A Palestinian you should know: Sijal Nasralla
- What’s your name?
Sijal Nasralla AKA Fara7 Ba7ba7
- Who are you?
At the time of this interview I am a simple sympathetically pregnant North Carolina kid with a stereo-typical Palestinian aggression that I channel exclusively into being a cuddly care-bear dissident with a love for all things cozy or hostile.
- Where do you live?
On a lil refuge of soggy and bountiful and wholesome land in Durham, NC.
- How has your experience been in the music scene there?
meh. But I love the Pinhook and I love my friend's bands. Other than that, I kind of took a major step back from going to shows a few years ago because I would get sleepy or get really annoyed by the white people in the punk or hardcore scene. So, I'm a hypocrite mostly, I want people to come to mine or my friends shows, but every other night I'm mostly cuddling my husky cat or staring at the ceiling fan by 9pm.
- What type of music do you make and how did you get into it?
I love to free improvise—go far out with a friend and see where it takes us. That's literally how I learned everything I know about music. I never had lessons, I would just dress up in my room as a kid wearing my bass guitar and pretend to play along with At The Drive-In and Magma songs. Hitting all the wrong notes but keeping tempo and energy. Eventually I just got really good at every instrument I spent time with. I've confused a lot of bands that I have stood-in for over the years. They are like, "I can tell you're good, but why can't you play the same thing twice, scale back, do less, or hit less wrong notes." I'm like, "idk, this is who I am, but I am really good at it." I just rolled with it and now Travis Barker calls me his muse.
When I started composing arty post-rock, noise, and fake-jazz in my Palestine centered music project, DUNUMS, it came out of the abstract place of my improvisation. I molded it into something I could record, put out, and communicate to an ensemble in a coherent way. Like churning thick colostrum butter mixed with fig tree latex on the foothills of Al-Quds. amirite?
Now playing punk with The Muslims tho is a whole nother level of creative love that for me is all about exorcising and transcending oppression through joy and rage. It's a beautiful and necessary thing. How I got into it is entirely wholey summized in one word, QADR BADR SABR. Our beaming sheikh, to whom I pledge.
- What kind of themes do you explore in your music / lyrics?
Like any diasporadicalareah Palestinian, you will know within a short period after meeting me that I am fala7hi, bred communist, 60% olive greese, and hostile with my hospitality. Really thats what inspires the music I compose myself as DUNUMS. It's annoyingly falasteeni screamo, tinkering with the euphoria of Arab revolutions, emo songs of hate about settler violence, and tearful ambient jams about Mohammad Al-Durra (Allah irhamo). I got a lot of feelings. Everything with The Muslims is basically the same except I just pour my whole-ass soul over the drums while Qadr destory's his vocal chords belting, "YOUR NOT THE ONLY ONES WHO GOT GUNS AND A HUNGER FOR POWER, WE'RE NOT THE ONLY ONES YOU SHAT ON—WE'RE COMING FOR YOUR LAST BORN." It's chill.
- What's your favorite lyric you've ever written?
Baby snakes. That was me. Look it up. Just kidding. Ithkar Allah definitely. Well, actually probably just free the land. Yeah, free it.
- Tell us about your relationship with the instrument(s) you play.
My drums are small and out of tune. My electric guitar has piercing treble and is salvaged. My favorite Bass guitar is a battery powered Ibanez I've had for 25 years that sounds like someone spilled chowder on a live wire. And I owe my recording engineer $200 for the keyboard he let me use back in 2017. They are basically all full of soul and I love them. I literally can't play any other instrument than the ones I have. It feels wrong.
- Any dream collaborations that you're trying to manifest?
The Muslims is the best collaboration of a band I could ever imagine to manifest in my life. We're gonna break up for 20 minutes in 20 years then have a reunion tour sponsored by Post-Post-Malone. Is it okay to plug that here?
- How does your Palestinian family / friends / community support you?
I come from a long line of Palestinian artists and creatives who love life and are die-hard fans of each others' work. My mom used to come to all my shows when I was fresh out of high-school. I had a noisey, math-rock band called No Shoulders that would play disgusting basement shows and smoke-filled dives like The Milestone, where I grew up in Charlotte, NC. Anytime we were playing nearby—she would come out and say something positive like, "I love how you played in the corner facing the wall instead of the stage. It was so creative, habibi." I think that says a lot about me and my family.
- How does Arab or Palestinian music / culture find its way into the music you make? (if at all)
Im not sure, but I think a lot. Huda Asfour, a brilliant Oud player who helped me create my second album for DUNUMS, "Where's My Eidi?" said that I kind of remind her of Sayyed Darwish.
Anytime I do Karaoke now I sing "Ana Moush Kafir."
- What kind of future would you like to see for diaspora Palestinians in music?
If you're cool and easy going and into weird shit, join my band?
- What's the best career advice you've ever received?
"I got good news and bad news. Bad news is: you're not that big of a deal. Good news is: you're not that big of a deal." My first counselor named, literally named Jimmy Buffet, said that shit to me. I only went to see him once when I couldn't figure out how to sightread "Autumn Leaves."
- In the near future, Palestine is free, we're throwing a big party there to celebrate, and everybody gets to play some music, what records (not your own) are you bringing to play at the party?
This question hit me so hard.
What comes to mind right now is me crying and squirming on the dance floor to Talking Heads' - "This Might Be The Place."
- What are your social media handles and website(s)?
DUNUMS -
(I got a 12" "it's in your ribs" coming out sometime this fall on Feeding Tube records)
THE MUSLIMS - https://themuzlimz.com/
Follow me on IG @bateeekha
