Metal go getters LAZYWALL have quite a bit of releases under their belts, with them working upon a re-release of sorts, with further plans on hold, but more stuff is to come forth soon enough. See what else the band says about this all below.
1. Please tell us about the history of your band and its members.
Lazywall is a Moroccan rock band of three brothers who moved to Reading (UK) in 2003. Growing up listening mostly western rock/metal music, the plan was to follow the path of our idols, from Led Zeppelin to Audioslave and start making some noise in the Berkshire local scene. But then something happened. In 2006, we got a call from Morocco, an invitation to perform at the first Rock/Metal festival in the country: L'Boulevard. That night, we played in front of 20.000 Moroccan metalheads. Going off stage we realized there was something starting in our country and we wanted to be part of it. So, we moved back to Morocco. And that was the spark that made us realize we should do something different that combines both worlds. In 2008, for the recording of our first album, we started experimenting how Arabic instruments could sound in a rock environment.
2. What’s the origin of the band’s name?
Lazywall refers to a famous place in our hometown Tangier, called Sour El Me3gazine, which translates to the Wall of the Lazy ones. This place lies in front of the strait of Gibraltar and the Mediterranean sea where you can clearly see Europe on a sunny day. Living abroad for so long, we wanted something that reminds us where we come from. So, our hometown could always be with us.
3. Where is the band based out of and what is your music scene like there? Are there any local bands you could recommend?
Right now, we are based both in Tangier, Morocco and Strasbourg, France where our guitarist lives. This gives us the opportunity to play both sides.
Over here in Morocco, the rock/metal scene has been growing fast since its birth in the late 90ies. Being underground for a few years, in 2003 a few metalheads were imprisoned just for playing Metal music, accused of Satanism. This made the whole country go out protesting, thousands of people marched for their release. After that day, the festival L'Boulevard grew from a crowd of 500 people to 30.000 in one year bringing international bands like Kreator or Sepultura amongst others.
Slowly after that, Rock & Metal became less & less scary to the general audience, we even got invited as the first Rock/Metal band to perform on national TV in 2010.
Today, the rock/metal genre is still underground, like most countries, but we do have many more bands emerging like Barathon Lane, Meteor Airlines and of course in the pure Metal genre Thrillogy and Into The Evernight. Together with many other bands, this is part of the Moroccan Rock scene.
4. How would you describe your style?
Lazywall is an oriental rock/metal hybrid band from Morocco. That's the best definition, but we are also described as Desert Metal. But it wasn’t always like that. We started as a post Grunge band but when we first invited an Oud player to join us on the recording of our first album, we realized that this Arabic instrument merges so well with our Drop D guitar riffs that we started experimenting with all our riffs played with Arabic or Moroccan instruments. Like the Guembri, which is a very popular traditional bass originally from Mali but used mostly in Gnawa music.
Our last addition has been the fact of singing western rock/metal music in Arabic/Darija (Moroccan dialect) which is not very popular for this genre of music in the whole Arabic world. Most rock/metal bands still sing in English, although it is becoming more common to see an indie/alternative movement in the middle east singing in local Arabic. For us, the switch to Arabic was inspired by Ville Leppanen, from UK label The Animal Farm who convinced us to give it a try. After translating the first song we realized that it sounded much more personal, has much more of our identity and gave us the missing link between the two worlds.
5. What have you released so far and what can someone expect from your works?
Our first release was a 4 track EP recorded by producer Steve Albini (Nirvana, Pixies). Since then, we have released 5 LP albums in English from 2009 to 2021. This year, since we started singing in Arabic, we have released 3 singles so far which have been very well received by local & international press & fans.
We have also created new original instruments that define our sound and image. Our guitarist plays a double neck custom-made guitar: The Guitaroud. One neck is a 6 string guitar and another one is a 12 string Oud. Some of our riffs are played with a distorted Oud. Our bassist has a custom-made bass we call the Bassentir which has 2 bass strings and 3 Guembri strings. Our drummer replaced one tom with a Darbuka, but also added a Tbal (Moroccan tribal drum) and a Bendir to his drum kit. All these added to the fact of singing rock songs in Arabic makes our musical identity. What can someone expect? Well, power with oriental spice.
6. Do you have any new music in the works?
Right now, we have been re-recording some of our previous English songs to Arabic. We will be releasing them during this year and the next. Singing them now in our language, we have realized they have taken a new dimension that we want to share with everyone. Our fans describe the new versions as more emotional.
We have also started writing new material in Arabic.
7. How about playing shows and touring, have anything planned out?
This week we were supposed to play at L'Boulevard festival, with Decapitated (Poland) and Tinariwen (Mali) among others. But sadly, our country has been severely hit by a terrible earthquake that took many lives in the southern part of Marrakech. During these hard times, we feel so blessed by the help all these villages are getting, not only from our fellow Moroccans but from people all around the world. Anyone reading this and want to help, please visit the Moroccan earthquake relief fund.
https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/morocco-earthquake-relief-fund/
We postponed every gig we had for this month as a respect to all the families mourning their losses
We have some shows in October in Europe, Luxembourg, Belgium, France, Germany & also the UK.
8. What plans do you have for the future as a band?
We want to bring our Arabic rock to as many music lovers as possible, by touring as much as we can. We will also be alternating new releases with previous translated songs during the next 12 months. We will explore new ways of developing this new universe of oriental/occidental crossroad. We are in talk with some festivals across Europe for 2024 that will help us reach a bigger audience.
9. Where can we listen to your band and where can we buy your stuff?
Here are some links to our social networks and music
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/intl-fr/artist/1u2EXXPV58j0coivEp6r7X
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/lazywallofficial
Official Website: lazywall.com
10. What is it you’d like a listener to remember the most when hearing your music for the first time?
We know it is hard for someone who is used to listening to rock in English to hear it in a different language. We've been through that. Just give it a try with an open-minded ear and our music will grow on you. And if you are not 100% convinced, come to our show and we will blow your mind
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