Khebez Dawle
| Khebez Dawle | |
|---|---|
| Origin |
Damascus, Syria Beirut, Lebanon |
| Genres |
Ambient Post-rock Oriental Indie Rock |
| Years active | 2012–present |
| Members | Anas Maghrebi, Muhammad Bazz, Hikmat Qassar, Bashar Darwish, and Dani Shukri |
Khebez Dawle (arabic خبز دولة, lit. 'Government Bread') is a Syrian post-rock band led by Anas Maghrebi. The band members are war refugees, and as of late March 2016, were awaiting a response about their status in Germany's former Berlin Tempelhof Airport, which has been repurposed into a large shelter and housing unit for migrants. As of 2017, the band is based in Berlin.
Anas Maghrebi's previous band, Ana (arabic أنا, lit. 'I'), was formed following the uprisings that occurred as a result of the Arab Spring, was torn apart following the murder of the drummer of his bandmate, Rabea al-Ghazzi, and the drafting of the guitarist of the band into the army. In 2012, Anas Maghrebi formed Khebez Dawle in the midst of the Syrian Uprising. Before the war, the band was active underground because of Syrian censorship.
As the Syrian Civil War ensued, the guys opted at first to wait it out, while each individual was simultaneously trying to avoid conscription into the Syrian army; Bazz, Qassar, and Darwish fled Syria for Lebanon, and Maghrebi followed in 2013.
After spending two years in Beirut, members of the band deemed staying on in Lebanon as having no future ahead for them, though they'd managed to record a limited pressing of their new album.
Thereafter, the band moved to Turkey, from where they made the perilous boat trip with twelve other refugee musicians on a dinghy of sixteen souls across the Aegean Sea to the Greek island of Lesbos. From Greece, they moved through Macedonia, Serbia, and Croatia.
Throughout their journey, the band used their records to pay (in part) for their trips, and even presented their records as identification.
According to some sources, the band's first performance in Europe was playing in a refugee camp.
Khebez Dawle did their first substantial European gig in Croatia's capital Zagreb at Klub Močvara (lit. "Club of the Swamp"), a popular cultural venue that in the past had hosted Mogwai and God is an Astronaut. The men were asked by activists to perform at a concert supporting refugees. At the sold-out club event, the bandmates played with borrowed instruments to a full house largely attended by Croatians.
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Wikipedia