Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1188980
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 1 DECEMBER 2019 5 THIS WEEK MUSIC friends the project, and they worked on their pieces. Catherine Farrugia was at Junior College at the same time as me, so she knew what I was talking about. What else can you tell us about the album? What kind of sound has Karmagenn cultivated, and what kind of stories do its lyrics tell? Everyone involved brought their own influences, and I listened to a lot of what my friends were listening to while we came up with the songs. De- pending on who I was working with, we talked about some kind of music we both like, and that got into some of the song. So there was some Italian singer-songwriter stuff, a lot of jazz, punk, and the soundtracks of coming of age movies, because that's what the story is. It's the week before Christmas at Junior College, and these five friends hang out – Naomi, who has a crush on Warren and it's getting her wired up because she's a lesbian; Jeanelle, her best friend who works at a sushi place with her; Kaldon, who's really good at cooking; and Jamie, who likes Patti Smith and art and has a crush on Naomi. Okay, I'll be honest; there was an- other reason I wanted to tell the sto- ry... there was a kind of discourse I was seeing that I wanted to counter. There was this project I remember seeing where a few artists did this re- ally beautiful artistic thing by the sea, and I thought it was gorgeous and poignant, but it felt really detached from the reality of my life, and of Malta as I'm living in it now. I find that kind of catharsis, or whatever, not just by the sea or in some bar- ren pristine-myth rural fairy land, but like, in the movement of bodies around the Gżira/Msida/Ħamrun/ Marsa area, and the contradictions of Malta as it gentrifies, and the en- ergy of all these diverse communities which are all Maltese and negotiate really fascinating identities, and the miscommunications between peo- ple grocery shopping, and so on. So I wanted to write about that because that's what I find special. What do you make of the local music scene? What would you change about it? There are lots of little groups of peo- ple who come together to make the music scene, and they interact with and move between other arts scenes; for the kinds of people I tend to hang around with, the scene is something very special. The people I've met in the last two years have been genuinely the kind- est, sweetest, open-hearted indi- viduals who very casually really care about one another. There's this connection that can go beyond where we come from so that we break out of our usual ways of looking at the world and make music together. That sounds like (or rather, is) the sort of thing I've said and been told at two in the morning at good parties, but it's true. I feel very lucky to have made these friends, and they define me, I guess. I don't know if I want it to change, but I think it's interesting sometimes to observe the social differences be- tween different parts of the scene, and the different ways they like, articulate their identities and engage with other social groups at different venues. What's next for you? (Fantastical replies are also allowed.) I'm going to do this hip-hop/jazz project where I make-up black cir- cles around my eyes, and then I'm going to stage a musical where eve- ryone dresses in very elaborate Ro- coco clothing and sings Broadway songs in Hebrew. I shall attempt to make a vegetarian Maltese sausage, and start a mobile café where I walk up and down Mile End distributing gluten-free imqaret in red and white checked paper bags. With my friends we're going to start a record label and publishing house called Counterfeit Money Press. After that I'll finish my dissertation about food, but hopeful- ly the revolution will have happened before then. Karmaġenn will be launching and performing their debut album with a specially-formed line-up on Decem- ber 6 at Offbeat, Valletta, 8pm. For more information, log on to: https:// karmagenn.bandcamp.com/ There's this connection that can go beyond where we come from so that we break out of our usual ways of looking at the world and make music together. That sounds like (or rather, is) the sort of thing I've said and been told at two in the morning at good parties, but it's true