Sam Shalabi - The Dwarfs Of East Agouza Interview
Are you originally from Montreal, Quebec? What was your childhood like?
I was born in Tripoli, Libya, but I'm Egyptian. I spent the first 6 years of my life in Egypt and then my parents, my brothers and I moved to Prince Edward Island in Eastern Canada and then I moved to Montreal in the 90s. Very isolated in a way. Charlottetown, Prince Edward island in the 70s was very very sparsely populated (it's a very small island), very rural and so it was kind of a strange adjustment coming from Egypt, but it was a good way to grow up in a way far away from trends and cities etc. In hindsight, a good thing I grew up on Egyptian music, punk rock, disco, soft rock and reading a lot.
When did you first begin to fall in love with music, more specifically the Oud and guitar? Was music something that was relevant around your household growing up? What would you and your friends do for fun growing up?
Guitar I got into as a teenager. I was very much inspired by punk rock (Sex Pistols, Ramones, Clash, etc). Oud came later after my dad gave me one for my 30th birthday. It rekindled my love of Arabic music and had a big influence on me. Between punk and Arabic music, I fell in love with, studied and played traditional jazz for awhile. Yes, my dad loved music and was an amateur musician. I heard a lot of Arabic and Egyptian music as a child. Listened to music, hang out, get drunk and high, get into trouble.
Who were some of your earliest influences in your more formative years? When and where did you see your very first concert and when did you realize you wanted to spend your life pursuing music?
For guitar, I loved Ricky Wilson from the B52’s, Keith Levine from P.I.L, and Velvet Underground. I really dug Bob Dylan, The Beatles and Captain Beefheart’s music was a huge influence. Later on a lot of Jazz stuff - Coltrane, Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman, etc. Well,I saw a lot of country music as a child - Conway Twitty, Porter Wagner, etc. But my first real concert was Husker Du in 1984 around the time of Zen Arcade. I think around the age of 18 is when I started writing my own music.
You have participated in a number of groups prior to TDOEA forming. Can you tell me about projects such as ‘Gypt Gore, Po, Land Of Kush and Balai Mecanique? You’ve also released a huge body of work as a solo artist. Can you tell me about writing and recording a few of those projects such as “Oh Hashish”, “Eid”, “Min” and most recently “Bennu”?
Land Of Kush is an orchestra influenced by the great Modernist Egyptian music of the 1960s and 70s. I barely played in the orchestra, but compose all the music for it. Gypt Gore, Po and Balai Mecanique are all free improv groups that no longer exist (they all ended over 20 years ago). My solo stuff is much more written and 'controlled' than any of my other projects. It's where I can do everything I'm into (text, field recording, electronics, etc.) in one composition. There’s a lot of 'text' and vocals in my solo stuff and its definitely more conceptual than my other musical endeavors.
How did you initially meet Maurice Louca and the great Alan Bishop? What led to the decision to first form the group back in 2012? When and where did you play your very first gig and what was That experience like for you?
I met Alan around 2004 when I was in a project that opened for Sun City Girls and we immediately hit it off and have been friends and musical partners ever since. Maurice i met in Cairo around 2006 when I started to get to know the Cairo music scene and we've also been friends and musical partners ever since. The Dwarfs started because we were all living in the same building in the Agouza district of Cairo and started to jam together. We played our first gig in Cairo around 2012 at 100 Copies, a great Cairo venue. It was as almost every dwarfs gig is, magical!
The band released its debut album “Bes” back in 2016. Can you tell me about writing and recording that record? How did the deal with Nawa Recordings come about, a label that's been familiar with Bishop’s for some time now? What did you guys ultimately want to explore and express with this material with it being your debut? Tell me about performing Beirut and what that experience was like for you?
Bes was recorded at 100 Copies in Cairo by Mahmoud Refat and the whole thing, like all our music, was completely improvised. It took two days to record. Well, Nawa was actually a label run by our friend and musician Khyam Allami, who in fact had released Maurice Louca’s first album. Khyam basically heard the recording and really wanted to put it out. We didn’t really (and don’t) have a vision for our music except in the ritualistic aspect of what we do. That's very much there all the time and is the 'motor' of our music. We are all into that magical, almost occult dimension of music making and its part of the group’s DNA. Theres a telepathic trust dimension to what we do that's very important. Beirut is always a pleasure to play and be in, a lovely city with lovely people and always appreciative audience. It’s one of the nodal points for experimental art in the MENA region.
I want to jump ahead a bit to the band’s most recent record “High Tide In The Lowlands” that came out back in March. With a hell of a few years during the strong grip of Covid, how did you want to personally approach this record? What elements were most important to you guys as sort of a return since the pandemic? How did the deal with Sub Rosa come about?
I've been a big fan of Sub Rosa since its inception in the 90s, but the deal with them came about, again, via Maurice who had already released an album on the label. They were already fans of Dwarfs of East Agouza and when Maurice suggested we release the recording via Sub Rosa they were very enthusiastic about it. They have been a great support to us for this release. As far as the pandemic, we didn’t really change, or approach anything differently, the only kink was that we didn’t travel much and so we weren't able to play live, or tour. The album itself was a particularly fun show in Brussels where we have a great fan base and the show mirrored that in a way, great vibe that night and we happened to get a good recording of it. Since all our music is improvised, we record everything, or try to and this particular show went really well.
What have you guys got planned for the spring and summer this year? Any tours, or gigs? Is there anything else you would like to further share with the readers?
We have more shows in Europe in August, a US tour in October and we will mix a new album of studio recordings that we hope to release in 2024.
