​Ghassan Sawalhi | Producer , Recording & Mixing Engineer

Born in 1992 in Jerusalem, Palestine, Ghassan Sawalhi is a producer, engineer, composer, arranger and Oudist whose skills and knowledge have been sharpened by his varied personal and musical experiences throughout his life.

 

When he was 11, Sawalhi joined Edward Said National Conservatory of Music in Palestine to study the Oud, a very predominant instrument in the creation and history of Arabic music and a very unique sound. To Sawalhi the oud was more than an instrument. It was a friend, an asylum, and a reminder of his Arabic Palestinian roots. Around the same time, he was a dancer in a folkloric/contemporary company called “El-Funoun Folkloric Dance Group” which also kept him tied to his roots. He danced there for 7 years.

 

In 2011, and after Sawalhi felt the pull towards being more involved in the music world, he co-founded Bil3aX band (pronounced “Bil’aks”) for contemporary and alternative music. Bil3aX addressed Palestinian political and social problems by using a variety of relatable words, metaphors and music. Bil3ax toured around Palestine, playing in major venues such as Ramallah Cultural Palace. According to Sawalhi Bil3aX was a message to everyone who thought that Palestinians were ignorant or savages. It was a torch that lit the way, and shaped the lives of 6 musicians who decided to stand in front of the Palestinian plight and say “enough”.

 

Around the year 2012 Sawalhi started collecting old recordings of live shows of old Arabic music and equalizing them to enhance the sound, with the goal of enhancing their sound on high-resolution audio systems. From there he started diving deeper into the music production and engineering world. In two years he produced a few singles by collaborating with other artists as well as by himself. And it didn’t stop there; he produced a few demos that were used as references for applications to grants to record an album. Bil3aX was later granted a $5,000 scholarship to record the album based on the demos in 2014.

 

That year Sawalhi was accepted to Berklee College of Music with a partial scholarship to major in Music Production and Engineering. He also managed to maintain his instrument skills and sharpen them further under Simon Shaheen, one of the best Oud players in the world. His involvement in the production and engineering world did not prevent him at all from forming very strong connections and collaborations with many artists around Boston, and specifically Berklee. His professionalism and attention to detail led him to perform in various big venues such as Ryles Jazz Club in Cambridge, Iron Horse in Northampton, Metropolitan Museum of Arts in New York, and Massachusetts State House as part of a very dynamic duo “Ghassan Ou Aliya Duo”.

 

Sawalhi believes that when chasing perfection, we fall into the trap of not having a perceived image of it. This is because perfection a very subjective idea. His goal, conveyed through his productions and mixes is to bring the artist’s own ID, his own perception of "perfect" into the music. He also believes that a good production joins the ideas of both the artist and the engineer. In his compositions and arrangements we can touch the highly sensitive feel, through the combination of styles and the eclectic instrumentation that seek to leave the listener in a momentary trance.

 

Sawalhi is driven by an overflowing momentum of accomplishment and goals he set to himself to be the best he can in everything he does, especially in his music works that are already yielding more opportunities and more appreciation from people. He now studies Music Production & Engineering at Berklee College of Music under a group of great faculty including Grammy winning Producer and Engineer Prince Charles Alexander and Latin Grammy winner Producer and Engineer Enrique Gonzales Muller, with the Oud as his principal instrument. He aims for the highest achievements in the Music Production and Engineering field, and one day being a world known music producer and engineer. He believes that the best way to achieve such goal is by hard work, openness and clear pure vision.