Medic is an Egyptian Rock band that proved themselves by their last EP. Rock Era interviewed Ehab Khaled Fawzi, Medic’s front-man, after their great concert in El Sawy Culture Wheel with Soul Revival band to know more about them and the gig’s theme: “Cure Our Souls.”
Ehab, before we talk about Medic, how did it all start with you, music and everything?
Ehab: Well, it all started when I was 4 years old, my father used to be a bassist, he introduced me to music at that age, so I found myself growing up with music all around me, I had that little 2 octaves keyboard, and I used to play the vocal lines of the songs I like, then it got bigger when he realized that, and he took good care of my musical career, may he R.I.P.
How did you choose the name “Medic” and why? What do you mean by the phrase “Cure our souls”?
Ehab: Actually choosing the name was a very humorous situation, as we took ages to come up with a name! It started with Hyphen, Vengeance, Red Fury, Armensia, Room 13 (a hotel room we used to stay in) and so many names, we used the band name “GENERATOR”, but finally we decided that from this moment on the name that anyone comes up with is going to be the band’s name, so Adham came up with Medic, and it was +Medic+
As for Cure our souls, that was just a theme for a gig on July 5th along with the Coldplay tribute band in Egypt, and the band was called “Soul ReViVal”. You can ask what we mean by the word Cure itself, as we used the word in two gigs before this one. This is how it started: “Medic” decided to give out some donations to the children’s cancer hospital by deducting some of the concert’s outcome, and thanks to our fans, we were able to do that.
How did the band start? And who founded it?
Ehab: The band started in 2005 with Amr Shebl and Hazem Sherif, who used to be the old rhythm guitarist and bassist respectively, they went to high school with me. Amr came up with the idea and hazem liked it. They needed a keyboardist so I was in, and we started off with some raw material of Shebl’s Dark Side and some covers. I knew Ramy from Rehab city, then I knew he played the guitar. I called him into a jam and he improvised a solo on Dark Side, and he was in. As for Adham, it was me and Hazem chilling after school and thinking about finding a drummer when a friend came and said that he knew a good one from Alex who’d come to Cairo for shortly but was going to stay this time for university.
What genre of music does the band play? And why did you choose this genre?
Ehab: The band plays multiple genres, we play Progressive Rock, Alternative Rock, Fusion, Hard Rock…but mainly progressive. Each member of Medic right now listens to a different genre, so we try to mix this all up and come up with something new in our originals which mainly undergo the progressive rock and Fusion transformation.
What was your aim when you founded the band?
Ehab: To be honest, just satisfying musical hunger, but when we had a live concert opportunity, we said why not! And people’s feedback was: ‘Hey guys, when’s your next concert?’ So we liked the idea and started working seriously on our originals…By time we asked ourselves this question, what’s our aim? In this album; The Dark Side, we’re talking about one guy and how he reacts to different situations in this life from the band’s point of view, so basically every album has its different idea and message.
Tell me about the members, how did you guys get to know each other?
Ehab: The current members are Me, Ramy, Omar and Adham. We’re old friends, we hang out together, and what made this so easy is that we live two blocks away from each other, and guess what? Ramy and Omar are brothers!!
In the band Ramy plays Lead Guitar, Omar is on Bass, Adham is on Drums, and I play Guitars, keyboards when we need it and Vocals as well.
What did you guys feel when you got on stage for the first time ever?
Ehab: It was…great! We felt like we bonded with each other because people said that we did a great job although we only played two tracks!!
Ehab, tell me about Medic’s last EP, the genre, the mood, and the idea of each track.
Ehab: Medic’s EP contains four of songs from our first album “The Dark Side” which was released on the “Cure Our Souls” gig on July 5th 09, I’ll talk about each track briefly:
- Dark Side: concerning that guy we’re talking about during the whole album and how he faces situations like his girlfriend leaving him and how he lives in darkness remembering the Good old days that they spent together and there’s a track called Good old days after that.
- Regrets: Now we’ve got some problems with the Devil, the guy has gotten over the devil’s brain washing and he’ll stand up to him, and he prays that God to cave the wall that will set him free.
- Female is on Fire: A 2-minute rock & roll track, it came after regrets, it has a happy and humorous mood as he has been freed from the Devil.
- Healed: finally the guy is calling and yelling for someone to cure him, heal him from this life as he’s feeling lost and hurt from what happened in this dark side of his life with nowhere else to go. In the chorus there are just two words, Heal me heal me. The solo in this track is discussing the healing operation, as in the first half of the solo you’ll feel that something is wrong; something is hard, while in the other half everything is ok and fine, and that’s what we’ll talk about in the rest of the album.
I think you should listen to the CD again, this time while reading the lyrics…and hopefully the message of this album will be delivered, because I know it’s mysterious.
Do you think that you can achieve something with Medic here in Egypt, with all the difficulties that bands face here?
Ehab: Let’s be clear and frank, it’s not that easy, but when you do something good, you’re appreciated, at least by your fans, who deserve it, so we have to try.
What do you see in the future of “Medic”?
Ehab: In the five year plan for Medic I can see the four of us on stage touring with our new albums all over the world. You have to think big to go big.
Ehab, what do you think of Rock Era magazine?
Ehab: I said it before and I’ll say it again, total support to you guys, you’re doing a great job for Music in this country. May God be with you and help you achieve all you want.
Ehab, thank you for this interview.
Ehab: Thank you very much, it’s been a pleasure.
