Crowdfunding for Mashrou' Leila's new album Raasuk
Mashrou' Leila is a Beirut-based indie band, their music is a blend of Eastern and Western influences and they sing in Arabic. I saw them live for the first time in Dubai two years ago at The Music Room and been a fan ever since. Their songs are poetic and intelligent, and they throw some good shows.
They've been touring for the past few years and receiving great reviews for their music and concerts. With two albums up their sleeves, you can listen to/purchase their first two albums here, Mashrou' Leila recently recorded their 3rd album Raasuk in Montreal. In their own words,
The album is about everything: love, lust, mourning, social control, Lebanese politics, the Arab spring, and most importantly, dancing. We challenged ourselves musically and lyrically to try to get out of our genre.
Mashrou' Leila would now like to release their new album, but like all struggling indie bands, they don't have financial support. They've turned to Zoomaal, the first crowd-funding platform looking to help independent talent in the Arab world, and are asking fans to support them to release Raasuk.
Although the worsening political situation in the Middle East makes it increasingly difficult to get our stuff published, we really want to get this album out.
If for nothing else, we want to release the album to prove to ourselves and everyone around us, that at least part of all the changes in the region are in the name of free speech, be that in a protest, a censored newspaper article, or a concert that the government won’t support.
They need to raise at least USD 66,000, to be able to design beautiful album art, print CDs and posters, make quality videos and play concerts with quality sound systems. This region really lacks financial support when it comes to anything that is independent and unique - so I really, really, really hope Mashrou' Leila will be able to raise funds for this.
These words really sum up the sorry state of music in the Arab world and hope it will encourage you to fund this project.
Help us prove that the music industry hasn’t been catering to our people’s needs. Help us demand that the music industry stop remanufacturing the same pop-stars with different names.
Help us demand better art.
Help us demand diverse representation in our cultural environment.
Help us force the industry to listen to the people.
Help us not get choreographed.
Help us occupy Arab-Pop.
#OCCUPYARABPOP
Tell your friends, tell your family, tell your lovers. Tell the fanatics, the moderates, and the liberals. And when you do, make sure you also tell them change is coming, and it doesn’t have implants.
Watch this clip which includes the band, their fans (some are renowned personalities in Beirut) and find out why it is so important to help Mashrou' Leila release their new album. After that, visit Zoomaal and donate as whatever you can. The campaign ends on 13th August 2013.
Let's #OccupyArabPop and demand better. We deserve it. This region needs it.
