Makshoof Music Profile - Karma (Cairo)

This week's feature profile is on Karma, a rock band from Cairo, that play a mix of rock and metal to deliver a unique sound that's all their own. We caught up with them to find out how they construct their songs and their ideas for growing the music scene in Egypt, and across the Middle East.

Karma is a 5 piece band from Cairo, and one of the entrants in triplew.me's Makshoof Music competition. Fresh from releasing their album Actions in Previous Existence, Karma produces music that is reflective of their wide range of influences to create something quite unique. We talk to the band about the lack of opportunities to play in Cairo and what the best way forward to develop the music scene there is. We also catch up about their dreams for the future and what's currently driving them.

By supporting triplew.me and bands like Karma, we're all helping to build a sustainable, original music industry in the Middle East. Please continue to support the good work these original artists are doing.

See their Makshoof Music profile here.

Karma has a unique blend of rock and metal, with a large dose of melodic rock as well, tell us what music/bands inspire you?

First of all, as individuals, we all come from different musical backgrounds varying from death metal to rock. We have our different influences and mentality when it comes to music. But at the same time we’re all aiming for the same direction when writing music and obviously our influences play a key role when everyone writes his part or line in an original. We have a lot of respect for a lot of bands that we hear and appreciate their creativity, for example: Seether, Metallica, Pain of Salvation, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Blessthefall, Protest the Hero, Lamb of God, Kamelot and many more, but mainly these ones are the bands that we feel affect us most as musicians.

The songs are quite well written. Tell us how do you write your songs, as a band or do you each bring ideas into the rehearsals?

Well it depends, most of our songs are written as a full band. We sit in the studio and start tossing ideas around, sometimes we build a whole song over a guitar line or if we've already finished writing lyrics for a song we try to translate the vibe we feel when we read the words, into music. And there are other times where one of us comes with an entire song that just needs to be finalized. But as a band we prefer writing as a group when it comes to music cause we bring the best out of each other as musicians.

You’ve won some impressive band competitions in Cairo, where would you like to play next?

We don’t know whether you’re aware or not of the lack or shortage of venues. Where we could play at, well, we've almost played every venue here and every festival except one or two in Cairo. If we don’t get a chance to play outside of Egypt, we guess we’ll play a couple of shows in Alexandria where the scene is pretty intense and the fans give it all during a performance. But other than that, we wish and hope to play a show in Dubai, they’ve done so much to the Middle East in terms of expanding the scene and they were able to bring so many bands like Opeth, August Burns Red, As I Lay Dying, Motorhead and many more which helped in putting the Middle East 'on the map' in terms of touring and festivals. And it wouldn’t hurt if we could play a show in the U.S, this would be a dream come true.

We recently had a chat to a couple of bands from Egypt and one theme was coming through, that the scene there is strong, but lacks support. What are your thoughts on the rock music scene in Egypt?

Obviously the scene in Egypt is improving, but with a very slow momentum. Bands here face some problems like struggling with the social and religious norms, people always seem to have the wrong idea about metal-heads and metal bands, but that’s what we get when a famous metal bands screws it for all of us. That’s what we deal with 24/7. The scene is getting there, but slowly, and honestly, sometimes that gets to us and puts us down. However there are people here who care enough to keep trying and there are a couple of bands who were able to spread the word outside and play in international festivals like Scarab and Mascara, which is a respectable thing. Hopefully the scene will get better, but I don’t think that it would reach there while we are still alive to see it.

What do you think is needed to take it to ‘the next level’? More venues, shows and opportunities, or do you think the opportunities are regional?

Well, if there is more venues it would make it more interesting for bands and fans at the same time, bands get bored when they keep playing at the same venue repeatedly. It would mean a lot if bands are more appreciated and get back for what they give, some bands here put their hearts into what they are doing and don’t seem to get back what’s worth their efforts. Secondly; opportunities would make it better instead of the financial problems that we’re sure every band in Egypt faces, if there are record labels, producers or scouts that could help bands produce, record and tour it would change everything. Money is not good here in the Egyptian scene and we all know that music is expensive, hence the fact that bands break up cause they cant afford it anymore. So what could push it to the next level is having a system that supports the music business in Egypt in terms of venues, opportunities (inside or outside of Egypt) and record deals.

From you know, online (and via us!) what’s your opinion on the music scene in the Middle East?

The music scene in the Middle East is what’s in now or the new trend, we’ve seen famous bands planning on playing somewhere in the Middle East. The scene has gained a lot of respect and proved to many artists that there is the talent and the ability to organize festivals for example you’ve seen how successful the “Desert Rock Festival” was. We feel that outside of Egypt the scene is gaining power and respect, which is great and appreciated.

What’s next for Karma Band? Playing more shows, writing more tunes, getting signed, where do you want to be in a year’s time?

Well we released our first album, Actions in Previous Existence, like 4 or 5 months ago, so for the time being we are trying to play shows as much as we can in order to support the album and strengthen our fan-base. However, we started like a week ago writing for our new record we already finished two songs, it’s looking great and the music is sounding extremely heavy which we are happy about. When it comes to recording we’ll have to see if we could get a record deal to help us with financing and publishing, but if we didn’t we guess will record like we did for the first album and try again. Mainly we’re focusing on playing shows, writing and most vital getting signed hopefully.

Tell us what your favorite concert that Karma has played and why?

We all feel different on what is our favorite concert ever, but we always enjoy playing in the A.U.C’s talent show cause we get to spend the whole day with other bands like Faking it, Serenade and many more. We all enjoyed playing our album release gig, this one was so intense, the fans were great we put on one hell of a show! Everything was perfect; the album was a great hit that day and we had fun in achieving this. We hope to get a chance to play another show that could be a memory that we all cherish and appreciate.

Any band in the world, they can play the same concert as you, who is it and why?

This is hard, there are so many bands that we respect and enjoy watching live, but if it’s possible we’d choose Lamb of God or As I Lay Dying. Their shows are always top notch and energetic, they are extremely talented, the play their music tight just as you listen to it on the CD. Other than that these are people that we’d like to meet and hang out with.

Any other bands we should be aware of that you guys love in Egypt?

Egypt has so many great bands and artists, but we really enjoy listening to and sharing the stage with Mascara (Massive Scar Era), Faking It and Idle Mind. These are bands that we love and respect.

Karma's profile is here, check them out & tell us what you think of them!