This is NOT another piece about underground Music.

These are the musicians who don’t fit the formula favored by mainstream radio and TV. Maybe it’s the music, maybe it’s the message. Maybe they make advertisers uncomfortable. Whatever the reason, when it comes time to find an audience, they’re mostly on their own. We go underground to find them.   

  They are independent musicians. They're not signed signed under big flashy labels, and you won’t find them on TV or the radio. They walk up on stage without bodyguards and hang with you after the show, they talk about things that affect you or stuff that you are probably thinking about, and they won't dumb down their lyrics for mass consumption. They make you feel change in their chords and in their words. These are their stories. I thought I was going to write about Egypt's 'underground' scene, like so many others have before. I was going to convince you of how these independent musicians produce something truly outstanding despite all the obstacles. I was going to throw around those three magical words: revolution, freedom, and struggle. I would have urged you to support them. But what would have been the point? It's all been said before. These are musicians who don't fit the formula favored by mainstream radio and TV. Maybe it's the music,  maybe it's the message. Maybe they make advertisers uncomfortable. Whatever the reason, when it comes time to find an audience, they're mostly on their own. There are a lot of places to play in Egypt, but indie musicians will tell you not a lot of true venues set up for concerts. Many musicians are not willing to play in bars, pubs and clubs — the idea being that the audience are usually there to drink and socialize, not just for the music. There's not much money in it for the musicians either. No one would go on record, because they have to work with these venues, but musicians say it can cost more to perform than they can earn for the performance. At Darb1718, the band has to rent the space and equipment. The Geneina stage at Al-Azhar Park pays a set fee regardless of audience size or ticket receipts: top name bands get LE 10,000, while every other group gets only LE 1,500 — total, not per performer. Sawy Cultural Wheel charges around LE 2,500 for a first-time band then offers a percentage of the ticket income after the 200^th ticket sold. Bigger names get a set fee between LE 8,000 and LE 25,000. New spaces like Beit El Raseef will split costs and profit with the musicians but are rarely equipped for performances. And it’s no secret that recording an album is expensive. Finding a studio that records at high quality without the equally high price tag is almost impossible. Finding a producer is equally challenging: most focus on the commercial market. Some of the sound engineers, who are some of the best in the country, have started branching out to produce for the independent market—but, the reality is that a sound engineer is not a producer; so most albums produced are, musically, often below the expectations of most of the musicians. The result, many of independent musicians have to produce their own work. Yet they keep at it, making their music for a few kindred souls in hopes it will spread. And in their quiet ways, they are changing the world we live in. To truly understand the underground music scene, we'd do better to try to understand the musicians themselves and the journeys they are on.