Interview with the Band Lazywall (Morocco)
By Mick Michaels
The Cosmick View: Hello, and
welcome to The Cosmick View/MBM Ten Pounder! Thanks for taking some time
to chat with us!
CV: Describe your definition of the band’s sound and style and how does that definition uniquely describe the music?
Lazywall: We are an Oriental Rock/Metal Hybrid band from Morocco. Singing in Arabic, we have custom-made instruments to express our unique vision of Rock. Our guitarist plays the GuitarOud, a double neck guitar, one neck guitar, one neck Oud (Ancestor of the Luth). Our bass player uses the Bassentir, a bass with 2 bass strings and 3 Guembri strings (African bass). Our drummer replaced one tom with a Darbuka and added a Tbal (African drum) as a second Floor Tom. Our riffs are simultaneously played as a constant battle between distorted guitars and distorted Ouds, bass versus Guembri and Darbukas VS toms.CV: Today, everyone talks about artist and audience connection. Is such a level of connection actually achievable for an artist and if so, how have you made the connection to your fans?
Lazywall: We live in an era where the internet has provided a direct link between bands and their fans. We can communicate instantly. Bands must have social networks to follow their fans and vice versa. We felt this in our own skin. In 2019, just before COVID we decided to go back to the “pre-social networks” music industry. We removed our catalogue from Spotify, YouTube… We wanted to test if our fans will follow us, leaving them only albums CDs as a link. We failed. All our fans thought the band was gone. We realized bands must adapt to today’s way of life…which means, the Internet. Fans want instant access to music. They are not patient anymore to go to a music shop and buy a CD, go home and go through all the process of using a CD player. They want to click once on their phone and listen to our song in less than a second…same as the movie Industry with Netflix. This has strengthened the connection with the fans. In Rock and Metal culture, this connection has always been stronger than other genres. And today as mentioned before, we can feel it even more. We have learned to listen to what they tell us. And they always pay you back. The only thing they ask you in return is to be honest with them. Musically speaking.CV: Is fan interaction an important part of the band’s inner culture?
Lazywall: For us, it is. Up to a certain point. This interaction is a good way to know where the band is going. In the past, artists could measure their progress through radio charts, magazine reviews, albums sales or crowd attendance at the gigs. Today we have an extra tool…Likes, Comments and Views. We can use these platforms to test new songs or ideas, or communicate directly with fans, read their opinion… This is very important for the fans as they feel that the bands are listening to their efforts. Obviously, we still lead the way for the band’s direction and sometimes we lose old fans that don't agree with the changes. But they respect our decisions, like we respect theirs.CV: Can a band truly interact with its fans and still maintain a level of personal privacy without crossing the line and giving up their “personal space” in your opinion?
Lazywall: Depends on the genre and how much you care about your privacy. In our world of Rock and Metal, it’s easier because fans are more interested in the music than our personal lives. They don’t care where we are from, our age or what we had for breakfast. That’s why it’s hard for us to be active on TikTok. The problem comes when artists spend too much time on social networks and less on the music creative process. We must find the right balance to do both. Artists should not become addicted to fans. It’s usually the other way around.CV: Is music, and its value, viewed
differently around the world in your
opinion? If so, what do you see as the biggest difference in such
multiple
views among various cultures?
On the other hand, the value of
being in a band in the UK or Morocco are two different things as well. When we
started as a local band in Reading (Berkshire) we never got paid for a gig. Not
even free drinks. Fans had to pay a ticket to see us but all that money went to
the promoter. When we complained about it, they told us that if we are not
happy, there are a thousand bands waiting to take our spot. Since we moved back
to Morocco, there haven’t been any shows we didn’t get paid for. So, as a band
we do get more value from the promoters.
Overall, for the general
public, musicians aren’t as respected here than they are in Europe. It’s still
not a profession you want your kids to have. But it’s slowly changing. The local
scene is growing fast and music’s value with it.
CV: Do you feel that a band that has an international appeal, will tend to connect more so to American audiences? Would they be more enticed or intrigued to see the band over indigenous acts because of the foreign flavor?
Lazywall: We honestly don’t know the American audience very well. We have only been there twice. But we always thought it was the other way around. I guess the two are not incompatible. There is room for both as long as the music is good. It makes sense that it’s easier to connect with something you already know, but the curiosity and hunger for something new, different and unique can be very appealing as well. Mostly for an open-minded crowd ready to get out of their musical comfort zone. The problem would be to find a spot between the millions of music information that comes from inside, and get enough exposure. It’s not about being foreign, it’s the “NEW” that sometimes is scary. But again, Grunge made it big when no one wanted to listen to Rock anymore.CV: Has modern-day digital technology made everyone an artist on some level in your opinion? Have the actual lines of what really is an artist been blurred?
Lazywall: Technically, an artist is someone who creates art. What’s important is the final result that the listener gets. Same as what happened with photography, today we don’t need a professional camera and a career…just an iPhone with a million pixels. Anyone can be a photographer, a movie director, a bedroom music producer. Before this digital revolution, you needed the middle men to entitle you as “Artist”. Today it’s up to how good you are. So, what decides where the lines are, is your talent, that is what makes your hobby become a passion.CV: How would you describe the difference between an artist who follows trends and one who sets them?
Lazywall: It’s a choice. Those who follow a trend usually love that music so much they want to pay a tribute by keeping the legacy. We chose differently. When we moved to England in the early 2000s, we used to rehearse with many local bands. At that time, there was no specific trend in Music, but then Indie Rock came up strong with bands like Coldplay, Franz Ferdinand….
We saw most of the local bands
changing their music to play Indie Rock. We asked them why and they told us
that in the UK, the “Music” train only passes once and you have to take it or
you’ll miss it. Or that Music is like a giant clock with each hour being a new
genre. And if you don’t follow that genre, all doors will be closed until the
next hour comes. We were against that idea and that’s one of the reasons we
left. We believe artists must bring their own identity into their sound. Music
has evolved thanks to those who tried something new. It may take years and many
bands to make a new trend but that is what happened with every genre. The first
time the word Grunge was used was in 1982 but it became popular with Nirvana in
the 90s. As we said earlier it’s a choice. They are still bands today making Rock’n’Roll
and as long as they keep doing it with passion, they deserve the same respect.
CV: Has music overall been splintered into too many sub-genres in an effort to appease fan tastes in your opinion? And has such fan appeasements, in actuality, weakened music’s impact as a whole by dividing audiences?
Lazywall: Music is constantly evolving; every successful genre has started very simple, and got more complex through the years. It has to be divided through sub-genres. It’s impossible to like every genre of music. And this division of audiences is not necessarily a bad thing. People like to gather with other like-minded people. Except Pop music, music lovers tend to be very protective of the music they like, so the less people like it, the more special we feel. Even if a lot of people like Metal, very few will focus on folk metal, or rap metal. So, it’s natural for us to accept this division. And because we are becoming more selective in general as a society, music couldn’t be an exception. There is so much information today that we have to be. The new censorship is not the lack of information but the excess of it.Although if we want to keep it simple, like the popular saying, there are only two genres of music…the good one and the bad one.
CV: What can fans expect to see coming next from you?
Lazywall: Last year, we decided to start singing in Arabic. So, from our 5 previous albums released in English, we want to select our most special songs and translate them to Arabic. We have already released 3 songs this year, and will be releasing 2 more in the next 3 months. We are also working hard to get some more shows in Europe and the UK. Hopefully visit the US again in 2024.CV: Thanks again for taking some time and talking. It is greatly appreciated.
Lazywall: Thank you for these very interesting questions.Check out Lazywall:at
https://www.facebook.com/lazywallofficial
https://www.instagram.com/lazywallofficial
https://www.youtube.com/lazywallofficial
https://open.spotify.com/artist/1u2EXXPV58j0coivEp6r7X
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