KUWAIT: In 2012, Beirut-based alternative-rockers Lazzy Lung — a four-piece led by Lebanese-Canadian frontman Allan Chaaraoui — were living the dream. They’d released debut album “Strange Places” to critical acclaim; won a bunch of regional awards; and, in September that year, embarked on a regional tour (something few indie artists manage) as support to US garage-rockers Black Lips. Their second album, “Sailor’s Delight” — a collection of raucous rock tracks that was an accurate reflection of their energetic, infectious live shows — was written and ready to record. Things couldn’t have been going much better. Then, within a few months, they couldn’t have been going much worse.
“Weirdly, the tour with the Black Lips was basically the death of Lazzy Lung,” says Chaaraoui. “We came back home, had some post-tour blues, and everyone went their own separate ways for a bit.”
Trying to get things moving for the recording of the second album was “like pulling teeth.” Partly because he felt the other members weren’t as keen to get into the studio as he was, and partly because of events conspiring against them — including having their gear stolen.
“Every element that could work against us was working against us,” he tells Arab News. “And then everyone was just, like, ‘Why am I doing this? Bye.’”
On tour with Black Lips. (Facebook)
Within months, Chaaraoui found that Lazzy Lung, which began as a solo project in 2006, was once again just him. “I was suspended in uncertainty,” he says. He did at least have “Sailor’s Delight” recorded. And the (majority of the) band did get together for “one last hurrah” to play the launch party in 2013. Once again, the record was well received, but this time around Chaaraoui was in no position to take advantage of that.
“By 2014, I’d just had it. That’s when I gave up on Lazzy Lung entirely,” he says. The constantly changing lineups (there were several more after the post-tour breakup) — and resulting need to build relationships all over again — had become too much. Chaaraoui stayed active (“I feel adrift without music in my life, or being involved in arts and culture in some capacity,” he says); he played drums in a band, produced a record for another, and he was still writing his own material, but had no musicians to perform it with. It seemed like Lazzy Lung was done.
And yet, five years later, the band are back with a new album, “Swim The Tide.” Well, maybe not “the band,” as Chaaraoui explains.
“I’m now, essentially, working with session musicians. And I hate it. I hate that the focus has shifted to it being a me, me, me show,” he says. “But you know what? It really prevents me from running into a Groundhog Day nightmare.”
“Swim The Tide” is a mellow, low-key record. Purposely so. Added to the turmoil that Chaaraoui was going through with Lazzy Lung was the fact that his mother was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2016. (She’s doing well now.)
Swim the tide Cover. (Supplied)
“Of course, thinking that maybe she was going to die had an influence on (my songwriting). It’s a bit of a wearing-my-heart-on-my-sleeve record, emotionally,” says Chaaraoui. “I’ve been in a perpetual breakup, really, since the beginning of ‘Strange Places,’ when I broke up with my girlfriend, into ‘Sailor’s Delight,’ which was a breakup with my bandmates, to more relationships coming and going… loss has been my ‘normal.’ So these are love songs, not just about people I’m involved with romantically, but family and friends. It’s very sentimental — with optimism in it — and as a result it’s mellower. A truer, more-sincere sound was needed.”
In “Kids With Gum,” though he’s ostensibly singing about “Syrian refugees and the hardships they go through,” Chaaraoui says he’s also referencing his own situation. “I’m referring to how I’ve had lots of loss and struggle, but how music is my refuge,” he explains. “So, I’m singing ‘I lost it all in a day/All I want is to play.’ That innate desire to get on stage and play is still there. It’s everything to me.”
And “Younger Years,” he says, is “a tip of the hat to all those who’ve had some kind of involvement with (Lazzy Lung). It’s like, ‘Yeah, it was messed up. But it was fun while it lasted.’
“This record is the aftermath of a storm,” he concludes. “Kind of being swept away by the current and beached, you know? I got tossed about good. Face-planted. But this is me dusting myself off and learning to let go.”
