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What was it like when Myrath started all the way back in 2001?

Anis:  Myrath began as a cover band, first playing some blues, then moving to covers of Symphony X and various death metal bands.

Kevin: The metal scene in Tunisia is not that big: the country lacks infrastructure, education for professional musicians and places where you can buy music. Only a minority of educated people listen to metal music. It has been quite difficult for us even fifteen years ago – when you are on the street with long hair people think that you are satanists. I think there are around 8000 metalheads in Tunisia that we can play in front of. I don’t think it will grow that much in the near future, but it’s better than nothing.

What did originally inspire the founder Malek Ben Arbia to pick up guitar music in the first place?

Anis: Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, among other such bands. His father was himself a metalhead who played some guitar and a fan of these bands – he educated him from his childhood and had him listen to the old stuff. So his father is who he took it from. I think Malek started playing guitar at the age of twelve, covering songs.

How about you, Anis?

Anis: I also began young – at 13 I started playing bass. Before that I was studying classical guitar. One day a friend from the yard, who was a metalhead, called me to take his cassette to listen through at home. That’s when I fell in love with metal music and moved away from classical guitar to bass, eventually starting my career.

Do you know why the band has always sung in English rather than Arabic or French?

Kevin: The band had decided from the beginning to sing fully in English to export itself. It’s easier to speak about many subjects in English than in French or Tunisian. It was also what the record labels themselves requested.

What themes do you most frequently use when writing lyrics for your songs?

Kevin: The band had struggled a lot from discrimination because most of the band is from Tunisia. We’re still facing some issues – for example when we were playing in South America last year, each time we were about to take the flight we couldn’t because “okay, you have a green passport, you are musicians, but we don’t trust you, so we’re cancelling your flight” – this kind of stuff. It gave us strength to talk about this kind of subjects, especially on the last album Karma (2024). We are talking about discrimination, about being proud of doing something and not being shy of doing stuff. Also about depression, because Zaher had suffered a lot from depression in the past four years – thankfully he’s much better now. And the most vital modern subject – climate change. We’ve been frequently asked about our friend Aymen Jaouadi, who has been the band’s lyricist since the beginning. We are working together closely to make them happen.

In the last three years you’ve had, I think, three concerts in high-profile nightclubs in Poland. Do you remember anything from these gigs and how you were received by the audience?

Anis: Sure, we’ve played in Progresja (Warsaw) venue three times – I remember these very well. We were well received by the crowd, the tickets were sold out and we really enjoyed playing there.

Kevin: Poland is special, because generally the more you go to the east and north of Europe, the more the people are quiet – for example Germany compared to Spain or Portugal. The crowd of Poland is kind of unique, it’s different from neighboring countries.

Is there a difference between playing in these closed locations and in open spaces with much larger audiences?

Anis: For sure. Usually musicians like us play a lot in closed venues – we’re used to this sound. But we’ve also played in Vancouver, at Sweden Rock Festival and at FIFA Fan Festival 2022 in Qatar. I remember playing in front of 80 thousand. When we played in Qatar we fell in love with big stages. Now I feel better on a big stage with a big audience. Maybe it’s different for the others, but it gives me a lot of energy when I see people.

Pol’and’Rock is one of the largest open air festivals in Poland, usually bringing about 200 thousand. Supposedly there was a record of 700 thousand people. Is this going to be the biggest festival and the biggest audience that you’ll have ever performed on?

Kevin: If we reach 200 thousand now, it will already be the biggest – bigger than Qatar.

You’ve had concerts all around the world – mostly in Europe, but also your Latin American tour from last year, plus a few gigs in USA and Japan. Were you received differently in those other continents, compared to Europe?

Anis: All the crowds were positive, but totally different depending on the country. For example Japanese people have their own culture – they receive you on the airport, bringing small gifts. It’s a different atmosphere from South America, where they are more friendly. They love parties and these kinds of things. It’s different, but all in the positive way.

I’ve noticed a lack of mentions of your concerts in Africa outside Tunisia. Is that really the case?

Kevin: Yeah. It’s very difficult to play in Africa. Do you know of even one metal festival in Africa? We played at L’Boulevard in Morocco, but it was a more eclectic festival of rock music. In the neighboring Algeria, for example, there are no such festivals. As we said, there is no infrastructure in this region. Most people don’t even know that Metal music is something that exists.

With 23 years of experience, do you already see yourselves as veterans at their peak, or do you think there is still even more room to grow?

Anis: We are still at the beginning, still a small band. So we have to grow more, gain more experience, reach more people in the world – the maximum possible number. It’s a very big job.

Kevin: Metal music is not like pop music. You grow slowly and slowly, and you have to keep delivering good albums, playing in small venues all over the world. Our fanbase is growing every year, so we will keep continuing.