Syrian rock musicians on unexpected exile tour

Like tens of thousands of their fellow countrymen fleeing war, members of a Syrian rock group exiled in Lebanon undertook a perilous journey to reach Europe.

But their trek, which has already taken them through five countries, has led to an unexpected 'exile concert tour', on the way to their hoped-for final destination of Germany.

Khebez Dawle, an alternative rock band from Damascus, fled Syria to neighbouring Lebanon in 2013, a year after a fellow band member was killed.

But in August they decided to try to get to western Europe to continue their careers.

"In Beirut we realised that we have to move on... but when one holds a Syrian passport it's like holding no passport, it's useless. We were forced to travel illegally," Anas Maghrebi, lead singer, told AFP.

He spoke just hours ahead of a concert late Wednesday in a Zagreb alternative club.

Squeezed into a van on a Turkish road, floating on a dinghy towards a Greek island or sneaking under heavy rain through bush and vineyards in the Balkans -- the 25-year-old recalled the details of the uncertain journey that he undertook with two other band members.

They were joined by five other Syrian musicians.

However, the young man with a gentle smile stressed that the most remarkable moments would remain those linked to his passion -- music.

They include distributing the band's CDs to friendly tourists at a beach on the Greek island of Lesbos, where they arrived along with 23 other refugees on a dinghy, or making police officers listen to their music while being held at a station in Ilok, a little town in eastern Croatia.

- 'Getting both older, younger' -

"Being detained there, at a police station, and making the officers listen to our songs that talk about freedom and jail was a remarkable moment.

"It's rather ironic!" smiled the brown-eyed Maghrebi, wearing a cap and a red and white keffiyeh, or Middle Eastern scarf, around his neck.

"During this journey we grew so much, one gets both older and younger. One gets back that sense of youth, rebellion, freedom, wilderness."
When the journey started the only thing the musicians had on their minds was to reach their final destination -- Germany.

But their European debut took place unexpectedly one day in Kutina, a little town some 60 kilometres (37 miles) southeast of Zagreb. Organisers called them to perform at a concert held at a primary school.

"It was perfect," Maghrebi assured, although the instruments were not their own as they were travelling without them. He had to sell his equipment to finance his trip.

"Most of the audience were Croatians. They enjoyed, we enjoyed."

After Zagreb, the next concert is planned for Sunday in Ljubljana, the Slovenian capital. They were invited there by Bosnian rock band Dubioza Kolektiv.

Maghrebi also saw these unplanned concerts as an opportunity to dispel prejudices about the migrants and his nation.

"Mass media keep promoting the refugees as poor people with sad faces, waiting for food and roofs to sleep under... This is much bigger than that," he said.

"What happened is Syria is much bigger ... It is about a whole nation, a cultural, civilised nation being expelled from the country."

The musicians' desired destination is Berlin from where they plan to continue their careers and reunite with their fellow band member who stayed in Beirut.

Preparing to rehearse for the concert Maghrebi described the first album from Khebez Dawle -- the Arabic term for Syria's ubiquitous state-subsidised bread -- as a story of a young man who witnessed the Syrian uprising.

The next one would be strongly influenced by their current journey.

"There is a lot of inspiration in the whole journey. Too much inspiration actually," Maghrebi said smiling.