 Abri
Abri are the UAE’s first soul/indie outfit.
They take their name from frontman Hamdan Al-Abri; the rest of the band are Andre Atherley (drums), Rami Lakkis (bass) and Julian Symes (keyboards). Debut album Sunchild was released last month and the band recently played with Arrested Development and the Fun Lovin’ Criminals.
01/It’s an odd mix – why soul and indie?
Well, Hamdan has a really soulful voice and our music is soul, but we also like the whole indie ethic and sound. So the lyrical content is indie.
02/What’s been the response of the local crowds?
The first time we played was to about 100 people. We really went for it and, when we finished, there was just this silence. We thought “Oh no, they didn’t like it!” Then the place erupted. We knew we had hit a chord – excuse the pun.
03/What’s been the biggest challenge getting the band started?
In Dubai, venues have to get a license for each musician and that’s expensive. Also, a lot of places wanted us to play covers – we lost some shows because we said we’d only play our own music.
04/What are your hopes for the album?
If it sells well in the Gulf, we’d hope to introduce it to the rest of the world. We have a video for our first single Philosophies and another for the second, A Piece of Yourself.
05/What’s next?
We really want to tour Europe in 2008, especially the UK because two of us are English and we have a lot of friends and family who haven’t seen us play yet. And we’ve already started writing a second album. www.abrimusic.com
|
