Rabih Salloum was making a name for himself with his electro-rock band Slutterhouse in Paris, away from the problems burdening his native Lebanon for decades.
Yet the problems plaguing Lebanon kept nagging at Rabih, and he decided to return back home and try to voice his thought and ideas, especially the socio-economic crisis he faced there, through music.
His channel was Grave Jones, a rock band playing guitar rock in with as much energy and style as he and the band could muster.
Based on Grave Jones’ latest single “Heaven Only Knows,” it is taking cues from the modernized sound of the Oasis and other Britpop luminaries brought to the current decade.
What seeps through the song is Rabih’s anger and frustration with what is going on around him in Beirut and elsewhere in Lebanon, without formally touching on the subject itself.
“It’s becoming increasingly impossible for artists to work here. We have to cancel or postpone rehearsals because the band can’t get fuel for their cars. We’ve had to shut down music video production because you can’t shoot when fighting is breaking out around us. Our color grading team had to travel to Istanbul for the weekend just so they could have enough electricity to finish post-production,” says Rabih, discussing the problems he and the band had completing the record as such.
Still, the finished release is something any prospective rock band anywhere would be proud of and is an enticing lead into his and the band’s forthcoming album Heartrage Hotel.
