Get To Know : Nabeel
How has that sense of being between cultures changed for you over time? In what moments do you feel most connected to your Iraqi heritage, and in what moments most disconnected?
I think it’s something that changes from day to day, honestly. Home and heritage are so internal and personal. I feel most connected to my Iraqi heritage when I am with my family in Northern Virginia, speaking Arabic, cooking Iraqi food, looking through old family photos, that kind of thing. And I feel most disconnected when I think about my family in Iraq and how distant they are/have been for most of my life.
You grew up loving pop music, but your sound now is more experimental. How do those pop influences still show up in your music today?
I think most nabeel songs are pretty poppy by nature. I love writing hooks and using pop structure to make songs I want to listen to over and over again. Since I was a kid I’ve felt that there was some magic in listening to pop music. The feeling of wanting to hear a certain part of a song over and over again will always inform how I write songs. The more experimental elements usually come in at production/when we’re thinking about guitar tones and more broad production elements.
You’ve said “home” feels more like an idea than a real place. Is there a song or video where you feel like you actually created that idea of home?
I think the video for lazim alshams captures that idea of home being an idea. The idea of home feels hazy and nostalgic like the sound of that song, and the home videos I used feel like a portal into that imaginary past that I draw so much inspiration and strength from.
Your music blends Arabic sounds with shoegaze and rock, but you’ve said you don’t really think in genres. How do you choose the right sound or textures for a track?
It honestly just depends on what instruments and amps we decide to use in the studio. Typically I’ll come to the studio with the bones of a song and we’ll just have an idea for what sounds/genre conventions would suit the song best and go from there when it comes to choosing the amps and gear that shape the sound.
You use a lot of family archives like home videos and photos in your work. Can you give an example of one memory or image that deeply shaped a song or visual?
When I was digging through a box of old photos and letters at my parents house I came across a receipt from a hotel room that my dad had rented in Amman in 1991 while we were fleeing Iraq, and that felt really moving as an artifact. Something about it being so direct and informational with the exact cost and dates and times of our stay in Amman had me feeling a sense of awe at my own family’s history. These little artifacts of my family’s history of moving to the US sit at the heart of the project and definitely shape how I conceptualize the project as a whole.
You said many songs come from times when everything else feels like a letdown. Has writing during hard times gotten easier or harder as you’ve grown?
It’s definitely gotten easier to write more consistently, but I’m still always chasing a feeling that is buried somewhere. So, in a sense, it always feels like luck when I write something that feels unique and true to something inside of me that I was hardly even aware of.
Any exciting plans for the rest of 2025?
Yes! We are going to be playing our first shows overseas :) We have three shows I’m really looking forward to: ICA London on November 5th, Iceland Airwaves on November 7th, and Paris Pitchfork on November 8th. Other than that I’m looking forward to recording some new songs closer to December!