M - is for music

By Alemayehu Seife Selassie


I n a country, which is reviving from a tradition, which considered music as a taboo, it is hard to see musical families emerging in the city. Judging by the performance and zeal of one musical family however, it is not hard to see that in the modern day context, such trends really work. Named after their late musician father, the Mehari Brothers are composed of Henock, Robel, Lwam and Halal Mehari. Including three other young musicians, the band also enfolds Zeruabel, Ayalneh and Tesfamariam.

At a time when synthesizers and one-man bands are dominating the musical scene, these brothers seem to have sworn to bring back the band mood once again.
The wish that these four brothers would form a union and perform together was a long lasting dream of vocalist and saxophonist Mehari Abreha. “Our father wished that we would perform like the Jackson Five,” Henock, the eldest of the four said.
Robel and Lwam were performing in Dubai and Abu Dhabi for close to four years, and it was the Guzo Zeritu musical concert, which was organized fifteen months ago that reunited the band.

Born of a singer/saxophonist father and a traditional dancer mother, the brothers state that music is a tradition in their family. “They were not able to spend more money on us than for our education, but they were very much supportive of our music,” the brothers said.
Henock majoring in piano and Robel in clarinet, two members of the band have taken lessons from the Yared Music School.

Robel and Lwam are playing the guitar and bass, while Henock plays the keyboard. The youngest of the brothers, Halal plays percussion. Working towards enriching the band, the M-brothers have been contributing their share. Now they are preparing to equip the band in just a month’s time. “Within a month we would have the whole sound system, drums, an additional keyboard to make our band have all that a band needs”, they said.

Currently M brothers are playing at Panda club, Wednesday and Sunday, and Friday night at Freezone. Starting from tomorrow (Saturday) the brothers are going to start playing at Indigo nightclub. “We started with a major concert and that has contributed a lot for our performance. And there is a high demand from clubs and we even had to turn down some offers,” Robel said.

Playing in the Middle Eastern clubs for four years, Robel now states that he is happy with the type of crowd that comes to their shows. “We used to play similar things every night and in a way it was boring. You sleep in the daytime and work at night and you repeat that everyday. Some members of a band I worked with have stayed for ten years living that same life. The pay was better but the audience was not as memorable.”

Lwam who just went there two years after his elder brother shares Robel’s comments. “The types of songs they want you to play are the same traditional songs.”
Robel and Lwam were paid 500 USD in Dubai and 700-800 USD in Abu Dhabi for a month’s work after all the expenses were covered. Despite the money being one tempting factor for these young musicians what was more tempting was the availability of instruments. “There if you have money, you can go to the musical department of a mall and get all the equipment you need.”

Lwam stated that both he and his brother have always planned on saving to buy the equipment that were needed to form their own band and after they talked with their elder brother, Henock they decided that now is the right time.
Henock 29, released a musical album entitled “Ewnetegna Fikir [True Love] a couple of years ago. And he states that this time he is working on his second album but this time he wants to have more of a band effect.
“We just don’t want to work for the money. We just want to pursue our vision. We want to balance our dream with the economic condition of our country,” he said. According to this musician, the aim of M- Brothers is to break out of the known circle of performing here locally. “We want to play on an international level and we want to have a recording of the band’s performance. Unlike the computerized recordings, we want to have the full band.”

His younger brother, Halal grew up listening to his elder brother’s advice and has been blessed with ample support. Recently a grade 12 student, Halal is planning to study civil engineering or architecture starting from next year. But he is certain that he would not stay out of music. “I still have time to get back to my music.” Having written and performed a song for the school named Enat, this 19 year- old has added one more element on his performance. Halal is also setting his eyes on drumming for the band.

Having seen it all, Henock Mehari states that there is a bit more challenge to work in a band than the one-man shows. “It is easy to set a computer with some modules and record but to put the whole band in the studio is a big task. But we have a project to release an instrumental of the band. We are also working on our individual projects,”
Along side Henock’s coming album, some of the performers with the band who are working on their independent albums are Betty and Nati.

“It is a short time for us to start because we have only stayed together as a band for a year and three months. It might be too early to release new songs yet. But we are working day and night and we would not let anything stop us,” Henock said.

March 9, 2007