Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither was Freshly Ground Sounds. The non-commercial initiative to get independent musicians noticed in the UAE started out in 2013, thanks to founder Ismat “Izzy” Abidi.
Abidi noticed a lack of venues around town that featured local talent. She knocked on doors, booked people gigs, and with the help of volunteers, grew her roster of artists to nearly 370 today.
Abidi and her team now aim to put on one gig a month around town; they held their third season finale at Tribeca in May. A short break later, they’re gearing up to announce their fourth season of events in the coming weeks.
Eliot Sleep, 23, is one of Freshly’s five core team members and, having been named general manager in May, their first and only full-time employee.
“I joined Freshly Ground Sounds a year ago, started part-time, just helping out with all the graphics work and multimedia stuff,” Sleep told tabloid!. “Now I’m in charge of finance relationships [and] the creative aspect — me and Izzy head that up together.”
If all goes according to plan this year, they will be adding a new arm to Freshly (mum’s the word on what it could be) and releasing Different Tones, a documentary chronicling their highs and lows.
In the meantime: gigs. Lots and lots of gigs.
“We want to deliver something really good to our audience, but as well as that, we want to enable new artists and creatives to show their skills and get themselves out there,” said Sleep.
Asked whether there is a particular criteria for choosing a new act to work with, Sleep said the decision falls in Abidi’s hands, as she takes great pride in picking out artists, but “it’s not about how good these guys are.”
“Have they been polite in their email? Have they been patient? Have they been on the waiting list for a while? It’s not always about whether they’re good, it’s about other things, too. If they’re not the best act ever, we’ve [still] given them their chance, and that’s what they wanted,” he said.
The strength — and longevity — of Freshly lies in the dedication of its volunteers. Sleep remembers the first gig he worked on at Dubai Garden Centre, and how amazed he was that people “showed up out of nowhere” to help out.
“We basically transformed this outdoor space into the standard Freshly gig, the grass on the floor, everything moved around, the space set up with all the lights and sound equipment. It all happened so quickly, and I was just like, ‘That’s amazing. That’s determination and commitment.’ It happens every time.”
There are three kinds of people he spots on show nights. The casual crowd members, who tend to be a bit alternative or indie. The oblivious families who come over to check out what’s going on. And the committed guys, “who are there a hundred per cent for the music. Sometimes they just show up, sit down right next to the stage, as close as they can, and then don’t move for five, six hours, or however long the gig goes on for.”
According to Sleep, the UAE’s music scene has grown immensely since Freshly started three years ago. All you have to do is go to the same venue twice.
“The more recent time you go, you can just see, visually, that there are so many more people there, and the audience is just that much more involved with the music,” he said.
“Being behind [the scenes] is just insane — all the emails we get, people wanting to collaborate with us, people wanting to play, people wanting to come and watch us. It’s amazing. I totally think it’s growing at a crazy rate.”
*Keep an eye out on freshlygroundsounds.com for the latest updates.