The Valletta Waterfront is buzzing more than ever these days, with passengers disembarking from ships for tours, and cultural activities taking place on every corner. One restaurant which is flourishing as a result of this influx of pedestrian traffic is Heat, which opened just this summer.

Offering a variety of light dishes and more substantial meals, booking is recommended, as the tables fill up quickly. The weather is still nice enough to sit outside under the large umbrellas, where you can while away the time people-watching, if you are so inclined. But I was here to meet Ruben Zahra, a person I’ve heard a lot about but had never met.

He is slim and intense looking – exactly how you would imagine a passionate composer to be.

It is appropriate that we are at the Waterfront, since it was one of the main sponsors of National Orchestra goes Pop. Performed for one night only, tickets for the event were snapped up immediately by music lovers. Those who did not get a chance to see it are wondering whether there might be a chance of a repeat performance. One of the highlights of the evening was undoubtedly Ruben’s band Nafra, which played his original compositions using indigenous instruments.

Ruben has brought along a few of these instruments, including the zaqq (bagpipes) and zummara (reed pipe) which he uses in his compositions, in the firm belief that Maltese music should reflect its roots and not be allowed to die off.

“When (producer/conductor) Sigmund Mifsud came up with the proposal to collaborate with my ensemble Nafra, I was really keen on tapping into that crossover. I like going into unchartered waters, experimenting with different genres.”

Originally from Zejtun, Ruben is the son of author Trevor Zahra, and once he mentions this you can see the resemblance.

“On the phone we sound exactly alike. Even my sister can’t tell us apart,” he smiles.

Understandably enough, in his early teens Ruben was into the rock music scene, experimenting with tunes on an electronic keyboard. Deciding he wanted to take it more seriously, he turned to classical music at the age of 14, (“which is rather late”, he admits). Previous ambitions to become a doctor where shelved as he switched from

sciences to the Arts for his Sixth Form studies, going on to read for a BA in music and theatre studies at university.

From a very young age, Ruben always wanted to go abroad, so when his chance came he grabbed it with both hands. Obtaining a place at the Music Academy in Sienna, he studied film music with the famous Ennio Morricone.

He came back to finish his degree and graduate, and finally, in 1998, a long-term music scholarship from the Italian Cultural Institute was his ticket out at the age of 24.

“My father always knew I would leave, so he wasn’t

surprised.”

His studies took him to Rome, a city he immediately fell in love with.

“Culturally, it’s closer to Malta and there’s a lot happening. Everyone who is passing through Europe goes to Rome, from jazz musicians to rock to classical musicians. Although I had a strong classical formation in Italy, I was still constantly listening to rock.”

After living in Rome for four years, he came back to Malta for a year, during which he set up Etnika with Andrew Alamango and Steve Borg. Their CD Nafra went on to win an award in the Malta Music Awards.

Nothing could have prepared him for his next big step – working in the film soundtrack industry in Hollywood.

“The rules are more rigid because there’s big money involved. You’re usually composing within a particular formula because that’s what they want. If there is an action scene, they have very clear ideas of how the music should be and they don’t want any surprises. They believe in giving the audience what they want and expect – which is very different to the contemporary, experimental style I was used to.”

So how did a Maltese guy end up working in the most powerful film industry in the world?

“I moved to Oakland, California in 2000 to do my Masters. After I finished I thought I’d pack my bags, move to Los Angeles and see what happens. I obtained a working visa, which was very difficult and expensive – it cost me $6,000. I worked as a waiter for nine months in a top Italian restaurant called Trastevere, which is the best gig to get you started in the film industry, because you meet a lot of people,” says Ruben, slipping into American slang.

After trying him out for three days, it was obvious to the owners that Ruben didn’t have any experience as a waiter, but because he knew Italian they gave him a shot.

Waiting on tables in the heart of Hollywood gave him the chance to meet the movers and shakers in town. It didn’t take him long to figure out how the system worked and he cleverly used his charm to approach the “suits” who would be dining at the restaurant on a regular basis.

Handing out his demo tape at every opportunity (he kept copies of his CD in the pockets of his apron and stacked in his locker, just in case), Ruben finally got his foot in the door when the owner of a post-production company agreed to listen to his music. The company, called Three Degrees, did mostly TGI special effects but it also took up contracts for special DVD editions of films. Hence, they were always looking out for music by different composers to lay down over the interviews and extra footage.

“So the first gig I got was because they needed a composer to do what they call music supervision, which is replacing a soundtrack. They would have a soundtrack of say, a Beatles’ song or a Rolling Stones’ song, but they couldn’t licence that music because it was too expensive. The music supervisor comes in to fit in different songs from a library that they can access, but you have to stay there and listen to hours of music until you come up with a CD track.

“I went in and did it for free just to get the credit. You have to understand that there is so much competition that it is quite normal to do your first few jobs for free so you get the credit, your name goes around and people get to know about you. But basically, no matter how talented you are, all the contacts happen in the party scene.”

So it is all a matter of who you know, just as it is here?

“Oh yes, absolutely,” Ruben says, his accent still tinged with a slight American inflection.

“However, everyone who is playing the game there is good. There is no such thing as mediocre people. And you have to keep up the contacts, which can be quite taxing. I mean why do all the big stars live in Hollywood? Because they’re all competing too. They all have to go to the cocktail parties, to be seen and to be in the scene.”

Ruben worked his way up the ladder, “as everyone does,” he points out.

“Someone from Malta is just as good as someone from Texas – you go there with the right credentials and you can make it. They don’t care where you’re coming from, they just want to see you perform – if you’re good, they’ll take a chance on you. Eventually, however, I couldn’t do it any more, it was not my kind of music, so I came back to Malta.”

Time to pause for our lunch. We had both ordered the fresh tuna carpaccio with olives, corn, carrots and lettuce.

Ruben says he has resigned himself to the inevitable hiccups which sometimes arise when organising something in Malta.

“If I can do something myself, I don’t delegate it to somebody else, because it’s either not done, or not done the way I want it. And, I’ve learned that if someone tells me “yes, the stage is going to be there” not to take that for a real yes – you have to keep following it up. I feel we need to concentrate more on our cultural tourism, offering it as a package. We also need a more structured approach and a strategy so that all the activities that are taking place are harnessed properly. There needs to be a marketing plan so that artists are commissioned within a framework rather than everyone organising things individually.

“We don’t have a specific theme which changes from year to a year but a collage of things – and that is because no one has time to sit down and plan. It all happens within a tight timeline and things somehow just fall into place weeks before the event.”

Having said that, he is full of praise for certain individuals – such as Frank Tanti, who was their stage manager – who are hardworking and disciplined.

Speaking about his time abroad, he admits that having to fend for yourself makes you grow up. “In Malta, you have a lot of cushioning which in a way is good because it allows you to focus on what you really want to do.”

For the time being, he is based in Malta. Although he admits that it is not easy, so far he has been able to earn his living from music. He also gives lectures at the university on Maltese instrumental heritage.

Offers to perform abroad, however, have not dried up – in June he was in Chicago to play with a famous string quartet, and in July he played with his band Nafra in Portugal. At the end of this month he will be back in his beloved Italy for another concert.

“I still love it there, because of their good food and because they really know how to live. The funny thing, is when I was on the West Coast (ie California), I realised there were a lot of Italians. Now, other immigrants are not really associated with ‘good things’ but for some reason, the Americans really love Italians. If you look at what they export, it’s passion, food and art. The only thing which might cast a shadow on Italians is the Mafia, but this has now become legendary because of films such as The Godfather. It has a good vibe rather than a bad one because it has become history.”

Not surprisingly, during his waiter days, he easily passed for an Italian, both because of his fluency in the language, and his looks.

“Actually that’s how I got the job because I faked all my credentials,” he says with a grin.

“ I made a portfolio with all the different restaurants I had “worked in”, in Italy. They were all addresses and phone numbers of my friends – just in case they checked, I told my friends you have to pretend you’re a restaurant! In Hollywood, when you work as a waiter it’s a big deal. First of all you make a great deal of money in tips – I was making $3,000 a month just from tips – and it’s high performance. There’s no way you can just walk into that industry. You even have to present a photo with your application.”

Looking back, he says that working at the restaurant not only gave him his big break, but it also gave him a chance to know the city well. A city which most people would give their eye-teeth to live in.

“After a while you have to step back a bit from the glamour of it all,” he says now.

“Glamour tends to become an everyday thing and you start thinking of it as being normal. But it’s not. To be walking along and suddenly see five porn stars walking in front of you only happens on Hollywood Boulevard – nowhere else in the world. I don’t regret my time there, because I got to know the business, and some really interesting people as well.

“Of course, there’s a lot of “happy talk” – ‘we’re going to do this, we’re going to do that, we have the money, we’ll call you back’ and they never do. I worked on four film projects but I was also supposedly on another 20, which never happened! You get called in by the producer, they mention a six-figure number, and that they’re going to put you on contract – blah, blah, blah. You go back home and you’re already seeing the money being transferred into your account! But that’s the nature of the business really – you have to learn to just go with the ride and not take it too seriously. You can be pulled off a project just as easily as you were brought in, if something goes wrong. The irony is I made more money as a waiter in Hollywood than I did with my music.”