motel void

MOTEL VOID: You’re from Cairo, Egypt. How would you describe the current ‘indie music’ scene there? To be honest I don’t know many Egyptian indie artists!

FHMY: The Egyptian indie scene has both aspects: there is the commercial part, where I would describe them as tailoring or down right just copying other big acts, and the local experimental, looking for their sound type. The great news is there are loads of good music here that people need to hear.

MOTEL VOID: Your favorite local venues and artists?

FHMY: My favorite venue is Cairo Jazz Club and Alexandrian Jesuit Cultural center, both venues are always good vibes and great music to me. With jazz club really trying to get ahead in mixing commercial aspects (for profitability) but also giving the experimental guys a go every now and then. Egyptian local acts like nomarche, tarek el azhary, pink seasalt, Kiiko, ma-beyn, ,Martina, Feras Chatila and barakat are my personal top when it comes to the Egyptian indie scene.

MOTEL VOID: You’ve just released your new single ‘Egyptian Football’. Could you tell us more about the recording and writing process of this track?

FHMY: I wrote Egyptian Football on guitarpro back in 2020, I was listening to alot of American Football and reeling from a college break up. It was COVID times, so going out was a bit more difficult, so I started studying alot of math rock chords and techniques. The first real workable demo was in 2021, when I invited Aly Amr to record guitars, since my main instrument is bass. We made the first demo and just left it there on idle. By April 2023, I made a deal with our local indie Memphis Records to record 2 songs with them, it was a bit niche to them, because the term “Math Rock” and “midwest emo” is nonexistent here, but they liked it, and we went straight ahead with the recording. Met alot of great engineers and musicians who became friends, as I invited them to record their parts. It took 6 isolated sessions of each instrument to record Egyptian Football, and I am very happy with how it turned up to be. Egyptian Football is the first song I ever wrote, and it was in C major! The most basic music scale you could think of hahah

MOTEL VOID: I suppose that American Football is your big inspiration, but who are you other favorite artists?

FHMY: I listen to alot of different things, my current favorite are “Black Country, New Road”, Squid, Slint, Title Fight, Burial and Boards of Canada, I did grow up listening to loads of death metal though hahah

MOTEL VOID: Your plans for the rest of the year?

FHMY: For the rest of the year, i’m recording my album, “The World You Grew up in, no longer exists”, which will be more “mature” & “experimental” than my 2 released tracks, with a mix of shoegaze, mathrock, noise and indie. I’m really excited to show everyone what’s in store.