User:Hamada El Mansour

link titleHamada El Mansour is a Moroccan guitarist and songsmith. He played lead guitar and recorded with different bands such as Garoupa, Nude, Over a Dogma... He was born and raised in Morocco, the 33-year-old’s first musical instrument was Renault 4, sitting on the hood and making rhythmic sounds by rocking back and forth.

Steeped in the local music culture of Morocco, “where everyone played drums,” he played music of the Gnawa tradition from East Africa, while listening to his father’s Sam Cooke and Aretha Franklin albums, his mother’s collection of French singers and his own collection of world rock albums by the likes of the Police, the Pink Floyd, Prince and U2. He got his first guitar at the age of 12—a gift he stole from his 5-year-old brother.

For 10 years until he was 28, Hamada was a professional musician around Morocco, playing with a “band with no name”—an amorphous group of musicians who came and went, bringing their own styles and interests with them. That free-spirited, musically open atmosphere is what Hamada hopes to recreate with Over a Dogma—different musicians, different influences, no idea thrown out.