EMQ’s With Lazywall
EMQ’s With Lazywall
Hi everyone! Welcome to another EMQs interview with Moroccan Oriental Rock/ Metal band, Lazywall. Huge thanks to their drummer, Monz, for taking part.
What is your name, what do you play and can you tell us a little bit about the history of the band?
My name is Monz, I play drums for Moroccan Oriental Rock / Metal Hybrid band Lazywall. The band was formed in 2003 with my two brothers Nao and Youssef, in Reading UK. We moved back to Morocco in 2008 and have released 5 albums since. We play our music with custom-made instruments. Our guitar has 2 necks, one neck guitar and one neck Oud. Our bass has 5 strings, 2 bass strings and 3 Guembri strings (African bass played by Gnaoua tribes). Our drum kit has a Darbuka and a Tbal (African drum) instead of toms.
How did you come up with your band name?
We have been living in Europe for a few years already when we formed the band, and we wanted a name that reminds us of home. In Tangier, there is a wall where people sit and stare at the Strait of Gibraltar. The 10 miles that separate Africa and Europe. This wall is called the wall of the lazy ones. So, we named ourselves Lazywall to remind us of all the things we are missing out by being too lazy to get out of our comfort zone.
What Country / Region are you from and what is the Metal / Rock scene like there?
We grew up in Tangier, Morocco. The Metal and Rock scene is quite young. Still underground, like everywhere, but a bit deeper. Before 2003 it was non-existent. There was one festival in the whole country for Metal and Alternative music in a small venue of 500 capacity. But then something happened that would change everything. A few metalheads got arrested and accused of Satanism. Moroccans went in the street for a national protest march, and they released them. The impact was so big that the next edition of the same festival had to be moved to a stadium to hold 20,000 fans per night. Since then, every year, we get a big Metal band to headline this festival (Sepultura, Kreator, Paradise Lost…). Now every local Rock and Metal band is struggling to help the scene grow. We are still lacking labels, rock venues, more festivals or even radio / TV airplay for this genre of music. In 2010, we were the first Rock / Metal band to perform live on national TV.
What is your latest release?
We have released our song “Dem 3la Dem” this summer. This song is the trademark of our sound. Including all Arabic instruments and the fact of jumping from East to West, guitar to oud, bass to guembri and toms to darbuka. We have also released a video for the song that was shot in Tangier, and where people can see our unique instruments. It’s the song that opens up our live set. And it talks about climate change. What we can do to make a change and are not doing. It’s not about The Earth we inherited from our parents but the one we legate to our heirs
Who have been your greatest influences?
We take our Rock musical roots from classic rock bands and the Post-Grunge era. But if we had to choose one band, it would be Led Zeppelin. In 1994, after travelling all over Morocco, they released a live album called “No Quarter” where they featured the London Orchestra and a Moroccan and Egyptian Orchestras. That version of Kashmir, with Arabic percussion, was the first time we thought of the possibility to merge our Rock sound with our Moroccan musical identity.
What first got you into music?
We first learned to play guitar to have fun with friends. Spending a night playing guitar in front of a bonfire next to a lake was really fun. But we started taking music seriously when we started writing songs. We really enjoyed every step of the song writing process. And we were lucky enough to have everyone around us motivating us with their support. That gave us enough patience to get better and write better songs.
If you could collaborate with a current band or musician who would it be?
In recent years, the Middle East Rock and Metal scene has been growing very fast. Countries like Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia or Lebanon have dozens of bands that have many albums released already and are touring Europe right now. We would love to collaborate with any of those bands. A way to merge the west and the east of the Arab rock scene. It would be amazing to have a tour and play with all these bands together.
If you could play any festival in the world, which would you choose and why?
Hellfest. Any band who plays there means that they have gone through all the steps and did the right thing. You start rehearsing in your garage and you end up playing at Hellfest. Everything in between is just the long journey of Rock’n’Roll. As long as we end up playing there, we don’t mind how long it will take. It gives us a goal to enjoy the trip. As they say, happiness lies in the waiting room of happiness.
What’s the weirdest gift you have ever received from a fan?
We have a very special fan who made a clay miniature figurine of the band members playing live. With every single detail, from clothing to the shape of the guitar. And she gave it to us just before going on stage at the biggest festival in the country. This was an amazing boost just before the show. A few years later, we changed some band members, and she came back with another clay figurine with the actual band members updated. Of course, we keep this gift in a very special place.
If you had one message for your fans, what would it be?
Thank you. For all the messages, for all the gifts, for coming to our shows and singing along, for being there when we were down, for trusting every one of our changes. For reading this.
If you could bring one rock star back from the dead, who would it be?
Any artist that still had much to give when he / she passed. Someone like Jimi Hendrix or Chris Cornell for example. They both died while they were still making awesome music. By losing them so early, we lost all their heritage. We can’t imagine how guitar playing would be today if Jimi Hendrix had lived longer.
What do you enjoy the most about being a musician? And what do you hate?
We love writing songs. For every song we write, during the days that follow we feel like floating on a cloud. This is what we could call Happiness. Performing these songs live on a tour and having the crowd singing along, this is probably what we enjoy the most as a band. What do we hate the most? Probably the fact that original bands get paid less than cover bands or tribute bands.
If you could change one thing about the music industry, what would it be?
A famous rap artist here in Morocco once said that Music business is like a small platform, and that if we all climb on it, it will collapse. This selfishness in the music industry has always been there. The system is made so very few artists get the biggest part of the pie, and the rest get nothing. It has always been like this and the way the industry is made today is not that different. Streaming platforms like Spotify or YouTube work great for big artists that have millions of streams. But for all the rest, it’s useless. Selling one T-shirt at a gig gets you more than 4000 plays on Spotify.
Name one of your all-time favourite albums?
There are plenty of albums to choose from, a lot of them forged our sound and helped us create our musical identity, from Led Zeppelin to Royal Blood. But to choose one, not being above or less than any other, it is the first album from Audioslave. When it came out, it blew our minds. All the songs, all the riffs, and the vocals were just perfect. We’ve listened to it so many times, it influenced us, and it is one of the few albums from a super-band that is really worth your money. Great album, great musicians from two of the greatest rock bands ever.
What’s best? Vinyl, Cassettes, CD’s or Downloads?
As an artist, Cassettes. For our last album we did a collector edition on cassettes, and it’s so cool. This was the best excuse ever to clean up an old HiFi double deck cassette player we had from our youth. And our fans loved it.
As a music consumer, I would say Streaming. We live in the Internet era. What we want, we want it now. Fast. We don’t even need downloads anymore because we are always connected. Spotify, YouTube and all the other streaming platforms have updated so we get access to lyrics, all the information about the song and even the music video.
What’s the best gig that you have played to date?
Usually when we go on stage, we are so excited and so focused on getting everything perfect that we forget to enjoy the moment, to live in the present as they say. And we end up realizing everything that has just happened when the show is already over. And this, with experience, and shows, we start to work around it. So, every next show, we enjoy it a bit more. So, every gig is better than the previous one. We hope that soon we can say that we have fully enjoyed the gig we just did. That gig will be the best we have played to date. We have to close the bubble around the concert, and it will be just the fans and us. And the present moment.
If you weren’t a musician, what else would you be doing?
I actually gave up my basketball player career to become a songwriter. I remember the day I wrote my first song. I went to see my coach and told him I wasn’t coming to the next training session. I wanted to become a Rock Star. Once you discover passions, you cannot live without them after that. If it wasn’t music or basketball, it would have been something else. I can’t imagine my life without being passionate about something. I don’t think I could find satisfaction and happiness in my life by doing a 9 to 5 job that I am not passionate about.
Which five people would you invite to a dinner party?
Steve Albini. Producer of Nirvana’s album In Utero. We had the chance to record our first EP with him in Chicago. He is an amazing sound engineer. He wouldn’t speak much though during dinner.
Mark Levine, author of the book Heavy Metal Islam. We played together at South By Southwest festival in 2009. It’s always a pleasure to share thoughts with him. Very good friend and amazing guitarist.
Gary Yourovsky, ex-activist and defender of Animal Rights. He disappeared now so it would be hard to invite him to dinner. But he let us use one of his speeches in a song we released a few years ago about Speciesism. The kind of person that makes you change.
Mick Jagger. We know he loves Moroccan food. And it would be easier to invite him because he comes to Tangier a lot. Plus, we have a very good friend in common.
Last but not least, our biggest fan. You know who you are. We owe you more than dinner.
What’s next for the band?
We are recording two songs right now to be released early next year. Since we started singing in Arabic, we have decided to re-release some of the songs from our previous albums that were sung in English but translating them to Arabic. This year we got 3 singles out already. At the same time, we are working on future shows in Europe and the UK in 2024.
What Social Media / Website links do you use to get your music out to people? Please include any links
https://www.facebook.com/lazywallofficial
https://www.instagram.com/lazywallofficial/
https://www.youtube.com/lazywallofficial
Time for a very British question now. As an alternative to the humble sandwich, is the correct name for a round piece of bread common in the UK either a Bap, a Barm (or Barm Cake), a Batch, a Bun a Cob, a Muffin, a Roll or a Tea Cake?
Honestly, we have no idea. We are from a country where bread is very important. Every dish we eat, we use bread with it. And most of the bread we use is round. And we make them at home. Tastes very good.
Thank you for your time. Is there anything else that you would like to add?
Thanks to you for giving us a chance to express ourselves.
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