Season 2, Episode 13: “Syria is Finally Free” ft Hello Psychaleppo

Narration: Each and every day of 2024 has felt like living through history. I know, I know, you could say that about any year, but this one has hit different. AI, elections, war, genocide, climate instability. Then, just when I thought the year could not get any denser, December brought news of the fall of Bashar Al Assad, Syria’s brutal dictator. For more than a decade now, the repressions of the Al Assad regime have prompted unprecedented levels of migration. Half of Syria’s population has been displaced, both internally and externally to countries around the globe.

Today, we bring you the story of a musician who experienced that displacement, the Syrian electronic composer and visual artist Samer Saem Eldahr, otherwise known as Hello Psychaleppo. We originally spoke to Samer in 2017, in the wake of his first album release, when this podcast was just a budding idea. Seven years later, his story and his music feel equally and eerily relevant.

My name is Meklit and this is Movement, music and migration remixed.

Meklit: At this point, how many countries have you lived in over the past decade?

Samer: So Syria, Lebanon, Minnesota and now I'm in Turkey.

Meklit: It's interesting that you said Minnesota, not necessarily the United States.

Samer: Oh, yeah. Minnesota is home.

Meklit: So on that journey between those four countries, you were making music the whole time, right?

Samer: Yes. That's the only thing I never stopped. Like, for me, music, I don't take it as a like a normal thing. It's a survival thing. My name's Samer Saem Eldahr. I was born in Aleppo, Syria. I'm the guy behind the music project Hello Psychaleppo.

Meklit: So can you tell us about your hometown, where you grew up and memories of place that really stand out to you?

Samer: So, Aleppo is a wonderful city, it's ancient. And at night it was just so beautiful sitting next to the Citadel playing cards with your friends and listening to unka thoum at night. Arabic music was mostly everywhere. Tarab music, especially, especially in Aleppo.

Meklit: So tell me about electoral tarab.

Samer: That started when I was back home in Aleppo and just experimenting I combined samples. Names like Abdul Haleem from Egypt, Fahd Ballan from Syria. Classic old stuff and brought them to like drum and bass and dubstep and, you know, electronic music genres. People started to ask me, like, what is this, your playing? And, you know, the shortest answer for that was electro and tarab. So that's the combination. I feel like this is a movement that's happening everywhere because it's very natural.

Meklit: Right.

Samer: It's culture and and tools.

Meklit: So could you take us through the journey that you've been on? Starting I guess maybe it was a decade ago.

Samer: Yeah, 2012

Meklit: Lead us through it.

Samer: Totally. So I was studying fine arts. And at that point, I graduated in 2012. And things started in Syria in 2011. And things took off from there. That moment I was back in my studio in Aleppo when I was writing a piece from my first album called P.H. It was so peaceful and like, gunfires were like, you know, blasting outside. I was like, just in a different place. That is like, what's happening outside doesn't really I don't relate to it. You know?

After that, I decided to go to Lebanon. I left Syria with a plan of going back after a month, I stayed there for like three years, actually. Starting 2015, they released a new law that doesn't allow foreigners if they don't have a work permit, stay in Lebanon. So because I was a freelancer, I had to leave to the US.

Meklit: So at the time that you left Lebanon, Aleppo had just been devastated by fighting. Can you tell us a little bit about what you were feeling in this period?

Samer: As a musician, I felt very, very helpless. But then after that, like I came to a conclusion that if I make like a youngster, busy for five minutes to quit all the mess outside.

Meklit: Mm hmm.

Samer: I feel like that's like an act against war. That's the most I can do. We went to the states for five years, and after that moved to Turkey to reunite with my parents because, you know, after the travel ban, I couldn't have my parents come to the US even for a visit. That's one of the reasons I'm in Turkey right now.

Meklit: Do you see yourself returning to Aleppo at some point?

Samer: That's a big question. You know, like I know people went back after a while and they ask themselves like, is this like Aleppo that we knew before? It's like everything has changed, changed. The places that you know aren't there.

In 2017, I released an album called Toyour. It's a conceptual album. Toyour your means birds in Arabic. So I collected all the Arabic songs that talks about Bird. The artist Asmahan, her song is called Ya Touyour. Yughani hubiy. O, birds sing my love, enchant my hopes.

Meklit: Why birds?

Samer: Just the idea of it is freeing. You know, freedom of movement, freedom of being with the, you know, the ones you love. And you're always in a survival mode when you don't have that, you know?

Meklit: Hmm hmm hmm.

That was Samer Saem Eldahr, otherwise known as Hello Psychaleppo. He’s released many albums since this original interview, including 2024’s Cipher, but Toyour remains one of my favorites.

I had been wondering how Samer was feeling amidst the recent changes in Syria, and then this morning from his new home in Oklahoma, yes he moved to Oklahoma just last year. Samer posted a photo on his socials that answered all my questions. In it, he and his son were sitting in a big comfy chair, wearing soft winter robes, looking each other directly in the face. There seemed to be tears in Samer’s eyes. And the words he wrote to go along with the photo were so compelling, that we asked him to record himself reading them out loud, so you could hear them in his own voice.

Samer: That was the moment I read the news that Al-Assad ran away, a realization that Syria is finally free. At that same moment, my son came to me and sat on my lap to congratulate me. In that instant, I realized that I could finally introduce him to my whole family, my home, my friends, a world he knows nothing about. I’ve often suppressed memories to protect myself and keep moving forward, but not anymore. Aleppo, are you ready for Psychaleppo?

Narration: Movement is produced by Ian Coss and myself, Meklit Hadero. Our editor is Megan Tan. Our co-creator and podcast godmother is Julie Caine. Our broadcast partner is The World. We are supported by the Mellon Foundation and distributed by PRX.

If you enjoyed this story, consider sending it to a friend, or leaving us a review on Apple Podcasts. Believe me, this stuff really does help people find the show. And if you happen to be curious about my albums, or performances, you can learn more at meklitmusic.com. Movement will be back with new episodes every other Tuesday through January.