Bedouin live at Petra, Jordan for Cercle

We are here in one of the seven wonders of the modern world. We are very happy and honored to be there with Bedouin. They made a unique and magical set and my first question was... I read on your social media that this was now a dream come true. Why was it a dream for you? I said that I am from Jordan and this is one of the most emblematic places in the country and the world. Rami is from Egypt and I think doing this here in the original land of the Bedouins doesn't get any better than this.

I hope we have represented well. Believe. So you prepared this... It was your first

live

set, right? - It was, yes. How did you prepare it? There were a lot of questions online like (let me check the person's name, Connor Elston) asking how long it took to prepare this set and how you prepared it. Yeah, I mean, I think that's how we make our music with our instruments, so we really felt like it was an opportunity to show that side of us. Everyone knows us as a DJ and for us DJing is like a celebration of the work we do in the studio and writing the music, and it starts with the music.

It starts with music and we felt it would be a way to show a slightly more intimate side of what we do. Obviously it's our first time and it took... I think we've been preparing for a long time, but when we realized we were going to go ahead and do this. It was a few weeks ago. Also given our touring schedule. Yes, you have an intense touring schedule. So we had to free up as much time as possible and spend as much time in the studio and we didn't even know how to start, so we just started picking out the songs we wanted to perform and did it backwards.

Find out what elements we wanted to show

live

. So you tried something, some instruments... Exactly. So yeah, basically this whole thing has been, as you said before, three or four years in the making. That's crazy. We are happy to be here and hope everyone enjoyed the music. I think so. Now that you've created this live set, do you want to use it with people? With an audience? - Probably. I think so. There are no immediate plans, but we will probably do it at some point. Maybe it would go well with the release of our current album.

Honestly, it's nice to perform this without having the pressure of a dance floor. We can really express ourselves musically without other rules. That's why I feel like these kinds of moments are really better. The party we feel is really very different. That's why we play at parties. It's less about the people. It's an absolutely different type of performance. It's about bringing people together, celebrating and making them happy. Make everything a happy place. It's a little less about showing off your musical ability, let's say. So yeah, we felt like this was a really good time to explore and experiment. - Perfect time.

Some new challenges for us that keep us alive. I can imagine how challenging that was for you. More alive than you can imagine. There was someone who asked if you have a favorite instrument here in your live set and why. I love all instruments, but the theremin is a new addition to my instruments and what we do. I'm in love with it because it's one of the oldest electronic instruments ever created. It's as analog as possible and you literally touch it with your body and your hands. Can you explain how it works for people who don't know this instrument?

It's pitch and volume and moving your right hand closer and closer to the pole makes the pitch go up and down. You basically have this invisible string that you have to learn by muscle memory where each note is. The left hand controls the volume. Up is the volume down when you enter the loop. It works in a way that electrical current so that anything around it can affect the way it sounds. You're breaking the magnetic field and that's how it understands where the field breaks. That's totally crazy because it's also visual. It is also energy because with your body you change everything.

It's a crazy instrument. You chose your stage name a while ago: Bedouin. How does this name relate to your music? I think a lot. As well as representing our heritage and our family upbringing, it represents a nomadic culture which I think is important for us as artists to have freedom in terms of what we do. It's a global tribe in this case. It is a name that represents the desert between Jordan and Egypt. The people who live here are original natives like the Bedouins. It is a tribute to this culture and what the Bedouins represent: the true Bedouins.

The way they live, they travel, they're always in tribes and they do things together all the time. We think it's an appropriate name. I think it fits perfectly with this crazy place too. What does this great treasure represent for you? I'd actually like to learn more about it to be honest with you. To me it just represents an amazing structure, an amazing work of art. I look at it and how did they build it so beautifully without even a piece of history? And in the middle of nature too. That's why we chose this place for the interview.

It's because you walk for 15 or 20 minutes before you get here. You are in this kind of canyon and nature and culture merge perfectly. It's total madness. I was going to say there's something you can feel when you're here. We have felt it before in the desert, in certain areas of the world. Maybe through magnetic fields. What kind of emotion did you feel when you arrived? I really felt a strong sense of calm. You are surrounded by rocks and you are performing music. Coming from the city or wherever we were immediately puts you in a meditative trance state.

You came from Paris, then from London and then from here. So it's a little crazy. You arrived directly from Amman airport. Quite. I imagine here when you arrived how quiet everything was during the night. Although not inside. This place is full of history dating back more than 2,000 years. If you could change anything in history, if you had the chance, what would you change? In our history or in general? I would just make sure that the whole idea of ​​war and violence doesn't exist. Although many people might say that this is what civilizations are based on, I always feel that there is an alternative and a better way to solve problems.

Let's go back to the music. You produced a track for this location. I imagine the creative process is maybe different than other tracks because you have this location in mind. Maybe you've already visited it. What was the creative process like for you? For us it is a desert track. This track, when we made it, we were thinking about the desert. It has sounds of background forces running and percussion and all the elements that it contains. It is made for the desert. I think we try to imagine all the tracks we choose to support a landscape video.

Visual landscape, yes. The camera was sometimes on us, but in the moments that showed the scenery, we had that image in our mind: "What's the correct score?" As if you were composing music for a movie. What is the right music to capture the landscape? I think we really feel very convinced that all the teams met that requirement. You were playing as a duo. What are the challenges and advantages for you? At first, I guess the challenge is to understand each other musically while performing. It takes a couple of years. Once we got past that, we started to really know what to expect musically from each other on and off stage as well.

It just gets better. The music gets better, the performance gets better, everything we do musically gets stronger. The positive side of this is that we make each other stronger, the music stronger. It's important to have someone who not only gives you good feedback but also all the right negative feedback and the music is always the important part. We stepped aside to do something special together. We can feel it because even if it was your first live set, I saw you speak maybe only a few times, but you were interested and you really communicated it without speaking, just with the instrument.

We did our best. Yeah! We can definitely see it. Speaking of your label Human by Default, I saw that you released many songs. How do you select the artist you want to work with? We have to love their music and what they represent as artists and as people. That's how the label started. We were surrounded by incredible talent and always felt like we would love to include them and have them be a part of our journey, even if it was just releasing on the label. I must say that a very nice community of really young, promising and really super talents has been building.

We are starting with it. We are very excited about this. It was 2020, right? Basically, right at the beginning of COVID it was launched. The first year there was no dance floor. The music we planned to release was oriented for the dance floor. The first year of release is like... I didn't see many parties. Having this label and finding the artist for it, being able to find talent and maybe they haven't developed their careers yet. I think that's exciting for us too: we're surfacing new talent a little bit. Musical integrity is really the only thing we look at other than, like you said, the person behind...

It makes a difference too. I think the artists we have are not only amazing music, but we are also building a family as people. You really have to embrace their values ​​too. I think that makes us enjoy each other and music and have a reason to help each other. Next question. I think that's one of my favorite concerts I had the opportunity to attend today. Those are some amazing ones. What's yours? What is your favorite concert? It's the one from Chile, I think. I love that. The entire location is surreal. The music was beautiful and all the production they did was amazing.

Thank you. Wow congratulations. I was talking about your... Not just our set, but if you went to a concert, you really remember it. What is your favorite? There's a couple. The one that stands out the most in my mind is Michael Jackson. I was lucky enough to do it in 1985, on the Thriller Tour at Madison Square Garden. From then on, it was difficult to compete with anyone. Yes, exactly. Now it's hard to compete with that. Thank you so much guys. I think the interview will be over now. Before that, we have a little giveaway presented by the Jordan Tourism Board.

I also want to thank you for all your support because you have been a great help to us. I also have to thank everyone involved in this. Oh really. Thank you. Thank you so much. I'll open it for you. It is very fragile, so be careful. One for each of you. Let me say that tonight. Thank you. It's an ostrich egg. I hope I pronounce it correctly. It is very fragile. It's a real one, painted, hand painted with... So I think it's a great souvenir for you. Thank you so much guys. Thank you. Yes, I really want to thank everyone who has been involved here.

Of course, Jordan Tourism Board, thank you for creating this magic today. I imagine it has been a challenge. It has also been a challenge for our team. And I want to thank everyone, the entire team that has worked all night to prepare this set. Yes, thanks guys. We would also like to thank everyone. Thank you for believing in us and the people. Of course man. Thanks for watching. And yes, dawn sets are difficult because you need to set everything up at night, etc. But this one was pretty special. One for the books, as you say. Thank you so much guys.

And we hope to see you very soon. We hope so too. Thank you. Bye bye. Thank you.