Daily Discovery: Rahim Quazi, “The Things We Do”

Rahim Quazi is currently recording his third solo album, Ghost Hunting, in Dallas Texas. It is expected to be released in February 2015. He is currently playing shows around Dallas, Texas. You can check out dates HERE.

ARTIST: Rahim Quazi

SONG: The Things We Do

BIRTHDATE: 11/04

HOMETOWN: San Francisco, California

CURRENT LOCATION: Dallas, Texas

AMBITIONS: To live 100% on my creativity whether it be writing, performing or scoring.

TURN-OFFS: Live music venues that also have tv’s. please!! Oh, and sticky things.

TURN-ONS: Finding myself lost in a strange place; discovering a whole new world on accident. Last summer this happened many times in Germany. With my 10-year-old son at my side, we happened upon hidden medieval courtyards, secret gardens and forgotten graveyards.

DREAM GIG: The Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa. This was the last place Buddy Holly played before that ill-fated plane ride. To me, it’s more about intimacy and history. To play to a full room peering through the same red velvet curtains as Mr. Holly did would be as soul filling as can be.

FAVORITE LYRIC: “One Summer Dream” by Jeff Lynne (elo). In it he slowly creates simple images line by line; Deep rivers flow out to the sea, they never needed you or me. A bird on a string goes flying by, but there’s a teardrop in his eye. One summer dream… The sadness is all over this song, and yet I feel hopeful. That’s how I try to write. That’s how I feel.

CRAZIEST PERSON I KNOW: I have a friend, a fellow songster, who comes up with the most bizarre songs and stream of conscious tripped out words. His subject matter is aliens, robots and politics. He can be funny and even genius, but then during a normal conversation, he goes off and does the same thing. It makes you go, ‘say what??’ And, I have learned not to shake hands with him because they are always slightly sticky.

SONG I WISH I WROTE: Barbie Girl by Aqua “come on barbie, let’s go party!” Joking, but it’s really hard for me to write such a perfectly dumb song. I hear the songs like “Smoke Get’s In Your Eyes” by The Platters and I melt. Its haunting melody and heart wrenching words do it all for me. When I sit down to write a ballad, ‘Smoke’ is where my bar is set.

5 PEOPLE I’D MOST LIKE TO HAVE DINNER WITH: I’m not religious at all, but I would love to get Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha, Shiva and Tony Robbins in a room together and tell them to work it out. Then Tony could set up a press conference and world peace would ensue.

MY FAVORITE CONCERT EXPERIENCE: Right before The Strokes broke out world wide, the band I was in, OHNO, shared a bill with them. It was all casual, just a few bands sound checking and bumming around then rocking out. From the stage, we looked out to a star studded energy buzzing audience. We held our own and even got a deal from it. The Strokes deserved every bit of success that came weeks later. What a night at The Mercury Lounge in NYC.

I WROTE THIS SONG: “The Things We Do” — Most of the time when I write, I play some chords and open my mouth. Whatever words come out, is what my song is. Sometimes it makes sense, sometimes not. In this case, Everybody makes mistakes came out. It spurred me on to keep writing lines of negative things we are all capable of doing. And after all those things, it makes sense to forgive the ones that do the things we do. This is one of those songs that kind of wrote itself. I wanted to record it as a half folk/half gospel song. I hope you can feel it.