DUBAI: France-based Algerian musician and producer Eljoee (real name Billel Mehsen) seems to have been destined to play the guitar. When he was in school, his music teacher nicknamed him Joe, after Joe King, the guitarist with US rock band The Fray. That name stuck — with friends and family using it — and he added some Arabic flavor by putting ‘El’ before it to create his own version of the Arabic term ‘Eljaw,’ meaning a mood or a feeling in the air.
Growing up in Blida, Algeria, he was obsessed with music, thanks to the sounds of his father’s collection, which included artists like Bob Marley, Ray Charles, and ABBA. But the only relative who owned an instrument was his uncle, whose guitar Eljoee was not allowed to touch. So he had to be inventive.
To start afresh, Eljoee moved to the coastal city of Marseille in France, where he has set up his studio. Close to North Africa, Marseille is a place where Algerian ra? music historically flourished due to its Maghrebi communities. “It feels like Algeria — the sea, the sun, the people,” he says. “I’m home, but far from home.”
Eljoee compares music production to film directing; he searches for the right combination of elements to compose the perfect track. He acts as a “link between the artist and the art,” he adds. Eljoee confesses that he hasn’t listened to new music in the past two years as he worries it might influence his own. He prefers listening to old tunes, ethnic music, and Coldplay. The nature of the music industry has changed, he believes; where music once used to be about art, now it’s about going viral.
“It was music that came from artists that lived the story of the music. It was emotional. It wasn’t meant to be commercialized,” he says. “Nowadays, I get tons of emails and calls and the first thing they say is, ‘I want a viral song.’ I’m not an algorithm. I’m just a guy who plays instruments and arranges things. I don’t know how to make a viral song. Maybe songs become viral because (they are) pure.”