Svengali: Welcome To The Family

Dubai-based outfit SVENGALI have experienced their fair share of lineup changes during their tenure but as they gear up to release their sophomore full length release Sayonara, frontman Adnan Mryhij believes that the band are firmly poised to hit the ground running.

“We feel that we managed to find our sound on this album. We had a lot of member changes during our earlier years and now we have got a permanent set of core members we feel we have locked in what SVENGALI is as an essence as well as our sound,” says Adnan. “You have your whole life to release your first album but not so much when it comes to your second. There was a bit of pressure on this release as Theory Of Mind did so well in the Middle East. We were in the charts and it did very well in the metal scene. We kind of kicked it into another gear when we stopped focusing on our past efforts and started focusing on Sayonara and making sure the songs could be the best they could possibly be.”

This time round SVENGALI took the reins and did absolutely everything in-house, this helped them stay true to their vision and what the album stands for. “We didn’t outsource anything. We recorded and mastered it all ourselves at home. Our guitarist produced and mixed it and all the videos we have shot and edited ourselves. We wanted to take full responsibility of all the pro’s and con’s that come with having complete control over something,” declares Adnan. “We’ve been through a massive dynamic spectrum of ups and downs in our personal lives and throughout the life of the band. This album just revolves around that dynamic and what we have been through. We had a time where one of our members was homeless and sleeping in his car in the most expensive city in the world. Members have got married and had children, we kind of funnelled everything that life threw at us into this album and it’s kind of a turning of the page for us. Saying Sayonara to the old chapter and ushering in the new one. It was kind of therapy in a way.”

SVENGALI have been commended for their efforts thus far by being nominated in the Ahlan Awards Best Live Act category and more recently Best Local Band in the What’s On Awards 2020, being the only metal band to be considered for this award. Adding this to their chart position of number two in the UAE Virgin Megastore Charts for their previous release Theory Of Mind it shows that they are making waves in their local scenes. “To us it’s super cool that we’ve made enough noise that we’ve got those kind of people to turn towards a metal band and actually look our way. We don’t really care about these awards though,” admits Adnan. “To us it’s nice we’re putting metal on the map but when the whole scene gets that kind of recognition it’ll be even cooler. Our scene is small but it’s very tight knit. There are only a few local bands here but we’re lucky we’re in Dubai and not other places in the Middle East who don’t allow metal to even be played in venues. I went over to Jordan and there was a metal show in someone’s living room because you can’t rent out a venue for a show there. Dubai is kind of the safe haven for metal bands. When there is a big show people fly in and attend shows. We’ve had the likes of METALLICA and IRON MAIDEN here and we opened for SEPULTURA back in 2017. Every time there is a local show the crew comes out.”

SVENGALI always make an effort to get to know their fan base on a more personal basis and this is what sets them apart from the pack. “We always call our fans the SVENGALI Family because it really does feel like that. We can walk into a show and know everyone single person’s first name and they’ll know every word of our songs. You don’t get that without that kind of community,” states Adnan. “That’s why those kind of awards don’t matter as the people that give them out aren’t the ones who are at those shows. It’s one of our favourite things when our songs mean as much to someone else as they do to us. That’s what we’re doing it for. We’re trying our hardest to get some shows outside of our region. We’d love to play the UK and Europe and get some support slots, show our faces to some new crowds and get some new people to join the family! We have a lot more to say and we wanna write more albums and play more shows. We’d love to be able to do this long term and not wind up broke and hungry.”

Sayonara is out now via self-release.

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