Cheen & La Machine à Mixer collaborate on new EP, Iskat
Proving that music doesn’t have to always be immediately, lyrically understood to hit you hard emotionally, under the moniker Cheen, Cherine Amr’s ISKAT EP is a fantastic creation that bridges the gap between alt-rock and Arabic-sung indie pop.
Written as a collaboration between Amr and Quebec’s La Machine à Mixer (Etienne Tremblay), ISKAT has a hopeful punk rock tinge to it with a song like “Kol Lil Amar,” about self-motivation and perseverance and a darker contemplative flavor with songs about alienation, and privilege, “Iskat” and “Téléphone Cassé.”
“Being an immigrant and exposed to Canadian and Egyptian cultures significantly shows up in my lyrics,” Amr says. “I write to vent—so a lot is going on.”
In a music world plagued by a cornucopia of artists that sound the same, CHEEN & La Machine à Mixer’s collaboration on ISKAT feels vibrant and fresh.
Listen to Iskat below, and learn more about Cheen via our Five Questions With segment.
Care to introduce yourself to our readers?
Hello – my name is Cherine, but my friends call me Cheen. I was born and raised in Alexandria, Egypt. I moved to Canada in 2015 because my metal band, Massive Scar Era, faced some challenges performing and playing music after being accused, along with the entire scene, of promoting satanism.
I started playing the guitar when I was 18 and formed my metal band quickly after that. However, I always had a pop-rock side that didn’t fit my band’s sound, so I decided to release a solo project under my name.
In 2010, I was performing in Cairo, and the Egyptian director Ahmad Abdalla heard a song of mine and wanted to feature it in a feature movie. When the film aired, my song Abaad Makan got very popular, and I started performing more in Egypt and released my album “Alam Tany.” Unfortunately, when things got bad with Massive Scar Era, I had to leave the country while my career was at its peak. I’m fortunate to receive a grant from CALQ to produce this EP with La Machine à Mixer and introduce my music to Canadians.
Tell us a bit about your most recent release.
Iskat mixes electro-pop and rock music with Egyptian melodies and lyrics. Arabic phonetics are very underrepresented in this genre, so it will give a little bit of a taste to the genre. It’s almost like Paramore and Churches blended together with Arabic vocal ornaments.
Where do you tend to pull inspiration from when writing?
I write to vent, so all my songs are personal. They mostly talk about the diaspora, reflect on past events, and vent about current social and political situations.
Do you have any upcoming shows or festivals you’d like to tell us about?
I’m currently trying to find my position in the Canadian scene. Although there are a lot of Arabic-speaking populations, I find it hard to position myself as a rock artist that sings in Arabic. Most festivals want to present artists that sing in foreign languages in a “world music” setting. They expect an ethnic presentation rather than a pop-rock sound. I sometimes introduce some Egyptian elements in the melody or some of the used instruments, but it wouldn’t really fit in these festivals. I hope I can work with a booking agent that could help me find gigs. Meanwhile, I perform local shows in Montreal. Some shows will be announced in January 2023.
What’s your goal for the remainder of 2022?
My goal in 2022 is to promote my release as much as possible; I plan to release a music video for “Iskat” in December.