Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
Bahraini bards The Relocators are taking their fans and listeners on a sojourn of singles, as they build up to the release of their third EP, starting with Reasons.
In the upcoming Reasons, the three-person band has a relaxed, nonchalant and serene attitude towards the end of the world – an attitude that they will be carrying forward throughout the EP.
“It’s a fun funky song that demonstrates an attitude of being in an end-of-the-world scenario without feeling any attachment to the narrative, because we never played a role in that particular ‘movie’ so to speak,” 35-year-old Bahraini Faisal Amin, who does vocals and plays guitar in the band, told GulfWeekly.
Ali Alqaseer, 29, playing the drums and percussion, alongside Romeriko ‘Jojo’ Canlas, 43, on bass round out the core trio of the band.
In the four-minute ditty, Reasons, the band croons: “It’s, we feel alright/ It’s got nothin’ on you or me/ As the sky is fallin’/ I’ve got reasons to remember you/ Never part of what’s been playin’/ What’s the ending got to do with me and you?/ It’s okay to feel alright/ ‘Cause we made a damn good choice/ It’s okay to feel alright/ We never got into the noise.”
If the first single is any indication of the songs to come, it is a much funkier sound than the band’s previous EP, Part of Me, released in 2019.
Reasons is also a natural progression from Part of Me, which featured a medley of motifs ranging from nature to spirituality with an underlying message of focusing on the bigger picture and finding the connection between one’s internal and external worlds.
“This EP comes from a grounded and detached, but not apathetic attitude,” Faisal explained. “We do what we can, pay our dues, and chill.”
Annie Kennaugh, who backed the band on Part of Me, joins them for Reasons, alongside Maraam Abdulaal, for backing vocals.
Sarah Redha, known on Instagram as The Monkey Grip, will be providing visuals for this album as well, continuing a long-standing partnership. Abdulla Jamal will be recording, mixing and co-producing the tracks.
The band plans to release singles approximately every six weeks and is switching things up this time with more improvisation in the studio.
They are approaching the as-yet-unnamed EP, in general, with a more deliberate ‘decisions-on-the-fly’ approach, while keeping the theme introspective and reflective.
The band was set to embark on a tour across the GCC after the release of Part of Me but the Covid-19 pandemic put paid to those plans.
“We haven’t done any shows since the Part of Me EP launch in February last year, but that has really given us time to focus on the backend stuff,” Faisal said.
“We have worked on the structure of how we function, clarified where we stand and where we plan to go. We also worked hard on evolving our musicianship and our live performance, putting together a whole bunch of ideas which will eventually come to fruition.
“In our personal lives, there are things we do with a lot of passion such as supporting the planting of trees around the country, education and charity. We’ve kind of shied away from putting a lot of it in front of the public through our band because we don’t want to use these things as marketing tools.
“But we are very confident that we don’t do these things for any personal/material gain and we are now planning to get our supporters and audiences more engaged with this side of us and get them to join in.”
For more details, follow @therelocators on Instagram.
