Saudi Gazette

JEDDAH - With the new cultural transformation in the kingdom, each day many new musical opportunities open their horizons upon young Saudis such as “Statues of Sinking Men” a Saudi electronic alternative music band who took electronic music to next level.

“Statues of Sinking Men” band combines the art of electronic music, vocals, and visuals in a distinctive innovative way, the Saudi band amazed the audience at Mnassa during their album’s launch ceremony last Friday.

The ceremony was presented by Al Comedy Club comedian Abdulrahman Zubailah, plus a special musical performance by a young talented Saudi female Ghada, then “Statues of Sinking Men” took the stage and wowed the audience.

Saudi Gazette spoke to the singer and founder of “Statues of Sinking Men” Abdulmalik Zubailah:

Q: Tell us about yourself and “Statues of Sinking Men”.

A: “Statues of Sinking Men, is a group consisting of me and Abdullah Babrouk. The idea was to form a band where music and visuals go hand in hand, with the sole goal of it, being genuine expressions of our own personal experiences and inner conflicts. Our sound resides somewhere between Alternative and Electronic music. We try our best to present a sound that has an attitude, visuals that are striking and words that have emotional weight.”

Q: What were your previous musical works?

A: “I Abdulmalik started working on music with my dear friend and bandmate Faris Al-Sobyani when we formed Skeleton Crowd, an Alternative Rock band. I’ve learned a lot since we formed, and I wanted to take a more personal approach with songwriting and music making in general, and that’s where Statues of Sinking Men comes in. Both projects are fueled by pure passion.”

Q: What do you hope to achieve? A:” We believe that our emotions have rights and that we need to further develop a culture where expressing your emotions should be the norm. A lot of people tend to hold back, and that includes us too. But we found a platform to be able to express ourselves through music and visuals, and we hope that our work encourages others to do the same. We want the people to use our work in any way that’ll benefit them emotionally, and inspire them.”

Q: The launch ceremony is hosted at Mnassa, so what is it? A: “Mnassa is a group of passionate and loving people who genuinely want to help people achieve what they need and a home to a lot of extremely creative people. It’s a family, moreover, there is a digital application for Mnassa where people can exchange services and knowledge to support each other within the community.”

Q: How did Mnassa support you? A: “Through the journey of making our debut Statues of Sinking Men album, Mnassa has always been supportive. They gave me the chance to play my first demos to people, they gave me constant feedback and encouragement, they’ve given me a platform to talk about music passionately and when it was time to launch the album, they helped me get it out there. In other words, how did Mnassa not support me? They’ve been there since the beginning!”

Q: Do you think that Electronic music is getting popular between Saudi youth? A: “Not just Electronic, I think all kinds of genres are getting more popular now. Access to music has become extremely easy, and I think that encourages people here to explore new types of music that they didn’t know about. Hopefully, this leads to making a musically rich new generation that’s open to more experimental and alternative sounds.”