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A solar engineer by day and a musician by night, Ahmed Baqeri hopes to help his listeners find their inner sunshine with his new music and upcoming album Once Upon a Time, Before Sunrise.
The 33-year-old Bahraini has returned to music after a six-year break with a new sonic project titled Hidden Wonders and has been busy releasing music, with his album set to drop this Saturday.
“The album is about soul recognition – it’s about always wanting the best for one another and letting go, not to erase but to transform, trusting the unfold and knowing that every meeting is a divine mercy,” Ahmed told GulfWeekly.
“And when I look back at my life, there is always something I had to let go, whether it’s grief, an addiction, whatever it is, I had to let it go in order for a new sunrise to shine.
“For me, this was an important lesson I had to accept and embrace.”
The new 10-track album ruminates between new age and alternative rock, with just a hint of Ahmed’s grunge past sprinkled in for flavour.
Coming from a heavy metal background, drawing inspiration from artists like Metallica and Linkin Park early in his career, the album brought out a new side of Ahmed, both in terms of genre and musical process.
“Back in my heavy metal days, I would always write the instrumental parts, then send it to the singer and he would compose the melody and lyrics,” he explained.
“When I got the chance to play in a grunge band, I started to write lyrics and after my break, I made my own formula of writing.
“All these songs that you hear, they came from real life experiences, it’s a mixture of love, loss and spiritual awakening. It was challenging but beautiful at the same time, because I found myself being hopeful but also vulnerable and helpless during those times.
“I’m definitely a night-owl, I always write during the night and that’s when I reflect deeply on my rooftop, gazing at the sky.
“Melodies start to come to me, and I can’t help but play either on the guitar or piano, starting with the melody.
“Lyrics just come out after I hum the melody and usually I finish a song in one go.
“Most of the album came in one go.
“After I compose, I go to my home studio and record the song, with production taking anywhere from a few days to weeks.”
The tracks on the album are Exile’s Light, Scarlet Speedster, Nostalgia, What Was I To You?, Remembrance, Momentary (Still here), Carry On, Crossroads (Totality), Anchored and Somewhere In the Realms.
Once Upon a Time, Before Sunrise is the first of a two-part project, the second of which will be an eight-track album titled Light Upon Light, which will be released next month.
“Together, both albums tell the story of a heart that loved deeply, lost gracefully, and was reborn through faith, learning that every exile, every ache, and every dawn was guiding it towards the light upon light,” Ahmed explained.
Coming from a musical family, Ahmed’s father Mohamed was in a band, so ‘music was always in the background’, but Ahmed was never interested. However, fate had other plans.
“My dad took me to a music concert of Brothers Band when I was 11. As soon as I saw Khalid Al Thawadi playing the lead guitar, I said to myself ‘I’m going to be a rockstar’.
“My dad saw that look and he got me a guitar teaching me how to play basic chords, before sending me to Bahrain Music Institute to learn music theory and how to read music for two years.
“Then I began to learn by ear.
“Back then, you could only learn songs by watching YouTube videos or tabs and I just made my own music that works for me.
“By 15, I started to play music with bands and by 18, I was playing live concerts with my first band Rain in Hell and The Experiment.
“From 2015 to 2019, I played in Black Book Cover with Ali Malik, and then took a break after the band parted ways.
“I felt like I lost the drive and passion for music for a little while, focusing on my career and personal life, but then, in 2022, something happened and I felt like I lost everything.
“With guidance from my spiritual mentor, who took me under his wing, he relit my passion for music, with a different approach.”
The new album will be released on major streaming platforms.
For more details, follow @hiddenwondersmusic on Instagram.
