PipemanRadio Interviews Kuwaiti Band SRAI

0:04 Hey, you have then two censure from thumb see wow for you young whycoume of America, It's time for the adventures of Pipe Man on W four c why dot com wis pomp Beats is number one Internet radio station. Here's your host, the Vipe Man. Leave in dogsb don't dry far away in some time light. So folks, it's two Thy twenty four and for those of you that know the pipe Man, and we're off season for festival season, so I tend to disappear for a little while during the holidays and the beginning of the year, and I do a lot of traveling the rest of the year until festival season starts up again. So here we are with the first interview of two Thy and twenty four. And it's pretty cool because I'm doing this interview from where I'm staying for the next three months in Costa Rica, and I'm interviewing this cool band that's over in Kuwait. So that's really cool.

1:41 So I'd like to welcome to the show Absue from Surai. How are you yo? Yo? Is good? All is good? How's it going? Man? Oh, it's going great. You know. First of all, I'm happy that we have no technical difficulties since I brought all my equipment to Costa Rica and I wasn't sure how good it would go. And it's going great. And then I'm going to go surfing after this interview, and I have a couple of interviews later. So you know, that's life here in January twenty twenty four. How about over on your side of the world, dude, that's exciting. That's very exciting. Well, from this side of the world, everything is great and cuates at the moment, so we're just chilling. The weather is great. It's usually hot in the summer, you know, in the Middle East, but in the winter it's just perfect for people going out and go for walks and just you know, hang out, have coffees or do whatever they want. It's perfect. That's cool because where I live the rest of the years in Florida, and I'm like the opposite of the normal person. It might be a little loco because we have snowbirds because of the weather. The weather's just like you're describing. During the summer it's super duper hot and humid, and during the winter it's tolerable, you know, and sometimes it can get even cool. But you know, we have two seasons, hot and hotter, and I leave and a lot of times I'll go to cold weather too, Like I'll go over to Europe

3:13 during the winter, and people think I'm a little bit insane, but hey, you know, I think the diversity is what makes us well rounded and experience in things. And now I'm in Costa Rica where it's the opposite of Florida. So it's like Florida summers right now, super hot, superhumid, but you know, I have the ocean and the surf, so not so bad. That's all you need. That's all you need to have a good time, exactly. And it's funny too, because I already met somebody here. I've been talking a few years about putting a metal rock festival here in Costa Rica because they don't really have a big one, but they have a big underground scene here, and so I the first day I got here, I met somebody who is involved in it, and we were probably talking about doing a festival here. So maybe we if we do that, we could get you guys to come all the way from Kuwait and perform here in Costa Rica. Oh hell yeah, dude, that that would be amazing. You know, like just for us just going anywhere to perform would be amazing.

4:23 You know, there you go and you know speaking which I saw a TikTok of yours that you know, you're show showing your or playing for your Arab mom medal for the first time. And right, so tell me in real life, forget TikTok for a second, but in real life, what what was that like? Because and what is the metal scene like in Kuwait? All right? So basically what's happening now? You know? Like Kuwait, it's a in the region between Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates, which is the city Dubai, Bahrain Cutar, like those countries, uh accept create those countries are having a good metal scene movement happening right now, which is a lot of bands are growing out of the and and like for for for the Gulf country especially it's it's something amazing because back a couple of years back, this thing is complicated and hard, you know, but to see to see that happening and on those countries, it's it's such a great hope for the metal scene in the region, especially in Saudi Arabia. They recently last last month, December, they had Metallica playing there for the first time and you saw that, right, so you haven't heard about it? No, I

5:55 did that. It's so cool. I mean, yeah, you would never think exactly exactly that was. That was a dream coming true for all the metal heads from the Middle East, you know. So that happening was like, I don't know, like a miracle to the to the metal heads and especially Metallica. They played in one of the biggest music festivals, which is the Medal Beast in Saudi Arabia and specific specifically in Andrea, and a couple of weeks before that, I I was guesting vocalist. I was a guest vocalist in a Saudi local band and I was gig in with that band almost all all of twenty twenty three. We did We did the Jidda in Saudi Arabia with Adrial, we did the Bahrain, we did Atar, we did what's it called Dubai, And those shows were like the best thing that ever happened to me, and like in ever, you know, like it was amazing, Like last year was thressing, but with these shows happening, life was perfect, you know what I mean. So I'm so happy to hear that because like, yeah, you would never think that, especially what's going on now, Like I'm Jewish, so what's going on in Israel? You

7:25 you wouldn't think of stuff like this. So stuff like this just makes me feel like warm and fuzzy that maybe there is hope that things will change and we could this whole world could just be one big, happy family exactly. And music brings people together, right, Yeah, one hundred that and exactly, I think that's the biggest tool. And especially you know, a lot of people don't realize and maybe you know, the old school uh Middle Easterners don't didn't realize and are being shown now that metal is one big happy family and it's not about evil and death and destruction. It's it's a totally different vibe than what people perceive it to be. Yeah, that you mentioning that the elder people who doesn't have enough information about the metal music in general, and they mostly think of it as in, you know, evil because it's loud and and it's it's a loud music. That's why they don't get it.

8:28 They don't understand it. Yeah, but they don't actually know like in like that one of the best things that happens in for example, the rog shows or the metal shows. If people are mushing and they see one person falls down on the ground, everyone runs to pick up this person to make sure this person is fine and safe. Right, Yeah, absolutely exactly. So we protect each other's we're we're one family, you know, when it comes to mental we aret want family. And that's what I love about it. You know, the community is loving and it's peaceful and it's friendly. All they want to do is just enjoy music and that's it. No one is going for hate or you know, nobody wants to harm anyone. It's just for the love of music. Everybody's getting along together. I think that concept is what's going to change people's concept in general for everything, because you know, there's a lot of misperceptions of things, and you know out there in the world, no matter where you are in the world. I know, I'm somebody that had misperceptions from growing up in the United States until I travel and I'm like, hmm, what were they talking about? And these people have never been to these places, so they don't know, you know, and it's like I've I've never been to a country where sometimes the you know, the perception was real, you know. Like even as an example,

10:05 even a few years ago, I was traveling and there was gonna be this flight that had layover in Istanbul, and you'd read up on Google and it's like, oh, not safe, blah blah blah blah blah. And I was just in this Stimbol last year and I'm like, oh my god, this is like one of the most beautiful cities and it's totally safe as far as I'm concerned. And you know, then you go to other places in the world and there's diverse cultures all together you know that are you know, loving each other and coexisting without any issues. And I think that's what the media needs to show more of. Like the media loves to show all the bad stuff and I hate that. And yeah, I think that's what metal's all about, to show the world the good stuff exactly. I agree with you one hundred percent. And other than that, like human nature is being afraid of the things that we don't know. Until we get to know with them, we'll be like, Wow, that's what it is. I love it, you know. And we always take the extremes of everything and make it the reality when in all actuality. It's such a small small piece, you know, And and these are just the people that are not part of the average of any society or culture. And that's where again music,

11:35 as he said, music's the ultimate uniter because when you go to a music festival, there's no differences of religions, skin colors, birth countries. It's just we're all there for the music facts facts. So tell us a little bit more about your band and for a lot of the listeners that may have never heard of you, and you know, how how you kind of describe the band, your music not necessarily genre because I think artists get boxed into a genre. I love to hear how the artist things of their band, right. So so basically we started as a band January twenty twenty two.

12:18 But before we get together, we all had separate projects and we had like what do you call it, We had different bands. Back then. The drummer in the band, he like, I've known him since two thousand and six, and we played together in our first band, which was called the Black thirteen Angels, and back then we were teenagers and we were doing what you know, like the new bands were doing the scream of the EMU scene back then. This is when we all started. Yeah, and then growing up, we kept doing different projects here and there. We all we're you know, experiencing and exploring different genres and stuff. Until twenty twenty two.

13:07 I wrote a song and that song genre specifically felt like that's me, you know, that's what I want to make, that's the music I want to make, or that's who I am as a musician, you know. And I didn't think it's actually going to go for a band project. So I just like, I was streaming one day live on Twitch because I play video games sometimes and stream it, and you know, just chatting with my friends on the chat, and I was like, guys, what do you think should I do a project, a solo project or should I do a new band? And we were talking about it and we're like, yeah, let's do a band then, and I was like, okay, then I want to choose a band name. And the band name that I'm looking for is something has to be a traditional Kuwaiti word, you know, like something that resembles something with a with a Kuwaiti traditional word. And then one of the guys on the chat was like, how what SRAI. I'm like Oh yeah, that's the one because sarai in quated, it means that the lantern.

14:18 You know, Oh, I love that. I was gonna ask you what man and now and you just told me. And I love that because to me, that's like shining a light on the world exactly. So we we use it as why sarai because sarai means the guiding lights. And this is what quates back in the sixties and early seventies used to light up their houses, light up their shops because you know, kuwait before the oil they they had those houses are made of sand and a mud and and for they didn't have any electricity and all they had is uh oil what do you call it?

15:07 Gas and fuel to make those lanterns and use them for lighting their places for for you know, like as I mentioned, the houses and and and the shops and and the roads. So basically, sary means the guiding lights the lantern. Nice. I love it. And so tell us about the newest music you have. The song I was checking out that was really bad ass called Faith, so nice, yeah, tell us a little bit about that, all right. So Faith is a song that released We released on December and that song pretty much talks about you know, the person that goes through a hard time. We we we ask people we go through tough times in life, you know, personal mental issues, physical issues. Sometimes we just feel like we're drained, we don't have power to do anything. We're just fed up. And this is where the demons inside comes up and be like, yeah, it's time to give up and quit. And that song speaks about being being a positive instead of negative, like fight those feelings, fight those demons when you fall down, wake up and get up and stand up and fight back, because those are just negative thoughts and you don't need them there, you know, you just keep forward. And that's the idea of the song itself. Well, what's cool about that too, is if you take all the religions of the world, there's one common uh dominate you

16:42 know, denominator, and that is all of them believe in faith exactly. And I also think that, you know, whether any religion is right wrong doesn't matter. Faith in and of itself makes humans feel better. It's what keeps you going in life, you know, absolutely, you know, And I think that's what we should focus on too throughout the world, throughout time. When it comes all the major religions is that commonality that we all share instead of the differences, because really there is a lot of commonalities and something like faith. That's the one commonality that I think all human beings should share, and I think that's what would lead to peace, is realizing our commonalities.

17:38 Definitely, people need two things in life. Faith and they need to find a hopy and passion, you know, like hopy and passion. It's like kind of the same thing, so like because most of like most of people, they don't have any passion or any hope you to do. That's why the negative increasing. If you have something to focus on, you wouldn't you know, care about what's negative being said on social media. Social media is just there. It's not real life. Live life, Be passionate about something, do something with your life. Be at least have this idea in your head. Like me as a person on my journey is to live until the time stops for me right and duringing that I actually want to achieve something and that will make people remember me for and be thankful for. You know, that's okay. That person did that. He changed that to make things better at least, you know, So people should aim for something like that, instead of just waking up, grabbing their phone and just spending hours with their phone and getting fed with the negative from all around the world. You know. Oh yeah, you know, like you spoke my language when you said real life, because I can't believe how many people think social media is real life, you know, and how many people nowadays we've let the world leaders even promote hate even more to where we're so divided and polarized. To

19:15 me, it's like they're all on the same team and it ain't mine. And you know that we're falling for the oldest trick in the book, divide and conquer, you know. And it's interesting because you know, I'm a big believer in natural medicine, and my natural path in Florida practices Persian medicine. She's from Iran, and you know, we're taught from a young age that Persians and Jews are supposed to be on opposite ends of the field, so to speak. And it's like one thing I've learned from traveling the world is watched the news in every other country, and it's like the new US is different everywhere because it's the perception or whatever that particular government or media wants to portray. And you know, I sit and talk with my doctor and like, we get along famously, and we think the same way, and we believe in a lot of the same things. And you know what, what's realized is that we're all falling for this bunch of bulldinky as my brother would put it while as a kid. And then they have people like you that are giving us music, which is to me, the best therapy and the best united So maybe with music like yours and things the way they're progressing

20:47 in the world, there is some hope and faith pun intended of us all just realizing we're all one race, the human race, I mean to that'ing else you want to cover about your band or your music that we haven't covered yet, and you want the listeners to know we are actually working on more music, and we are planning to go for an EP album or a full album, depends on how many songs we have till then. We'll be releasing this year hopefully, and definitely planning to go play some live shows, maybe in the region, maybe a bit far, like the closest is either Asia or Europe, and maybe in the future we come to the States. And play music. That's something we're very excited for and we hope everyone turned into it. That would be way cool. And let's tell everybody how they can follow you guys on the web, on socials, your link tree, all that good stuff, so they can follow you. Check out your music, check out everything about you. Yeah, just search for Strive band and you'll find us, s r AI band. You will find us. Love it well. Thanks for giving us great music and great faith, and thanks for being on the Adventures of pipe Man. Thank you brother. She is really good to be here and looking forward to come back again. Thank you for

22:18 listening to the Adventures of Pipe Man on w for CUI Radio.