Category: Music

Samsara Rehearsals

Originally set to take place on the 13th, Samsara is now taking place this coming Monday the 18th instead. Tickets are still available and can be reserved at this [Link]

This is what you need to know about the event:

In an introspective attempt to bring the world together with music, we at Camco Global Events are producing the biggest music event in Kuwait with musical composer Nawaf Gheraibah, a local Kuwaiti musician whose music is an expression of his rich multicultural influences. He preformed his composition thesis ‘Bija’ meaning ‘seed’ in Sanskrit; at the prestigious Bayt Lothan in May 2012, where the show was enthusiastically received with standing ovations by the audience and rave reviews by the press and media. After the success of ‘Bija’; Gheraibah has focused his energy on creating the sequel to his initial project.

In his new album named “Samsara”, Sanskrit for ‘rebirth’, reflecting the rebirth of the music of the past in the present. Gheraibah attempts to fuse a variety of tribal and ancestral instruments, poetries, and theories, with more modern day musical concepts. The music is a reflection of modern fusion music, which is conceived through the combination of cultures, customs, and languages; creating a resonance of new age sound.

In this case, a rebirth of Kuwait’s musical past, which is reflected in the album, as Gheraibah experiments with fusing traditional work songs from Kuwait’s golden era of pearl diving and trade with a more modern day tunes. The music carries a variety of ethnic influences such as Indian, Thai, Moroccan, African, Middle Eastern and European, blending them into an artistic interpretation of sound and song. The songs are in a variety of languages: Arabic, French, Swahili, Portuguese, Hindi, and English, and will be sung by a variety of singers.

Approximately thirty instrumentalists and singers will be performing on stage during the concert; a majority of which are Kuwaiti students from the Higher Institute of Musical Arts, Kuwait. In addition, a variety of musical students and professionals from other countries, such as Egypt, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Lebanon, India, Jordan, Korea, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Sudan will be preforming as well.

Date: Monday, November 18th 2013
Time: 7:00PM
Location: GUST University Amphitheatre, Mishref [Map]

For more information visit their Facebook Page

Update: Due to the storm the event has been postponed till November 23rd.

Kuwaiti rapper Big D has a new music video out called Killah. Love him or hate him, you can’t deny it’s pretty impressive how many music videos he pumps out a year. [YouTube]

The Formula 1 weekend in Abu Dhabi is their biggest weekend of the year so it’s just crammed with things to do including concerts. This year they brought in Jay-Z, Muse and my personal favorites Depeche Mode to come and perform over 3 nights at the huge Du Arena located behind Ferrari World. I shared most of my favorite photos already on Instagram (@mark248am) but I also shot some video which I’ve shared below.

[YouTube]

Jay-Z
The first concert I attended was Jay-Z. We were at a party on a super yacht with David Hasselhoff and Maradona watching the Formula 1 practices (the yacht was parked in Yas Marina and overlooked the track) and I really didn’t want to leave. I’m not a huge fan of Jay-Z and I’ve barely heard a handful of his songs but in the end I left the yacht party and headed to the concert. Me and a friend got there around 20 minutes late but we still managed to squeeze ourselves pretty close up front since we had access to the golden circle. Strangest thing ever, I spotted Horacio Pagani in the crowd but no one knew who he was. Only reason I was able to easily recognize him was because he was on the yacht party earlier with us.

[YouTube]

Muse
I honestly hadn’t heard any of Muse’s songs until a week before the concert. They’re not really the style of music I listen to and the only reason I went to the concert was to kill time before going to O1NE by Skybar (that’s another post). But, they did put on a good show although it was just an hour long. According to a friend who is into Muse their set should have included more songs but for some reason they ended it early.

[YouTube]

Depeche Mode
Now this was actually a concert I really wanted to go to. I’ve been a huge Depeche Mode fan ever since Smashing Pumpkins did a cover for “Never Let Me Down Again” back in 1994 (which I still think sounds better than the original). While I had arrived late for the other two concerts, with Depeche Mode me and my friend headed to the arena right after the Formula 1 race had finished so we ended up there over an hour and half early. We ended up camping in front of the stage until the concert started but the wait paid off since we ended up standing second row in front of the stage. Dave Gahan the main vocalist has to be one of the most entertaining musicians I have ever seen on stage since he spent two hours spinning in circles and grinding up against other band members. Extremely entertaining to watch and from all three concerts had the most amount of participation from the audience. Everyone knew the lyrics to all the songs by heart and it was just a blast. I’ve got one video above but two more on my YouTube account which you could watch, Never Let Me Down Again and Personal Jesus.

If you want to listen to some really talented local musicians, Bayt Lothan is holding their popular “A Night In” event tomorrow. It’s going to be an open air event which is great since the weather is perfect right now.

Location: Bayt Lothan [Map]
Date: Wednesday, October 30th 2013
Time: 7PM to 9PM

You can book your seats now for KD10 by calling 25755866 or 25755877 or else you will have to pay KD12 at the door.

Last night I attended “Last Night(s) of the Proms” by the Ahmadi Music Group which was held at the British Embassy. It was my first time attending an event by the Ahmadi Music Group and I left not only impressed but the first thing I did once I got back home was to try to sign up to their mailing list (it’s not working) so I would be informed on all their upcoming events.

The event was held outdoors inside the British Embassy where a stage and seating area were beautifully set up in their garden. The Ahmadi Music Group last night consisted of 46 members of the orchestra performing alongside 79 members of the choir so the stage was pretty packed. The conductor Richard Bushman did an incredible job introducing every piece to the audience before it was played explaining what we were going to hear and why it was important. He was very entertaining to listen to and I think he helped make the event more accessible to people like me who don’t know much about operas or orchestras. My only criticism would have to be with the sound setup. The majority of the sound was coming from one speaker on the right side in back which made the whole thing uncomfortable to watch.

Next year will be the Ahmadi Music Group 60 year anniversary which is an incredible accomplishment. I would have posted about this event ahead of time but a friend got me my ticket while I was in London and I honestly only found out what I was there to watch as I was walking into the embassy. I will be posting about their future events from now on and here is a list of their upcoming events that was listed at the back of yesterdays program:

December 6, 7: Family Seasonal Concert
February 20, 21, 22: George Frideric Handel, Acis and Galatea
April 10, 11, 12: Gloria! Music by Vivaldi, Mozart and Rutter

For more information on the Ahmadi Music Group and their events, check out their website [Here]

Note: No cameras or electronics were allowed into the embassy so the pictures above are from their 2012 performance.

[YouTube]

I saw the video above of the “Sheyaab” performing at Arabs Got Talent on 7ajidude and I recognized them as the people who were dressing up like old men and going around Kuwait dancing Gangnam Style.

[YouTube]

Their videos were going viral and I guess they decided to take what they were doing and perform it on Arabs Got Talent. Smart although if I hear Gangnam Style playing one more time I’m going to go on a rampage.

Local rappers Sons Of Yusuf have released a new music video called “Now’s the Time”. Their video “Arabs in Paris” is still my favorite one of theirs. [Vimeo]

I honestly have no clue what this is, but I can’t help but feel very intrigued. It sounds beautiful. [Vimeo]

Update: Turns out Samsara is a concert taking place next month at GUST. The below is from the Samsara Facebook page:

Please join us this November for Nawaf Gheraibah’s Samsara; A night of live music under the stars, featuring a talented orchestra of musicians and vocalists; Wednesday 13th November, 8PM @ GUST University Amphitheatre, Mishref.

The show is free of charge & invitations will be available for pick up ten days prior to the concert.

[YouTube]

Yousef Al-Haddad is a Kuwaiti musician who lives in the States. He plays a bunch of instruments but guitar is his main thing. He graduated from University of Southern California back in 2009 and now lives and works in Santa Monica. He basically works at Trader Joe’s and plays his guitar all day. I’ve watched a bunch of his videos and I think he’s extremely entertaining to watch and listen to. For example in the video above he talks with a Jamaican accent and sings Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song”.

Below are two more videos I liked but you can check out all his other videos on [YouTube] as well as a few tracks on [Soundcloud]

[YouTube]

[YouTube]

[Source]

At least the color matches with her backup dancers.

Thanks Ahmed via

Bandaid is a local country/rock band composed of medical students including Kuwait country musician Ibrahim Al-Mazeedi whom I first posted about back in 2010. He’s come a lonngggg way since then since their single Break Free is actually pretty good, check it out. [YouTube]

Follow them on twitter @bandaidq8

RMDN by +Aziz, a Kuwaiti songwriter living in New York. [Vimeo]

Last night I passed by and met Haitham Al-Ghareeb, a local violin maker. We met at his small cozy workshop in Rawda located right outside his home. When you walk into his dimly lit workshop you’ll see a small diwaniya on the left with around a dozen violins hanging on the wall, while on the right hand side is his workstation where he crafts all his violins. He filled a kettle with water and put it on a small electric stove next to him and we started talking.

Back in 2000, Haitham was a oud player but was interested in getting into violins. He started looking for a good violin to buy in Kuwait but he couldn’t find any. Most of the violins available in the market back then were of poor quality from low end brands. That’s why Haitham decided to make his own violin using documents and instructions he found online.

Haitham hadn’t crafted any musical instruments before, he had dabbled with some minor oud repair but nothing major. This got me even more curious, how can a 25 year old with no previous woodworking skills be able to craft such a delicate instrument as a violin? Well the answer I believe might be in his genes. Haitham’s father, grand father and great grand father were all dhow builders. Woodworking had existed in his family for generations and it was just natural for him to be good at it.

Haitham’s first violin wasn’t flawless, it had mistakes and was made using locally sourced wood but yet the sound it produced to his ears was beautiful. This encouraged him to build a second better violin with imported tonewood (wood cut specifically for musical instruments). He started frequenting forums and participating in online communities where other violin craftsmen from around the world would share their tips and techniques. His violins kept improving with every build and soon he had his own tips and tricks to share with the community. He loved crafting violins so much that he quickly forgot about wanting to play them. He became obsessed in building and perfecting his own creations.

When Haitham first started making violins he was spending 4 hours a day working on them and each violin would take around 2 months to complete. Nowadays he’s too busy with work and family so it takes him around 9 months to complete a single violin. But he’s fine with that. He never started making violins with the intention to turning it into a profitable business. Even his prices have remained the same over the years even though his violins kept getting better and demand for them kept increasing. He just loves making violins and isn’t interested in expanding. It’s a hobby he’s just really good at. He also does a lot of repair work on violins which to many musicians is a lifesaver. Musicians bond with their instruments and having a local violin maker means that a damaged violin no longer needs to be discarded but instead can be repaired. Only two of the violins hanging on the wall were his, the rest were either in for repair or were being sold by other musicians.

Once we were done with the interview, Haitham served us some tea. Throughout the whole interview which lasted around 40 minutes I had watched him make us the tea using two kettles, a can filled with what I assume is tea leaves and a box filled with I don’t know what. He then skillfully poured the tea from the large kettle into three glasses that were sitting amongst a dozen on the table in front of us. The tea was delicious and to me summarized the kind of person that Haitham is, a perfectionist.

If you’d like to contact Haitham for any reason you can do so by emailing him on [email protected]

Video kinda drags but gets a lot more interesting at the 8:22 mark specially once the traditional Kuwaiti dancing meets breakdancing. [YouTube]

In no particular order, perfect for the gym and running.

Enter Sandman – Metallica
Everlong – Foo Fighters
The Pretender – Foo Fighters (video above, one of the best songs ever)
My Hero – Foo Fighters
Take Me Out – Franz Ferdinand
Smells Like Teen Spirit – Nirvana
Personal Jesus – Depeche Mode
Breed – Nirvana
Bulls on Parade – Rage Against the Machine
Toxicity – System of a Down
The Beautiful People – Marilyn Manson
Holiday/Boulevard of Broken Dreams – Green Day
The Hand That Feeds – Nine Inch Nails
Come Back Haunted – Nine Inch Nails
No One Knows – Queens of the Stoneage
Guerrilla Radio – Rage Against the Machine
Bullet with Butterfly Wings – Smashing Pumpkins
Celebrity Skin – Hole
Jennifer’s Body – Hole
Paint it Black – The Rolling Stones

If you have any recommendations I could add to the list let me know.