Rocks Off combs through Craigslist's postings hoping to find the genesis of some great musical endeavor. So when we saw a posting looking for Arabic singers, we were intrigued.
After all, this is a time of mosque burnings and our upstairs neighbors passing anti-Sharia laws. It must take a hefty bag to start an Arabic music project. We sat down with keyboardist Alshed Al-Badri to learn some more about it.
Rocks Off: Are you looking for an Arabic speaker, or just someone of Arabic descent?
Alshed Al-Badri: Doesn't matter.
RO: What kind of musical project are you putting together?
AA-B: Doesn't really matter, but all Arabic music and songs.
RO: Are you looking for a male or female singer, or does it matter?
AA-B: Doesn't matter.
RO: Uhhh... could you elaborate, or tell us more? This isn't really much of an article so far.
AA-B: What exactly do you want to know? It is hard to explain. I mean if you were Arabic you would know what I am talking about. May I ask you what exactly you want to do with my ad?
RO: Here's is a man looking for Arabic singers, presumably to perform some kind of traditional Arabic music... a subject about which we are, admittedly, completely ignorant. Judging by the news, we're not alone.
We've watched this country grow more and more anti-Arabic and anti-Islamic, and we think someone starting a creative project based on a culture a great deal of Americans seem to currently fear for some reason is brave and cool. It's punk rock, in a way.
We want to know what you're going to do and why, because it's different and unique as far as we can tell.