Feed Me released their debut album “Marching Stickmen” in June 2009, Ahmed Abdel Aziz talks about the album and the story behind it. Up next!

Marching Stickmen’ is the band’s first album, what’s the story behind it?

Ahmed: We were basically jamming when we first started the band, and through recording our jamming sessions we got many ideas that were developed into songs. A couple of months later the album was there.

Hany: Why choose uploading the album instead of releasing a CD, in Egypt or abroad?

Ahmed: Currently we’re seeking more exposure. So we were just being realistic about it really. We decided to put it for free download instead of selling it.

Are you guys thinking of making the second CD into a legal release?

Ahmed: We’ll think about that when we’re done with the material itself.

Are you guys thinking of signing with a label soon?

Ahmed: We got a couple of offers through Myspace but they were not what we were looking for at the moment.

Are there any projects in the future to add vocals to your work?

Ahmed: Not in our upcoming albums. But, we’re thinking of featuring some musicians from the local scene for alternate versions of our songs with vocals.

In fact the album art work is really amazing. Who is behind that?

Ahmed: British graphics artist Oliver Cartwright designed and constructed all the artwork. You can check his portfolio on his website 

Rock music has many fans here, like electronic music. Aren’t you guys afraid to lose fans by using electronic music? How did you get this idea?

Ahmed: Well, it’s been done before; rock bands have been incorporating electronic elements in their music for a long time now. Besides, a good song is a good song regardless of the genre it falls under.

What are the band influences?

Ahmed: Mainly post rock and electronic music bands like Mogwai, God is an Astronaut, Aphex Twin, Air, and Steven Wilson.

Tell me about your current and former members?

Ahmed: We don’t have former members, this is our original lineup.

How did the band start, when, and where?

Ahmed: We’ve been friends since high school and we started playing music at about the same time. We got separated for a couple of years and started playing together again in September 2008 and Feed Me! was born. Feed Me! is our first serious project together, then comes Headcase of course.

What is your opinion about the scene right now and the accusations towards it?

Ahmed: The music scene in Egypt is very underdeveloped, it lacks creativity and revolves around playing covers; just look at the number of tribute concerts that have been held in the last few months.

What are your favorite bands in Egypt and why?

Ahmed: Kravin, and The Room, mainly because they play their original music like it should be played. Also, they pay a lot of attention to their output sound which is something most of the Egyptian bands don’t put into priority.

Do you guys only play originals, and if there are covers, can you give me some titles?

Ahmed: No, we strictly play our original music.

Is there any merchandise for the band?

Ahmed: It’s a work in progress.

With your genre do you think the western world will be hit by you?

Ahmed: We’ve been getting very positive feedback on Myspace and post rock blogs. In fact we have more fans abroad than in Egypt.

When are your next concerts, tours and album release dates?

Ahmed: No show dates any time soon. But, we hope to release our second album by early 2010.

Why choosing the name Feed Me! Does it reflect anything?

Ahmed: We were quite hungry at the time, that’s all =P

Are there any plans for future official videos?

Ahmed: Not strictly videos, but we’re working on visuals to accompany our live performances. So don’t expect to see us on Melody Hits any time soon.

How many concerts and tours did you guys perform in and what are the highlights of these concerts?

Ahmed: Only one concert in Sakia last May. It was a good step at the time because we wanted to get live feedback on our music, and learn what our technical difficulties might be during live performances.

Can you tell me names of bands you guys played with?

Ahmed: Just Feed Me! Headcase and Vent.

Give me names of the bands you guys wish to share the stage with in Egypt or abroad.

Ahmed: Locally no one in particular, we will go with the flow, and we’ll take it one concert at a time. Internationally, we’d like to share the stage with more accomplished bands like Mogwai or 65daysofstatic.

Have you guys had any local or international interviews?

Ahmed: Yes, we’ve had a couple of interviews in Brazil and Canada. And this is our first local interview.

What do you think of Rock Era Magazine?

Ahmed: We think it’s a different approach to cover the rock music scene in Egypt and we support that.

Did you get any good feedback after releasing Marching Stickmen?

Ahmed: Yes. We’re quite pleased with the feedback we’re getting so far, in Egypt and abroad.

What would you like to say to your fans out there?

Ahmed: We just want to thank everyone who’s been supportive so far.

What does Instrumental Therapy mean?

Aymen: We’ve been thinking about a name for the band for so long, we had many ideas and got many suggestions but none of which expressed what we were really about. We’ve been looking for a name that reflects what we do. Since we play (Instrumental) tracks, we believe that music can change, and can heal. From here on in we decided that this will be the name of the band, Instrumental Therapy.

Can you tell me about your discography?

Aymen: So far we’ve got 6 original tracks. We worked on the first 3 original tracks on December 2007 (The American Dream, Peace, and The Rise of the Kings) then we played the 4th original (Let’s rock) for the first time in March 2008. Our 5th original (Release) had lines, so we got a guest vocalist in March 2009 concert. Then there was the 6th original (Psycho Therapy) which we are planning on performing in our next gig in July 2009.

Instrumental Therapy changed from a tribute band to an original one, what are the reasons behind that?

Aymen: True, we were concentrating on Joe Satriani tracks till we decided that we needed a new challenge. You can feel the identity of the band from its original tracks; you can be a very good band by covering tracks for well-known artists, but you still won’t have your own musical character until you’ve created your own music with your own feelings and emotion.

Weren’t you afraid of covering a guitar legend like Joe Satriani? What was your reason behind that choice?

Aymen: Joe is a very talented musician, it wasn’t an easy thing choosing him, but that’s the music we loved, and that’s why we chose it. We were ready to put in all the efforts in the world to play his music as tightly as we can. We were even focusing on the sound’s output, so we used our own sound engineer to ensure that we would get the best sound quality in our live shows.

What are the difficulties facing you as a rock band?

Aymen: The most difficult thing is that Egypt doesn’t have variety of known venues to perform real rock concerts, I guess the stage is what a musician lives for. Here we just have three or four places where we can perform rock concerts.

Have you guys signed (or thinking of) a record deal with any music label?

Aymen: We are not signed yet, and yes we are thinking about that.

Have you guys performed any concerts outside of Egypt or are you planning to hit the western world?

Aymen: We still haven’t performed outside of Egypt, we are working on more original stuff to complete at least a one hour setlist.

What are your plans for the future?

Aymen: There are different directions, one of them is to perform concerts outside of Egypt, another direction is to concentrate on recording our 1st album.

How did the band start, when and where?

Aymen: The band was formed in 2007 When Ayman (who was a member in a blues band called Blues on the Rocks) wanted to make a new musical project which basically covers Joe Satriani’s great hits. After some music sessions with some talented musicians trying to start that new project, it didn’t go so well at the beginning. This is because some people weren’t interested enough, some weren’t responsible and some were very good but there wasn’t what we call chemistry or spirit between us. So the idea was paused for a while until Ayman met Mostafa (Drummer) by chance. After a few months, Ayman talked with Mostafa about the idea of covering some Joe Satriani tracks. Mostafa was good enough to go through with the project and he liked the idea. Mahmoud El Masry (X-bassist) who was the bassist of Blues on the Rocks band was ready to join the band as he was a big fan of Satriani, so he accepted Ayman’s offer to join. The band wasn’t ready yet as the project needed another guitarist, and Omar Osama’s touch was strong enough to start the project.

Tell me about your current and former members?

Aymen: The current members are:

• Ayman Moharram: Lead Guitarist and Composer
• Omar Osama: Rhythm Guitarist
• Mostafa Taha: Drums
• Sherif Roshdy: Bass Guitarist
• Ashraf Magid: Keyboardist

Guests:

• Mohammed Emam (Vocal – guest)
• And the former members are:
• Mahmoud El-Masry: Bass Guitarist
• Feras El-Rifae: Bass Guitarist

Do you suffer from any accusations towards the rock & metal scene nowadays in the media? What do you think could be a solution to that problem?

Aymen: We can’t say that we are suffering, we feel the atmosphere is better nowadays, people began to understand what rock and metal is all about, you can hear rock and metal music in T.V. programs and radio, but the problem still exists, some irresponsible individuals can be pinned down as the reason. I guess we can solve it when we begin to respect the music and respect others too, you know what I mean. I mean you have the right to enjoy the music, but you don’t have the right to harm others.

What are your favourite rock bands in Egypt and why?

Aymen: There are many talented bands here in Egypt, Andromida is a good old band, their music is so tight.

How would you categorize your music?

Aymen: I don’t like to categorize our music, we’ve got an oriental touch in some tracks, we’ve got an all rock spirit in other tracks, some are heavy, to feel the real metal music, some are lighter. Well, I’ll leave the categorizing to you, that will be fair enough I guess!

Are there any official videos for the band?

Aymen: We’ve got our videos on our Facebook group, and on the YouTube channel, we also have a Myspace page.

Are you planning on entering any music competitions around the world?

Ayman: I don’t believe in dealing with music as if it is a sport, because competitions were made to show the best, and there is no (Best) in music, but whenever there is a chance to perform music on stage, we’ll be there.

Can you give me names of bands that you shared the stage with and bands that you hope to work with in the future?

Aymen: We shared the stage with (Amadeus) in our 1st concert in Sakia.

Enraged on 8-3-2008 in Sakia.

Redeemers on 11-7-2008.

Give me a brief summary of your previous gigs and concerts?

Aymen:

• • 1st concert (5-8-2007) in Sakia Culture Wheel:
    • The band prepared a list of 10 tracks for the 1st gig as the they were sharing the stage with a Rock band from Alexandria (Amadeus).
  • 2nd concert (17-10-2007) in Sakia Culture Wheel:
    • After the 1st gig the band’s main focus was to cover more tracks to perform a whole concert, after 2 months the band was ready with 18 tracks adding new artists to the list (Steve Vai and John Petrucci).
  • After the 2nd concert, the direction was changing a little bit, the band began to focus on creating original tracks.
    • At the same time Mahmoud decided to leave the band to focus on his business career, so the band had to stop for a while to search for a good Bassist. Feras El-Rifay (a very old friend of Ayman) offered to join the band, and he got in.
  • 3rd concert (11-2-2008) in Sakia Culture Wheel:
    • The band was ready with 3 original tracks for this gig with new Satriani tracks.
    • The three original tracks: The American dream, the rise of the kings and Peace
  • 4th concert (8-3-2008) in Sakia Culture Wheel:
    • Our band shared the stage with a Metal band (Enraged). We played the 3 originals with some Satriani covers.

5th concert (27-3-2008) in Sakia Culturewheel (New Generation’s branch):

• • The band played a new original track “Let’s Rock”
• 6th concert (11-7-2008) at El Sakia Culture Wheel:
  • The band shared the stage with a Symphonic Power Metal band (Redeemers).
  • After the 6th Concert Tarek El-Sharkawy joined the band as guest on the bass guitar
• 7th Concert (28-11-2008):
  • The band took a part in the Ain Shams annual festival which was in Ismailia city.
• 8th Concert (02-03-2009):
  • The band performed in Sakia Culture Wheel and performed a new original track called (Release).

Is there any merchandise for the band?

Aymen: No there isn’t.

When are your upcoming concerts, album, EP releases?

Aymen: We’ve got a rock/metal concert come 9th of July at El Sakia Culture Wheel, we’ll be sharing the stage with Varden, The Room and Enraged. That’s gonna be a big one I guess. 

What do you think of Rock Era magazine?

Aymen: This is a great effort guys, really we are glad you can come up with this great magazine which supports the bands, we wish you the best of luck.

Is there any message you want to deliver for your fans?

Aymen: YEAH, waiting to see all of you. We miss you so much, we’ll be seeing you 9/7/2009, till then, ROCK ON.

How would you categorize your music project genre?

Rebecca: Rock/Acoustic Rock. 

What made you start singing? When and where?

Rebecca: I started singing at a young age. I began playing piano at the age of 5 then started singing a few years later.

Tell me about your band and how you chose its members.

Rebecca: My music project started in Philadelphia before I moved to Los Angeles. It was electronic music at first but then over the years I slowly began making rock music. The members are various friends/collaborators that contribute with the recordings.

Did you share the stage with any other bands? Which?

Rebecca: I haven’t performed much, as I mostly write and record but I am planning a show in Los Angeles in the fall with a few local bands.

What are your influences, are they all musical or are there other elements?

Rebecca: My influences have been the Rolling Stones, The Cult, Classic Rock, The Doors, British Invasion, some Shoegaze and of course life experiences that have contributed to my lyrics.

What about your discography and label?

Rebecca: I am not signed with an actual label, but I am on a few of my friend Quang’s compilations on Halo XL which is also FMajor Records.

What are your plans to the future concerning albums and tours?

Rebecca: I am currently recording, working with collaborators and will be posting new music soon. I actually took down my old songs and put up a few demos until the new music is finished.

What are your lyrical themes?

Rebecca: Passion, lust, love, anger, hope, heartache and a wide range of other emotions.

Can you share some highlights about the tours and gigs?

Rebecca: No actual tour yet, but I will be playing out soon!

Are there any news about your album release date?

Rebecca: It should be out by fall.

Are there any official videos?

Rebecca: I don’t have a video out yet, however, I have asked a close friend who is also a director to start storyboarding ideas with me for the finished version of “Go Easy.”

Which bands do you wish to share the stage with in the future?

Rebecca: There are a few local bands I would like to share the stage with such as Devon Station, Golden State and Jaq Gallier.

Would you like to perform a concert here in Cairo, Egypt?

Rebecca: That would be fun! It is such a beautiful country.

Is there any message you want to deliver to the people?

Rebecca: Always pursue your dreams and your goals and never give up. If you are moved to create, then do it and do it 100% and don’t let anything stand in your way. I write music because it is my passion and I hope it can be enjoyed by others as well. 

When was your first time on stage and how was it?

Rebecca: My first time onstage was when I did musical theatre. I acted and sang in the musical “Hair”. I was nervous at first, but after I settled into the role, I felt comfortable.

What was your aim when you established the band?

Rebecca: I didn’t really have an aim, I just started writing and recording and creating. However, recently, I have had the drive to keep creating and I hope to tour, getting the music out there for people to hear.

In addition to singing, you are a DJ. Can you tell us about that?

Rebecca: Yes, I used to DJ often when I lived in Philadelphia and my friend would do Electronic nights and different theme parties. I did DJ a few times in Los Angeles but haven’t done as much lately because I started promoting and event planning and now I’m just focusing on writing music.

Do you play any instruments?

Rebecca: I play the keyboard, bass guitar and drums.

Do you write and compose your songs?

Rebecca: Yes, I am the primary songwriter and composer. I use a lot of my poetry for my lyrics.

Have you done covers or remixes for other bands?

Rebecca: I did a cover of Depeche Mode’s “World in My Eyes” for fun with a friend. I am working on a few covers right now; anything from Tears for Fears to old country music. I like doing acoustic covers of rock songs.

What would you like to tell Egyptian Rock Era fans?

Rebecca: Keep rocking, I love the magazine and you are all amazing!

First things first, what does Dieski mean?

Dieski is Japanese for In The Love Of. In Japanese the word is divided in two, Die-Ski.

What do you mean by: If You like Manga & Anime, there should be nothing else on your freakin’ iPod except our tracks? What is the relation between your music and Anime/Manga?

We love Anime, and actually Dieski is the lead character in the 70’s famous Japanese anime Grindizer, even the cover of our album is an Anime character.

How would you categorize your music?

First of all we are a rock band, so rock is the essence of our music. We play both, covers for famous artists and our own original music. Our aim is to become a completely original band. I remember in our first big concert we played a set of about 20 songs, with just 2 or 3 originals. In our last concert half the set was original songs, and soon we will play just one or two covers per concert.

With a lot of changes in the line-up, what are the changes in sound, and what was the effect of Dalia leaving the band?

Of course each member of the band has his input which is reflected in the music, with members leaving and others joining I personally saw it as a positive thing which makes the music we play flourish, as every person has his own signature and ideas that he blends into the music, which gives it a different taste. I remember for example that we used to play one of our songs, The Thing You Hate, in a certain way, then when Fady Anis (Bassist) joined the band, he told us to change its ending, and when we tried it we found that it sounds even better. I believe that as long as your mind is open to different opinions and ideas, then this will help in improving the music you play, of course Dalia is an important member of the band, and her leaving wasn’t in its favour, but she took the decision and we respected it, and as I told you, we are used to changes, so it’s normal for members to leave and others to join. In the end, Dieski is still Dieski.

How did the band start? When and where?

The band started a long time ago, in 2003-2004, the idea started with Karim Hassan (lead guitarist) and myself. We used to jam together a lot because we’ve been friends since we were little kids, so we thought of actually forming a band. We then faced the problem of finding people who can fit into the style of music that we wanted to play. We met a bassist (Mahmoud nofal) who was with us at college, then a friend of ours introduced us to the drummer (Sherif Shaheed), then it took us a while to meet our vocalist (Dalia).

The line-up changed several times. After our first bassist left, we had another bassist (Karim Suki), and now we have Fadi Anis as our bassist. As per the drums, we started out with Sherif Shaheed, but after he left for the Gulf we got another Drummer (Maged Faltas). As for the Keyboards, we had several members joining. You know that sometimes we had friends on the band, like when Amr Khaled of Bad Apple joined us for a while as a Drummer (he plays drums really well) and Hany Mostafa of Egoz also pitched in as keyboardist and guest Vocalist.

Tell me about the current members, how did you meet?

Current members, well, our bassist nowadays is (Fady), Karim and I have known him for more than 10 years now, so we asked him to join after (Suki) left. About (Maged) the drummer, Karim met him in a studio and jammed with him and ever since then he became a member of the band.

What do you think of the scene right now and the accusations towards it?

Well the scene is expanding, a lot of bands are emerging, more people are getting attracted to this kind of music. But the problem in my opinion is that the venues are still few, I can’t recall having many places that allow bands to play, other than El Sawy Culture Wheel, and the Alexandrina Bibliotica, with its annual competition. Also, a lot of bands are commercializing content to attract more audience.

What are your favorite bands in Egypt and why?

Well, as bands who plays originals, I like Forgotten Notes, Abuse and Egoz, as they have great original music which distinguishes them from others. Regarding cover bands, I like Screwdriver, I personally think they’re the best cover band in Egypt.

Tell me about your discography?

We recorded a demo album titled Of Bloody Hearts and Broken Glass, the demo consisted of 4 original tracks and was distributed in our concerts last year. We are working on recording 5 other tracks and releasing a complete Album soon.

Did you guys play covers in addition to original songs?

Yes of course, we played many covers with various styles. For example, we played stuff by Guns n’ Roses along with covers of Lacuna Coil and Nightwish and even by Alanis Morissette and Pink Floyd, I mean we didn’t limit ourselves to a certain genre in covers, we used to play whatever we wanted to play, which characterizes Dieski. We all have different taste in music; I am a Pink Floyd and Camel fan, Karim is a Lacuna Coil and Nightwish fan, Fady is more into Jazz, Maged is into new metal and so on. Everyone has some songs that he likes and we all play them, that’s why you’ll find a variety of covers in our set list.

Is there any official band merchandise out?

Not yet, we’re planning on making some stuff using the band’s logo but we’re still in the brainstorming phase.

Are you guys planning on hitting Europe, the US and Asia? The latter seems like a given since you like the Japanese culture.

This is the dream of any Egyptian band, it’s not easy though. We are trying to contact some record labels abroad. If that works, then maybe the dream will come true.

Tell me about your upcoming concerts and release dates.

I can’t give you an exact date, as some of the band members are travelling abroad these days, but I can say that something will happen soon, but not before a couple of more months.

What are the lyrical themes of your songs?

Our lyrics express everything that a person can go through, from love to pain and aggression. As I told you before we don’t limit ourselves to any category. For example, the song Nothing but a Dream, talks about disappointment after break-ups, while the song Sorcerer talks about the fantasy world of one’s imagination, so as you can see, there is diversity in the subjects.

Are you guys signed to any label?

Unfortunately, not yet. We are trying to contact labels abroad, but still nothing yet.

How can fans listen to your work? Are there any videos out there or mp3s available for download?

Yes, there are videos of some of the concerts on YouTube, and we are currently working on a Myspace page for Dieski.

How many concerts and tours did you guys perform? And what were their highlights?

Oh, I’ve lost count. We played a lot and in many different places, from Sakiet el Sawy, to universities, like AUC, MSA and CIC, to the Alexandria Bibliotheque and others. My favorite concert/tour was when we performed in Alexandria, that was one of the best concerts, the stage and equipment there were awesome. We were playing in open air with the sea as our background and everything was well-organized.

Can you tell me the names of the bands you guys played with?

Oh, they’re a lot. Uhm, well, we played with Forgotten Notes, Egoz, Marbleheads, and many more.

Give me names of the bands you guys wish to share the stage with, whether inside or outside Egypt.

I remember we once talked about this and the answer was Metallica

Do you see your band as a global one?

Yes, I believe that our music combines both the melodic feel along with the commercial attraction, which appeals to most people.

Have you guys had any interviews with local, international music mags before? If there are any, can you give me some names?

Ahmed: Yes, we were interviewed on the Radio before, and they aired some of our songs. We were also interviewed in some magazines like Campus.

What do you think of Rock Era? The good and the bad points?

Actually I like your magazine very much, it’s a window for artists to reach a widespread audience throughout the internet. I love the idea of the online radio that you have, it has allowed me to listen to many Egyptian bands which I didn’t know how to reach before. Keep it going Rock Era.

What would you like to say to your fans out there?

Wait for us…Dieski will rock you.

How and when did the band start?

BC: It started sometime in 2004, just two friends who love playing music getting together.

Does the name stand for anything?

BC: The name is whatever you want it to be, that’s what music is about. Honestly, to us it doesn’t mean a thing!

What are your lyrical themes? Were they based on inner social struggles facing the band members?

BC: We basically just write about what we feel and what’s going on around us. Sometimes we just make up a story and write it up, so it’s just art in general.

How do you guys categorize your music? And what is your opinion on many of the rising subgenres?
BC: We play Punk Rock but with a lot of different influences, ranging from jazz to blues to hardcore. A lot of bands are doing different things and we think that’s a cool idea to develop new music styles.

As a punk rock band, how do you see the Egyptian society?

BC: As a punk rock band in Egypt we have always been struggling with critics because no one understands our message except maybe a few people that I always see at our shows, but it’s something that we love playing and will always play, the punk scene in Cairo just fluctuates, but nobody knows what the future holds!

Have you guys signed with any major label yet?

BC: We’re still not signed to any major label, only independent labels, but we have big goals for the band and we do not want to ruin it with major corporate labels, they will suck the soul out of it!

May I ask about the discography of the band?

BC: We have two released albums that we recorded a while back, one’s called “Shmegegi” and has 9 tracks. The other is called “Brain Dead” and has 6 tracks. We just gave them out to people for free. We are recording a new album now that we have been working on for some time.

How many concerts and tours have you guys performed in? And what are the highlights of these concerts and tours?

BC: Frankly, the last 6 years with the band have been a blur of shows, fun and work, I can never remember how many shows we played, but I guess a lot.

Can you tell me names of bands you guys played with? In your opinion, what are the best punk bands now? What are your music influences?

BC: We played with a bunch of local bands over the years but the only stage we shared with an international band was “Fishing With Guns”. We listen to a lot of punk bands but mainly our punk influences are all legends; starting from Dead Kennedy’s, The Misfits, NOFX, Rancid, Alkaline Trio and many more, so just basically punk rock.

Is there any album release date on the horizon? And is there any official video for the band yet?

BC: We have no release date yet because we’re still recording and working on songs. As for the music video part, we’re actually talking about one but we’re still mulling it over. The band is in an experimental stage so we were just taking it easy.

Who are the bands you wish to play with in the future?

BC: We have a lot of idols and we hope to share the stage with all of them but no specific bands.

What are your future plans for tours and concerts?

BC: We’ll actually when we’re done with our new album we will start organizing shows with bands in Europe and definitely hit Japan.

What would you like to say to your fans out there?

BC: Well, if there are any out there! Hope you guys enjoy the music and thanks for the support. And to all the real punk rockers in Egypt, don’t you die out because if you do we do too. Cheers!

Hany: is it true that you started singing at the age of 12?

Juliet: Yes, actually I took a guitar course, it was free at my school. I started playing the guitar and learning songs and then decided to write my own songs, so I started composing songs using the guitar and then I studied piano. This was back in Chicago. The problem with my songs was that they were all limited by how well I played either the piano or the guitar, which was not that proficient, so someone suggested I write a song without the help of an instrument. Write the melody, they said, just let the melody come to you. And I thought Ok that sounds really scary! But I tried it, and it worked best, and so that’s how I write songs now. I never use an instrument when I write. I write the melody and the lyrics, then I sit at the piano and write the chord charts so the jazz musicians can play it. I also sometimes write out the notation for the bass part and the strings parts when I’m working with live musicians.

Hany: I heard that you started underground…

Juliet: Oh you know I was referring to Chicago and to the subways there, because I sang on the subways. I made a living that way when I first moved to the city by myself. It was a great school because I couldn’t do many of my originals there…The people on the subways in Chicago need to recognize the song. The great thing about it was depending on the kind of people there, I could pick which song would make them open up their hearts and open up their purses and I think I really touched some people…Some people approached me with tears in their eyes. That’s what it was about, that makes it all worthwhile. If I could sing an R&B song for like 3 young Black kids that would reach them. If I could sing an old song from the 60’s for someone who’s in their 50’s then that would touch them, so this experience really taught me how to reach an audience. And I found out that it really isn’t about me. It’s about what I give, and the connection that I make with the audience, so whatever that audience shows to me I had to reach that. Music is a way of communication.

Hany: How do you categorize your music?

Juliet: I like to call it exotica new jazz because it has elements that can’t be categorized, exotic elements, maybe from different countries we don’t usually hear, or instruments that are used, like the song “Secret Life” has banjo in it as well as acoustic guitar but the styles I like to blend, funk and R&B, come out of Chicago where I played with funk and R&B players. It’s the jazz influence that’s always going to be there.

Hany: What are your lyrical themes?

Juliet: I deal with any theme of passion. I have written about political issues especially when I was campaigning for Ron Paul last year, and I wrote a few songs about that. I write about relationships and I write about taking chances because those things I think are important in Life.

Hany: Can you name a few artists or bands that you admire?

Juliet: That’s a great question, I love the great modern writers, I love the old great writers! Cole Porter was a great song writer I think, Sting is one of the great songwriters of our time. He sung in Cairo when I was there last, I think Anne Lennox is one of the greatest writers and performers, I like people who take chances like Bjork and Michelle indigeo Cello and Imogen Heap. I love her. She is unique… She sings like no other, she has her own voice and I love her style.

Hany: Tell me about your gigs and tours in the Middle East, were there any previous ones?

Juliet: Well I was in Dubai and I’ll be going back to do a few shows there. But After Cairo, I’m going to Beirut, staying there for 2 months and I’ll be playing about 3 or 4 shows a week there.

Hany: Are you thinking of doing a show or a tour again in Egypt?

Juliet: I’d love to come in the winter. It depends on how things in Beirut go. If they go well, then I’ll come back to Cairo hopefully for a longer time because I really love it here. This time I’m thinking WOW it’s like a home for me, here in Cairo. It is so comfortable.

Hany: That’s great to hear! I hope it goes well for you in Beirut.Tell me about your label, how would you characterise it?

Juliet: I call it “Matahari Music”. I just connect to the Idea. The character of Matahari, she was a real person and a lot of people don’t know much about her. She was actually Dutch, she was very tall, 5’10”, which at that time back in the 1900’s was very tall for a woman. She was so tall that they thought she could never marry, so they said you are gonna be a school teacher! She was beautiful though. Many people were attracted to her, and this became a problem with her job. So she got kicked out of there. She ran away to Paris from Holland and she decided to reinvent herself and be a dancer because in Holland they had different colonies, so they had the Dutch East Indies, known at the time as “Java”. So they had the influence of this exotic Javanese culture, so she took on some of the influence of the people she knew from the The East Indies.

She learned their language and her name “Matahari” actually means the golden rising sun. She was a character! And she was recruited by the French to work then as a spy. The French who had hired her ended up executing her, even though she worked for them. They said she was a double agent. The story is so mysterious and she is such an independent woman that I just connected with her. So I called this “Matahari Music”.

Hany: Are there any official music videos in plan?

Juliet: Yes I’m working on a music video right now. I wanted to finish it before I came here but it was too much to do…It’s for the song, “Just For Fun” but it’s unedited now, though it’s all shot. I was planning to edit it once I was in Beirut *laughs* Maybe I won’t have time, though. But it’ll be done eventually!

Hany: Who’s the director of your upcoming video?

Juliet: This is a collaborative thing. I guess I was the director but I had my friends in LA shoot it , I had this friend, Paul Grayson play my boyfriend in the video and I would just call my girlfriends, asking “Hey are you free? Can you shoot this?!”, and I told one of my best friends – also another musician with the band “Silver Phial” – and asked her, “Hey, Cheryl, can you play the other woman in this video?” She said OK, we met up at this local café, no permits, just a basic scene idea and as for directing I just explained what was going to happen…Paul talks to Cheryl, lights her cig, I make a face, pull out a lipstick that turns into a blade, etc. It’s a very punk rock theme, very “do it yourself”, D.I.Y

Hany: Tell us about your future plans…

Juliet: Ok I had this Idea; I saw that there are so many great DJs in Cairo, so I’m looking forward to release a remix album for the next project of songs from “Scenes From a Life on Fire”. I brought the pro-tools sessions so I have the files to share with DJ’s who would like to try a remix of a song from the CD. I’ll talk to K-mat, one of the DJ’s on NILE FM because I’m seeing him soon. I want to do a CD, all remixes, but really different, I don’t want this to sound like anything else!

Hany: Have you heard about DJ Carlos?

Juliet: with the K , Oh yeah with the C. Uh both of them, I think…

Hany: On Nile FM.

Juliet: He is really good!

Hany: Maybe he can help you, I’ll see if I can find him

Juliet: I just wanted to say something about Cairo; it’s really close to my heart, because the people in Cairo are so warm that I wanted to come back and then I got on Facebook and everybody is so enthusiastic. Everybody is so kind and helpful. Some things you could hardly even believe, like my friend, Ahmed El Shaky found me there, he said I’m a journalist, and I said maybe he wants to be a journalist, he’s young I thought, but it’s OK I didn’t care, I didn’t really take him that seriously, at first. But he really helped me out, hooked me up and came through for me! He was real and so sweet. And we’ll be friends for life. I also think you guys have a TERRIFIC WEBSITE, I’m so impressed.

Hany: Maybe the 1st time I chatted with you there was no website at all, I told you it was under-construction

Juliet: and then you sent the alert, and I said ok let’s see, and it was so good!

Hany: The magazine actually is all about 9 or 10 people at most.

Juliet: Oh yeah, working hard huh? I’m really impressed with that.

Hany: Tell me more about your experience with people in Egypt?

Juliet: Coming here was much better than having to be with everyone on Facebook! Reaching you guys all the time, 5 in the morning, it’s like time differences especially that we are always like chatting at weird times, but you know that’s the point though, because a lot of times you make a connection with somebody on Facebook or on Myspace, But when you meet them it’s like OKAAY, they are not as warm as I thought they were, but this experience was very true. Just being on Facebook but in 3 dimensions!

Hany: How do you think most people in the US view the Middle Eastern community? Are any of their ideas changing?
Juliet: Yeah, I guess our ideas are changing, and the reason I think that is my involvement with the Ron Paul campaign last year. It introduced me to a lot of people who are open-minded, like Anti-war and pro-peace because you see the US government is unfortunately governed by a small group of elites that don’t represent the American people. What they are trying to do is be an empire, like the ancient Roman Empire. Well, even speaking of the Dutch, they were once an empire. They would have their satellites, they would take over this, and they would take over that, they would colonize. That’s what the US is trying to do with the occupations. They send people all over. The poor soldiers, they don’t want to be there! And all they can do is cause havoc. It’s bad for everybody. It’s bad for us Americans. It’s bad for the people who live there, too, of course!

What was so inspiring for me is that a lot of Americans are sick of what our government is doing, so the impression that Americans have about middle Eastern people is changing, and it’s changing for the better, and I’m very happy to say that, cause I had such a great experience in 2001 that I tell everybody how respectful everyone was to me! I can say that the only bad experience I ever had was with taxi drivers *Laughs* and that’s a problem all over the world.

Hany: Do you think that your political values and standards affected your music? Maybe some of your friends took defensive positions for supporting some other guy in the elections.

Juliet: Actually Not. Well first, I have no desire to go to Israel you know when my agent said to me you can’t *laughs* I said why? It looks like their government is worse than ours. So I wasn’t supporting that! But she told me you can’t go to Israel, so I said I don’t want to go there, but the sad thing is, which is also part of the message I want to put out there, is that Jewish people are not the same as the people who run the government in Israel. In LA I know many Jewish people and they have no interest in occupying the Middle East and taking over Palestine, they have no interest in that, they are good-hearted, educated people. But there is a difference and people make these broad assumptions, just like the people who make assumptions about Middle Eastern people or Muslim people.

Hany: But I think many Egyptians think that Jewish people are different than Israelis

Juliet: I’m so glad, really, that’s wonderful to hear!

Hany: It’s true, we do differentiate between a Jew and an Israeli, we know that there is a big difference between them, one is just a religion and the other is a political view.

Juliet: You guys know that Orthodox rabbis are against Israel, right? When I found that I was like WOW and also there is a great group of Jewish people who refuse to serve in the military, the IDF there, too. They are called the Refusniks, the Schministin.

Hany: And they are brave because those 19-year-olds are put in jail.

Hany: Back to music *Laughs*

Juliet: I don’t want to take a long time talking about that.

Hany: So were you involved in the Ron Paul Revolution?

Juliet: Yeah, I did the Ron Paul calendar and I did get some flak for the calendar. I have no problem with sexuality so I didn’t get that.

Hany: Maybe you should explain the idea of the calendar.

Juliet: I should’ve brought you one *laughs* Ok, the calendar includes on every page a quote by someone like Martin Luther King, Ayn Rand, Thomas Jefferson…I have so many great people included. And then there is a quote from Ron Paul that matches it in some deep way. So the reason I did the calendar was because people think it was interesting, people think it’s fun, so they buy it because of that, and open it up and get to learn more about Ron Paul, his political views his positions and see the parallel people like Thomas Jefferson Martin Luther King and they’ll see what the movement is about.

Hany: Where are your next concerts going to be?!

Juliet: I’ll be at Cairo Jazz Club on the 12th and that’s going to be an unusual show because it’s really intimate, in a small room and people can really get close. I would actually feel more comfortable when I’m close to the people, because I can connect to the people better.

Hany: It is small *laughs*

Juliet: Yeah I like that, and I’ll do more jazz standards there, too. It’ll be fun!

Hany: Will there be “TANNOORA” like today?

Juliet: No, it’s unfortunate, But no, but I like him so much! Mokhtar Hakim is his name.

Hany: The guy is really amazing.

Juliet: YEAH I’d never seen so many things he did.

Hany: What was his name? The accordion guy?

Juliet: The accordion guy came from upper Egypt his name is Bishoo

Hany: Bishoy

Juliet: and he is 19 years old and I just found him only on Facebook, but I took a chance actually, because I only saw one video of him playing, and I could barely hear it, but he was so enthusiastic!

Hany: So where did the idea come from?

Juliet: Which one?! Oh, to feature a Tanoura dancer?

Hany: yes

Juliet: well I’ve been a big fan of Sufism for a long time. I studied the Sufis, certain books by Idries Shah and Hazrat Inayat Khan…He is an Indian and I love these books! They are all jokes, stories, and they are more about how to learn and how to understand and how to live than by laws and rules. It’s more like how to make your own rules from what I understood and this really appealed to me! Also what appeals to me about them is how, for them, it was all about dance and music. They are about expressing love for God through dance and music, reaching this ecstasy. I love in fact that they used the word, “ecstasy” even, and they even use this word “intoxication”. See this is one of the problems we have in the US. We go back to our pilgrims. We were very Puritanical at one point, so they had these little buttons to push and they didn’t have a connection to their own bodies, to ecstasy, this sort of joy that’s euphoric that I see in the Sufi tradition, goes into euphoric states which is so beautiful, and which music gives people, so I connected with that. It’s very liberating. I think it’s a level of spiritual heights that can only be reached through music, so that’s why I connect with them, so when I found this tiny picture on Facebook, of this guy in the skirt spinning, I said that guy is a Sufi because he is spinning so I wrote him and he was receptive. So Sufism is an important part of how I feel about music.

Hany: Do you take it as legend or a philosophy?

Juliet: More of a philosophy actually. That’s a good question!

Hany: I asked because so many people can’t understand the meaning of Sufism.

Juliet: Just a philosophy as I can understand it. When I think of a religion I think of a group of people who like to get together for social reason besides the spiritual aspect. Me, I have my friends, I have my musicians, I have my family, so I don’t look for that kind of social connection through spirituality, to me spirituality is an independent thing. It’s personal.

Hany: Comes from the inside…Yeah.

Juliet: Yeah!

Hany: How do you think your music plays a part in political change?

Juliet: I think in 2 ways basically, one way directly by writing a song that has some political meaning to it, and the CD has one song called “New Revolution” and it’s about bringing our troops home from the Middle East. And it quotes Ron Paul, who said in a debate, that he would say to our troops if he were elected president, “Just come home.” And in other way, politically reaching people, not directly, is by reaching out to people in different countries and showing that there is camaraderie, a connection, and strengthening that.

Hany: Who writes your songs?

Juliet: That’s good *laughs* I write my stuff, I write my songs.

Hany: Do you compose it as well?

Juliet: Yeah and I play it, everything on the CD is played by me, except for when you see the guest artist noted. For instance, like there’s a girl playing accordion, my friend “Tammy Tomahawk” of Cinderella Motel and there is another friend of mine, Thom Duvall on banjo and guitar… and you see a few other guitar players, Jamie Tisdale and Jimmy Walker. All great players!

Hany: What is your role in the recording studio?

Juliet: In the recording studio I work with a wonderful engineer who is also well known as a producer. He has worked with people like David Bowie, Seal, Mick Jagger. He’s a very eccentric person, likes to cross-dress. He has this wild sense of humor and he’s very fun, but he’s quirky. He’s a guy that not everybody might like…I love him I think he is wonderful. But he only works with people he wants to work with. And that’s part of the reason I chose him. He doesn’t produce my stuff, though. He engineers for me. He says when he works with me he is like a “sonic waitress”, meaning that I tell him what to get just like a waitress, like oh get me guitar in here, oh give some good bass on here and he gives it to me and I play it and then put it together. And he likes that, because it’s different than the way he usually works with artists.

Hany: How did you meet your musicians?

Juliet: Mostly through Facebook, actually. I already knew Amro Salah, the pianist from when I was in Cairo back in 2001. I was going to play with him, but unfortunately he is in Bulgaria. I won’t even see him, which is too bad, cause I’ve known him for many years. So I was wracking my brains about how I was going to find another keyboardist. Then on Facebook I found Fathy Salama, and I saw that he had won a Grammy, so I just figured, well he knows the right cat to play keys for me! *Laughs*

I wrote to him and asked him, please I’m coming to Cairo, and can you recommend to me a good jazz piano player? I knew if I had a piano player, through him, I’d also have a band. Fathy Salama was so cool. He gave 2 names and Hesham was the one who picked up the phone.

Hany: Hesham Galal?

Juliet: Yes, “Hesham Galal”. And he was into it right away, even the first phone call, I said some gigs don’t pay that well, and he said, “you know what, I’ll do it because it’ll be a good opportunity, it sounds fun”. I was really overjoyed when I got his email saying he likes my songs cause I’ve seen his videos, really amazing…

Hany: And he was in the Cairo Jazz Festival

Juliet: Yeah, and over the last show he can’t make that, so I’m going to be using a wonderful pianist who has played with Amr Diab whose name is Hany el sheikh, and the guitar player, plays with him a lot, his name is Adel wa’ad, we will be doing different material there too, little funkier stuff, it’ll be fun.

Hany: The last thing I’m going to ask you about is your last album, tell me something about it.

Juliet: That was a jazz album.

Hany: No the last one you mentioned at your concert today.

Juliet: The one that just came out.

Hany: Yeah, tell me about your art work.

Juliet: It was really hard because I wanted to look modern but also harkening back to the late 1950’s early 60’s type of look. Do you think it does that, what do you think?

Hany: YEAH!

Juliet: Great, it does.

Hany: And the fire thing that was really amazing!

Juliet: Oh yeah, I learned how to do that from a girl friend of mine who was in a troop. She toured with a fire dancing group. All they did was blow fire, eat fire, and twirl fire, everything with fire…

Hany: So it’s not a Photoshop trick?

Juliet: NO, it’s really fire. It’s out of my tongue *laughs*, here is one thing I’ll tell you guys because you’ll find it interesting. This is the first thing she told me. You grab a torch, touch it to your tongue, and sticks on your tongue for a minute. Now what you never do, never breathe in. Because if you breathe in, the fire may go down your throat and maybe your lungs and it will burn everything, very dangerous to do that.

But I thought the picture was too extreme to put on the cover on the back.

Hany: How many albums do you have?

Juliet: three.

Hany: Three? What are they called?

Juliet: “Crushed Velvet”, that was 5 years ago, yeah.

The second one was from a show in Hollywood called “The Lord’s Lover” and the songs from that are mostly funk, and then this is it the ones.

Hany: What do you hope to give to the audience here in Cairo?

Juliet: I hope to connect with them, so they remember me as an American artist, who is giving them a good example and not trying to occupy them *laughs* just wanted to share…

Hany: Where are you originally from?

Juliet: From Chicago, but my mother is Italian and my father is Hungarian, you know what is great? People in Egypt know how to pronounce my last name perfectly!

Hany: Yeah, because many of them deal with Italians. Italians in Sharm El Sheikh are a lot…

The interesting thing also here in Cairo is that people in here also look like the Italians. All Mediterraneans are passionate.

Hany: Did you expect that great success, to become a great artist, since you first started dreaming about music?

Juliet: No I don’t know if I expected it, but I was thinking about it for a long time, ever since I was 13, writing a lot of music and reaching a lot of people…

Hany: what do you feel when you look back at your life, everything you’ve done, starting from zero until you reached the point of fame and everything?

Juliet: You make me sound really good! HA HA I don’t deserve that kind of compliment *laughs* I think every single turn, and every single problem or challenge was really worth it I don’t regret anything. No regrets, that’s what I say. I’m just very grateful for everything, big and small.

Hany: For your music, as a target audience, is it easy or hard to succeed in the US?

Juliet: I think it’s difficult. It isn’t hip hop, it’s not Electronica, it isn’t jazz all the way. I’ve got a one hand over here, one hand over there. We’re playing twister you know?

Hany: wow! Your answer is surprising! I always thought jazz was so popular in the US!

Juliet: Well yes, actually it is. I love jazz. Jazz is my heart, but also I want to take that and enrich it with something different.

Hany: Well that was the last of my questions, do you have anything more to add?

Juliet: I enjoyed my time in Cairo. No actually nothing more! *laughs* I think we talked about almost everything!

Hany: Thank you very much Juliet, it was my pleasure interviewing you. Hope you have a safe flight to Beirut and back home.

How did the band start, when and where?

– Enraged is a Cairo-based band. Our first performance was in the first edition of Egypt Metal in September 2005 in Al Badeya Village. Back then I was jamming with the Brazily brothers of Invaders and Ayman King of Instrumental Therapy … We mainly played songs for Iron Maiden and Metallica which helped me develop my skills. When we parted to different ways I wanted to try something different and new so I thought about forming an Evanescence cover band. Coincidently, I found a post on emajor.net from Rasha who also wanted to form a rock band and we took it from there…

It is a good step for any band to have official website, can you tell me about the website updates?

– I personally spend a lot of time online and I know that most of the people who are interested in metal music in Egypt are pretty much like the rest of our generation; glued on to screens. So, I think being active online whether it’s on Facebook, Myspace or by launching an official website is the most convenient way to reach out to the Egyptian metal fans. We launched our website to further develop our band image and to also connect with people who are interested in Egyptian metal music but aren’t necessarily on Facebook. It actually worked and we were fortunate to be interviewed by the Finnish magazine Inferno. The interviewer simply googled “Egyptian Metal” and she reached our website so I advise every serious band to launch their own website; you never know what kind of opportunities it could get you. On our website you could stream some of our music, browse photos and check for updates. I’ve also launched a blog to document our experience as a metal band in Egypt and I frequently add videos from our jams and such. You can check it out on this link 

Do you guys suffer from accusations towards the Metal scene nowdays in media? How do you think we can solve this problem?

– Enraged is just like any other metal band in Egypt that suffers from these ridiculous accusations; in the sense that it is hard to perform in almost any venue except El Sawy Culturewheel. We’ve performed before in Metal Accord, Egypt Metal and Rock Station but these individual efforts by the organizers is a huge risk and after the last couple of incidents in underground events, I don’t think there are many people willing to take the risk anymore. However, I’ve never felt that I am personally threatened and, on the contrary, I think that these days the Egyptian Metal scene is in a much better shape than before. Wyvern released the first official and legalized Egyptian metal album, many rock and metal bands have performed in huge events like S.O.S and Al Korba festival and every month there are few rock and metal concerts in El Sawy.

There are many ways to deal with this issue and there is are some great efforts going on already. El Sawy Culture Wheel’s support for the rock and metal scene is most certainly a very strong and practical way of bringing rock and metal bands into the light. When people could see what we are doing, listen to the lyrics of our songs and understand that, at the end of the day, rock and metal is just music; that alone could make a difference. However, I hope that some rock and metal fans also understand that El Sawy’s support is not unconditional and that bringing in alcohol and hash into the venue doesn’t help us at all. We must understand the context we live in; our culture is very judgmental of certain practices of individual freedoms and since the spot light is on us, sometimes we must adjust some of our actions to suit our time and space.

Of course the media has a very important role and we’ve seen many talk shows host metal fans and I think it’s a positive initiative. There is also the existence of informative websites such as Rock Era and Facebook groups; if things keep going the way they are now I believe the association between Metal and Satanism will be a thing of the past.

Tell me about your current members and former ones?

– Rasha (Vocals) and Bishoy (Bass),Omar(Guitars), Ehab Mokhtar (Keys), Tefa (Drums) and myself on Guitars. The former members is a huge list and I am grateful to each and every one of them; Hatem Ra’fat (Drums), Ahmed Gamal (Drums), Alaa (Drums), Omar Brazily (Bass), Tamer Brazily (Guitars), Shady Noor (Guitars), Muhammad Atef (Keyboards), Dunsha (Vocals) and Maynard (Vocals).

What are your favorite Metal bands in Egypt and why?

– There are many bands that I respect for their efforts and achievements such as Scarab and Wyvern. But my favorite band in the Egyptian rock and metal scene is The Room. They play very unique music, their lyrical themes are very dark, shocking, aggressive, painfully truthful and smart, if I may say, not to mention that their live performance is unrivaled by any other Egyptian band in my opinion.

After the release of the legal metal albums do you think of releasing one?

– We’ve been planning for an album since a very long time. However, money has always been an issue because producing a decent quality album costs a lot of it and, unfortunately, being in a metal band in Egypt doesn’t even cover the expenses of buying equipment and jamming. The other issue that has been standing in the way is that we’ve been experimenting with our music. So, many of the original songs on our set list that were regular say two years ago have been totally removed from our catalogue. Wyvern’s album release is inspiring but I don’t think that even if we are to release an album that we’d take the same road due to many different reasons. Who knows … Maybe we will; the first step is to write and record the music and after that we can decide what to do with it.

How can you categorize your music?

– I don’t like to categorize it, to be honest. We play metal music and that is as far as I’d like to go with it. This is because when I write music for Enraged I try as much as possible not to impose a lot of limits on the creativity process and the outcome is not always the same anyway. Some of our tracks have straight forward heavy metal structures and riffing, some are mellow and some are hybrids of different styles. We have performed a total of 13 original tracks since our debut and I can’t list all of them under just one sub genre.

Enraged started as a tribute for female-fronted Metal bands then shifted towards performing originals why was that change?

– When Rasha and I started talking about forming a band the original plan was to eventually include some originals in our set lists. The Egyptian Metal scene during 2005 and 2006 was developing a lot of interest in original song writing and we wanted to be part of that. We performed our first track “The Truth That Lies Conceal” in the third edition of Metal Accord in 2006 and 2 months later we recorded it and released it on the internet. People’s response was generally positive despite the relatively poor quality of recording and production but it was an important step. The more important reason, though, is that playing just covers was no longer satisfying for me and I felt that is was time for us to express ourselves with accordance to our own terms and ideas. Bishoy and Rasha supported me in that shift and from that point onwards Enraged decided to dedicate itself to original music writing and performing.

Tell me about your discography?

– We are yet to release a full album. So far we’ve recorded and released four songs. The first one was The Truth That Lies Conceal featuring Sammy El Sayed on vocals. This track is quite different than any other track we’ve written and released since it has a very lengthy keyboard solo which reflects Muhammad Atef’s role in writing that song. Almost 1 year later we’ve released Ma’at which we’ve recorded entirely on a home PC and earlier this year we’ve released “Kemet” and “The Apsis of the Seeker”. On our website and Facebook fan page you’ll often find references to “The Odyssey of the Blind” which was supposedly the name of the album but as I said we’ve resorted to releasing singles of that album every now and then since we can’t afford recording a whole album all at once.

Are there any official videos for the band?

– Making an official video for the band has been a reoccurring thought but I doubt we can make one in the near future.

Are you guys planning to enter music competitions around the world?

– I’d really love to expand and reach out to the world with our music but I am also realistic. Enraged has to both improve and establish itself in the Egyptian Metal scene before considering going outside of Egypt. We also must have a good wealth of recorded material … We are planning to knock on that door but; first things first.

Can you give me names of bands you performed in and/or want to do a stage performance with in the future?

– I’ve shared the stage with many Egyptian bands in festivals and El Sawy such as Redeemers, Dark Philosophy, Beyond East, Wyvern, Sirens, Hate Suffocation, Instrumental Therapy, Invaders, The Room, Classics Band and more. We were also part of the opening acts for Nervecell in Egypt Metal 2007. If I have to name one band that I’d love to share the stage with in El Sawy Culture Wheel and haven’t yet; I’d say Idlemind.

Give us a brief summary about your previous gigs and concerts.

– Enraged has taken part in a couple of underground metal festivals such as Egypt Metal, Metal Accord and Rock Station. We’ve also played live with Invaders, Instrumental Therapy, The Room, Profile and Classics Band in El Sawy Culture Wheel.

What do you mean by the name Enraged?

– Enraged literally means “to be filled with anger”. When I was thinking about naming the band I wanted to come up with one simple word that could be easily remembered and in the same time reflect an attribute of some sort. We’re pissed off so many things; there are too many disappointments in our lives and in the world, too much pain and sorrow and a lot of confusion. So I guess it’s only natural to be “Enraged” and so it was …

Are you guys planning to hit the western world?

– It’s almost every band’s dream to become rock stars and tour the world the same way our idols in the west do. As I said perhaps when we establish ourselves here in Egypt and develop ourselves as a band we could knock on that door.

What are your plans for the future?

– There are many things I am looking forward to do with Enraged. The most important task on our hands at the moment is to develop ourselves as a live band and embark on music writing. I hope that by the end of the year we’d have achieved the first goal and also have a bundle of original songs ready for professional recording. I am also trying to think of ways to expand the fan base of Enraged so I am looking at what other bands may have done to boost their popularity as well as coming up with new innovations.

What do you think of Wyvern album as it the first legal metal album released in Egypt, is it a good step for more records soon and how we can promote Heavy Metal in Egypt?

– Wyvern has set a new standard for original music recording and has most certainly inspired a lot of musicians to record their music and try to distribute it legally. Wyvern themselves have generously offered to help us and any other serious band with their connections and experience and I think this is something quite respectful and encouraging. As I said I am not sure yet if we could take the same road of Wyvern but when the time comes I’ll most certainly consider it. I’ve been to Virgin Megastores and I saw first hand Wyvern’s album on the shelves among the CD’s of other metal giants. This is big not just for Wyvern but for everyone else.

Are there upcoming concerts soon?

– As a matter of fact there is. Enraged is hitting the stage with The Room, Instrumental Therapy and Varden on the 9th of June in El Sawy Culture Wheel in the third edition of Music Mana. We are all very excited about the event and we are preparing a new original track called “The Invisible Hand” that we will play for the first time on that event as well as a couple of covers for Nightwish, Evanescence, Lacuna Coil and After Forever.

That will feature Enraged as well as other bands in El Sawy Culture Wheel. Part of the revenue of the bands will be given to charity as part of doing good to those in need, challenging the isolation of the rock and metal scene and the negative stereotypes about it as well as making a statement.

What are the lyrical themes of your tracks?

– Many things. We have tracks that are about individualism, spirituality, social issues and global conflicts.

What do you think of Rock Era magazine?

– Since Metal Gigs Forum has been shut down and I’ve been waiting for someone to take the initiative to start, at least a forum, to connect us once more. Fortunately, Rock Era has emerged and has a lot more than just a forum to offer. I’ve got no complaints so far and I think you guys are doing a great job. I only wish more people use the forum and maybe I should practice before I preach, but what the hell … Logon the forum guys!

Are you guys performing covers in addition to originals, can you give me names of the covers?

– We’ve covered tracks for Evanescence, Nightwish, Lacuna Coil and Dream Theater. Hopefully we’ll explore covers that are rarely played for these bands and other bands as well.

As a female fronted band what are differences in sound and composing compared to male fronted ones and what do you think of Rasha as a vocal?

– Sometimes I feel that some people don’t take female fronted metal bands seriously which I think is ridiculous. Of course it may be hard for some female vocalists to sing as deeply or aggressively as some male vocalists but everything has its advantages and disadvantages and the female voice brings a feel to music that males can hardly bring so I guess it is a question of how to distribute the vocal lines between Rasha and Eslam as well as myself.

I think that Rasha has good potentials of becoming a professional like singer because she has a very strong voice. She has developed through years of experience and studying and I hope that she keeps it up to finally reach her potentials.

Is there any message you want to deliver to your fans?

– Quite simply, thank you. And thanks to Rock Era for its interest in Enraged.

Interviewd by: Hany Adly

Shady before YPH, you founded “Bliss” a death/doom metal band covering bands like Katatonia, anathema. What’s the secret of switching to this style of music?

Shady: I really got sick and tired of the metal scene here and there honestly.. At a concert in Alexandria and a concert here in Cairo, someone was worshiping and praying towards me when i was on stage and that lowness completely sickened me.. beside i got fed up of the stereotyping in the metal scene so i just decided to entertain myself and have a laugh making myself a “traitor to metal”. Most of the people now in the metal scene just got involved with it just to look and feel different whilst understanding nothing, they made the metal scene “the place to be, if you’ve got no place to be”. Most of them had to idea wt this kind of music was and felt nothing of it, just treated it like a cult. I hated the organizers of the concerts as well.. like Ahmad Gamal who’s stolen almost 2000 pounds from me when I did him a favor letting him make a Metal Accord concert at my grandfathers farm…

Shady, were you the last member in Your Prince Harming line up?

Shady: no, I joined the band after it was properly formed in the year 2006. We got to know each other through Adham the drummer of “Bliss” before he joined the army when they were looking for a vocalist. I joined Your Prince Harming to sing as many vocal styles as possible because i love to have variation, I’d hate to be called a “screamer” or something so small like that. I’ve went through composing for nearly every single genre because of this, such as alternative/grunge rock, doom metal, black metal, funeral doom metal, Trance/House composer, oriental music (which was when I learnt how to play oud) and classical music which is when I’ve had a place as a singer at the opera (as you could maybe hear a touch of it in my voice).
Your Prince Harming was going to be my next challenge because the vocals in the Screamo genre are difficult to sing, varying from extreme singing to extreme screaming of every sort..

I believe you have seen that TV show on Dream channel that was called “The Truth” by Wael El Ebrashy when he had some Emo people in an episode.

Shady: no i actually didn’t watch it, but those kids know nothing about our music.. they sometimes talk to us and appear at our concerts but they know absolutely nothing about what we play and feel so little of it.. I believe you have seen our fans today in the concert, could you see any Emo?? Not a single one.. Its retarded calling us “Emo” because we are not emo, we dislike them, we know nothing about them and for the people who love to stereotype.. I’m sorry, we don’t cut ourselves and we don’t write much poetry expressing our loneliness… just because Patrick (the guitarist) and I have long hair/put on a side and the whole band love to look good and stylish shouldn’t ever mean we are emo…

Do you plan to include more international bands to cover soon in the band like “Underoath

Shady: we enjoy covering, but its not much our thing at this stage… We have our originals which we are currently recording now and our originals are wt we enjoy playing most.. about underoath though, yea sure we could maybe dot that why not… but i don’t really like them much to be honest, but we’ve covered the devil wears prada and bless the fall before who are actually more famous/commercial in the Screamo/Hardcore scene now. They are some of our most influential bands, even though our music doesn’t sound like theirs much…

The name of the band “Your Prince Harming” do you mean anything with it?

Shady: well the name came from “your prince charming” a character which appeared many times in children stories however an irony of it. Not being charming, but being harming meaning hurt and pain ends it up with our very tightly original band name “Your Prince Harming”..

What is your lyrical theme?

Shady: our lyrics are usually about relationships and friendship, and hey hey before i continue I’d like to explain something to the metal-heads and guys out there who call it gay to write about women and relationships…. If someone’s lyrics are based around women, sex, lust and problems… you tell me, *how on earth could he be homosexual??.. I mean honestly, this is unbelievably really.. To be gay, you’d have to write lyrics about *men* going to (so-called) “war” *together* and talk about their (so-called) “man to man wrestling” together basing your chorus’s on things like “OH THE WAR!!” or “THE STORM HAS COME!!!” I mean we see this everyday and no one ever comments..
If someone hasn’t went through at least one relationship to be able to relate to our lyrics and you’re over 16 years old.. you’ve got some issue’s.. and word of advice, you’ve gotta get off your computer you’ve got more important things to do/think about than read this interview..

Do you see that the style of the music you play nowadays is the most positive music?

Shady: the genre is pretty positive, hardcore lyrics are usually religious or more like christian.. however ours.. pretty negative actually.. I guess we’re just being real.. and reality has no other interpretations.. we were sadly taught by our parents when we were kids that life was beautiful, people are beautiful inside, and to stay away from deceivers.. but just had to get the big shock when we became teenagers/adults, that staying away from deceivers actually meant isolating yourself… they kinda badly misunderstood human intentions…

Did you sign any contracts with any major label?

Shady: no we need some help.. 🙂

Do you have any albums or singles recorded?

Shady: right now we have MANY originals that are finished and are already being planned for our first album (after this upcoming EP currently being recorded) and i can tell you this as the vocalist of the band and as a simple listener” the music really sound amazing!… but we are just a little lazy and we are going a little slow with the EP right now.
We really love composing and we have made some really good music rockers and metalheads will really like and it’s full of variation like you heard tonight in our concert, we had a couple of tracks that are filled with electronics making us sound like Trance music..

Tell us about the bands you played with before.

Shady: we’ve played with so many.. Brain Candy, Fishing With Guns (the french band which came a couple of months ago), Idle Mind, scarab and many I cant really remember right now.

Do you see that your band can be a global one?

Shady: this band has so much potential, the guys have so much “fire” inside of them whilst jamming and gigging live.. so much energy.. and as far as *composing* goes.. you’ve got 3 multi-musician geniuses (the bassist “moose”, myself and Patrick the guitarist) that could go solo all by themselves combined into one band because of their love to head-bang to hardcore music in a band.. All composing together using their unique and diverse backgrounds in music.. its great honestly, and i cant wait to record.

What are your plans for the future?

Shady: we are hopefully planning a tour to England and Europe (hopefully with Fishing With Guns from France) next winter.

Is there any message you want to deliver to people?

Shady: if you don’t enjoy going clubbing and getting herpes, drinking your heads off and “raving”.. it doesn’t mean you aren’t cool, it just means you’re not following.. your not cheap.. you were born NOT to follow… be proud of it.. its a gift..

Thank you, Shady for your time.

Shady: you are welcome Hany

Here’s how they represent themselves: “6 guys… 6 different ways of feeling music… but one goal… rocking your socks off!!! Come feel the fever and let us guide you through our experience of creating sound…”

If you are one of the lucky people who attended the outstanding tour here in Egypt and saw one of the best performance ever happened in the last ten years ,you will know what I am talking about , they were so energetic and hyperactive.If you want to know even more about the band and the tour read more and enjoy it like I did.

How did the band start and when?

FWG: The band started in may 2005 in Paris. Guillaume (bass) and Christophe (guitar) were looking for musicians to start a metal band. They first found a drummer then I joined the band and finally we engaged Remi (guitar). The band was born. One year later we changed the drummer and Max joined us.

Do You mean anything with the name?

FWG: Well the first name of our band was Layback (like the old school skateboard trick). But one day while I was watching a DVD I found the name fishing with guns. I thought it was a great name, both explicit and meaningless. Everyone can find its own explanation. But first of all it sounds great! A mix of violence and humor. Just like us.

Being a french band, Do you guys usually sing in French or English? and when singing in English, is it to reach a wide range of people outside France?

FWG: We’ve got both English and French lyrics. But most of our songs are in English. I think it’s easier to write AND sing lyrics in English. The English speaking tones are made for Rock N’ Roll. French ones not pretty much. But singing in English is not a way to reach a wide range of people because no one understands my lyrics!

What are your lyrical themes and were they based on inner or social struggles facing the band members?

FWG: Our lyrical themes are often based on life and everything involved in it. They also talk about films and what influences us on TV, Radio… We don’t have any political messages. We talk about things that make us laugh or cry.

How do you guys musically categorize your music and what is your opinion in rising of so many subgenres ?

FWG: We usually categorize our music as a «metal hardcore N roll» mix. But we can’t just categorize it with these 3 words. We also put some punk rock style some waltz some thrash riffs and some post rock shades.

There are a lot more Hardcore bands in USA than Europe, is Fishing With Guns planning to do a tour in north America ?

FWG: We didn’t plan for any tour in north America for the moment. It’s not that easy for us to organize such a tour ‘cause we all have day jobs and no manager.

Are you guys signed to any major label yet?

FWG: Not at the moment. There are not many labels in France for such kind of music. We first have to record a good CD and then we’ll be able to contact these labels.

Can I know the discography of the band?

FWG: We just recorded a 3 tracks demo so far.

Can you name me some bands you guys played with, and in your opinion who are the best hardcore-scremo bands now in addition to influences on your music?

FWG: Sickbag, Human ashtray, My severed pieces, Hollyblood Blvd, Your prince Harming, Brain candy, Autist, New dalton…

Some modern bands like Converge, Poison the well, Neurosis, The black dahlia murder, Metallica, Every Time I Die, Cancer bats or The Bronx are huge influences for us.

You guys said on Myspace «6 guys,6 different music backgrounds» what are these music backgrounds?

FWG: Metal, Hardcore, Postrock, punk, electro, drum’n bass, rap, thrash, heavy metal.

We have a lot of common music backgrounds with bands such as Snot, Pantera, Deftones, Beastie boys, Rage against the machine, The dillinger escape plan… But we all have personal tastes that bring a good mix of influences in our music.

Is there any album release date and are there any official videos for the band yet?

FWG: Yes. We’re gonna start our next recording in Paris on mid October.

We’re also working on our next videos. We have a lot of gigs videos so we have a huge work to do to transform them in a good clip. We’re thinking of an official video but we keep concentrated on our recording session.

Who are the bands you wish to play with in the future?

FWG: We don’t have any clear will to play with on band or another. We just wanna play. No matter with whom!

Where did the idea of Egypt tour come from ,and how ?

FWG: Our drummer’s brother Benjamin is living in Alex for years and he always wanted to see us play in Egypt. So he organized the tour with his friend Omar Herrawi (who became a real good friend of us) and there it went!

Have u enjoyed the Egypt tour? what was the crowd’s reaction to your music?

FWG: It was a wonderful tour. Something we’ll never forget. We met so many great people. The crowd was just incredible. We never played before for so many people! They were perfect.

We were so sad to go back to France.

What are your future plans ,upcoming tours ?

FWG: We’re planning to come back to Egypt to make a bigger tour. We’re planning some tour in Germany, in France and maybe in England.

Were you expecting to find rock,metal scene in Egypt

FWG: Yes. We knew there were many metal bands in Egypt according to Benjamin. We knew they were waiting for us to play here in Egypt so we were not that surprised to see them coming to the gigs. But we were bloody surprised to see how mad and enthusiastic they were! We loved it so much!

In the end would you like to say something for Rock Era Egyptian fans

FWG: Be ready to rock one more time with us in a near future. You are amazing and you made our tour magical. We love you all. See you soon in Egypt!

Why choose Metalcore music although it is not popular here like in the USA for example?

Well because it’s my thing. when I first made my band i actually didn’t care that much about the popular music around here, I also didn’t know that the band would continue till that day. We offer music and different type, if people got into it then it’s ok, if not then there’s someone is, metalcore isn’t the fan base here but it’s around the world specially U.K & U.S.A

Can you tell us about the music competitions you were in?

The band entered battles such as BoO Rock Radio station battle of the bands in 11/2008 and we won the first place after a huge battle and competitions included 12 levels with a huge band we were facing, actually it’s a mainstream one from Ohio ..but our fans out there helped us and of course our friends here, and the special battle after that also was with BOO music, it included the winners of all years and metal camp 2009 but unfortunately we didn’t make it, neither to Warped tour 2008 as well.

I saw some merchandise for the band, can you tell me about it?

Yeah sure, they all have been made with big help from the promoters we’re signed with, like Deathcap Record, and a few other underground promotion labels to spread the word about the band, the stuff they help with is t-shirts – flyers and booking in, from our side we’re printing the shirts soon here so we can use them and sell them in metalblast next show, actually the problem is that we don’t have any pay pal so the whole work must be done from the promoters side, and to keep up with them we have to do the same here, so that’s what we’re doing, fans out there demands our merchandise and here we handle the local, it’s like a small plan to promote the band as much as we can.

What other bands do you like in Egypt and why?

Aha, well there are so many awesome bands in EGYPT, as a short answer without going through many details i like “Scarab – Worm – YPH – Beyond east – Idilmind …and as u can see they are all in different genres and maybe also not my type of music at all!!!!! because i don’t have any problem with any kind of music and of course with any band around Egypt, actually I don’t care about the genre as long as they Understand what they’re doing and that they really dig it and love it and most of all SERIOUS!! These bands are serious and working hard, they just need to be heard more, like many others still unheard yet.

What do you think of the Metal scene and accusations towards metalheads?

That Question is way dangerous to answer, i am just a guy who love to make music and listening to it ..i kind of avoid any Question including our scene specially if it’s around our metalheads!!!
because as i said before, i don’t have any problem with anyone and his/her genre or even their beliefs!! But I’ll answer in general, i Hate the way our scene is going through right now ..that thing that all people know about, doesn’t actually exist, some bands got offended, some great musicians and great minds quite listening and stopped playing because of this curse!! but i don’t where actually our scene gonna take us too, guess nowhere if we kept it unknown, if we keep the talents in shadows till it is dead then there’s no use of trying, You can’t listen to music like metal or hard rock if you’re surrounded with many threats, even if u like to give it the chance you can’t sign a major deal with a big label if you can’t even play gigs and i mean real gigs with many opinions and many people and extreme bands not just your friends coming to show the support and others who comes just to have fun offending the bands and many many things, anyway, you can’t blame anything or anyone specifically

Are you guys planning to hit Europe and USA?

Sure, actually we’ve got the chance before to play Italy and U.K, SupVision are one of our closest friends and we thank them a lot for spreading the word and helping us, but anyway, the main problem is always the money, the legal papers, these stuff is holding up many things, we missed some great chances, I can’t even forgive myself about it, not something i could have done but i still hate the feeling that we’re stuck!!!!

Why make a remix for Resident Evil and what did people think about it?

Resident Evil is the weirdest track we have done, it’s just an idea i came up with long time ago before even starting to work seriously on our EP, the idea came to me when i was listening to the track and i imagining it mixed with vox , so i Recorded it, i consider it an Industrial track!! Resident Evil got the total blessed of many people here and out there specially out there with the high rates we’ve got when we gave it to the promoters, although it’s not our genre and it’s just a remix cover but it did fine, it really helped the band to get more known and i still love it myself.

What are your plans for the future?

We’re just planing and working to have great gigs because we’re way unhappy being away from the stage, the only thing that’s left is MetalBlast, and i wish all the best for the new scene!!
And we need to finish the full Album, and this is still the hardest step till now!

Give us a brief summary about the band, current and former members, how the band started, when and where?

The band started in 2006 in Cairo, we had of course the problem that all bands faces in the beginning when you’re looking for serious and talented members and most important to have the same way of thinking that you have, we had some problems with members coming and going till we made it full, in the beginning the band had 2 European members and actually they are one of the main reasons to make the band a metalcore band. with thier ideas and the way of thinking they had

current members are : Zander – Peter – Kilany – Meniem – gallant

former are : Paul – A.Demuis .

Hany: nice name for the band, is there any hidden meaning behind it?

D.I.C: What people don’t know is that we wanted to change the name after few months from forming the band to AS I FALL!! but we couldn’t because we thought it`ll be hard promoting the new name, so we kept the name, it came by luck and the hidden meaning behind Destiny in Chains is picturing our Destiny controlling us by chains, leading us like puppets, funny but true!

What are your lyrical themes and is it based on inner, social struggles facing the band members?

D.I.C: our themes going with days in our life – relationships – fantasy – Anger !

And yeah it’s based on very personal social struggle facing me personally, specially in Demonized, with the first Singles in our first EP.

Have you guys signed to any major label yet?

D.I.C: No major labels yet but we’re trying to !

Tell me about your demos and E.Ps?

D.I.C: we released for the first time the singles in 2007, bleeding for you and resident evil, then we RE-recorded some of them again like bleeding for you and added DemoniZed that was the name of the first EP by the end of 2007 / 2008, and the other one by the end of 2008 / 2009
I HAVE WAITED MY WHOLE LIFE

How many concerts, tours did you guys perform and what are the highlights of these concerts or tours?

D.I.C: The Bahrain’s Rage to The Extreme concert with bands from the Middle East, that’s it, and as for the highlights, receiving offers to perform in different places, even if it’s locally but still gives an awesome feeling and feedback.

Can you tell me names of bands you guys played with and in your opinion what are the best punk bands now in addition to influences on your music?

D.I.C: We had the chance to play with YPH, Faking It, and for other bands out there like Firecell BoTd.

Is there any release date for an album, and is there any official video for the band yet?

D.I.C: no official video yet ..and the last release was “i have waited my whole life EP 2008 / 2009” ..but later this month we’re about to record new Demos for opinions and a few Cover singles for bands such as BFMV ..ATYRU ..and more ..and in our official myspace there are 2 new demo track, still unfinished yet, just for taking opinions and hope we can record them soon .

Which bands you wish to play with in the future?

D.I.C: so many to go with ..lets say (AS I LAY DYING – BFMV – TRIVIUM – ALL THAT REMAINS – PARKWAY DRIVE – AS BLOOD RUNS BLACK).. the list goes on .

What are your upcoming tours and concerts?

D.I.C: We’re working on getting booked again and we’re trying to go for it outside one more time..but right now we’re working on our upcoming show in metal blast, soon, ..and sakia !!!! specially metal blast the show that we promise all of you that it`ll be so sick and we’re gonna get your heads lay down on your chest, WE ASSURE YOU !!!!!!

Do you see that your band can be a global one?

D.I.C: who knows, maybe, i don’t know actually, i just do what i can do best and the rest is left to god first and our scene second !!!

Did you guys do any interviews with an international music magazines before?

D.I.C: Yeah, lots, one of them is a very popular one called Carange Magazine from Germany.

Do you think Metalcore will be popular here in Egypt someday?

D.I.C: it’s on the way to get known, can’t tell it’s popular yet unfortunately!!

What would you like to say to your fans out there?

D.I.C: Help us and help your scene, don’t lose your hope and support each band because they are all what you got currently, so be with us all !!