SANAM Interview: “Everything outside of Lebanese pop music or business techno is DIY”

In the face of constant adversity, the likes of SANAM feel like one of Lebanon’s few victories. Consisting of Sandy Chamoun (vocals), Anthony Sahyoun (guitar, synth), Antonio Hajj (bass), Farah Kaddour (buzuq), Marwan Tohme (guitars) and Pascal Semerdjian (drums), the Beirut-based sextet are the shining beacons from a DIY scene that has quickly become one of the world’s finest.

Plying their trades across various other projects in the country’s capital, including Postcards, Kinematik, Al Rahel al Kabir and Oviid, it’s these wider explorations that inform the SANAM experience. Their alliance galvanised following an invitation to collaborate with Faust’s Hans Joachim Irmler at the Irtijal Festival in 2021, SANAM’s debut LP, Aykathani Malakon followed two years later in 2023. Aykathani Malakon was a hothouse of ideas, resonating across the many countries the band would eventually perform in, including a show at London’s Café Oto in November of the same year.

Weaving in and out of the above-noted projects (including Tohme and Kaddour’s recent collaboration, Ghazel, via local label, Ruptured Records), the band returns with Sametou Sawtan – their first for Canadian mainstays, Constellation Records. Recorded with now label mate, Radwan Ghazi Moumneh (Jerusalem in My Heart), Sametou Sawtan (translation from Arabic to I Heard a Voice), sees SANAM pivot from the improvised nature of Aykathani Malakon to compositions that are more finely chiselled and heavily layered, oscillating between the calm and chaos inspired by their immediate surroundings.

There’s a deep spirit to these recordings; wandering psychedelia steeped in locality. The subtle, Eastern-tinged echoes of Goblin sees SANAM guide their audience into a world, and from here, it’s a motley selection of sound. The hypnotic lounge-psych of Habibon, one of the calmer moments on Sametou Sawtan. So too Hadikat Al Ams and Hamam, both entrenched in Arabic traditions, but here SANAM possess sharper edges, melding together open-sourced kraut-rock with subtle synth-based electronica fermenting underneath the mix.

Elsewhere, Chamoun’s performance on album’s eponymous song is a showstopper. Like a haunting whisper across the desert, Chamoun’s voice transcends all the elements. Sayl Damei has a similar vibe, but here SANAM delve further into the world of OST – a piece that sits between the lines of Lynch and Jarmusch. It’s the kind of moment that will serve the band well for future releases.

Finishing with the droning, jazz-infused Tatayoum, it illuminates the range of Sametou Sawtan. A borderless escapade in musicianship that smashes any boundaries that previously existed, with Sametou Sawtan SANAM have delivered Constellation’s premier long-player of year.

Last week, Chamoun and Sahyoun answered a series of questions about the story of SANAM, including their influences, creative processes, and more.

Sun 13: What are you earliest memories of music, and do you think these have carried through as influences on the music you make today? 

Sandy Chamoun: “By coincidence, about a month ago, when Ziad Rahbani passed away, I realised it was the first time I had ever told myself, ‘I love this melody.’ I must have been around six years old, and it was his song Diaano. And my mom says that when I was just a year old, my cousin used to play sad tunes for me on the ‘Nay’ and I would cry, then switch to happy ones, and I would smile. These little stories definitely shaped the way I think about art and music, and how much I try not to run away from expressing myself through music in a very sensitive way that truly resembles me. Now, with the work I do in SANAM, it’s the opposite of how I started out singing – back then, I tried to hide what I was really feeling.”

S13: Can you tell us about the process behind Sametou Sawtan?

Anthony Sahyoun: “Sure – we knew we didn’t want to make an improv’ record like the previous one so we first started with a small wrote residency at Tunefork Studios, and scribbled some ideas. Then we also knew that we wanted to have Radwan properly produce this one, so we flew him in and rented this flat in Byblos for a week, where we did another residency. Then we took the new tunes on the road to test some out in shows – and we rented out La Frette Studios during out tour break – went straight to Paris, Radwan met us there, we recorded and then wrote some new ones there as well. Then you spend around six to seven months in post-production” (laughs). 

S13: What was the most important aspect you wanted to achieve with this record?

AS: “We didn’t want to make another Aykathani Malakon.” 

S13: What was the inspiration behind the artwork?

AS: “I can’t really speak on behalf of Farah (Fayyad – the designer) and Omar (Khouri – the illustrator), since we really give Farah a ‘carte blanche’ to do whatever she wants. But I remember all of us agreeing on some kind of creature earlier on, maybe one that could fly as well.” 

S13: You’ve signed to Constellation Records, which is a great fit, I think. How did that come about?

AS: “Yeah, actually I think so, too. Well, Radwan is also on Constellation, so the link is there. And also a dear friend from Beirut works there as well. So I know the label was familiar with us prior to finishing the second record, and they reached out halfway through the mixes, and it was kind of a no brainer to us. We’ve been fans of the label since the early 2000s.” 

S13: Is the writing process of SANAM about each member bringing ideas into the studio or is it more improvisational in a collective, studio-based sense?

AS: “The first record was more improvisational, but even then, you know improvisation is not a very strict definition… because sometimes the tunes are completely free improv’, and sometimes you’re improvising around an idea or some anchor, or maybe some conceptual writing or whatever. With the second it’s more written than the first, for starters Sandy had the lyrics and the vocal melodies down prior to having the music down so could write the music around her whereas with the first record the vocals and the words were always the last element to be added. But even when it’s more written we tend to always do the writing sessions together, for sure sometimes there are ideas prior to the writing sessions, but ideas are very murky and up in the air.” 

S13: Some say that once they enter the creative process, certain things are out of their hands. Listening to SANAM’s music, and I could see how some may come to this conclusion. What are your thoughts on this?

AS: “I think the only real control you have is showing up and keeping an open mind. The rest is mostly like fishing.”

S13: Hamam feels like the centrepiece to the album. As it’s placed in the middle of the album, oddly enough, there’s a sense that it could have been the first track written, with the rest of the songs working outwards from there. Was this the case?

AS: (Laughs)“Yes, Hamam was one of the first tracks that was written, but it took a minute for it to become what it is, however having it in the middle bears no relation to your observation – accurate as it is!” 

S13: The title track is a beautifully led piece. Firstly, can you tell us about it, and secondly did you have the album title before or after you wrote this song?

SC: “First of all, thank you. Second, Sametou Sawtan (I Heard a Voice) is the opening line of a poem by Ahmad Rami from Rubaiyat al-Khayyam, which he wrote for Umm Kulthum. I made a collage of the poem, and I felt that if we used it as the title for our second album, it would really express the way we write our music, and at the same time reflect how, in this region, we are constantly waiting for sounds, whether explosions or fighter jets. But Sametou Sawtan can also take you far, sparking imagination, opening up endless possibilities. It’s an invitation for those who want to listen to the album to dive into the songs and their sounds. We chose the title after we had finished the album.”

S13: You all play in various other projects. Do you think everyone’s different musical experiences enhances the music of SANAM?

AS: “Yes, we’re not of the belief at all that all your ideas should funnel in one place, on the contrary. It’s good for us to be quick on our feet and fluid to sway in whichever direction a project needs. It takes some effort at first to deal with your ego and to realise that most times if not all times the song or the record or the picture is what’s important, not yourself.

“This attitude is also very reflective of the nature of being Lebanese, which kind of imposes on you to be nimble. In that sense it’s very good to be involved in different things, now how that funnels in SANAM’s music, who knows. But definitely in attitude. Of course, it can become a logistical nightmare to work out the schedules of six musicians that are all involved in different projects, but to be completely frank, it’s a blessing that this is our issue.”

S13: Given the current situation in Lebanon, against all the odds, the country still has one of the best DIY scenes in the world. Do you feel as if music is the central part of your lives? 

AS: “Yes surprisingly we have a solid DIY scene, everything outside of Lebanese pop music or business techno is DIY, so the term is not as reflective of a certain music mindset as it would in North America or the UK. So let’s say, even bands playing traditional Arabic tunes fall under the same umbrella as the electronic, the experimental, the rappers, the punk kids etc. We all operate under the same economy. We all hang out. Constantly. I mean if I’m not hanging out with musicians it’d be film makers. It’s cringe and tribal, but we don’t care. Surprisingly, we don’t have much rivalry between each other either, so if someone does well between us, we see it as all of us doing well…”

Sametou Sawtan is out Friday via Constellation Records. Purchase from Bandcamp.