Akher Zapheer’s front-man and longest standing member, Basem Sayej, talks to us about Amman as his muse and a misunderstood city, the Arab rock scene, and his favorite places to perform round the world.
We listen to three of Akher Zapheer’s songs from across their albums and get an insight into how Basem approaches song-writing. Finally, Basem shares his personal mixtape for the best alternative bands from around the Middle East.
Basem Sayej is the frontman, guitarist and vocalist of Akher Zapheer, a Jordanian grunge Arabic rock band from Amman. The band’s name literally translates to ‘last exhale’.
Created & Hosted by Mikey Muhanna, afikra
Edited by: Ramzi Ramman
Theme music by: Tarek Yamani https://www.instagram.com/tarek_yamani/
About Quartertones:
QuarterTones is a music show. It is an opportunity to listen to music, across genres, from musicians of and from the Arab world. This series is similar to NPR’s All Songs Considered that is focused on the Arab world. afikra will be inviting musicians of all genres, as well as music historians, to help better understand the music that they perform or study. In this series, the guests will be invited to talk about their work and play their music, whether live or recorded, in three segments. The series will host current musicians who play contemporary and modern, including alternative scene or hip-hop, electronic, classical music, among other genres. The musicians will also be from different geographies.
Join the live audience: https://www.afikra.com/rsvp
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About afikra:
afikra is a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region- past, present, and future - through conversations driven by curiosity.
Read more about us on afikra.com
Hosted by:
Mikey Muhanna 👉 https://www.instagram.com/mikey_mu/?hl=en-gb
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» Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/lb/podcast/the-afikra-podcast/id1529437743
» Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5nafoF1Zs7F48mGZjlhrze
» Anghami: https://play.anghami.com/podcast/1014643869
THIS SERIES IS PART OF THE AFIKRA PODCAST NETWORK
Explore all episodes in this series: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfYG40bwRKl5xaTkBDrUKLCulvoCE8ubX&feature=shared
ABOUT AFIKRA
afikra | عفكرة is a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region – past, present and future – through conversations driven by curiosity.
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