A new flavor joined the Egyptian rock scene. Adding a unique touch of a violin, female voice and catchy music, Artificial Flavor is a band trying to create a very catchy and a very sensitive new style of music. Let’s know more…
How did the idea of Artificial Flavor come up, and what’s the band lineup?
First of all we’d like to thank ROCK ERA for the amazing work to put the Egyptian music scene in the right shape, and for introducing new bands and events to share them with us all.
Mahmoud (Violin/Vocal) and Saeid (Bass) are friends and were classmates since high school (2002), and they shared a lot of common music interests and influences like The Scorpions, Pink Floyd, Metallica and Megadeth. They decided to form a rock band with a ‘different twisted taste’. A rock fusion of both the 70’s & 80’s Rock and the Classical tunes of the Violin. A Rock band that plays more originals than covers. A lot line ups came through since then, until we settled on Kordy (Drums) followed by Hesham (Guitars) in 2007. And finally Noura joined in 2009.
Was it always the idea from the start for the band to be fronted by a female vocal?
No, actually we started with Mahmoud as our lead vocal. Then came Adham who performed with us at the AAST, and Yousef who also performed with us at the GUC concert. We then decided to try out a female vocal to match our style and give it a different taste.
How was your audience react to the idea of a violin in a rock band?
Most of our audience liked the difference that a violin can make in a rock song. Some said it dominates the music more than it should, but we guess it’s just a good indicator of Mahmoud’s talent. Moreover, we try to give each instrument a enough space to create its own feel.
Isn’t it rule for a rock band to have just the basic instruments; guitar, bass, drums and vocal?
Rock music is all about taking the rules and breaking them. There are plenty of famous bands out there that features piano, keyboard, and saxophones. Why not bend the rules some more and introduce the violin as a solo instrument?
How many originals has The Artificial Flavor composed?
We’ve been writing originals since day one. Till now, we’ve composed around 15 tracks and there is a lot of music and lyrics in our list waiting to be unleashed.
How many performances has The Artificial Flavor had till now?
Four. We started with the Bibliotheca Alexandrina battle of the bands in 2007, then the GUC concert and AAST 2008 and finally the Sakya 1st Rock Festival.
What are the lyrical themes that the band focuses on?
We try to keep our lyrics as varied as possible, but mainly we started with some political lyrics, then we focused on social issues we face and the rest of them are about everyday things.
How did The Artificial Flavor join the festival and how was the preparation process leading up the concert?
The funny fact is that we weren’t initially selected to be lineup. Luckily enough, some bands dropped out and we got a chance to perform. The only thing was that we had three days to practice! We spent those 3 days rehearsing day and night, and surprisngly the performance went really well- the timing, sound and light systems were great at Sakia!
How many songs did the band performed in the festival and what were they?!
We performed 7 of our originals tracks.
Our line up for that night was:
U.F.O., My Own Song, Love Spark, Winter Night, Sun Rise, At Least I’m Still Alive & Tastes Like Love.
Tell us about your experience at he El Sakia 1st Rock Festival?
Well, like we said we didn’t know we would be performing at the festival, but we managed to give a good performance. Our main issue was preparing enough tracks to fill an hour show! Mean while, it was Noura’s 1st concert with the band but she handled it well and we think she did great. The audience was awesome as well! It was amazing to see their interaction and reactions with our music. It felt great to perform at the Sakya 1st Rock Festival, we really had lots of fun and hope to be performing there again soon.
What were the band members reactions when you found out that you will be participating in such an event?
Shocked, thrilled and confused due to the short notice. But overall we were really excited and looking forward to it.
Where can we find more information and music from The Artificial Flavor?
You can check our Facebook Group for videos, music and photos.
You can also check our Myspace Profile
And wait for our new album release.
What are the band’s upcoming plans?
Actually we are preparing for a couple new concerts on the 12th and 19th of February in Alexandria and Sakya. We already booked our places there, and we’ll be trying to plan for more concerts in the same month.
What do you think of Rock Era Magazine?
YOU GUYS ROCK… finally a magazine really dedicated to the music events and bands in Egypt.
A word to your fans…
We’d love to thank our families, friends and fan, thank you all for the support along the way even through our pitfalls. And we promise to amaze you with our upcoming events and albums. Thanks.
