-
Stone Temple Pirates
[+ Show ]
You can hardly describe three heavily tattooed, multipierced
American musicians jumping on a plane ...You can hardly describe three heavily tattooed, multipierced
American musicians jumping on a plane from
Los Angeles to Jordan, a country which none of them
had previously visited, as a homecoming. But there was
something about Avowed’s first gig in Amman, with the
illuminated ruins of the Citadel glowing imperiously in
the background, that felt more like a reunion than an
introduction. The camera-wielding, cigarette lighterwaving,
devil-horn-thrusting crowd seemed to know every
word of the nearly two-hour set, there were regular pleas
from the crowd for singles like “How Does It Feel”, and every
song was greeted like a long-lost friend. Kudos, therefore,
to lead singer and homeboy Emad Alaeddin’s efforts in
ratcheting up the buzz for the arrival of his best mates.
“I haven’t felt the rush like that in quite some time,”
beamed Avowed’s lead guitarist Jesse DeSanto, reflecting
on his first concert outside of America. “It was a special
event for all of us to play overlooking such history, and
about four songs into the set, it actually brought a small
tear to my eye – it was very touching.”
“That was definitely the first time I’ve played anywhere
near Roman ruins of any kind,” laughed bass player Nick LeRoux, “playing there is simply something I’ll never forget.
That was a genuine rock’n’roll moment!”
Of course, anything in Jordan involving a guitar and
maybe the odd splash of Jack Daniels – a 17-hour flight in
coach class with an immediate radio appearance at the end
requires some artificial help, apparently – would qualify
as a rock’n’roll moment. And the band did their best to
dish them out in six days of gigging and sightseeing that
might best be described as the Monkees meets Indiana
Jones. “I think we stuck out in most places,” says Nick, as he
listed stripping off for a mud wrap at the Dead Sea, being
serenaded by bagpiping Bedouins in a Jerash theatre and
diving into a mansaf dinner. “Especially me, who has the
most piercings and tattoos. There were more than a few
moments of awkwardness along the way!”
“After the show,” echoes Jesse, “we were trying to get
a taxi, and no one – and I mean no one – would pick us
up! Four guys with eyeliner on and tight rocker pants are
apparently a little more than your taxi drivers can handle!
Jerash was a trip, though. This little kid said Emad had
the face of a lion and that he ‘looked like he ate people’!
Loved that!” Add in the band’s sudden acquaintance with Jordanian driving – “Emad’s style in LA suddenly made a
lot more sense” – and the miraculous discovery that the
KFCs are not only two-storey, but that they deliver, and that
even houses in the most upscale parts of the capital will
have a few goatherds grazing on the empty land opposite,
and you have a genuine cultural exchange going on.
“I wasn’t quite prepared for all the military guys hanging
out with automatic rifles,” says Jesse, “smoking cigarettes
and text messaging! And Jordan should definitely take the
Black Eyed Peas’ ‘Tonight’s Gonna be a Good Good Night’
as a national anthem. They must have played that song ten
times a day, every day, for the duration of the trip.”
Of course, though, for three guys born and raised in the
American culture of rock’n’roll, of Motley Crue madness,
Guns’n’Roses groupies and Hanoi Rocks hairspray, one
question leaps out from the editorial team of NOX
magazine: how do the female fans of rock in Jordan compare
to the crazed legions in California? Jealous boyfriends, look
away now: “Ha! Yeah, the women in Jordan are great,” says
Nick, clearly not revealing everything about the back-stage
fun, “they’re very pretty and to my observation much nicer
and easier to get along with than those back home.” “I agree,” beams Jesse, “and I have to say I was pleasantly
surprised at the number of beautiful women floating
around town. Did I sign anything interesting? I can say yes,
but I’m not saying what! We love our fans, so whomever it
may be, I’m game to autograph anything... above the belt!”
Despite the extracurricular activities, headlining the
Kulacom Series concert at Souq Jara was the clear highlight.
And with Emad now here full time, the band members are
even seriously considering joining him in Amman to try to
conquer the rest of the region. “It’s always been my goal to
see the world through playing music, and coming to Amman
was just the beginning,” says Jesse, who has even become
a fan of oud player Dhafer Youssef since encountering the
region’s music through Emad. “Unfortunately there are some
hairy situations in the Middle East that might exclude us
from travelling everywhere, but if there are good people who
want to be entertained by four questionable yet good natured
fellows, we’re down to rock your faces off... and then gently
re-apply them so no one knows any better!
“But in all seriousness,” Jesse concludes, “being in Jordan
gave me hope and inspiration that there are places where
our music is even more appreciated than we could hope.”
-
Avowed Intentions
[+ Show ]
“I don’t think he knows about my tattoos” laughs Emad Alaeddin, walking around the winding lanes off...“I don’t think he knows about my tattoos” laughs Emad Alaeddin, walking around the winding lanes off Amman’s Rainbow Street as he lists all the rock’n’roll excesses of which his father might not exactly approve. “and I always slick back my hair and take out my nose ring when I’m home. I mean he’s really cool and everything, but I don’t want to… you know… show any disrespect. He and my mom met in San Francisco in the 1960s, so I feel fairly sure they have an idea what I get up to in California, but I don’t want to go out of my way to antagonise him!”
Back home in Jordan again, for the first time since his LA-based band Avowed emerged from the seemingly bottomless morass of rock stars-in-waiting to release an accomplished debut album and harvest a hard core of committed fans, he can be forgiven for being self conscious about his attire. Jordanian rock stars, he has learned, still have Jordanian parents. “Well, I studied economics to appease my dad, but I think he always knew that I wanted music to be my career – and it seems my good grades got me off the hook,” he says. “But I’m sure the rest of my family wished I would get a proper job; it wasn’t that long ago that rock music here was associated with Satan worship! But at least I hardly drink these days – although that’s mainly to protect my voice.”
The crunchy guitars, unorthodox riffs and throaty vocals serve up a soulful rock that triangulates the mainstream bombast of Nickleback, the post-grunge melodies of Bush and the razor guitar work of Staind – and the combination has propelled the band to local cult heroes in their adopted hometown. “I would say that the three albums that give Avowed our DNA,” Emad says, when asked, “are Alice in Chains’ Dirt, Foo Fighters’ debut album and, well, the guys are going to kill me about this one, but Michael Jackson’s Bad. Yep. That’s definitely in there, can’t deny it.”
Contrast, or at least incongruity, is something that seems to have defined Emad’s life to date: growing up with one radio station in 1980s Jordan and now playing concerts to tens of thousands of Americans over the internet; growing up with George Michael, maturing with the complex harmonies of Alice in Chains; studying economics in Virginia, moving to Los Angeles to become a musician the second he graduated; loving the anonymity of California, missing the certainties and cultural understanding of home. He even doubles his time as a rock’n’roll frontman with a job at a Los Angeles branch of Citibank.
Perhaps the biggest contrast of all, though, was at the very genesis of Avowed, when he was trying to find a guitarist for his rock band in the aftermath of September 11th. “Back in college, everyone was very interested in the whole Arab thing, and wanted to know more about it,” he says, now walking past graffiti proclaiming the merits of Jordan’s leading football club, Al Faisaly. “When I moved to LA in the summer of 2001, it was the same, with people calling up and asking where my name was from and saying, ‘Oh he’s Arab, that’s cool, that could be interesting…’ Literally a month later, September 11 happened, and it all changed.
“I kind of laid low for a little while, waited it out, and pretty quickly any hatred became curiosity. And I realised that it was better to be upfront about being an Arab instead of trying to conceal it, and then have everyone think I’ve got something to hide and assume I’m a terrorist or something. Time heals everything, I guess, and we were just like, f**k it, why hide it? People are going to find out anyway…”
Conversely, in Amman, the packs of pre-teen kids who are now staring at the curly-haired, goatee-bearded 30-year-old as we try to find somewhere for a cliché-free-but-still-locally-relevant portrait, have no idea he is even from this planet, never mind from these very streets. His other-worldly appearance, filling up an iron gate or overlooking the stone-coloured folds of Downtown Amman, merits an avalanche of hellos in English, and even his Jordan-accented Arabic responses merely prompt a renewed flurry of TV English. He immediately expresses reservations about his forthcoming interview on the Arabic radio station Sawt al-Ghad.
Meeting later before his sold-out show in the art gallery-cum-restaurant Canvas, he relates the story of a horrible half hour, trying to navigate his way through a conversation with someone who wouldn’t know AC/DC from Ace of Bass, before completely messing up blending a CD of Amr Diab’s “Tamalli Ma’ak” with Emad’s own live, unaccompanied version – which was in a totally different key. “Thankfully, I went straight into ‘Arabic Girl’ and the phones went off the hook! I’m grateful people had bothered to keep listening.”
Avowed, though, is more than a vehicle for an Arab voice in America. The Arab element – via Emad, lead singer, rhythm guitarist and principal songwriter – is real, but it’s no gimmick; there are three other musicians in this for their own rock’n’roll reasons – and none of them involve Umm Kulthoum. Co-songwriter and lead guitarist is Jesse DeSanto, with Erik Kreft on drums and percussion and Nick LeRoux on the bass. All recruited from the LA music scene, they come with their own influences and ambitions. It’s Emad and Jesse’s relationship that is pivotal in providing the Avowed sound.
“I’d put up a flier asking for a guitarist, and after about six months of false starts, Jesse calls me up, comes by the garage and from the very first note we played, we knew we had something,” says Emad. “At first, it was me bringing all the songs to the band, but eventually he started coming forward with ideas – and he comes from a hardcore Dream Theater and Pantera background – and introduced a new outlook of songwriting to me. It was offbeat, experimental and sometimes completely crazy, but it really gave us more dimensions.”
In the early days, the band was known as Third Wish, and they released three albums that they were far from satisfied with. Only since they changed their name to Avowed, and recruited Bullets and Octane bassist Brent Clawson to produce their album (he’s also worked with The Knives), have they a sound and an approach that they can call their own. “There’s always a tug of war between me and Jesse, but it’s free from egos,” Emad says. “We respect each other’s talents and ideas, and it’s all to search for this middle point that is Avowed.
“Like, he’d bring me a series of chord progressions for a song, and they would be so unorthodox that I’d wonder how I could ever sing along with them. But you learn to swallow your scepticism and give it your best, and eventually the melodies come together. ‘Make It Right’ is a great example of that.”
Of course, the Arabness isn’t completely buried. In early songs, Emad would add vocal flourishes not dissimilar to a muezzin, and there are certainly chord progressions with an Eastern flavour. He also admits to bringing tapes of classic Arab singers to rehearsal. “I call it torture time! But I guess they’re at least beginning to understand it, and they’re definitely looking forward to coming here in the summer and learning a lot more about where I’m from – and they better believe I am going to insist on playing a few Arab covers!”
The one thing they might have to work on, though, is that groupie thing. It may be some time before Almost Famous is remade in Jordan. But Emad is making a start on recreating the LA vibe in West Amman with his new pad in Dabooq, which he says he is going to “MTV Crib the f**k out of” when he moves in. “We all live in the same house in Cali, and we reward our street team (the girls who put out the fliers, go on the blogs and tell their friends about us) by inviting them over for private shows. I’d love to have that in Amman, where rock kids can hang out, play and express themselves. Okay, I might have to give up smoking, but I’d trade smoking for being a positive influence. I can’t wait to get back, man!”
-
Avowed
[+ Show ]
WHEN JORDANIAN EMAD ALAEDDIN, lead singer of the California-based band Avowed, came to Jordan in Feb...WHEN JORDANIAN EMAD ALAEDDIN, lead singer of the California-based band Avowed, came to Jordan in February of this year to promote their eponymous debut album, released in August 2008, there wasn’t much of a local alternative rock scene to introduce it to. But after a run of live performances and local radio sweeps, the Avowed name and sound have left a lasting and sung-along impression on Amman’s insatiable rock fans.
There are no tidy comparisons between Avowed’s orginal sound and that of other bands, but their influences can be traced to Alice in Chains, Porcupine Tree and, as Alaeddin himself admits, Michael Jackson. Much of the album focuses on relationships, from beautiful beginnings and endings, to lessons learned, as in the songs “You and I,” “Really Over” and “How Does it Feel?” Meanwhile, tracks like “Save the Angels” and “Living a Lie” propose a deeper, yet easily appreciated outlook on the political and humanitarian turmoil in Palestine.
The ten-track album flows together well and allows listeners to enjoy excellent mastering of a unique ensemble of strings and drums, along with a soulful, gnarly elongation of the sung word.
Avowed will be playing live at Souq Jara on July 31. Wireless internet service provider Kulacom has provided sponsorship to fly the band to Jordan through its initiative “Local Company, Local Talent,” whereby it aims to supports Jordan’s growing talent base. Proceeds from the sale of Avowed merchandise, CDs and tickets will be donated directly to the Palestine Legal Aid Fund.
—Hamza Jilani
-
New Sensation
[+ Show ]
WORKING IN MUSIC IN the Arab world usually means singing the same song everyone else is singing and ...WORKING IN MUSIC IN the Arab world usually means singing the same song everyone else is singing and making a cheesy music video to go along with it—after the plastic surgeries. If you’re in the hip hop scene, it’s a dead end act you do just to pass time while your shawerma is being prepared.
But if you are Emad Alaeddin, 29, the songwriter and lead vocalist for the band Avowed, you just don’t care. All that matters is that you’re doing what you love. Alaeddin came back to Jordan shortly after Avowed released their eponymous debut album in August. Within the first week of his arrival, English radio stations like Beat FM, Play and Spin were playing “Save The Angels” and other Avowed tracks, and, according to band members, Virgin Megastore had picked up the album for distribution throughout the Middle East.
Avowed's distinctive West Coast hard rock sound blends grunge and alternative influences with soul-inspired vocals. And though it boasts clear similarities to Seattle-based soul rock bands like Maktub or Indigenous, Avowed comes with a definite LA edginess.
Though it was only formed last February, Avowed is already making its name known in the cutthroat music market of L.A.
“We perform at The Viper Room in Hollywood mainly—it’s like our second home,” Alaeddin says. “We’ve performed at other great venues like The Roxy and The Whisky. 10,000 fans have added themselves to our MySpace page in the short four months since the album’s release, and the number has been rising faster and faster.”
Their album is deliberately independent of lofty music labels, but Avowed have made good use of the web, with official pages on MySpace, iLike, iTunes and other networking sites. “Since the release of the album in August 2008, “How Does It Feel?” was awarded Winning Song for the month of August by songoftheyear.com,” Alaeddin adds. And the band is preparing for an upcoming UK tour. Easily done, says Alaeddin—next stop, Amman.
With their talent, charisma, tattoos and songs, it looks like Avowed just might have what it takes to penetrate local musical interests and give insight to struggling artists. JO seized the chance to find out exactly what made this Arab’s musical venture work.
WHERE DO YOU COME FROM, AND HOW DID YOU GET INTO MUSIC?
I was born in Amman, Jordan. I got into music from when I was a baby: as soon as I was able to speak, I was singing. When I left Jordan for college, I had it in my mind to still do music, despite getting a degree in something completely different. This was based on my mother's advice, who used to love music so much until she studied it in school where they force it down your throat and turn you against that craft. And that's the last thing I wanted.
Videos
avowed_th
As soon as I graduated, I moved to Los Angeles to find and create my band. Why Los Angeles? Because it was the most competitive market and I knew that throwing myself into such a cutthroat environment like the L.A. music scene would prepare me for the rest of my musical journey.
WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PERFORMING IN THE US AND IN JORDAN?
When we finished the album, I first wondered how our music would be received by Amman and the rest of the region. This was because there never has been an Arab doing this kind of rock. Completely uncharted territory.
When I returned to Amman to visit my family and promote the release of the album, I was shocked at how well the album was received, by both rock fans and non-rock fans. The radio stations were so supportive and the listeners were so happy with the music that requests for the songs were an everyday occurrence. I decided to perform a small acoustic show at Canvas, where I'd play the album along with other songs and covers. In response to what the listeners heard on the radio, the venue sold out and the show lasted 2.5 hours.
And it hit me: I'm an Arab, I'm a proud Arab, and it only feels right to have Avowed's success first start from my home, the Arab World. I discussed it with the guys to focus our efforts on my home country Jordan, and they are as excited as I am to make this a band that emerges from Jordan.
There is an eager music scene in Jordan; they are so supportive of their local talent and I strongly believe that the opportunities are there to become a successful music act.
WHAT IS THE SECRET INGREDIENT THAT SUCCESSFUL BANDS HAVE THAT OTHERS DON'T?
Avowed has accomplished a lot in the few months that it has been around, but are we a success? Distribution with Virgin, and the countless messages we receive from our adoring fans seems to indicate that we are headed in the right direction. We've received messages from fans who say our music has got them through such tough times as bitter breakups, health problems, and even war. I think we have the right ingredients for success: a great album, a killer live show and, most importantly, amazing and loyal fans.
ARE YOU GUYS SIGNED?
We decided to go with supportive private investors rather than reach out to labels for the recording of the album. This was because we knew what we wanted and we feared influence from a large corporation. It was a blessing that we were able to control our creative direction with our album, and got Brent Clawson, the producer and bassist for [the band] Bullets and Octane, on board to produce the album.
WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR SONG IDEAS FROM?
I write a lot about past relationships, from the aspect of the great times and the times when it fails and ends. “How Does It Feel?” and “Make It Right” are songs talking about a bitter breakup, where “Livin' a Lie” is about acting like a friend to the one that you love because you know that showing your true feelings would end the relationship entirely. “Save the Angels” is a Romeo and Juliet type of love story, where a boy and girl from combating backgrounds fall in love. “More Than You Know” is about a would-be terrorist who changes his inner self by way of love.
I also write a lot about my Arabic culture. I've recently written a song called “Arabic Girl” that's about landing in this beautiful country and falling in love with an Arabic beauty. I wrote it during my fateful trip last month when I decide to move back to Amman to promote the album there. I recorded it on my last day there and it's since been mixed and will be released on the airwaves in February.
I also write about the strife of the Palestinian people. My song “Palestine” begs that Palestine should be free. Avowed's been rehearsing these songs and plans to include them in the next Avowed album, which is due by the end of this year.
WHAT’S NEXT?
Because of the success we had in December while promoting the album in Amman, I will be relocating to Amman promoting the album through radio appearances and acoustic performances. The rest of the band will be able to continue their lives in Los Angeles and will be flown out every four or five months to play the big show. I will be flying back to Los Angeles every few months to perform shows there as well.
We have also set up a tour of the UK with Jason Manns in April 2009 and even plan on putting on a big concert in Amman for the summer.
supersonic
