The Bahraini-Egyptian’s latest song is his first that isn’t self-focused, taking a look at the world and questioning why certain stories get told in foreign media, while others are forgotten.
“I think this is the first song I’ve ever released that wasn’t self-focused – in my songs it’s usually me talking to myself – a journal entry more than anything,” the 28-year-old who lives in Bu Quwah told GulfWeekly.
“But this one in particular isn’t – it’s one that was purposely created to be heard by someone else.
“It’s my first-ever protest song, I guess. It’s also much angrier and faster than anything I’ve done before.
“I was getting really frustrated with the way we’re portrayed in foreign media – our stories just aren’t as important.
“The wording is so carefully and purposely different.
“I think we saw a lot of that post-October 2023 and its been a sore spot ever since.”
The bedroom bard recorded the entire three-minute song at home, with vocals recorded under his blanket and mixes tested in the car to see if they sound good.
Using just a laptop, guitar and microphone, Neon Sfynx was able to finish a song that he had begun writing in the aftermath of the October 2023 escalation in the Israel-Gaza conflict.
“I always make the music first not the lyrics – the music needs to feel right,” he added.
“I don’t really care much about the technicalities but the emotion.
“So if the goal is to write an angry song I need the music to sound angry before I ever start writing lyrics. The lyrics however take the longest time.
“I actually put a lot of effort into them. It’s a juggling act between conveying the message, writing something that isn’t too wordy, finding the right number of syllables and finally finding a way to make all of that catchy.”
And HUH? is definitely catchy, with an earworm hook ‘The boys and the girls don’t care about the bombs and the guns in the air’ that sticks with you long after the song’s done.
When asked about the meaning behind his monicker, Neon Sfynx wants to put some rumours to rest.
“A lot of people think the sfynx part has to do with being Egyptian but that’s actually not the case,” he explained.
“It’s because back in the 1970’s jazz musicians would be called cats.
“So someone came up with this idea that because I was bald I’d be one of those bald sphinx cats and because I make rock music that has a lot of sci-fi sounding synth elements it became Neon Sfynx.”
HUH? is Neon Sfynx’s ninth single, as he works up to his first album Slingshot. It is available on Spotify, Apple Music and iTunes.
For more details, follow @neonsfynx on Instagram.
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