Jordan’s music scene breathes new life into famed British producer

AMMAN — David Scott has seen it all in the music industry. He was in the Monnow Valley Studio for Oasis’s legendary “Definitely Maybe” recording. He was a tour manager for the Brian Jonestown Massacre. He’s produced historic albums, and crawled under stages to set up gigs. 

Now, it is  the Jordanian music scene that has gotten Scott excited. “Jordanian bands are respected all over the Arab world. They can go anywhere and sell out. And they all have their own sound,” he said. 

It is this diversity and boldness that first drew Scott to Jordan. Having ascended the heights of the UK indie music scene, Scott “got bored of two guitars, three vocals, bass and drums”. 

In search of a new challenge, Scott landed in Jordan. While battling to make 30 Jordanian musicians on stage sound coherent, Scott was finally “buzzing” again. 

After being initially called over to Jordan for just one job, Scott found himself in high demand. Local bands such as Autostrad, Jadal, AkherZapheer, Jabak Al Mareikh, El Far3i, 47 Soul and El Morabba3 all called upon Scott’s talents, to name a few. Artists were attracted by Scott’s “Pink Floyd style” of mixing, with “huge heavy drums, big spacey vocals, and guitars flying around everywhere,” he explained. 

Yet Scott is not fixed in his approach. Quite the opposite; Scott’s back catalogue is a dizzying kaleidoscope of instruments and genres, a far cry from the two guitars, three vocals, bass and drums of his earlier work. 

Such variety is increasingly a rarity, as the development of online streaming has “destroyed” the traditional indie scene, in Scott’s words. 

“In the 1990s…if you were original and had the energy, there was a path,” Scott said.

As this path has disintegrated, many artists have gravitated towards homogeneity and gimmicks to shore up their income, he added.

While the need for stable pay is clear, there is ultimately only one sure-fire recipe for success in Scott’s mind. “It’s all about the song writing. And it always has been”. In Scott’s view, trends come and do, but good songs endure.

Scott sees this quality in Jordan’s music scene. Despite working with some of the biggest artists in the world and still being approached by major record labels, Scott remains committed to Jordan’s music scene. Rather than LA or London, one can find the British producer mixing sounds and bringing artists together in his Amman studio.