Rock hard

Gassan Rahbani, the original Lebanese rocker, shouts about everything from politics to the environment.

You always seem to want to preach, is this intentional?

I do whatever makes me feel better. I’ll sing about what bothers me and if it so happens that people agree with me then I’m glad. But even if you don’t agree with my beliefs, I can’t stop talking about them.

But aren’t you out to change the country, and whatnot?

I believe in change, of course. I started back in the ’90s and I believe that things do change when you shout about them long enough, and you get enough people to listen.

I feel there’s something in particular you’re talking about…

Remember the quarries? They were tearing down the mountains for stones and the law states that you’re not allowed to blast a mountain if it has trees on it, because you’ll be destroying the trees. They all moved from Dahr el Baydar to Jabal el Sheikh. Of course some of them have returned, but that’s always the case isn’t it? You stop shaking the stick at someone and they go back to their disgusting habits. But at least the few that have opened are decidedly illegal now and they aren’t comfortable about getting away with it. They’re now ashamed of what they do, and this is an internal change. A good change.

So it’s mostly about the environment for you then?

I also speak a lot about slavery. ‘Don’t live in the shadow of oppression,’ I would say. I mean, people must rule themselves and if they cannot then they must not be allowed to feel comfortable about it. You have to keep the people excited about change, especially in a country where ‘change’ is more of a capitalistic slogan than a real effort.

But you’ll keep trying…

I have a video clip that adopts a sarcastic view of peace, and its impact on tourism. I said that since summer is almost upon us, we should make sure tourists don’t show up. I encouraged people to make some noise, blow things up and kill the income altogether; burn the forests while they’re at it! Speaking of which, I’ve repeatedly mentioned the fires we always have and how we could incredibly borrow money for absolutely every useless thing except that one essential fire-plane we needed at the time.

Environment and politics then…

Well really that’s all there is. There’s more than enough of that going on for a lifetime of talking in this country.

What’s your favorite place in Lebanon?

The mountains; somewhere without people. Sannine, Oyoun el Simen, places without people because people ruin nature.

On April 13 [anniversary of the civil war] you came up with ‘tfoo aleikon’. It got very popular very quickly, what was that all about?

It was a speech I came up with for UNESCO, and somehow it made its way to the internet. It was effective because it was from the heart and it was true. I want people to see the wrong and feel that they need to change. I also want to attack the people in the wrong. If you’re an enemy of the environment I want to attack you, through people, through my ideas, not through physical confrontations. Attack is important.

Villains only respond to strength?

It’s not that but, again if you consider the enemies of the environment you have to realize that you don’t have time to deal with them psychologically. There is no time for the environment. They can tear down a mountain in three days, a mountain that took billions of years to create. You can’t come up and say: ‘Excuse me sir, please reconsider what you’re doing.’ You have to say: ‘Shut down your operation, it’s illegal, leave.’

But singing? I mean, wouldn’t you want to be more directly involved?

When there’s something worthwhile I’ll go for it, but I can help faster through music. My music can travel faster than a decision from some obscure committee. Music and media are a pretty powerful combination as far as changing people goes.

Speaking of which, your music itself has changed quite a bit over the years…

That’s to be expected. Life changes your style and the way you compose, especially for a local.

How did it yours?

Well, I use western music. Had I been born in the west the music would have been in my roots, but here I need time and experience before I can develop it. In essence, a Westerner would have a head start. It’s not an easy place to develop Western music anyway, not with this Arabic cancer we have on screen these days.

Yikes; cancer?

The video clips that get so popular. These are diseases streaming into your homes. In my house all these channels are password-protected. I mean it’s one thing to put a ban on heavy metal. Yeah, sure, some bands sing about things I don’t want my kids to hear, but when you turn them into contraband everyone wants to listen to them. So why aren’t they as strict about television? I was watching a rerun of The Matrix the other day when my kid just started crying. For a brief moment I forgot that she doesn’t know what violence is; all that bashing and bleeding is not very healthy. I feel the same about these video clips. I don’t want my children exposed to them. If I let them watch this they’ll begin to define the country, love and friendship through these video clips. Imagine you build your relationships, friendships and even your wardrobe based on these videos. What kind of a future is that?

Back to the cancerous video clips though; you think they’re what, a bad influence on our younger women?

That is the case, but it’s not just the women; the guys are just as bad. It’s not the women themselves, these girls might be fine singers and may very well improve their standing if they had good composers. It’s not their fault, it’s the fashion now. They were just taught that this is what the market wants and taught that that style of clothing gives the desired effect. Take the Four Cats for instance. There we were with four lovely ladies who for all intents and purposes were as much eye-candy as the rest of the lot, but who sang proper Arabic songs. You can do that. You can look good without selling out into that new wave that’s infecting our airwaves.