Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Snippets of profound feelings



She entered the room like a breeze
Making everything freeze
Like a sudden rush
Blood pressure, rapid increase



The first thing her mouth uttered
A smile that made my thoughts stutter
Like ice cold
The place started to shiver



And then she disappears
Into a different world
She disappears
And I run out of words



I can't get you out of my mind
And I like it....


Listen:

To Razziza

Monday, March 11, 2013

Another song for life

This is a new song in the making, stay tuned

I know it's been a while
But I reckon I never told you
I guess now it's just about time
And though what I would say
Might or might not come through

But Let's sing
Sing another song for life



You may be mad at me now
But frankly I don't care
I had to let you know somehow
And we're old enough for
Consequences we're yet to bare

So Let's sing
Sing another song for life

We've still got a lot to go through
A lot of places we've never been to
I've got more, and more in store
and just like I showed you the shore
Let's keep holding on, and keep it true



and Let's sing
Sing another song for life

We'll rip through the roads
Sing another song for life
We'l' drive on, dance and play
and sing another song for life
Yes we'll go there
and sing another song for life
we won't give a shit about anything
and sing another song for life
isolated, liberated
singing another song for life
Living the life we're meant for



And sing another song for life


Listen:


Monday, March 04, 2013

Belated Realizations


You know, it's been going on in his head ever since he can remember. Her voice, her aura, when she smiles, everything. With all that's been going on in her life, the struggles, her personal life crises and her own self discovery, he knew he had to be there; he had to be like a solid backbone, and he tried his best. As subtle as he could. She needed her own personal space.

All the times he would see her, and starts getting nervous, like a 14-year old boy, in love for the first time. But his fear of losing her held him back, especially that the timing was never right for him to confess. Or so he thought. And with all the people around her and her mixed up feelings, he felt he was being pulled back by others, who were slowly taking his place.

He tried to hold on. Still being there whenever needed, and maintaining the right amount of distance.



What she didn't know is that inside him, a storm was building up, a scavenging struggle between his emotions and rationale. His impulsive tendencies pushed him to the verge of spilling out everything that has been inside for a long time, every time he saw her, every single time. But his mind always managed to stop him.
Partly because he wanted to pick the right time and partly because he didn't want her to get the wrong idea. Or even question the seriousness of his feelings and thoughts about her.

They met years ago, out of mutual interest, he found a perfect person in her, a perfection too good to be true to the extent that it scared him, not of her, of himself. He was at a point in his life when responsibilities and commitments become self destructive. And he was honest about it to her from the beginning, he was honest about everything, come to think of it, he's never been anything but honest to her. And that definitely means a lot.

So they drifted apart, and then came back together again, from another perspective, friendship. Shear selfless friendship, one that doesn't bend.
And then they drifted apart again, when she met someone.
He tried to hold on, but he was weak. And his grip wasn't strong enough.
And suddenly, she was gone.



Fate still decides otherwise, months later, after he, too, went on. She comes back. This time broken, clueless and somewhat of a wreck.
A result of inhumane treatment, after throwing herself into the arms of the worthless, who knows nothing about courtesy or truthfulness.

He tried his best to embrace her, wondering how things happen in directions that are never expected.
At this point in his life, things started to become clearer, he was more confident, strong again, definite and oriented towards self fulfillment.
Only one thing was missing, her.



And he's going insane.


Listen:






Thursday, February 28, 2013

Salalem's next big thing

THIS is happening tomorrow:



one of the biggest things in my career
and it's sexcitingly scary!

IF you're a fan of the show, don't miss it!



Listen:




Friday, February 15, 2013

It's Tricky To Rock a Rhyme - Published in Campus Magazine Feb 2013 issue

Being a musician in Egypt is tricky. Because on the outside, everyone thinks we don't get tired enough, or put as much effort into work as, for example, a doctor or an engineer.  Well, that's absolutely not true.

The difference between a musician, or an artist for that matter, and any other professional, is that being a musician doesn't necessarily require any sort of academic certification in the field. It's a profession that can be acquired by experience, if the talent is there to begin with. Add to that, passion, ability to express in an artistic form, dedication, and musicianship. We play music because we love music, because it's a passion that has to be pursued as a career, we love what we do, contrary to the saying "Love what you do until you do what you love", it's bullshit! We just do what we love anyway!

I was born into a family that appreciates music, both parents were singers back in the day, who then decided not to take it to a professional level to be able to "maintain a proper living", and by proper living I mean find a job that pays well, MONTHLY, to start a "family" and raise kids, and so on. Nevertheless, I thank my parents for feeding me with good music ever since I could remember; I grew up listening to my Mom and Dad's favorite artists: The Bee Gees, Abba, Fayrouz, Um Kalthoum, Abdelwahab, Abdelhalim, Adaweya, Mohamed Mounir, Ali El Haggar and other singers who were and will remain very influential to me.

At the age of 12, I was, as a lot of people my age were, very much into pop music, Michael Jackson, boy bands like Take That and Boyzone, George Michael and others; and thanks to MTV and Channel V, I was given a never ending source of video clips which were my most amusing source of entertainment and music education, before, of course, the rise of the "holy" YouTube. I used to watch the videos and captions of concerts and memorize all the songs, buy the artists' and bands' albums on cassette tapes and listen to them  and then try and imitate what they do, how they sing and how they perform on stage. 

Later on during my teen years, and because of peer influences, I became more and more interested in rock and metal, a natural development I suppose, bands like Metallica were my biggest influences and interests, watching them go on stage and deliver performances that would throw people off their feet, It was more interesting to me than porn! Remember Napster? It was like my refueling station, whenever I ran out of new music to listen to, I would wait for a whole day for one mp3 to download, and God did it feel exquisite!

I had dreamed of becoming a rock star, or a performer for that matter, it was always at the back of my head. OF course I had to enroll in one of the top majors, Engineering, to please the parents and maintain a "stable career" after graduation. I started taking my amateur interest in music to a professional level nevertheless. I met a lot of people who were young musicians back then, formed my first band in 2005 and then joined "Salalem" late 2005.

Now let me tell you how things go for most musicians in Egypt and how hard it is to maintain a stable musical career and make a proper living out of it here in Egypt.

There's one big project to every musician, the project that takes up most of his/her time and effort. To me that project is "Salalem". We spend years of hard work just to build a name and a proper audience base: rehearsals, brainstorming meetings, workshops, sessions to create music, finding the right lyrics that represent the band's identity as a whole and not as individual band members.

Every band has a different identity, and sound. It takes a lot of effort to get there, to the point where, if heard any where, people would recognize you. During which, the band is forced to compromise money along with the effort, frequently agree to perform for free just to be able to gain as much exposure as possible, agree to be interviewed by boring TV presenters and media channels who only look for bands to fill their quota of material, while bands look for exposure all the way.



Usually that one main project to every musician is an original music band, besides that, a few small projects can go on, for "na7t" purposes, "Na7t" literally means "sculpt" or "incise" referring to sculpting music to fit the market needs (mostly cover bands in all forms varying from rock to Latin and jazz). In other words, the side projects usually aim at collecting money to maintain a living, to balance things out between the "long term project" and maintaining a performing status in general.

Besides that, some music players who are very significant and are able to build a name for themselves individually start playing with international and national mainstream superstars, for the money of course. Because as you all know by now, we get paid by the performance, and the pay is never fixed. And some singers start their own solo projects, to sing the songs they are not able to do with their bands, to fulfill their musical needs, songs that they wrote for other purposes that are more personal, hence not for "the band".

On top of that, most musicians, myself included, start looking for fixed day jobs, just to make sure they have a fixed income if worse comes to worse and Morsi and his kissasses decide to give it to us Saudi style.

So imagine starting a project or a band, and spending 7-8 years trying to get that band to a competitive place in the market, while maintaining its identity, direction and independency, and when you get there, maintain the successful status for as much as you can, try to make money out of it, treat it like a business with a social and artistic cause, and then joining another band to make extra money to balance things out, not to mention rehearsals in both bands, at least twice a week, writing and/or collecting proper lyrics, composing, arranging music, band meetings, goal setting, marketing, PR, social media, TV interviews, magazines, online blogs and magazines, meeting with clients, finding a band manager, bookings, money transfers, getting paid, bank transactions, motivating each other when the going gets tough, going to other cities and/or countries for expansion and exposure, approaching new clientele, working with corporate companies on jingles and trying to meet the corporate needs, to collect good money to be able to spend money on your main project to record a top notch quality album and/or video clip. 

And then endless hours at the studio recording the bands' material and learning in the process.



Moreover, imagine with both the long term project and the Na7t project, you start your own solo project, writing, composing, collecting material, hours of recording and all of the above all over again. And after you finish recording a song at 4 am in the morning, you go home to sleep, tired as hell, to wake up 4 hours later, to go to work as a normal employee, and then after work, the whole cycle starts all over again. And yet some of us musicians are not able to maintain a stable financial status.

Yep, that's what my life is basically like, but I love it and I wouldn't want to change anything about it!


you can find my music (solo) here

you can also find this article on February 2013's issue of Campus Magazine here

Listen:


Thursday, February 14, 2013

Only You



As I sit here on my desk in the middle of the city
cars honking in the background
people shouting
birds chirping
the sun is almost down
and i can't help but think about you
i recall the day i first met you
I wasn't taken only by your beauty
i was rather captured by the energy you brought into my life
you walked towards me with a smile
one that is so unique
one that is free of complications
free of negativity
free of impurities
Something inside me told me right then, right there
that you were probably what i have been subconsciously looking for
That there's a journey yet to be discovered
with you



Art, is what you are
reason and faith
hope and pride
you are the proper side



I wasn't a fool to deny that back then
I wouldn't have been fair
But now, I'm here
back to square one
only now, i can think straight
i know what i want



I want to go on that journey
and discover the rest of my life with you
and only you


Listen:


Tuesday, February 05, 2013

Honorificabilitudinitatibus

It's no surprise
not even a prize
you wanted things clear?
why the fear?
why the constant hesitation?
move on
to the next station
create
create things for your own
hello hello
you've been blown
did it feel good?
you should have understood
you're only a tool
to them you're a fool
but you complain
again and again
you try to blame it on others
your many mothers
are you lost?
are you found?
are you secure?
are you sound?
are you glad?
are you sad?
are you in love?
or all of the above?
Go home and sleep
and if you can't
count some sheep
Home doesn't feel right, right?
they're laughing at you now alright
or not, maybe they don't care
or maybe they're just in your head
and you might end up dead
even though dying scares her
it's something she doesn't prefer
change your thoughts
your thoughts are like clots
blocking blood to your brain
you might be insane
and it all comes down to that last cigarrette
forgetting everything, even your stacking debt
enjoy it
embrace it



Fuck it!



Listen: