Dubai-based metal band Svengali like to keep a few surprises up their sleeve. Following the release of their debut EP, Unscathed, in February last year, the band unwittingly began working on their first full-length album — and vocalist Adnan Mryhij told tabloid! it’s a “genreless” work.
“We weren’t supposed to start writing at all, but we were in the studio with our producer — we were just checking out these new guitar tones that he was working on — and one thing led to another, and we wrote a song. So we started writing an album,” he said.
The finished product, an amalgamation of styles dubbed Theory of Mind, released online on March 17 and hit shelves at Virgin Megastore the following month.
“It was completely experimental. Especially in comparison to the EP,” said Mryhij. “Every single person who’s asked us, ‘What genre is it?’ No one knows how to reply, because we have some straight up pop parts in there with straight up thrash metal and death metal.”
Speaking to tabloid! the morning after his band’s first all-ages gig in Dubai at the Fridge on June 13, Iraqi-Jordanian Mryhij shared how the group came to be, and why their first record looks more to the inside than the outside.
What was the inspiration behind calling the album Theory of Mind?
The definition of Theory of Mind is to kind of understand another person’s thoughts as if they were your own. Like, for example, if you see someone walking down the street and you’re like, ‘How can they wear that?’ You’re pushing your thoughts onto theirs, as if they could think like you. The whole concept of misperception and predicting what other people think. If you internalise it, it’s a very weird inner struggle kind of thing.
Is that a theme throughout the album?
To some degree — it’s more introverted than outroverted. The last EP was all about friends and family and sticking up for each other. It was called Unscathed and it had that fighter vibe to it. This one’s more, ‘Let’s calm down and look at each other, now.’
How were the roles divvied up in the band when it came to writing the album?
I write most of the lyrics, but musically, everyone contributes to everything. Everyone comes from a very different musical background, and when we all agree on one thing, that means it’s probably okay. We completely kick each other’s butts to get our ideas across, so when we’re all like, ‘Okay, this is a good song,’ [we realise] it took us that far to get to that point, so it’s probably okay.
Tell us a little bit about how the band got together.
It was just me and a guitar and some ideas, basically. I tracked down some very, very rough demos in 2013, and then [by the] end of 2013, I wanted to record. I looked for some session musicians to help me out, and I met these guys through the scene. Everyone was in a different band and everything. JM [Elias] from Lebanon, he’s the guitarist. The new guy, [Mohammad] Taifi, he’s from Jordan. He actually flew here from Jordan to start working and be in the band, this is what we do now. The drummer, Josh [Saldanha], is in a band called EYE, and Ali [Square] is the bassist, he’s from Iran, and he plays in AKB.
Do you find that being from different countries informs what you do?
It’s not necessarily from the heritage aspect. I think that’s what makes it more interesting for me, is that the guy who grew up in Lebanon is bringing old school English thrash metal influences to the mix, and the guy from Iran loves funk, and he’s the one who’s doing all the funk on the album.
What’s next for you guys?
Shows. A lot, a lot of shows. We played a show yesterday, at the Fridge. That was our first all-ages show in Dubai. We have a big festival in Turkey booked called Headbangers’ Weekend, at the end of August.
*Check out Theory of Mind at svengali.me.
