What’s your stage name and where are you from?
Zaarour. Los Angeles, CA and Beirut, Lebanon
What’s the story behind your stage name?
My last name Zaarour, a common family name in Lebanon. It’s a representation of my background, the culture, and my roots.
Describe your musical journey in three sentences.
My whole life, I’ve never been able to keep myself away from creating music. I started out with music classes and playing instruments in school, and ever since I wrote my first song, I couldn’t keep myself from stopping, no matter what else was going on in my life. Music is my creative outlet and I turned it into something to share with the world, not vice versa.
Share an interesting experience you had while creating your latest track.
I recently performed in Los Angeles at The Vermont Hollywood in front of 300+ people for a fundraiser hosted by a Lebanese nonprofit in SoCal. It was amazing to share my top tracks “Kalam (Come My Way)” and “Ghareb” with so many people as well as get a lot of in-person interactions with my audience.
An experience I had making my latest track “Verses” was the crazy process we went through to film the one-take performance music video. We filmed it at Nike Missile Site LA-88, which is an abandoned missile silo from the Cold War located in the hills around LA. It’s a dope spot with graffiti, bullet holes, abandoned buildings, and rubble. It was a crazy process hiking an uphill slope for almost a mile, with tons of recording equipment, just to get up there.
What message do you want to convey through your music?
I want to convey my reality, which is also the one so many others live. I want to convey the beauty of my roots and culture, the dichotomy of being Lebanese-American, the immigrant struggle, coming from nothing, striving towards success, and working harder than the rest. I want to also convey inherent beliefs and truths I have discovered in my life regarding my spiritual journey and the value of love and positivity. It really all goes together. The world is full of suffering, and the only way to combat that truth of nature is to spread love, which cannot be expressed through words, but only through art. All in all, tell the truth and spread love.
Tell us about a challenge you faced during production and how you overcame it.
Filming my music video for “Ghareb” in Beirut was a huge challenge. It was my first time doing any type of collaboration outside of the US, and I had to be a lot more hands-on when I did it there. I reached out to a co-director out there, who was a mutual connect, and he connected me to some great videographers. I had to go location scouting, come up with a call sheet for the extras, find the extras, pick out wardrobes, imagine the vision of the music video and all the shots, and plan out logistics (which are very complicated in Lebanon). With the help of the team, I managed to creatively direct and star in the video, which turned out to be a banger.
If you could collaborate with any artist, who would it be and why?
Saint Levant. He is absolutely killing it right now, especially in the international Arabic or “Arabeezy” scene.
Where do you see your music taking you in the next year?
It takes me wherever it takes me. It’s purely about the creativity for me and sharing my vision with my audience. Whether 5 people hear it or 5 million, I’m just happy to do this as my creative outlet and have the privilege to share it with people.
What’s the next big step for you as an artist?
Release 6 tracks this year and play at more shows. Those are my goals. We’ll see what doors open for me as a result, and the big steps that come after.
Where can we hear/watch your most recent work?
