Garage days

One of the most active organizers in the music industry, Jyad el Murr busies himself with his Instruments Garage, two music stations – Nostalgie and NRJ – and a host of concerts and musical events.

How’s the concert business?

Projects here are difficult to launch, and the problem is that you’ll have to start from scratch very often. You figure you’ll start making money after two or three years. Two years into it you’ll get hit with some disaster and have to stop and start from scratch again. Anywhere else, I’d have been a billionaire by now. I mean, we signed Shakira, paid Shakira and when the problems started she apologized and couldn’t make it. Shakira reimbursed us, but some artists don’t.

But you’re still trying…

We have a lot to offer. All the promoters here know that artists that come from abroad fall in love, and get great treatment. We take them out, show them a good time and they always want to come back in any capacity. The fans, people and promoters welcome them warmly. So the artists want in and the people are open to culture – now we just need a bit of stability. We have huge potential and I have a lot of passion for music.

I know; I’ve been to the Instruments Garage…

That place gave me a hard time for a while, but now I’ve invested a lot in it and it seems to be paying off. I used to have a rock band in the 1980s, you know, Fugitive Entity [laughs]. I had a lot of concerts and video clips. A large part of my week is to pick music for the radio. We get hundreds of submissions a week and spend several hours picking a handful for the stations. I think that’s what makes NRJ and Nostalgie successful.

Any favorite concerts?

I think it was A-Ha. They touched me the most. The event was beautiful inside out. Outside the country my favorite performances are Leonard Cohen and Pink Floyd. There’s a lot of good to look forward to in the world of music.

And the country?

I’m not as optimistic, but comparatively it’s not bad. I’ve worked in far worse situations. I mean, we still played music and still opened the store during the attacks. We’ve endured fighting in the streets and everywhere else. Everyone has. I’m more optimistic than before, but the tension in the country is not very healthy. I’d invest more if I felt a little more comfortable about the country.

What’s your favorite place in the country?

I like central Achrafieh. I want to buy an old house there someday and move in. It’s a city. I like having all these stores around. I like walking out and picking up a sandwich. I’d like my daughter to walk out and buy her chocolates. These days I have to drive her every time she wants that.