Guitarist Ali Lubbad’s music is as mixed up as the story of his life

Ali Lubbad (right, in black) plays ‘primitive music for modern machine’

Forty-three-year old, small-time American guitarist Ali Lubbad would have gone about life — one that involved changing almost 30 jobs in about seven years — had he not passed by a liquor store in Mission District in San Francisco and shown interest in a mural that was painted outside it. The horses, soldiers and olive trees in the mural had a phrase, “End the occupation”, thrown next to them.

“I wondered what that meant,” says Lubbad, who was just being his regular curious self when he asked the shop owner about it. “He said it was a dedication to Palestinian people. He followed the statement with a polite next question and asked my name. When he found out, he claimed to know an uncle of mine from my father’s side who lived in the Gulf. This was strange as all I knew about my father was that he was an Arab. Now, I was being told I was half- Palestinian,” says Lubbad, whose father died when he was one. He was raised by an American mother.

A phone call and a plane ride later, Lubbad found his vegetarian self gorging on sheep testicles with his newfound grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins in Jordan. “It was beyond amazing,” says Lubbad, who then decided to discover his musical heritage and stayed on in Jordan, followed by a year in Cairo. The result of his two identities and the intense experience is Painted Caves, a band that plays what Lubbad calls psychedelic Arab garage rock. The band will play as the headlining act at the Amarras Music Festival on Saturday.

“It can also be called primitive music for modern machine,” says Lubbad, who combines indie rock with traditional Arabic instruments such as oud with didgeridoo and flute with five other musicians including singer and songwriter Paul Ceber. The “strange band name” Painted Caves has been drawn from a tiny sandstone cave in France bedecked with artwork known to be among the oldest known to man. “I was smitten by the idea. It seemed like an attempt to strive beyond normal. There was myth, religion, symbolism — all the elements that music of this band comprises,” says Lubbad.

At the festival, the band will also collaborate with the Manganiyars of Rajasthan, with whom Lubbad and his group have been jamming for a couple of days. “The commonality we share is that it is all very introspective music. Both the sides seems to be taking internal stock of their being. It is going to be a beautiful night,” says Lubbad, who will tour Europe next.

Ali Lubbad will perform at Lodi The Garden Restaurant today. Contact: 9818743232

The story appeared in print with the headline Arthouse Rock

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