assaad lakkis - musician and producer extraordinaire - takes us on a journey back to the beginnings of his music scenes in dubai. from open night jams at the bunker, skating at chicago beach village, buying thames originals bootleg cassettes at music master in deira city center, a life changing kiss concert on tv, discovering hendrix and frank zappa, playing prince's club in minneapolis, to opening the incredible bull funk studios in his hometown.  

he chooses frank zappa's oh no as the track that best represents 2002 for him

www.dxbkids.film

about Assaad Lakkis - Record Producer/Musician at Bull Funk Studios

“It sounds like a big bad bull fornicating and wildly stompin' the blues to rubble!” Nothing sums up BFZ - in his one words - quite so accurately since he exploded onto the Dubai music scene in 2011. He was also referred to as "The Joe Rogan of rock'

He was born & Raised in Dubai, after graduating high school, he hopped on a plane to the US where he realized he was on his own, with a world of opportunity at his feet. Studying and pumping gas to buy his first guitar, Assaad made the acquaintance of some old school punk rockers, who were the very personification of everything he had aspired to be; they were as rock n roll as they come!

BFZ made his musical bones playing with every conceivable kind of musician, band, genre during his time in the U.S. until moving back to Dubai in 2000, where he continued to experiment with different types of music and defining his own sound. He founded the ‘Abstrakt Collision’, and worked with some of the region’s hottest numbers as a session guitarist.

He released his first debut album under Abstrakt Collision in 2003 album “In The Meantime Of Tomorrow” with 2 albums to follow in 2004 (Morphine) & 2007 (Division/Divided). In 2010 he created Bull Funk Zoo and released the self titled album in 2013 to be critically acclaimed from the likes of Rolling Stone ME, who dubbed it as, “the highest rated album by an unsigned artist in the region”. He followed it up with his second album, ‘Dangerous Radio’, and in 2018 “Down & Dirty” which he composed, produced, engineered and performed. He remains, by all accounts, one of the hardest working musicians out there and he continues to pursue his ultimate goal, “It’s the final frontier. Touring, traveling the world, Producing/Recording, and playing kick ass music! It doesn’t get any better than that!”

Him & his outfits have opened for Sade, Sting, Timbaland, Stanley Jordan, Habib Koite, Tinariwen and others

BFZ’s work has earned him multiple nominations in the UAE and the US. Most notably ‘Abstrakt Collision’s’ nomination in the experimental category for the track, ‘Amerika’ and his debut album’s nomination in the rock category at the International Music Awards (IMA), with the track ‘Oblivion’ as best rock song of 2014. His latest album "Down & Dirty" has also been nominated for best rock/hard rock album of 2019 at the Independent Music Awards in New York

we speak to one of our deep inspirations, Meitha Al Mazrooei about growing up in dubai, studying architecture at AUS, and co-founding WTD Magazine.

Meitha Al Mazrooei is the editor of WTD Magazine, a publication aimed at providing a platform for discourse among architects and designers. She is also the co-founder of the Center for Architectural Discourse. Al Mazrooei holds a bachelor’s in design management from the American University of Sharjah and an MS in curatorial and conceptual practice in architecture at Columbia University.

www.dxbkids.film

kickstarter.com/projects/shehab/dxb-kids

we talk to singer-songwriter Mike Ross about growing up in sharjah, being a dxb-kid, returning to dubai and being a professional musician there.

he selected 2 + 2 = 5 by radiohead as the track that represents 2003 for him.

Mike Ross, performerer, writerer, bio-denier.

Mike's YouTube

twitter.com/mikeyross

the first podcast in a series that accompanies the dxb-kids documentary about the birth of creative scenes in dubai on the noughties and beyond.

more podcast content for backers of kickstarter.com/projects/shehab/dxb-kids