The main objective of the WorldTempus Tour was to put a bunch of creative people together with different watches and see what could be created. So far, it has been an amazing experience. In the media, we tend to focus on articles, photos, and videos and the music comes as an afterthought, but for our week in Saint-Tropez, we wanted the music to also be part of the story. You may not have seen Youssef Negm’s name on our masthead, but he has created the music for many of our videos. We were delighted to have him join us in Saint-Tropez to play and create music for us and our visiting brands.
When did your love of music begin?
I got my first guitar when I was 10 years old. It was my parents’ idea. I had been interested in music as a concept and something to listen to a lot more than others around me, so I guess that inspired them. From a very young age, I was sort of pirating and downloading music and figuring out ways to make new music.
Do you play any other instruments?
I base everything around the guitar, but I do own a lot of instruments. A lot of them are strings as well, so the ukulele, acoustic and electric guitar, and I have a harmonica and a flute too, so I dabble with a lot of things. And I would like to say that nowadays production and using software is an instrument in itself.
How did you start composing?
For me, it started because I was just trying to have fun with new instruments and find new sounds. What really opened my eyes to composition was the music in video games. I would sit in my room and just listen to soundtracks from a lot of Japanese video games which really inspired me. That is what really set me on this path.
How does the creative process work for music?
Every project is different, which can make things very difficult because you don’t really know when that spark is going to hit. I can be sitting at my laptop for three hours just messing around and then finally the work starts getting done. So, it can be quite a chaotic process of adding, deleting, writing and restarting from scratch, but I guess that is why it is a creative process.
Do you have a rough idea of what you want to do when you start?
Absolutely. If I am working in a team, we are often working off of a mood, so what I tend to do is listen to music – I love making Spotify playlists, for example. I love organizing music; it is a weird hobby of mine – so I listen to a lot of music and sort of marinate in it and see if I can pull apart some ideas out of it. What I also love to do when I am working with people is to ask them what should the music smell like. I think a lot can be gathered from smell. It is a fun and interesting question to start opening people’s minds.
How are you enjoying writing music for watch brands?
I love the musical challenge and talking to the brands about what they want the music to feel like, trying to understand what their vision is in respect of the music, but also the watch. For HYT, for example, we have been talking about the uniqueness of the watch and the notion of space and exploration. And so, I really went on my way to use the most bizarre sounds and see how I could figure out how to make them work together. I think it makes the piece stronger because the structure is robust, where I put a lot of effort into making something work, like duct taping something really tightly together, if that makes sense!
For the playlist you created for us, what did it smell like?
It smelled like the beach and the salt. There are these incredible trees in the garden of the villa here too, so I wanted to get something earthy. There are a lot of different genres and even a couple of different languages. I wanted it to be fun but also have something for everyone. There are a lot of indie tracks and some more mainstream music, but also, I took the opportunity to include some of my influences that are more underground, I might say. But for sure, it is fun.
Discover our Saint Tropez Spotify Playlist here.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0JDQohv6CkLHApFj0JVaxt?si=PFhK0K-0S0SduGcLj6FOVA
You can also discover more from Youssef Negm on Spotify here.
https://open.spotify.com/artist/7KIif1w3MrLzh1f7WCBeqY?si=UNnIqo-LRT6Vl2PvMYlP7Q&nd=1
