For a while now, I've been on the look out for bands and musicians from the scene in Kuwait, and this will be the first installment of many more to come, from the "Spotlight On Kuwait" series.
First up is Benevolent, a progressive rock band founded by brothers Hadi and Fadi Sarieddine who are actually from Lebanon, but are living and studying in Kuwait.
They recently released "Solace" on their official Myspace page, which is a great track to get a taste of what the band is capable of, a very experimental mellow rock song.
Taken from the band's Myspace page:
" Benevolent is a progressive rock band founded by brothers Hadi and Fadi Sarieddine. The band's sound emerges from many genres of music including progressive metal, progressive rock, hard rock, heavy metal, death metal, new age, and other diverse genres within and outside the rock/metal circle.
The band was formed in early 2007, originally being "Eminence", but that just sounded too Evanescence to us! The band is currently seeking a bassist. If you are interested in trying out please contact us.
In october 2008, Khalid Abuwarda and Bader Abdullah joined us to fill ..s and Drums!"
To get to know the band a little better, I had "a word" with one of the band's founding members and lead guitarist/back up vocalist Hadi Sarieddine, about the band's sound, his favorite musicians, the scene in Kuwait, and alot more. Here's how it went:
TMR: Hows it going ?
Hadi: Going great man! Currently getting ready to finish up my Fall semester at the American University of Kuwait so things are a little hectic, but the upcoming break should put some gas back into my tank!
TMR: Can you tell me about your musical background? and about yourself?
Hadi: Well I was born here in Kuwait, spent most of my life here too. I started playing guitar 6 years ago, in January 2003; I spent the 1st 9 months creating my own tunings because I didn't understand how the whole tuning system works! I'd tune the strings in a way w here they sounded "musical" enough together to me, fretting was quite the issue at the start! hehe
I guess things got serious for me when I got my 1st electric guitar, 9 - 10 months later. Luckily by then I had learnt about the standard tuning and could play a few chords here and there, nothing fancy! I started doing the exercises for long hours and had some short-term goals that I wanted to achieve as a guitarist and a musician, and I started moving forward with more goals as I went along.
TMR: Who are some of your all time favorite musicians?
Hadi: John Petrucci and Dream Theater top that list, him and the band are my main influence and drive to be a better guitarist and push myself to write better music that's original and challenging, and edge-ie. However, there's more to the list as I listen to many styles of music! Hmmm let's see, I'm currently going through an Alter Bridge-fever stage, they're all I listen to mostly. As for across the years since I started playing it would be Linkin Park, Metallica, Opeth, Pink Floyd, Symphony X, Dream Theater. As for solo artists I'm really into Guthrie Govan, Andy Timmons, and Joe Satriani.
TMR: Can you tell me about Benevolent's sound?
Hadi: The sound that I personally "feel" when I'm composing for Benevolent is a warm, atmospheric, heavy and mellow in the same time. The musical themes are usually sad, dark, and with some hope sprinkled around here and there, if that makes sense! This combin ation could be what the lyrics and the music portray when they work together. I guess our sound is yet to be solidly defined as we create more music!
TMR: When do you guys plan on releasing more material?
Hadi: We currently have one song released, Solace, however we had some written and recorded material here and there that we never took to the next step.
However, Fadi and I have been working on just might be the new Benevolent song (If we end up being impressed by the final result!). I finished recording all the guitars, and programming all the instruments, Fadi finished writing the lyrics and we're almost done piecing together the vocal melodies before recording the vocals. He's working on it until he gets the perfect thing down! I'd rather not give any details about the track but I can say that it's very different from Solace, but they both carry a similar "feel", I guess this is what's going to define our sound as we go along.
Besides that, Fadi and I have spoken about many song ideas that we'd like to put together and we are hoping to release some more material in 2009!
TMR: Hows the rock scene in Kuwait, are there venues availble or places that hold rock gigs?
Hadi: The scene out here fluctuates, some gigs pop out every once and then but there are no consistent live opportunities. Sadly enough for us we haven't had a full-band setup in any of the gigs so we did not get the chance to play full-piece live gig.
As far as the music being released, the scene out here is pretty good and has a good mix of rock and metal genres, there are some death metal bands, some alternative rock ones, thrash, and other genres too! There are some pretty good tracks being released and very good musicians out here!
TMR: Where you involved in other projects before Benevolent?
Hadi: Yes. I've been in and out of a couple of bands and projects I've been part of, these include a band called "Winter". We had written some songs but that was a few years back.
I have also worked with Terminus on part of the production process for their upcoming debut album, Bader and Khaled recorded all their guitar solos at the little studio Fadi and I have setup out here at home. I'm looking forward to hearing the very final version of that one!
TMR: Who would you like to share the stage with?
Hadi: Oh boy, this is a tough one! Well I'd like to play a full-band gig with Benevolent as a start! I'm really looking forward to that opportunity! Hopefully we'll get the chance to put something together and play a local gig soon! It'd be nice to go out there and play for a crowd and share the stage with people you're very good friends with!
I would actually also love to perform along side Alter Bridge, the music is just very energetic and Myles Kennedy is one hell of a singer and I'd love to play guitar live to that!
TMR: Would you like to add anything?
Hadi: I'd like to thank you for giving us this opportunity to promote the material that we're releasing and for appreciating the underground local scenes out here in the Gulf and the Middle East. I'm looking forward to another encounter with The Metal Reporter!
Keep your eyes on our myspace page for the upcoming song! And wish us luck piecing it all together!
Thanks!
I'd like to thank Hadi for taking the time to answer my questions. Make sure to keep an eye out for Benevolent's upcoming releases on their Myspace.
Coming Up: "A Word" With Christian Olde Wolbers from Fear Factory about his new gear from Randall Amplifiers and his new band Arkaea !
Kuwaiti based progressive metal band Benevolent, recently released a new song titled "Augmented." The song is a continuation in the prog direction the band is heading towards.
