It was a Saturday morning in Photopia when we met with Ezz, Gamal, and Yousra, the faces of the extremely unique band Takh. Everything about this band is unique, from its name, to the music, to the lyrics, even to the music videos.  They are best known for their catchy hit “Call Me Ziko,” who doesn’t know it? It’s even on True Caller! We started chit chatting over our coffee instantly, as they’re incredibly sociable and funny. We got the full insight into the band since the beginning, and even got them to sing for us! You can watch the video on www.eb8e7f6d53.nxcli.net. To introduce who does what in the band, Gamal drums and composes music along with Ezz, who happens to be the guitar and bass player. Yousra comes up with the lyrics and the story behind each song.

Can you tell us more about your backgrounds before you started the band?

Ezz: I am an I.T major in which has nothing related to my music passion. I have played and am still playing with many bands.

Yousra: I studied marketing and innovation, and previously worked in the corporate world and sang ads and jingles for radio and TV on the side. I always wrote and composed songs as a hobby on my guitar.

Gamal: I majored in mass communication, then got my higher diploma in music from London University. I work in audio production and play drums with many bands.

What’s different about this band than other musical groups and projects you have worked on before?

Perhaps it’s the combination of us three and how simple we are as characters and in the way we make music.

What’s the story behind how the band started?

Ezz: It was my idea and it started very spontaneously. Yousra and I were kind of friends, so I suggested that we start working on Yousra’s songs, but we wanted a music producer. That’s when Gamal popped into our minds. The first song was already written and composed by Yousra earlier with three to four guitar chords. Gamal and I heard it and in no time turned its music and production around. We finished the song in two days… That was “Mofta7 El Beit”! We simply put it on Youtube and it only got 5000 views because we didn’t have any network yet.

Wow, that’s not a low number, it’s actually a great start considering you were just starting. Can you tell us about your biggest hit, “Call Me Ziko”?

We didn’t think it was a hit until someone told us that everyone had been talking about it. Apparently what happened was that someone posted it on his page and it got a million shares or something like that. Then someone shared it on Sound Cloud and then it was everywhere.

Why do you think it took off the way it did?

“Call Me Ziko” has really funky music and creative lyrics. People enjoyed the mind game of how the girl Siham was giving Ziko her number. Most people had to listen to the verses and especially the chorus several times to understand that all these sentences had her disguised number. Moreover, the characters in this song are so relatable.

We’re curious about the stories behind the characters and their names in your songs. How did you come up with Ziko, Seham, and Bakinam?

Yousra: These characters are everywhere in our society, but of course with different names. For example, Ziko was based off the typical rich guy in a club.

How did you come up with the name of the band, “Takh”?

Gamal: We kept searching for a name for too long until the name just ‘takh keda.’

Yousra: We wanted the band’s name to be “Takhbeat;” however, it was already taken, so we ended up settling for “Takh” as in BAAAMMM!!

Ezz: It’s really expressive because everything relating to the band came together so quickly.

Your videos are very unique as well, how do you come up with them?

Ezz: A lot of people helped. Mohamed Fayez helped us with all of the visuals since the very beginning. In Bakinam, the styling was done by Omneya Ali, Hamed Yehia was the DOP and graphics, Mohamed Fayez was the creative director, Rasha Najdy was the producer, and a lot of other people contributed to the video.

It’s really great that you have been so well received so far, what are your future plans?

We haven’t done any concerts yet but we’re definitely planning to. We have a single coming up very soon.

We don’t like the idea of making albums because we like to make music for people to enjoy, we don’t really care about selling albums.

That’s interesting, you said that you don’t like albums because you would rather focus on making music for people to enjoy. Do you think that modern-day artists tend to get distracted with the production of their music, rather than the art of it?

We don’t prefer to talk about others – as everybody has a different and perhaps a more suitable plan for themselves. Yet for us, we are present in our current moment and giving each step of the ladder all of our thoughts, effort, and love.