meet Outlandish

“We live in times when political positions are becoming polarized and cultures are considered fenced-in entities that cannot be united. The world is often viewed through a faulty prism that divides “us” from “them”. That’s why it such a tension-breaker when someone takes the time and uses their talent to remind us that we are all human beings. That the blood running through your veins is significantly different from the blood that flows through your neighbor’s body, even though you may not share the same social status, political views, religious conviction or hail from the same latitude or longitude.”

This is where Outlandish enters the picture.

Their story is an uplifting tale about three friend’s common adventure, which starts in the youth clubs and soccer fields of the western Copenhagen suburbs. At the same time, it is the story of a band that insists on the vantage point called “the world we live in”, and through subjective, grass-root musical narratives, tries makes a difference. Quite a bit has happened since Lenny Martinez, Waqas Qadri and Isam Bachiri—with, respectively, Cuban, Pakistani and Moroccan backgrounds—broke ground in 1997 to build Outlandish and begin a career together.

With the release of Outland’s Official (2000) Outlandish publicly unveiled a unique mode of thought and approach to creating modern music: a musical, socio-cultural melting pot heated by the hip-hop Lenny, Waqas and Isam had had a passion for since early youth. It was like a special type of fusion cuisine in which the fundamental ingredients were clearly American, but with dashes of spices that might be beats, samples and snatches of Arab pop, Bollywood soundtracks as well as Latin American rhythms. The lyrics were expressed in English, Spanish, Urdu, Arabic—and Danish. Or as Isam later painted a verbal picture: “I was in my room listening to Tupac, my mother was playing Moroccan folk music on the stereo down in the living room, and somewhere along the line the idea popped into my head, that I could unite the elements of my life in music.”

Considering the quantum leaps the band has taken from album to album, it will be interesting to see how their music will leap into various areas of the world. One thing is sure: Outlandish has created its own definition of world music. And no matter how many differences there are in the world, the humble human being will be heartened, entertained and educated by listening to Outlandish.