Mashrou3 Leila

The second of our feature stories on bands in Beirut takes us to talk to Mashrou3 Leila ('the overnight project'), who have been playing live, and getting a lot of attention, in Beirut for over two years now. Having recently played the renowned Byblos Festival, which is a month-long festival amongst the famed ruins at the small port city.

We caught up with Mashrou3 Leila just ahead of their concert at Byblos on Friday 2 July, and by all accounts it was a special performance, with long time triplew.me friend Rachael Minnerly telling us via email about Mashrou3 Leila's gig in Byblos that  they are a "Energetic 7 piece with awesome violin giving a funky & unique Middle Eastern sound. Somewhat raw at times, the crowd were with the band the whole way & the outdoor setting at Byblos was unbeatable".

Enough said, make sure you check out Mashrou3 Leila when you can, and keep coming back to triplew.me for regional profiles....let's get interviewing...

For something that started as a largely experimental project, you have managed to make quite an impression in the last 2 years – tell us how you came together?

It all started in the department of Architecture and Design at the American University of Beirut, where we met and decided to start a music workshop - just for architecture and design students. It was a way of venting - getting away from our studies and the political instabilities in the country. We jammed together for some time, started having concerts on campus, in pubs and clubs around Beirut. Everything happened very quickly. We won the jury and public prize at the modern music contest organized by Radio Liban 96.2 FM and CCF, had concerts in different towns and villages around Lebanon, Amman and Cairo, recorded an album and now Byblos!!! When we first started, we never imagined any of these would happen - we're 7 different people with different interests - the only thing common between us is music.

You manage to create beautiful blends of catchy pop melodies, traditional Arabic musical structures blended with emotion that is fantastically listenable, tell us what inspires you in your songwriting?

Each one of us listens to and is inspired by very different things… the writing process is very spontaneous, we start with a line, sound or groove we all like and then build on it… since each one of us has a different musical background, the final result ends up being kind of a blend.

Mashrou3 Leila are playing the Byblos Festival this year on 9th July - tell us what to expect at your concert.

Our best show ever… we pulled out all our cards and have been working non stop on the music, the stage setup and the lighting. We've also written a bunch of new songs that we plan on performing at Byblos for the first time.

What are the other acts are you looking forward to seeing at the Festival during the month of July?

GORILLAZ!!!!!! we've all been raving about the new album… plus the show is going to be kick ass with all 50 musicians!!! The Clash’s Mick Jones and Paul Simonon, Mos Def, Bobby Womack, Kano, Bashy, De La Soul,The National Orchestra for Oriental Arabic Music, Rosie Wilson on “Dare” as well as Bootie Brown on “Dirty Harry”...

What is Mashrou3 Leila doing after Byblos?

Probably writing more music… its been a crazy roller coaster ride and its really hard to see where things r going… we r banking on taking things more seriously if Byblos goes well - at this point half the band has finished their studies and are practicing Architecture, and the rest still have a year left to graduate. We all share a similar vision on where we want to take this project, and hopefully Byblos will be the first milestone.

Your videos are amazing – including the recent clip for Fasateen and previously Raksit Leila – how do you come up with your ideas?

People have been very generous to us - up and coming film makers with similar visions have been collaborating with us to create an image as close possible to the music. Both videos so far have created a great buzz with their creative content and for that we are very thankful to YeloStudio and Ginger Beirut Productions for all the work the amazing work they've created.

Our section ‘Makshoof Music’ is about helping musicians in the region get heard. What advice can you give a young band who wants to get noticed and stand out?

I guess we were lucky and people have been very supportive - it was a decision that we had made when we first started, to jam on new original material and not become another cover band.music is key… it important to have your own original sound while staying loyal to your roots and not sounding like your imitating the west. the music scene here in lebanon is wide open all you need is to put in hard work…

What is Mashrou3 Leila listening to at the moment?

radiohead - Gorillaz - Bon Iver - Red Hot Chilli Peppers - soap kills - rima khcheich - Asmahan - Beirut - Goldfrapp - Brazilian Girls - Arto Tuncjiboyacian - Nour el Hoda - Muse - Bjork - …

If you had to choose – constant day or constant night?

constant night - that's how the project started - overnighting on design projects - and then music - and that's how it still works...

Check out the video for Mashrou3 Leila's Fasateen & Tell us what you think below (register to leave comments)