats. For some reason feeling like I'm low on time. Like if I have two hours left to study an exam that I never prepared for and I hop on FL, it's over. I make the most fire shit possible.

The artist I work with the most frequently is Amman-based rapper RKNDDN - that's my brother. Working with him is easy coz we’re very similar in taste and he's one of my closest friends and one of the first people I worked with. Making music with somebody you know is quite different, also nobody spits like him.

Chemistry between the collaborators as well as honesty, if something is ass you should just say it straight away so you can move on to the next idea.

“Gasolina,” but also “Galab” w/ Haykal, there's a bunch of tracks I'm super proud of but I haven’t released yet - a lot of instrumental shit.

I don't wanna be considered a rapper; I only plan on recording my own vocals once every now and then, because I want it to be more like a special occasion type thing. I do MC over beats live more often lately though, I have a couple verses that ppl know but I rarely ever record them onto tracks and put them out. 

The main reason I say I’m not a rapper is bcoz i dont really have much to say…  out loud. For me i'm just tryna come up with interesting flows and spray for fun, and also being a rapper can be kinda cringe.

I think I can say I make really hot drum patterns, bounce is everything...

I definitely associate certain sounds to certain colours, but that's pretty much it.

Toumba, Taymour, Al Nather, Julmud, Shbash, 1800s Internet, Ratchopper, and Feddini.

RXKNephew - Today

Jammz - Fi Real

PNGWNG - Fesh Eshi Na2sek

An Armenian pianist , Tigran Hamasyan, one of the craziest I've ever heard play the piano, very forward thinking and does serious rhythm tricks.

I'm really good at cooking :)

Don’t talk too much.

I have an EP with RKNDDN, a solo instrumental album, another more clubby solo EP, more tracks w/ Haykal, Abul3ees, Shbash, Mehrak & more, a remix i did for Korea Town Acid & Raf Reza, a handful of features for VA compilation albums and a couple tracks here and there that I'd rather keep secret for now.