Hythum El Sayyad
By Darlene Donloe
Music fills
Hythum El Sayyad’s soul.
It fills every
part of the singer/songwriter/musician’s life.
It’s
all-consuming, and he’d have it no other way. He lives it. He breathes it. He
eats it for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
His passion for
music can be heard on his latest EP project, Beyond The Plains, currently available on iTunes and Spotify. An EP (short for
extended play) is a musical recording that contains more tracks than a single, but is usually unqualified as
an album or LP. In this case it’s five.
The 27-year-old Bloomington, Indiana native of Egyptian descent, not only wrote
and sang the five songs on the EP, he also played all of the instruments.
His music is his
own. It’s alternative hip hop. It’s soul. It’s pop rock. It’s fused with Latin
and Middle Eastern beats. It’s his. It’s the world’s.
Although he’s
clearly marching down a path toward stardom, Hythum’s road hasn’t always been
paved with gold.
When he initially
moved to Los Angeles from Indiana, Hythum, whose name means ‘young eagle’ in
Arabic, actually lived in his car for a month before bunking with a friend for
several months until he was able to find his own digs. He’s now called Los
Angeles home for a year.
Undeterred by
that situation Hythum, who is single, never allowed his circumstances to get in
the way of his passion. Steadfast in his resolve to make music, he just continued
to make music by playing his guitar while living in his car.
Over the years
Hythum, who won a competition called Rhyme
Against Crime (raising awareness for gun violence), was the lead singer in
a band called Protocol. He was also in a
band called Apollo Quad, which opened for artists like Snoop Dogg, Ying Yang
Twins, Bone, Thugs N Harmony and more. Now, he’s on his own creating music that
will take him and his audience on a melodic voyage.
In conversation
with him, it doesn’t take long to realize just how zealous Hythum is about
music. His joy is palpable. His
enthusiasm is infectious. His voice seems to smile as he talks about his
musical journey. Beyond the Plains is his sophomore EP. The first single, Disappear, is on SoundCloud. Last
February he released his debut EP called Schematics,
now available on iTunes and Spotify. It boasts the songs Supply and Demand, Groove, Death Dealers,
Dawn and Think Less, Live More.
I recently
caught up with Hythum to talk about Beyond
The Plains and how he plans to continue to make sweet music.
Hythum El Sayyad
DD: Tell me
about Beyond the Plains. Why the title?
H: The EP is mostly about me moving to California.
I named it because it’s about why I made the move and how passion can be a
vessel for anything you want to do in life.
I love it here.
DD: What can people
expect to hear on the EP?
H: The EP is very interesting. I wrote all the music
and played all the instruments (keyboards, guitar and bass). It was a process.
It took a while. It’s a lot of jazz influence and blues and hip hop. There is a
little bit of everything.
DD: As a
songwriter how do you go about writing your material?
H: When I write
a song I don’t have anything in mind. I just write it and see what happens.
DD: How long did
it take to complete the EP?
H: This one was
about six months. I moved to a studio with no TV or Internet and I just wrote.
I had a lot of time. I played keyboards.
I lived in my car the first month. Then I moved in with a friend. I only had my
guitar so I played while in the car. When
I moved here I knew one person. For me - when you love something and are
passionate you can do anything. The only reason I did that was because no one
would sign a lease with me. I had to go get a job first.
DD: What was
your first job here?
H: I worked at Fridays in Inglewood. It was the one Magic Johnson used to
own. I worked there for about a year. Actually
it was about nine months. I was with a
friend for three months and saved enough money to get own place.
DD: What is
alternative hip hop?
H: I coined my
music as that because when they hear hip hop they think of something different.
I don’t use synthetic instruments. I use all live instruments.
DD: One of your
songs is called Disappear. In the song are the lyrics – “We are lonely
creatures.” There is also a line that says: “I am the darkness that lurks
outside the fire. I refuse to need you.”
H: Yeah, that’s
my favorite line.
DD: Do you
really think we’re all lonely creatures?
H: Well, I
didn’t mean it as a whole general people. It’s about me and the person I wrote
the song about.
DD: Does she
know you wrote a song about her?
H: No, she
doesn’t know.
DD: How many songs did you start off with and how
did you narrow it down to the five tracks on the EP?
H: I had eight. There were a couple people I
trusted and got feedback from. Between that and sitting down and listening to the
songs over and over again, I see what hits.
DD: Why not
eight?
H: I feel like
eight is a strange number. I’m releasing songs individually.
DD: You’re also
a songwriter. Describe how you write a
song. Do you sing it into your phone. Do you always have pen and paper? Do you have to be alone?
H: So much can
affect songwriting. It can change. You don’t want to write it for the wrong
reasons. You have to listen to what you feel so you can get something more
organic. I have a Mac and I have Logic. I have a home recording setup. I turn
my phone off and sit there. I take a couple of hours and just be quiet and see
if anything happens. Home recording is the best thing to happen to me.
DD: What is it about Arabic music that you
like? What is the biggest difference
between it and American music?
H: I don’t have too much of a palate of Arabic
music. The music is very different. American music has a lot more going on, I
guess. Arabic music is very refreshing. It has less factors in their music that
affect it. In American culture there is so much that goes into it with your
image and social media sites getting all mucked up in it.
DD: You say your music promotes unity and honesty
– in what way does it do that?
H: I just think
that in hip hop there is a lot of bragging that isn’t real. I want to make
humble hip hop that isn’t fake. I’ve always tried to have a strong message to
promote people to stand up for their passions and to get what they want out of
life. If it wasn’t for music I don’t know how I would connect with people.
DD: Could you live
without music?
H: I don’t think
I could. Nothing wrong with living a life of buying things. I just can’t do it.
All the cars and stuff doesn't matter to me. I have to have passion and a goal
to wake me up in the morning. I wake up to my passion.
DD: What is it about music? What does it do for you?
H: You find
yourself. For me it was self-realization. It has shown me who I am. It has
given me an identity. I look inwards. Concur yourself from within and you can
see the world for what it is.
DD: Describe
your style?
H: I would say my music is a jazzy soulful hip
hop. It’s just kind of a reflection of the music I grew up on. I grew up on B.B.
King, Stevie Ray Vaughn and Stevie Wonder.
DD: Did you
discover those artists through your parents?
H: I discovered
it on my own. Well, my mom is a huge B.B. King fan. She turned me on to B.B.
DD: How did you develop your sound?
H: I used to be
in the band for five years. It had rock and hip hop and elements of jazz. Then
I went solo. I sat down at a keyboard and I thought ‘what do I want to sound
like?’ I just sat around and I wrote a song called Dawn. I thought, ‘This is what I want.’ I want something people can feel.
DD: What has
following your passion taught you?
H: It has been the
hardest path I could have possibly taken. No doubting that. Sometimes you don’t
get the respect you want. And sometimes no one cares - to be honest. If you
care about it, it matters – even if no one else does. You can’t give up that.
DD: What has following
your passion cost you?
H: Everything. I
mean, but to me I see it as I owe music. It gives me a purpose. Why would I not
sacrifice everything? There is no price on what it has given me. It’s the best
thing you could possibly get.
DD: Did you have
a Plan B in case music didn’t work out?
H: I didn’t have a Plan B. Honestly, there was a
time when I felt scared about my life. That’s why I tried to do college. I did
one semester. It felt like I was cheating and giving up on my dream. I felt
horrible. I gotta sacrifice myself to this. Merit is in trying.
Hythum El
Sayyad’s music can be found on SoundCloud, iTunes and Spotify.
For more
information: hythummusic.com
