Drima Starlight – the name, not the man – emerged first as the byline Drima on the popular human rights blog, The Sudanese Thinker. His blog was nominated for several awards, and in 2011 the anonymous author came forward as Amir Ahmad Nasr.
However, after years of activism and political writing – both anonymously and as Nasr – the man behind the blog felt fed up with that approach. Taking on the byline Drima and adding on to it the last name Starlight to signify our cosmic heritage as being made of starstuff, Drima Starlight chose to focus instead on developing his artistic and musical career in Toronto. He hopes he can influence the world on a larger scale and more positively as an artist than as a political commentator.
Hayat Life interviewed Drima Starlight about this shift, and his upcoming music career.
Why did you adopt the name “Drima Starlight” for your musical persona?
Coming originally from Khartoum, Sudan where I was born, my formative years were spent in Qatar, in the Middle East around the time of the first Gulf War. There were some very popular Japanese anime series that were dubbed in Arabic. One was about a prince who escapes his planet before it’s destroyed by evil aliens and manages to flee to Earth. Along with his robot, he helps defend humanity from alien space invaders. That series sparked a fascination with space and the cosmos… Years later, when I started my blog, I decided to give myself the name Drima, meaning I’m still dreaming, still pursuing my dreams. I spelled it as D-R-I-M-A because if you read it from the right it’s Amir, which is my given Arabic name. So I’m both being myself and being a Drima, dreaming and introspecting in awe about our place in the vast cosmos and universe.
How did the Drima identity come to grow larger than Amir?
I started to be invited to conferences overseas and the organizers always respected that I wanted to remain private. They began just calling me Drima because that’s how they knew me: the online blogger behind The Sudanese Thinker. That was how I signed emails and how they emailed me, and it was extremely liberating. That’s why when some people ask if Drima Starlight is my stage name, my answer is no, not really. My stage name in a sense my whole life was Amir Ahmad Nasr, and living up to the expectations that came with being in a relatively more traditionalist and conservative environment with limitations. So that was the stage name that I had to perform based on, and look a certain way and be a certain way. And I didn’t agree to that script in the first place. So that’s more of the stage name, Nasr was always more of the alter ego. My true self is Drima Starlight, inspired and influenced by the various cultures I grew up within and experienced in Sudan, Qatar, Malaysia, the United States and throughout my travels globally during my years as an author and human rights advocate. Drima Starlight is who I really am as a spiritual humanist.
What is your musical philosophy and how do you incorporate global genres into your original work?
My first influence was hip hop and reggae, because of my oldest brother who was born in the United States. Then, because of my parents, Sudanese music and Motown. The sound of Motown and Stevie Wonder and Jackson 5 merged with hip hop and reggae and also of course Arab music, Middle Eastern music in general. Then there is of course the haunting call to prayer… so beautiful and so melodic. Because of Japanese anime I also incorporate space themes and electronic music. Having sort of distilled all these influences, it’s definitely a distinct sound. Basically dreamy, spacey soundscapes combined with a lot of blues-influenced electric guitar and some hip-hop elements. Add soaring vocals that can sound like Whitney Houston. I want it to be relevant here in North America and recognizable to international audiences too when I finally release my debut work.
What’s next in your musical journey?
2022 is when I plan to debut my work. And it’s not just going to be music, it’s going to be set in a semi-fictional, futuristic sci-fi world inspired by true events. The music is going to be a soundtrack to that story and universe. Fiction is now my outlet to continue being an activist and a human rights advocate, but in my own new way. It’s not so focused on just tragedy and “what’s wrong with the world?” but instead on what’s right with the world, what’s right about our shared humanity and how we can unify it and advance more of it.
Drima Starlight aka Amir A. Nasr is the founder and host of Assertive & Co. In February 2020, just before COVID-19, he gave this talk in Vancouver, Canada about his journey and transformation from an exiled democracy activist to a born again artist and creative entrepreneur.
