Sprung from the feeling of rain induced nostalgia and a cultural journey, Songs of Petrichor is a progressive rock band with hints of oriental grunge, erasing borders through their music.
Photo by: Saif Al-Turki
"It's really about the journey and the adventures you have within, and the sense of not belonging anywhere, really.”
The three-piece band formed in Jeddah, a city on the west coast of Saudi Arabia– where up until 2017–live music was purely an underground affair due to certain conservative ideologies. Songs of Petrichor consists of Shahrayar (26), a marketing professional on vocals and guitar, Omair (28), an operations manager on drums and bass guitar, and Yousef (37), a project manager on lead guitar and bass.
The trio came across the word petrichor–which means the smell of rain– in an online dictionary. The word reminded them of the nostalgic feelings invoked by rain.
“So we thought, you know what? Let's start a project and let's focus on tapping certain emotions. And the other thing we settled on is, we realise that most of the artists out there, they don't write meaningful lyrics. So we decided that let's write songs based on lyrical content and then we can add music to it,” said Shahrayar.
Their new single Nomad is essentially about searching for ‘home’, which can be an illusive concept for people who have been immersed in different cultures– like all three members of Songs of Petrichor.
Omair, who has been living in Saudi Arabia for the past four years, and has also lived in Malaysia, Sweden, and Australia, said: “It's about not belonging to a single location. So let's say I have lived in a lot of different places and I'm not sure what home is and I don't know what home will be. It's kind of something a lot of expats go through. It's really about the journey and the adventures you have within, and the sense of not belonging anywhere, really.”
“We've all travelled around, so we've come together just for the purpose of sharing our experiences through the power of music,” said Shahrayar.
Omair was given Shahrayar’s contact details during a friendly discussion about his musical hobbies with his CEO, after the success of a project he was involved in.
“I thought, oh God, I have to pretend to like somebody and just meet them as a formality. But we met up and turned out we listened to the same music and we started meeting quite regularly. And the big deal for me, is that usually in underground rock bands, the vocalists are usually trash. And here's a guy who can actually sing,” said Omair.
Shahrayar– a Pakistani national born and raised in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia– took up singing lessons at school when he was 13 and started playing guitar at the age of 15. He attended the British International School, which was one of the few places where music lessons were on offer in Saudi Arabia at the time. Shahrayar joined his first band whilst completing his bachelor’s at Kingston University.
Omair and Shahrayar claim they “stole” Yousef from another band, impressed after watching one of his live performances. However, Yousef had an unlikely introduction to music. Unlike Omair and Shahrayar, who had grown up listening to Pink Floyd, the Beatles, Black Sabbath, and Soundgarden, Yousef had minimal exposure to music and had no affinity towards songs.
“But I think when I was somewhere around 11, 12 years old, it was the first time that I saw a friend of mine playing guitar…. So, it really got me interested… I found it quite fascinating how an instrument can make such melodies and sound.
So that's when I got into more than just music, I got into instrument. So I started trying to play the guitar. It just so happened that no one likes to play bass guitar, so that's what I really started playing more. And so we kind of formed a band and I started playing music more than listening to music.”
It was only when Yousef was in university that he started exploring classic rock and figuring out his own unique style.
Yousef– also a Pakistani national born and raised in Saudi Arabia, was educated in the Filipino Community School in Jeddah and completed his undergraduate degree in the Philippines.
Having spent a significant period of their development years in cultures different to those of their parents’, Yousef and Shahrayar consider themselves Third Culture Kids. According to experts, TCK’s develop a relationship with each culture they have experienced, but do not have full ownership over any.
“I can't really identify with any one of the cultures I have experienced. It's more like I pick up the pieces and I take what I seem to appreciate….and you kind of develop from it. But you find some form of, I would say, similarity between those who have been exposed to a similar situation.
But it wouldn't mean that you guys agree eye-to-eye on how you live or what you do. But basically, since you've been exposed to such diversity, you kind of become more open to adapt and maybe be more understanding towards differences amongst people,” said Yousef.
The combining of various cultures will make up the future of music, according to Omair. “Like in the last 50 to 60 years of modern music history, it's all been about creating new genres. But now fusion is really the way forward,” said Omair.
Songs of Petrichor have signed a record deal with Wall of Sound, a Saudi record label, which aims to market the band in the Middle East. Their self-titled album will be out in November.