The ever-growing Arab underground music keeps on taking us by surprise and seems to be delightfully limitless when it comes to its budding talents and creative minds. El Morabba3, an originally-quartet-turned-trio Jordanian band that originated from Amman is a fine example of the outspoken underground bands that have risen to fame amongst other independent Arab artists in recent years.
Their music, as they describe it, is “euphoric and deliciously dark” and it is this very striking feature of their sound that makes them stand out amidst the sea of countless other performers.
After being successfully recruited by the Cairo Jazz Club Agency, the band recently played three back-to-back gigs in Cairo, at Cairo Jazz Club and Al Rab3 Cultural Centre, much to their Egyptian fan base’s delight.
The band’s true love and devotion for their fans, as well as their own music shined strongly during their performances, as they made sure they obliged to the screaming audience’s requests for them to play their most beloved tracks, such as “Ta7t El Ard” and “Ya Zein.”
The band also made sure their shows in Cairo were memorable and unique by playing new, exclusive, never-heard-before tracks off their still unreleased, second album including “3ala Shat El Nile”, “Al Bath Al 7ay” and “Al Mokhtalefeen.”
We got the chance to sit down and chat with the talented lads about all things that revolve around their music and future plans and here’s what they had to say:
How do you feel about finally playing in Cairo for the first time?
We feel immensely relieved because we’ve finally gotten the much-awaited chance to see our Egyptian fans – especially since we seem to have a rather big fan base in Egypt. We’ve also always heard from so many other fellow artists about how much of a joy it is to play for Egyptian audiences, since they’re always so energetic, and after playing for them, we definitely agree. We feel like we’re right at home here. This whole experience has been rather overwhelming and frankly indescribable.
Do you have any future plans regarding the development of your sound and music?
On our next album we’ll be more focused on the synthpop genre and rather electronic-based sound rather than some of our previous acoustic vibes. Also, for our next album, we’re planning on releasing singles within the coming couple of months hopefully with their own music videos. We’re currently in the process of financing this new endeavour.
What about your lyrics and the rather harsh and deep topics they’ve always taken on, will that change?
We’ve always loved shedding a light on all the aspects of reality, be them positive or negative. We like to talk about topics that generally influence society and those which the Arab world deems as significant and important. We’ve always aimed to discuss those issues as they are without sugar-coating them, and will definitely continue to do so.
So many youth are turning to the underground scene to get their music fix, what do you guys think of that shift in musical interests that the Arab world has witnessed in the past few years?
We feel like in the past 10 years, most Arab countries, including Egypt, Jordan, Palestine, and Lebanon, have birthed an abundance of independent, underground artists and bands. This change makes us feel very optimistic about the future of music in the Arab world. We also know for a fact that the young Arab audiences have acquired different tastes than the older generation; they’re sick of all things cliché when it comes to music and are yearning for new sounds and new lyrics that boast daring, realistic messages.
Are there any indie bands or artists that you would want to collaborate with in the future?
Personally, we’re huge fans of Zeid Hamdan and Yasmine Hamdan’s work and would definitely love working with them. We love Zeid’s electronic music that always makes us feel very inspired. We also would love to collaborate with Tamer Abou Ghazaleh, as we‘re fans of his work as well.
Finally, we’re planning on working again with a Tunisian artist called Amina Enabi, whom we’ve worked with earlier in the year when we performed in Jordan.
Finally, do you guys have anything to say to all our eager readers and all your devoted listeners?
Wait for our new album, which will feature an abundance of new musical muses and beats, as well as a renewed mixture of genres. A lot of the songs will be hyper, dance-y and will carry an overall joyous vibe, whilst still retaining depth and meaning. Thank you, as always, for all your support and we promise you some great surprises in the near future.
To wrap up, we can’t wait to see what this talented bunch has for us in store next with their upcoming album and quite massive future plans. They’re definitely an amazing, unique and unquestionably exceptional addition to the underground Arab music scene.
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