Arabic culture is unapologetically melancholic. It’s sort of a proud melancholy, with a straight back. It’s not, ‘Look at me, I’m in so much pain’; it’s more, like, ‘I’m in pain and I’m proud.’ I do think that sometimes that’s misunderstood here in the West.

The beautiful violence which you see in nature, like the relationship between wind and trees. Sometimes it’s just a breeze and sometimes it rips the tree out of the earth. But you don’t regard it as something awful — it’s just what happens. Humans versus humans — that’s where you see the ugly violence.

last book read: my struggle, book 3 by karl ove knausgard

If you’re feeling in any way insecure I wouldn’t recommend spending too much time in the company of Tamino. This Egyptian-Belgian singer-songwriter makes haunting, continent-spanning folk music, trained as a singer at the Amsterdam Royal Conservatory, speaks four languages, plays several instruments and, at 25, has recorded extensively with Colin Greenwood, the Radiohead bassist, and supported Lana del Rey on tour. Oh, and he’s really good-looking and ridiculously nice. With his high cheekbones, aquiline profile and Timothée Chalamet curls, there’s an aristocratic air to Tamino, full name Tamino-Amir Moharam Fouad. Well, he is the grandson of Egyptian showbiz royalty: his quasi-namesake Moharam Fouad, the singer and movie star known as “the sound of the Nile”.

The most formative time of his life, he says, was moving from Antwerp to Amsterdam to study. “There’s a big difference between Flanders and the Netherlands. The Dutch are way more direct and outgoing and the Flemish are more reserved. It was quite a culture shock.” That contrast is perhaps reflected in his relationship with his Dutch musician girlfriend, whom he met at the conservatory. His new album, Sahar, features a song called Fascination that was inspired by watching a David Attenborough documentary with her in which flamingos were stuck in a salt lake. “She was basically crying but it didn’t really affect me. With stuff like that I tend to go to a rational state of mind where I’m, like, ‘Yeah, but that’s life.’”

Last book I read was Karl Ove Knausgard’s My Struggle, Book 3. I’m reading part 4 now. I am in awe with this series and find them deeply moving.

1. Meditation is good for you. I do 10 minutes a day now and I’d recommend it to everybody. I wish I had done it in the beginning of my career as well.  2. Amazing crew and band, yoga, meditation, vocal warm-ups, [and] grapefruit.