I used to play the bass. We even covered ACDC’s Highway to hell – It was bad,

Jumairy laughed, recalling his high school band experience.

Uncovering our proclivity for secrets and the human experience of trauma, Jumairy is an Emirati musician in his 20s, whose musical expression is deeply rooted in art.

Known in the Dubai art world for his charcoal drawings and ‘strange’ concept pieces with ants, Jumairy now features on a recently released vinyl by Tashkeel and the Vinyl Factory, for sound artists Fari Bradley and Chris Weaver.

A note about his previous ‘ant’ work

Starting out in exhibitions, Jumairy created an intimate, photographic monotone self portrait with thousands of black ants.

In another display, he clicked everyday pictures and added live ants to the frames, crawling about. So, naturally, we asked him ‘Why ants?’

He replied “Because they’re so tiny, but they can really hurt you.”

Currently, he’s focusing on composing a distinct brand of minimal electro-pop music to communicate his personal experiences. His work, he says, is heavily influenced by Iggy pop and Marilyn Manson.

Playing live instruments and singing are also among this versatile artist’s talents. His music typically translates feelings of uneasiness, anger, turmoil and trauma into art; splattered across a canvas, edited into a video, or in the present case, filtered into carefully-crafted tunes.

He likes people to know his art and not focus on him as an artist. However, even while maintaining a degree of anonymity about who he is, you’ll see that his videos are intimately grounded in personal experience and private moments.

Since his first mini-album release is just around the corner [end of summer], we decided to delve in and take a closer look at some of his most curious musical compositions:

The Headless Bunnies

“Why are the bunnies headless?” he’s often asked. Jumairy sighed and retold the story of a traumatic experience from his childhood:

He was only about 7 years old when his family got these two fluffy bunny rabbits home. One morning, before school, he and his siblings ran to the bunny cage to say hi before heading to school. The cute bunnies were gone. Instead, they were met with their gory remains [bunny heads missing, blood everywhere].

Ahm.. That explains the psychedelic music here:

Blissful Insanity

I came to the party, but I wish that I had stayed, go the lyrics.

Jumairi explained this piece, saying he considers yellow to be a healing color that kills the self-deprecating tendency we all have as humans. The original visuals with the gradually accelerating audio make a powerful combination:

Poisonous Love

Using Aconite, a poisonous flower, Jumairy communicates ‘What you love can kill you’ in an inspired two-fold manner. Flowers need the sun, but if the sun gets too close, the flower burns, says Jumairy.

Watch it burn here [no, it’s not animated]:

Dreams & the Wizard of Oz:

Having recorded a friend relaying a strange dream [after much persuasion], Jumairy fused it with lyrics about how he’d like to be the ‘Wizard of Oz.’ Quirky, isn’t it?

Have a look here.

Looking forward to: Exploring secrets and emotion further

Jumairy ordinarily displays his fascination with secrets through his conceptual art. In a unique medium, he recorded his mother’s conversation with his aunt, making it almost inaudible by blending it with electric beats.

This and more to come this summer from this stellar artist and musician. Check out his Youtube channel for more videos and his Soundcloud for more audio clips.