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He has just released his all new Facebook page and has begun to sprout signs of his original releases by uploading one of his tracks “The One Who brings Happiness” , a beautiful and reflective  amalgamation recorded in July 2011.

Listen to ”The One Who brings Happiness”

The post Hashim Al -Nasser springs his solo projects to life! appeared first on Kuwait Music.

I know it has been a long time since I’ve written on here, but I’ve been very very busy, doing absolutely nothing! Actually, no, I’ve been writing a lot recently, not to mention following the Euro Cup (In a word: Intense!!) and generally catching up on a lot of video gaming and such, but I’m not going to carry on talking about my private life if I want to keep it that way.

I’d just like to start off by saying how proud I am to be a part of this ever-growing community. It’s so great to see so many people, musicians and otherwise, all in one spot for conversing about everything and nothing. Caesar and Narine, you guys are awesome! This website truly is one of the best things I’ve been on in a long time!

Now enough of that. I got an update for you all!  However, the current issue I’m having, aside from lack of sleep, is that I’m having a bit of trouble arranging my thoughts, so I’m just going to write up some headings, and see what comes from each (here’s hoping the wonderful proof-readers and formatters of Kuwait-Music’s articles get this right).

The Update

As some of you may or may not know, the work of my solo project has been quite intensive recently. I’ve been doing a lot of writing, particularly for my full length release. Despite all that work, my initial EP has been scrapped for now, to be revisited at a later stage. So I will instead start working on releasing my first full-length. “What about all that you’ve recorded for your EP?“, you might ask. Well, the one track I have recorded will be released as a single at some point in the near future.

Why?

Alright, you really want to know why I’ve scrapped it for now? I’m going to open up a little and say that I really had no idea where I was going with it. A lot of the writing for that EP was happening halfway through the recording process. There were quite a few changes here and there, hell to be honest the first track of the EP, over all of this time, is the only song I’ve completed, and even that isn’t complete.

I’ve been working on that EP for way too long and it’s finally gotten to me. I’ve changed the initial (read: only) song so many times that I can’t stand to listen to it! So I’m going to put it out of the way for now and concentrate on the full-length, because at least for that I’ve already completed a number of songs and I’m happy with their outcome so far and honestly can’t wait to let you all hear it!

A Question of Comfort

When I first got my 8-string, I thought it would open up a world of ideas for what it is I want to write. Now I’m not saying it did, however I felt like writing on the 8-string was increasingly difficult because there were so many dimensions I wasn’t used to working with. Of course, I used the 8-string to write the first track of the EP, and with that (and my obvious lack of ability and experience playing an 8-string guitar), a lot of what I ended up coming out with didn’t really hold up in my eyes. We are our greatest critic, but I could let any of what I was writing be released.

Considering my, for lack of a better word ‘immaturity‘ in the vain of playing an 8 string, I quickly fell into the gaping black hole of technical music known as Djent. A musical form I personally love, but unfortunately one I’m not exactly well versed in. That being said, I remember when I initially came up with the idea and started writing this concept down, I knew for a fact that I didn’t want it to go ‘Djent’, of course, as it started to lean towards that, I went with it in a somewhat overly excited childish kind of way. However with the completion of the first track, I knew it was early days for me and that style of music, so I figured I’d stick with what I knew, for now.

After all, as Devin Townsend said:

“For years I thought ‘Well I have to be heavy. I’m friends with all these bands that are incredibly complicated and because we’re friends, I have to be complicated just to prove that I can be’……. That’s not my forte, I can do it, if I put in inhuman amounts of effort but it’s not really, musically what I’m about”.

A Question of Relevance

Alright, if I’m going to explain this to you, Im going to have to give you more insight into the story at hand. Now the test of a good writer is someone who can tell you everything, but really give you nothing, here’s hoping I’m a good writer!

Basically, this story that I have written has 3 major chapters. The EP I planned on releasing would have fallen between chapter 1 and chapter 2. Now as far as the story goes, the EP would have done nothing for it whatsoever, aside from maybe giving a better understanding of the characters, because that’s really all it was. The EP I was working on acted as a descriptive, somewhat atmospheric account of the story and the people in it.

Why release it out of chronological order? Well, I’ve always liked how Star Wars released their movies in the order of IV, V, VI then I, II, III. To me it was the ultimate tie-up where (almost) every question was answered. With releasing out of order, it can act as a teaser for what’s to come later and a sign of how big everything is going to get. So yeah, long story short, I didn’t feel what I was writing for the EP was in any way relevant to what I really wanted to put across.

A Question of Creative Conscience

Another Devin Townsend quote for you:

[On writing] “I wanted to write a follow up to the ‘Ziltoid’ [DT's 2007 release] thing, I’m inspired to make this epic space opera and really over do it and make it really dark. So I sat down to write, and every time I went to write I’d write some poppy hard rock thing. So I was like ‘Ok we’ll get that one out of the way then I can work on the Ziltoid thing. So I’d write it, get it out of the way, start concentrating on Ziltoid and there’s another one! So it became obvious to me that I’ve got this music that wants to come out before Ziltoid”.

Now I honestly think if it weren’t for Devin Townsend phrasing it that way, I wouldn’t have been able to understand the problems I was having behind writing music. I always figured it was just a matter of just not being in the mood and thus becoming too overly critical and by the end of it, a wreck. However after listening to what he had to say on the matter, I figured he was right and thought I’d just give it a go that way. So as far as my EP goes, as I was trying and trying to write for that, elements of my first full-length would shine through and I’d need to get them out of the way before I bother even trying to write for the EP!

So What Now?

Well put simply I figured I should at least let you all know what the plan was for me and my solo efforts future. Now as far as the EP goes, I may come to revisit it at some point, however, I’m curious as to whether or not people want to hear what I’ve got so far… anyone? If the demand is high enough, I just might release a demo of the first track of the EP!! However if it comes to that, just know that I’m not sticking to that genre of music, in fact I know that over the lifetime of this project, there will be so many stylistic changes you guys might hate me for!

But until then, take care of yourselves, and if you really want to hear it, you need to prove it!

Thanks for reading,

Hashim Al-Nasser

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I know it’s not been that long since my last post, but this time it’s not an insight into me, it’s a review of the Battle of the Bands that was held in the Don Bosco school on the 27th of April 2012!

I, along with Kuwait-Music’s own Caesar Fernandes and Filipino musician known as Rico, had the pleasure of judging the wonderful show and I have to say it was a tough one! We had to judge based on a variety of factors in their performance. Our judging was based on stage presence, sound, length of show among other things. I would have all the details for you, but they took away all of our judging sheets!

This battle of the bands was nothing like the one last year where Jelly Shot had performed (if you exclude the blistering heat, sound issues, random feedback and disorganized feel). That year the conditions were simple, play 2 songs that fall in the 70′s-80′s time frame! This time however, the competition was quite different. This time they were allowed to play 2 songs from any time in the history of music, but it had to be acoustic! Now I was skeptical at first when I heard those conditions (hence why Jelly Shot didn’t end up performing there), but all in all it really turned out quite nicely.

The 15 bands were split into 2 categories, Junior and Senior, where there were 13 Junior bands and only 2 Senior bands. From that alone I thought to myself that splitting the seniors at all was a bit silly because there would be a clear first and second, and no real competition, but I digress.

When everyone had finished playing,  Caesar, Rico and myself were asked to the stage to present the awards to all of the winners! We were introduced by the MC of the night and much to my surprise there was a nice bit of chanting for Jelly Shot! I must say I was shocked, but so happy!

The organizer invited me to play a little something for them, so after rattling off a quick verse of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s “Pride and Joy” I quickly stepped away and let the prizes be given out.

The winners were as follows:

Juniors:

1st place – Country Kidz

2nd place – Styx Divas

3rd place – Frequenzy

Seniors:

1st place – Stripes

2nd place – Twisted Fate

Well done to you all!

Now as far as the overall sound and ambience of the show went, things could have been better. The courtyard they were playing in was for lack of a better word ‘reverb-tastic’. Everything said, played or even thought was bouncing off of every wall we were in. However the sound guys did their best to make it all sound nice despite the incredible amount of reverb.

The organization was quite shoddy, with about 2 stage-hands on at all times trying to fix what they could mid-performance. Throughout the show there was an awkward (not to mention deafening) amount of random feedback noises, and onto of it all, towards the end of the show the speakers were crackling terribly.

After the show had concluded, Caesar and myself were inundated with people wanting to shake our hand and take pictures with us (while sneaky Rico slipped away). I think I speak for both Caesar and myself when I say it was great talking to so many of you after the show, and congratulations to all the winners! It was an honor judging you!

…that didn’t sound right, let me try again…

It was an honor being invited to be your guest judges (phew!).

To the Don Bosco school, to the organizers, to the sponsors Al Dawliah, and most of all to the performers and crowd alike, thank you for having us and we hope to see you all soon!

—————————

Now just for fun:

The following list is of the bands that performed, and their respective songs, and a quick (and somewhat comical) description of their performances. It’s not important to read, but I figured I’d write it to describe the show as much as possible:

——-JUNIORS——-

 

1. The Raptors

            – Chiquitita – ABBA

- Summer of 69 – Bryan Adams

 

For the first band, it wasn’t exactly a great start. The performed some really great songs however they were let down by their lack of performance. They didn’t seem excited, and neither were the audience. Unfortunate.

 

2. Scorpions JR.

            - Country Road – Denver

- Sultans of Swing – Dire Straits

 

Now this band started off quite well. They had 2 vocalists, one of which sang each song. Now for Country Road, there was a lot of cringing on my part thanks to the singer. She tried really hard and you could tell she wanted to get it right, but she fell short of the right notes throughout the entire song. As for the second singer for Sultans of Swing, he had the voice, but he also had the looks matching the voice. He was stiff as a board throughout the show and barely moved at all except for moving the microphone away from his face. Unfortunate, because musically the band were superb.

 

3. Music Makers (Inspired band name right?!)

            - Jar of Hearts – Christina Perry

- Set Fire to the Rain – Adele

 

This band were off to a great start but that dwindled very quickly. The vocalist surprised me towards to the beginning of each song, but once the higher notes came in, she shot too high. Her ability to handle the microphone wasn’t too great either, for someone who sang as loud as she did, the microphone was stuck to her.

Vocals aside, most of the band did quite well if not for some timing issues thanks to their nearly inaudible guitarist.

 

4. The Explosives

            - Grenade – Bruno Mars (very fitting)

            - Marry You – Bruno Mars

 

Their vocalist really did get the show going, “Are you ready for an explosion?” He yelled enthusiastically as I wondered why noone was panicking. However the vocalist did infect bomb quite quickly once the songs had started. However he kept up a good stage presence. A slight issue I had with the band however was that I could only hear 1 of the guitars, the second one was there but unheard.

 

5. Pretty in Pink

            - The One that Got Away – Katy Perry

- Sugar Sugar – The Archies

 

This was the first band of the night that actually decided to soundcheck, that being said, it was very much in vain as once they’d started performing the singer was inaudible and the violinist (did I mention they had a freaking violinist!?) wasn’t heard either. However I have to say that it’s probably because I could barely hear myself think over the drums. It was unfortunate because they seemed that they’d have done quite well.

 

6. Freak-M-Out

            - Temple of the King – Dio (I think)

- Moves like Jagger – Maroon 5

 

Now then, once these guys had walked on the stage, there was quite a reaction from the crowd! I knew the competition was on from that point. When they started performing ‘Temple of the King’, I had no idea what song it was, I’m still unsure what song it was but the paper the organizers gave us said it was. That song couldn’t have ended sooner! Now as for Moves Like Jagger.. I have to say right now that I was never a fan of that song, the optimistic whistling makes me want to drive a nail into my eyes, however I put my bias aside to hear what they were going to do with it. The whistling was completely wrong, and the vocals were off key. However I have to give it to the band, great work on that song!

 

7. Frequenzy (Intentional typo?!)

- You and Me – Lifehouse

- Hero – Enrique Iglesias

 

Finally a band that blew me away! They soundchecked the moment they got on stage and once they started performing, I knew I was in for a treat. The audience (particularly the females, I noticed) loved them, and even I was singing along. Overall a great sound and a very tight unit as a band. That being said, the second vocalist/violinist (yup, another violin) wasn’t doing too well, his harmonies should’ve stayed quiet, but they were one of my favorites!

 

8. Beauty and the Boys (Clever!)

- Hazard – Richard Marx

- We Are Young – FUN

 

I must preface this by saying I don’t know either of those songs, however when they came on the stage, I did wonder where the ‘beauty’ was. All I saw were a row of boys, and before I started cracking any jokes, I noticed that the girl of the band was sat behind the huge drum kit! Their singer was a very engaging and active young boy who ran around a lot but his vocals suffered because of it. However the songs were way too drawn out and honestly got a little boring. There was finally a guitar solo, at least it looked like there was, I could barely hear it over the rest of the band, but I’m sure he did a splendid job.

 

9. Dark Angelz (Any relation?)

            – Love Story – Taylor Swift (Nope, no relation at all)

            – Eenie Meanie Miny Mo – Sean Kingston + Bieber

My criticism was fully focused on their cover of Love Story when they started playing (thanks to my guilty pleasure of loving everything Taylor Swift). As a band they weren’t what I would call tight. Both songs seemed very mushy and disorganized and the singers (2 of them) seemed very bored and were rocking side to side to the beat (almost as if they thought they had to). It was unfortunate because their drummer was pretty good!

 

10. 4 Ways Only (Who could ask for more?)

            - Every Rose Has its Thorn – Poison

- Wonderwall – Oasis

 

Once the MC had announced these guys, there was a roar of cheers, so I knew this would be good, and I was right! As a band they worked together really well, you could see they were enjoying themselves. However the combination of both vocalists was almost too loud. What let them down was their cover of Wonderwall. Now I’ll stick my own neck out here and say that the little break into the second verse of that song is incredibly trick, and I’ve yet to get it right, however it threw off the rest of their performance, which was very sad because they were great earlier on.

 

11. Styx Divas (Domo Aregato Mrs. Roboto?)

            - Rolling in the Deep – Adele

- Dance with me Tonight – Olly Murs

 

I’d like to state for the record that these guys were absolutely phenomenal! Their vocalist had an incredible range and the backing vocals were just as great. Their stage presence was great and you could really tell they were enjoying themselves. Musically the band was spot on if not for a bit of speeding up halfway through the Adele classic. They even got me moving in my seat! I have nothing bad to say about them!

 

12. 4 Dimension (‘s?)

            - Don’t You Want Me? – Human League

- God Bless the Broken Road/Rolling in the Deep (medley) – Rascal Flatts + Adele

 

Initially I wondered why they had 3 vocalists and a just a keyboardist when they played “Don’t You Want Me?”, however once that song had wound down (very well infect) they all started moving around! Now if I remember correctly, the keyboardist moved to guitar, one of the singers got behind the drums and the second singer went to the keyboard, and they were off in a lovely sounding rendition of “God Bless the Broken Road”. It was all going very well until they decided to stop (somewhat randomly) and the drummer and singer switched places and launched into “Rolling in the Deep”. Now it was quite a shame that they’d done that, it lost them a lot of points. However, the singing was great, with really nice harmonizing and brilliantly played keyboard.

 

13. Styx (Yup, like the actual band)

            - The Way – Fastball

- This Love – Maroon 5

 

Once they’d started Fastball hit ‘The Way’, I knew I was going to like them! They were lively and a whole bunch of fun if not for a few mistakes on the keyboards part. Their vocalist was good fun, on the move and grooving to the music quite well. The solo of the song was not to be seen and as I looked down to write some notes I heard a giant bang! Now at this point I thought either someone let off a firecracker or that a piece of equipment had fallen over, unfortunately, the latter was true. One of the keyboards had fallen off it’s stand (thanks to the very enthusiastic keyboardist). That didn’t stop them however, they picked right back up after the now injured keyboard had been taken to the keyboard hospital.

All of that aside, they rendition of This Love was in a word superb, and as a band, they were a joy to watch.

 

14. The Country Kidz (again with the Z!!!)

            – Count on me – Bruno Mars

- Crazy Little Thing Called Love – Queen (though they insisted it was Buble!)

 

I had the pleasure of seeing these kids win the junior section of last years battle of the bands and for good reason, they stole the show! They really saved the best for last. Their vocalist (upon walking on stage) says ‘”I want to inform you that this is a sound check!”, in a very official voice, I couldn’t help but laugh. Perfomance wise, they were nothing short of incredible. They had the audience involved from beginning to end, vocals and music were perfectly in key and aside from a few volume issues, they blew me away!

 

——-SENIORS——-

 

15. Stripes

            - Hotel California – Eagles

- Take it Easy – Eagles

 

I knew it was only a matter of time before I heard Hotel California! Now having seen the Eagles live, I knew what not to compare it to (because lets face it, the Eagles are unbeatable). However as far as the songs went, the vocalist was pitch perfect (if not just a bit too loud) and their lead guitar (what I look out for the most) was way too quiet. I think what saved them the most was the harmonies they sang. Their vocals were all perfect it gave me goosebumps. Brilliant show!

 

16. Twisted Fate

- Stay With Me – You Me At Six

- Warmness of the Soul – Avenged Sevenfold

When I read the list of songs they planned on playing, I was excited but very skeptical. I thought for a show where most people would play popular tracks, their choice of songs wasn’t exactly the right thing to do, but that aside, they did pretty well. Their vocalist seemed as though he wasn’t enjoying himself too much and went off key now and again. The second guitar was almost inaudible along with the drums thanks to the volume of the singer/guitarist and the tambourine player (you heard me, tambourine! And he played the HELL out of it!). All in all they did very well.

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Hello fellow Kuwait-Music readers. I’ve been sat at my laptop for the better part of an hour, writing (and erasing) paragraph after paragraph, trying to think of what there is to possibly share with you all. Do I tell you my opinion on something? Do I write about another happening in my life? Do I maybe give you some teasers of things that I’m working on?

I’d written about an essays worth of ideas to talk about but they didn’t last long, I guess my mind didn’t see those topics of any importance, or with how I write, could possible come across as egotistical or even, for lack of a better word, vain. However, I decided that I should talk less about me, and more about what I’ve been working on. Let’s see if I can get some hype going here.

My new solo project is heavily inspired by the likes of Coheed & Cambria, the Dear Hunter, Devin Townsend and TesseracT. I’d been sitting in my room, or wherever, constantly penning ideas for a concept album for the past couple of years, but I always lacked the drive, the motivation or as Kuwaiti’s say, the ’5ilg’ to do any more than write a few ideas down on my laptop and forget all about it. I’ve had a number of ideas over the past couple of years, and they all went unrevised. Whenever a new idea would come up, I’d write it up on my laptop and like the others, it would be discarded somewhere in the back of my hard-drive, never to really be touched again.

One day, I had (what I thought was) a brilliant concept idea, I started writing and writing (and by writing I mean story-wise, not musically) and I had come up with what I thought was a really cool album-worthy story. I had only written the bare basics of the story, there were no details, just the bare minimum. Then I was introduced to The Mars Volta and Ayreon and their albums ”Deloused in the Comatorium” and ”The Human Equation”, respectively. At that point, I’d realized my story, the one that I’d thought up and written all about was no longer an original idea. In fact it was just a combination of the two stories into one. As you could imagine, I lost all my drive, sat there thinking it had all been done, what was the point? I still fall into that trap, where I’ll be writing something and realize it sounds exactly like something else, there was no originality to half of my writing, and I grew frustrated, very frustrated. In fact I decided to put all my hopes on original material on hold and just concentrate on Jelly Shot. I did exactly that, I paid no mind to the ideas I had in my head, but concentrated solely on Jelly Shot’s music. However, I realized the more I’d concentrated on Jelly Shot, the more ideas would come to my head. It was out of control. The one thing I wanted and tried to avoid was coming at me like a flood, and it got really distracting.

During the recording sessions of Jelly Shot’s EP, I’d have my phone out a lot, when I wasn’t tracking my parts, or giving the criticism, I’d be typing ideas out on my phone, listing them all to come back to later. I have since transferred them all to my laptop and while I type this, I’m looking at them all and smiling to myself as to how stupid some of them sounded, however I will save myself the embarrassment and not mention any of them here. It was in that time I was recording with Jelly Shot that the story I really wanted to follow started showing itself. There were a lot of small things that happened in my life around that time that I kind of strung themselves into a story, and that’s when I’d realized that instead of just writing pure fiction, (here comes to ego) there’s nothing more original that my own life, especially at that time. The couple of years that came before it were some of the worst years of my life, a lot had happened in that time, aside from the good of Jelly Shot and the friends I had made, there were some terrible times, that in retrospect, I’m happy I went through, I could be a very different person right now if not for those moments.

For all of you who want to know more about those bad times, I’m writing about them now (obviously not RIGHT now, I’m writing for all you lovely people right now), but outside of this little thing you’re reading now, I am writing more and more about those experiences.

My first idea upon my return to story writing was a quick failure, it was dead before it had even gotten moving. However I have to thank a dear friend of mine, Ifrah, for pushing me to keep writing. She knew there were good ideas in my head and she forced them out of me, and to this day, she’s still helping me tie up loose ends in the plots I write. I have to thank her for that!

I had listened to Coheed & Cambria at this point as well as downloaded their frontman Claudio Sanchez’s comic books (on which the music of C&C was inspired). This idea of a story of a couple fighting for freedom in a galaxy that wants them dead inspired me heavily. I started making up my own galaxy, my own set of planets, I named them all, I described them all and gave them all inhabitants and stories and really went crazy with it all. It had really taken all my time, I’d stopped thinking about anything else, I was completely invested in this make believe galaxy. At that point, the story of a girl called ‘Ilessa’ came to mind, one of the inhabitants of one of the planets who’s sole mission was to tear down the galaxy for all of it’s injustice. However, that story died too!

It’s funny actually, while writing this, I’m realizing how damn depressing this is! I went through a lot to get to the story I’m writing now. There are so many more stories that came to mind over this time, but I’ll cut it all down and not mention any more of them, instead get right to where I am now, the story of ‘Jivan’.

Initially when I’d started writing the story I have now, it wasn’t about me, it was based of Hindu mythology. I had grown fascinated with the whole story of their numerous Deities and all of their roles in how people live today. More interesting than their impact on people today, I loved reading about what went on in their heavens. What the Gods did, who they were, what made them who they were and all the other incredible stories that were written in light of that religion. If not for one of my dear friends, I’d probably have never gone down that road, but the sheer poetry in what she would tell me about the Gods in hinduism inspired me to learn more.

I started writing in the vain of a modern day reincarnation of Shiva (the destroyer), how his perception would be of this world and if he would end the world as we know it based on all the happenings around us today. However for fear of being blasphemous, I have kept and will keep many of the details to myself and tell you that although the writing was quite successful, I had started drifting away from the story I had started, I subconsciously started incorporating elements of my life and events that had happened to me all in the hypothetical ‘What if this had happened to him?’ kind of mindset. After writing a very slapdash few chapters of this story, I realized that I’d pretty much been talking about myself the whole time, that all the people my character came across were all important people in my life. That caused me to really sit back and look at this story again. I grew to realize that in the realms of fiction there was a whole bunch of realism in what I’d written, things I could relate to. So I sat down, opened up a new Notepad document and got to it!

Without thinking about it, I just started writing and writing about this new character (i.e. myself) living in todays world. I channelled all of my thoughts through him, and all of my friends started showing their faces in that story and all of the big events in my life and theirs started showing up without my thinking about them. It wasn’t 2 months later I had finished the bare skeleton of my story of ‘Jivan’. Now as much as my excitement about all of this wants to tell you all so much more about the story, what happens in this story, who the characters are, and all the details I’m bursting to tell you, I must keep it all to myself. If I were to tell you everything that was to happen in this story, what’s the point in writing it?

All that I will allow myself to say, is that I’m in the writing and recording process for my debut EP based on this story. This first EP will be 5 tracks long, and it will be based at a much later point in my story. Very few people know of the details of my story, only myself, my co-writer Ifrah, and a couple of close and critical friends know exactly what it’s about. The rest of you will have to wait and see!

 

Right then, if I were to write any more, I’d probably end up spoiling the story for you, so I’ll stop myself here! Get some hype going guys, I just might put up a quick teaser? Who knows?!

Thanks for listening and I hope you’re all looking forward to it! I sure as hell am!

- Hashim

The post The Fiction will see the Real- By Hashim Al-Nasser appeared first on Kuwait Music.

Having read Kathryn’s wonderful blog post about the departure of their incredibly talented Chromatic drummer Aakash, it actually got me thinking. Call this the following of trends, call it whatever you wish, but at the end of the day, we all need someone to push us and drive us to do something out of the ordinary. In my case, it’s actually bare my soul, put all my nerves, reclusive-ness and overall shyness behind and actually write a little something. As of right now, I have no idea where I’m going with this, but if you ask me, this is probably the most honest form of writing. Not knowing where I’m going, not knowing what will come of simply typing really bears the mind of an individual and lets people properly understand how they think. So Kathryn, I thank you for that!

For all of you who have no idea who I am (a fair bunch of you I expect) I am Hashim Al Nasser, guitarist and part-time vocalist of one of Kuwait’s local blues bands ‘Jelly Shot’.

(Let it be said that I’ve just been hit with an overwhelming sense of deja-vu, almost as if I knew I’d be writing this. How peculiar!)

I’ve been playing guitar for about 9 years now, and over my time in the musical world in Kuwait I’ve seen so much happen, from the shows back in early 2000 with Silent Scream, Infernal Age, Vampirez X, Hexen, Revelerz to name but a few, to todays uprising in underground scene, from cancelled shows in GUST, to cancelled shows in hotels, to cancelled shows all around Kuwait, and I feel its my part to show praise to all of you musicians in Kuwait who carried on despite the giant obstacle course that was lay down in front of you all!

When I first started back in early high-school with my first band “Savoir Faire” I really just wanted to be on stage, something most people today (in my opinion) want to do deep down inside but either lack the courage, or opportunity to do so. It was difficult for my first band, we tried and tried to get the headmasters approval to let us perform for most of the year, until we were finally allowed to at the BSK Music Show back in 2004, where my band played Seven Nation Army.

Looking back at myself now, it’s actually quite embarrassing to think about my debut performance, but I guess we all start somewhere! However, in the years that followed, I started taking my music a lot more serious, sitting at home for hours on end playing song after song, lick after lick and practice regiment after practice regiment (much to my parents dismay) just to get better and better and better.

Not even a year later did my friend’s band ‘Morticia’ let me in as lead guitarist. Their induction was simple, but challenging.

The day before my audition, I was to learn a good 20 or so songs by a range of artists, from Black Label Society to Muse to ZZ Top. I took this challenge with much reluctance, but I remember that night like it was yesterday, I sat up until 4 in the morning over my laptop with all the tabs opened up, all the songs playing on loop, my guitar in my lap playing along without stopping until my fingers had decided to stop co-operating with me, it’s a wonder I even got to the 9am practice on time the next day! After my audition, they let me in, and thus began my true growth as a musician.

Prior to Morticia, I didn’t really care for the music I played, I just wanted that hit of the limelight, that image that took over my mind of a guitarist standing tall above an audience of thousands, one hand held high, hitting a ear shattering chord that! However, having joined Morticia, I really started to get to grips with what it truly meant to play music, it wasn’t about the image, it wasn’t about the fans, it wasn’t even about songs we played. As a band we grew to appreciate and learn about what happened behind the music, the feelings each and every song evoked, the work it took to get that solo just right, the intricacies and beauty behind the music and how it was written, and above all, learning to work together and make music that truly meant something, if not to anyone else, at least to ourselves.

Isn’t that what it’s all about in the end? Being able to release something that, even if no-one appreciates, you can pat each other on the back knowing you did something as a group that you truly are proud of. On that note, we sat down as a band and started writing, writing and writing and writing until we had a full album. It took a long (not to mention incredibly entertaining) time writing and tabbing out all 11 of our tracks, that soon became the untitled and unreleased album (which I do in the future intend of recording and releasing as a homage to Morticia).

I remember a gig that we had in 2005 where it was me on guitar and vocals, Morticia’s then-bassist/drummer Blag and and AIS teacher on drums, performing Sabbath’s ‘Paranoid’, ‘The Groove’ by Muse and ‘I Believe in a Thing Called Love’ by the Darkness.

This gig was something worth remembering, and it remains to be a hilarious thought in my head to this day, for reason I shall get into. Aside from the incredible audience we had, cheering and singing alone note by note and the face that I actually sang a song by The Darkness (yes, that’s right, all the high bits too!), it was also my first major on-stage f***-up! The show was over 2 days, we performed on both. The first night went perfectly, not a note out of key, not a mistake anywhere. However, that second night was definitely something to remember. I started off the Darkness classic perfectly, but when the drums kicked in… I’m getting ahead of myself a little. A bit of back-story, I didn’t have any guitar effects at the time other than a really s****y Zoom 505II Multi-effects processor. So I used another performers rig that consisted of a Boss Blues Driver and Boss Metal Zone all connected together and not stuck to anything! Anyway, that second night, I decided to amp up the showmanship a little bit and when the drums kicked in for that dreaded Darkness song, I decided to jump (old-school punk style). In doing so, my feet hit the floor to nothing but bass and drums. I looked down confused to see that I had unplugged one of the stompboxes. Silly silly me! So there I was, trying to plug the effects with my feet, playing along (silently) with the song so as to not get lost, and singing in that signature Darkness high pitch.. you can only imagine how hilarious that must have been! It wasn’t for me, not at the time at least. Luckily a stage-hand jumped on stage and helped me out, and that song couldn’t have ended sooner…

Now that you know a little embarrassing stage-story about me, I will carry on! From the start of our [Morticia's] writing sessions, I moved over to bass (because apparently back then I was more suited to doing so, but really it was because my solo’s sucked, and I’m not embarrassed to admit to that in retrospect). We even performed one of our originals in a few places, namely the AIS Talent Show 2006, Messila Rock Show (alongside Positive Poison, Skull Monkeys and others).

Interesting little side note: Jelly Shot’s current drummer Khalid Al Mansour was at that same show, drumming for ‘Skull Monkeys’, and we never spoke. We didn’t even know we shared a stage until we reminisced a good year ago!

At the end of it all, in 2006, the whole band had travelled to the US to study abroad, leaving me here with nothing but time, boredom and a bunch of unreleased songs. The experience I gained with them is, to this day, unparalleled, and so to Nasser, Blag, and Herman, if you’re reading this, thank you so much, if not for you, I’d probably still be stuck in my room trying to figure out exactly how to play that f***ing ‘Master of Puppets’ solo, if even playing guitar at all!

In the summer that came following their leaving, I was of course, very upset, thinking that there was no one else to play along, no one who understood how I thought as a musician, and (thanks to my inflated my ego) no one who could keep up with me. So I sat at home, with all the equipment the band left behind, my laptop and the (in retrospect, TERRIBLE) recording program Audacity, and started writing and recording what soon became my first solo album “The Void Above”. That album was fully instrumental, because back then, I had no clue about singing, and like the album I had written with Morticia not a year earlier, went unreleased. Infact, only 2 people in the world have a copy of that album in it’s entirety, my girlfriend at the time, and myself.

Videos of Hashim Al Nasser and Jelly Shot

University started after that summer, and I was still that lone guitarist, but now I was that lone guitarist in The Australian College of Kuwait! There I met Mubarak (who I’d later join with Jelly Shot), we’d chill in my house playing our own little set list of cover songs, such as Sundown by Fireball Ministry and Mother by Danzig. From what I remember that ‘punk band’ as it were never really took off anywhere at all, as we were only a guitarist and a bassist looking for something bigger than we were capable of doing so.

Interesting little side note: Back then, when Mubarak and I first jammed, I thought he was absolutely terrible, (not to mention he probably thought I was completely full of myself)…and here we are now!

About a year later, a friend of mine (funnily enough, the little brother of one of my Morticia bandmates) approached me and asked me to play a song with his band “Ghouls Mansion” at the AIS Talent Show 2007 to fill in for their guitarist (who, if I remember correctly, they weren’t a huge fan of). We ended up performing Ozzy Osbourne’s classic ‘Crazy Train’ to an auditorium full of people, about 500 (if I remember correctly). It was at the same show that I met my now dear friend Ramzi, who I formed a band with called Vargatron (which was Norwegian for ‘Wolf’s Throne’, thanks to Ramzi’s then-obsession with Norwegian black metal). We ended up playing covers of classic rock tracks. Oh the nostalgia is killing me!

That band didn’t last very long, we performed at BSK’s battle of the bands back in 2008 alongside Voice of the Soul (Who’s guitarist, the known and loved Kareem Chehayeb, won best guitarist), and Black 13 Angelz (Winners of ‘Best Band’). We walked away with nothing more than a thank you and some praise, but looking back, we walked away with quite the experience. The band had soon dwindled to nothing later that year when I left to Leeds, UK to pursue my education further and get my degree. In the year I spent there, I did plenty I’m not proud of, but I definitely got a bunch of guitar practice in, and my grades suffered considerably! Not even a year later did I return to Kuwait, where I met back up with Mubarak, who went on to tell me about his blues band ‘Jelly Shot’. Wanting to get back into the groove of playing with bands, I accepted the role of lead guitarist following the departure of their old lead guitarist Feras Arrabi. At ACK I met Wahab Al Asfour through Mubarak, who was Jelly Shot’s rhythm guitarist and later that week met Yousef Abdulkhalek, Jelly Shots drummer.

Very little is known to me how they all met, but seeing how well they all worked together, I was in it for the long-run. All went incredibly well, I performed with Jelly Shot for a good year before our biggest break were to come. We had performed in GUST, we performed in ACK, but when time came to perform at the British Embassy’s KuwaitStock IV, Yousef had to leave to England for university. We were stuck, at a loss for a drummer and potentially about to miss out on the show of a lifetime. Luckily for us, I had been jamming with Positive Poison (now Eyeresist) a few times and I asked their drummer Khalid Al Mansour to help us out. He joined and we went on to play KuwaitStock, opening the mainstage for acclaimed British bands, particularly The Feeling (known for such hits as ‘Fill My Little World’ and ‘I Love It When You Call’). At that point, it was all uphill…

Fast forward to now, Jelly Shot has done so much in so little time, we’ve released an EP, performed in ACK a ton of times and at the Don Bosco Battle of the Bands, and following the unfortunate departure of Wahab Al Asfour from the band, even participated at the wonderful Blend Festival 2 back in March. We’ve been publicized in Rockability, Kuwait Times, Arab Times, Student Talk (alongside the wonderful people at Kuwait Music), LoYacy magazine, and most recently, Bazaar Magazine too! Personally, this amount of attention initially scared the life out of me, I didn’t know where it was going, I didn’t know what could possibly happen next. The uncertainty of it all, hit me really hard, and I needed to ground myself.

I started theorizing, writing whatever came to mind about the world around me, and about anything my imagination had to offer and here I am now, announcing to you all that I have started my own little solo project by the name of ‘Jivan’ which, for all of you who don’t know hindi, translates to ‘Life’. I’ve been working on this solo project for about a year now, sieving through idea after idea before I finally came to the perfect story. I’m currently in the process of recording this solo effort with Jelly Shot/Eyeresist/AwesomeK drummer and producer Khalid Al Mansour. It is too early to say much more about that project, but if all goes as planned, it’s got a bit of everything for everyone!

Now, I realize I’ve been writing for some time, and that I’ve practically dictated my entire musical life to you all. While writing this, I had no idea where I was going, or even why I was telling you all of this, but I’ve rationalized it to myself that even if no-one find this at all interesting, you are entitled to thinking that, but I’d like to think that someone reading this might find some meaning behind my story, maybe even enjoy it and look forward to whatever I have to offer. It might even answer some questions some of you have about my past with music. I don’t know, I just figured I’d start writing and see where it went. Even if I don’t know why I told you all of this, I’m sure there is some reason I did so. I said I would write, and so I did, and I implore all of you who read, to do the same, just write, about the past, about the future, about stars and planets, about war and politics, just write.

You’ll be surprised where your mind can take you.

Thanks for reading!

Hashim Al Nasser

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Here’s what Hashim has to say about his gear:

Guitars:
In terms of my guitars, I have a sort of love for guitars that barely anyone has heard of. Generally, I don’t want to be grouped into a guitar stereotype based on the brand I use and also, I’ve always been pleasantly surprised by what these unknown guitars end up sounding like, they always seem to sound better than many of the more conventional popular brands.
However, I have 3 that I love using and they are (all left handed models of course):

Effects:
As far as effects and such, I’m a sucker for stomp boxes, I honestly cannot get enough of them! Everytime I get one that makes a funny noise, another one comes out that makes an even funnier one! Nevertheless I’ve only recently completed my pedal board and it’s something I can’t do without now. If you refer to the picture, the pedals are:

Top Row (L-R): Roland RE-20 Space Echo, Digitech Whammy, Rocktron Banshee Talkbox, Sennheiser Wireless Unit, Fender Chromatic Tuner
Bottom Row (L-R): Electroharmonix Freeze, Boss CH1 Super Chorus, Boss BF2 Flanger, Devi Ever ZG Fuzz, MXR Zakk Wylde Overdrive, Boss OD2 Turbo Overdrive, Dunlop Zakk Wylde Wah, Dunlop Rotovibe, Ernie Ball VPJr Volume Pedal

Amps:

Finally my amp is a Fender Frontman 212R 100W amp. It’s a beast of an amp, and has some of the cleanest and sweetest tones I’ve ever heard from a solid-state amp.

Any questions?

The post Jelly Shot’s Hashim Al Nasser’s gear! appeared first on Kuwait Music.