Bad Habits Keep Us Warm
By: Kelly King
Tags: Music, Sound Engineer, International, Artist

(Ghassan Abdel Nour. Photo Courtesy Ester Key)

The most difficult thing for a music artist to do is to manifest the actual songs and sounds they hear inside their head onto the actual recordings. To avoid this for his album “Bad Habits Keep Us Warm”, Ghassan Abdel Nour simply did nearly everything himself. From writing and recording the songs to producing and engineering the record, Nour possesses the talent to accurately transfer his musical vision to a format that he can share with the world. Enlisting producer/sound engineer Adam Moseley (U2, Beck, The White Stripes, The Cure, KISS, Tina Turner) to assist on the sessions, the resulting recordings are a blend of musical styles which emphasize the song rather than one particular genre. Nour spends the most of his time as a music producer and sound engineer but as an accomplished musician himself, he undertook this project to exercise and test his abilities on both sides of the equation.

In the creative vein of T Bone Burnett or Peter Gabriel, Ghassan wanted to be innovative but not directly influenced by these sonically innovative artists. His goal was to write and record songs that would modernize roots/folk music. To take elements of blues, folk, country, and rock and roll and make the sound truly contemporary, it would be optimal for the artist and engineer to share the exact same vision. From inception to manifestation, Ghassan designed the sounds himself. For example, rather than utilizing a real drumkit or the popular samples so prevalent in current music, he constructed his own. Nour describes, “I decided that I would not utilize traditional drums or bass and that they would be replaced by sounds that mimic the frequency spectrum of those instruments. By doing this, you create something interesting while keeping the drive of a song intact, and at times it still even felt like there was a drum set playing. Each drum-like element (kick, snare, high hat, etc.) was built from scratch instead of using musical pre-sets. In terms of emotion, it was my intention that the whole work would have a warm and vibrant tone, as well as a theatrical or cinematic substance as opposed to ‘radio style’ music. I wanted each song to fit a certain scene, and in some cases I internally visualized the theatrical scenes first and later adapted music to fit the image I had conjured up.” The result is something that most recordings are in direct opposition to; a completely unique sound and energy. The natural cycle of music is innovation, imitation, immense popularity, over-saturation, and new innovation. Upon this course, Bad Habits Keep Us Warm seeks to set the tone for the next generation of musical artists. This all sounds grandiose for Ghassan who admits, “As a sound designer/engineer I was interested in working on an album that focused on creating and finding the most interesting and unique sounds while still maintaining the format of a coherent song. Usually one has certain guidelines to stick to when being hired for projects, I felt that only way to come up with something sonically challenging and unique was to write an entire album inspired by the idea that each element of the album has to match the standard I created for myself internally.”

Even though Ghassan was focused on discovering a new sound, he was mindful of the talents of those who have been a part of successes which preceded his work. As both a sound engineer and an artist, Nour credits acclaimed engineer and producer Adam Moseley with playing a huge role in the realization of “Bad Habits Keep Us Warm.” He refers to Moseley as a renaissance painter layering sounds in a three-dimensional manner that transports one to a different world. When describing the final forms of the project, Ghassan proclaims, “I feel it’s very important to strive to create something personal rather than just recreating what others have done. You should take pride in your own originality and strive for the best you can achieve. Accomplishing this goal was incredibly satisfying, as well as the recognition. This record was my mind in digital form. It is always amazing to have one’s vision become reality.”

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