Refuge, Rebellion & Resonance | Hamed Sinno

A deep exploration of the shifting relationship between sound, politics, and the visceral search for home with Hamed Sinno. The discussion moves from their childhood in Beirut, where they internalize a sense of being an outsider, to their time at the American University of Beirut (AUB), where they began to understand the expectations of a generation raised for export. Reflecting on the intense collaborative magic of their era with the band Mashrou’ Leila, they share the unique challenges of a musical collective coming up against governments and their eventual transition toward solitary and experimental sound work. The conversation also tackles the limits of representational politics, with Sinno explaining why they have shifted their focus toward direct political organizing outside of the arts. They examine the power of the listener, describing how an audience's perspective can transform a song into a political symbol far beyond the artist's original intent. Finally, they reflect on the recurring experience of political heartbreak, the difficulty of maintaining hope and the enduring, complicated pull of returning home to Lebanon. 0:00 Introduction 2:05 Finding Refuge: Distance and Identity in Transit 6:52 The Limits of Representation and the Function of Art 9:00 Bullying and the Seattle Grunge Escape 11:23 The Classed Bubble of Beirut 13:06 The Search for an Authentic Voice 15:58 Injecting Politics into Popular Discourse 18:22 The Magic of Collaborative Music 20:42 The Radical Intimacy of a Collective 23:54 Negotiating Worst-Case Scenarios 26:15 The Political Act of the "We" 27:31 Coming Up Against Governments: When Sound Meets Power 30:24 Solo vs. Collective 32:12 Surviving Political and Personal Heartbreak 35:13 Political Reality in an Undemocratic Time 38:45 Organizing Outside the Window Dressing 41:40 Popular Culture as a Strategic Tool 43:18 No-Input Mixing: Feedback Loops as a Physical Experience 44:40 Student Organizing and the Rhetoric of Palestine 49:23 Taxpayer Complicity and the Pull of Home 51:00 The Dream of Returning 53:50 Disassociating from the Beast 56:32 How a Cover Becomes a Revolution 58:42 Becoming a Meme: Intention vs. Cultural Resonance 59:40 Current Musical Resonance Hamed Sinno is a writer, musician and activist born and raised in Beirut, and currently living in New York. They have an MA in Digital Musics from Dartmouth College, and a BFA from the Department of Architecture and Design at the American University in Beirut, where they founded and fronted Lebanese indie band, Mashrou Leila, until the group disbanded in 2022. Their song-writing leverages rhetoric, poetry, and social justice to weaponize popular culture. With a fatwa and multiple bans under their belt, Sinno moved to the US, and is currently exploring narratives of estrangement, while centering their research on vocality, and voice synthesis as sites of political negotiation. Connect with Hamed Sinno 👉   / hamed.sinno   Hosted by Mikey Muhanna 👉   / mikey_mu   Theme music: Peninsular, Tarek Yamani 🔊 https://spoti.fi/47I59ns FOLLOW & RATE THE QUARTERTONES: » Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... » Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/26VHvC6... » Anghami: https://play.anghami.com/podcast/1044... THIS SERIES IS PART OF THE AFIKRA PODCAST NETWORK Explore all episodes in this series:    • QuarterTones | Music from the Arab World   ABOUT AFIKRA afikra | عفكرة is a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region – past, present and future – through conversations driven by curiosity. 📍 Local events in 40+ locations worldwide http://afikra.com/chapters 🎧 New podcasts + videos weekly http://afikra.com/podcasts ⚡ Become a member: https://www.afikra.com/membership 🔗 Instagram:   / afikra_   🔗 Facebook:   / afikra.official   🔗 Twitter:   / afikra