Habibi

Even if you didn’t know that “Habibi” literally meant “my love” in Arabic, you — a casual observer, a listener — would come back to the word. It’s the kind of endearment that can be instantly IDed across cultures, in the same way that you feel the warmth of nuna (Korean for older sister) or lola (tagalog for grandmother). It’s not a surprise, then, that the Brooklyn-by-way-of-Detroit band Habibi has a following that coalesces around this feeling of warmth. When the band played Oakland’s Starline Social Club this past October, it wasn’t the frisson of chill fall air that brought the room’s occupants closer into each other.

Over the course of the decade, Habibi the band has slinked its way into listeners’ ears with a potent mix of just shy of lo-fi production and uncomplicated lyricism. I personally never receive more “Who is this?” asks than when I play the band’s self-titled album (from 2014) or its latest EP (Cardamom Garden, from 2018) in my communal workplace. It’s not as though the band is pioneering new lyrical topics — “Bad News,” a song from their upcoming sophomore album, is about a man who’s bad news — but Habibi sounds like it’s time traveled from decades past to not warn, but warm modern listeners up to these everlasting follies of love.

Over the phone, The RAD talked to drummer Karen Isabel (who also played in the Habibi-adjacentband PMS & the Mood Swings) about returning to Habibi after a three-yearhiatus, songwriting in New York, and cats.

Habibi was on hiatus for a little bit. How has it been, coming back to this project and being on the road representing it again?

We didn’t really switch it off. We were on this tour all summer... We’ve been spending most of our time recording music and working on our new music. We played Lincoln Center and MoMA. Even when we’re not playing shows, we’re recording, which is taking a few months. It’s worth it.

You’re recording a new album on the heels of your EP Cardamom Garden (released in March 2018). If it has, how has your songwriting process changed even over the course of the year?

We’re more patient. We’ve gotten older; we have a bigger idea of what we wanna do musically. We’re not just trying to push anything out anymore. It’s a burden of love for us. We try to put as much time into it as possible. Whereas before, it was like, we’re gonna record this and call it a day. Go out and do some other things. Now we’re like, no, we have ideas we wanna see through. Almost like, Phil Spector it. More production.

Habibi as a project in the public eye has evolved too. When you reflect on that time, what was it like to suddenly be launched into this national spotlight from the very first thing you’d worked on together?

It doesn’t feel too much different. We still go to work; we still do our things. It’s still like, we’re all just best buddies having fun, playing music together. We do it ‘cause we love to do it. We love hanging out with each other. I don’t see that aspect of it at all.

Maybe part of that has to do with the almost psychedelic, jam session-y sound of your work together. Going with the flow of the music; or at least my conception of your music. Do you tend to riff off of each other and refine from there, or do you start with a set structure and tease it apart?

Mostly [the latter]. Lenny [née Lenaya Lynch] will come up with something; she’ll record it in her apartment, fiddling on her guitar, and she’ll text it to us. “Oh, I have this great idea.” Everyone mulls it over in their head and then we go to practice. Rahill [Jamalifard] will write lyrics and she’ll say, “I want it to go on this rhythm.” Somebody comes up with a thing and they show it to everybody.

It’s different in New York; in New York, you don’t really have the space per se. You have to pay hourly. We pay hourly, so we only go there if we have something in mind. There’s not a lot of time for just jamming, and we’re not big jammers anyway.

It’s wild that we’ve been classified as psychedelic. We’re like, “Really though?” I have a completely different idea in my head about the music we make.

How would you classify or fit your music in with other genre archetypes?

To be honest, it is what it is. I have no idea. Any time someone asks me that, I’m like, “Uhhhh.”

Our biggest influences are the ‘70s. There’s the psych element in that, but a lot of our songs are all so different from each other. We’re practicing with Alana [Amram], our go-to other member for a while now. This new song we’re playing, from the new album, we’re playing it on tour and she’s like, “This one sounds like a New Order song! That sounds like early ‘80s new wave!”

We’re all so different from each other, so when one of us has an idea, it just goes in that direction. It’s literally a hodge podge of insanity.

I dug into some of the playlists that the individual band members have put together, and yeah, you’re pulling from some very different influences. I also dug into your Instagram. Your cats are adorable.

We were on a plane yesterday, and Lenny cracked me up. There was a cat on the plane, and it got me thinking, “That would be the life. Being able to take my cats on tour with me.” So this cat, for six hours, was meowing along. Finally we land. Lenny was like, “Release the cat! Release him!”

For people who don’t understand the realities of touring, the idea of traveling all over the country, the world, is really seductive in this way that’s like, it’s still your job. You still have to care about maintaining your health; all these little things. How have you personally dealt with the stress that travel can bring on? How do you maintain your dyed hair on the road?

I was talking with some friends here about touring a lot. People always assume like, oh, we did this world tour this year, that’s amazing! You went to all these countries! Technically, it could’ve been the same town over and over again. You literally step off a plane, see the inside of the hotel room, go to the venue, play the show. Go back to the hotel or get in the van and go to the next place.

It’s the first time I’ve left the country in my entire life, and it’s like, okay, I went to China, but I didn’t see anything. As far as like, keeping it together... We all have our different means. I don’t dye my hair on the road because if I screw it up, I have to wait until the next city. I might as well shave my head. We try to eat as healthy as possible? I can’t say we’re that good at that game. We just try to take care of ourselves.

You mentioned you’ve done a couple one-off performances, like the MoMA show. For those kinds of showcases versus “regular tour shows,” is your preparation any different? Do you have more time to prepare, more freedom in your visual presentation or your sets?

We think about our audience and what they wanna hear. We’re not gonna put a slow jam on in a situation where like, these people wanna get hype.

We always have different people doing visuals. Rahill always looks up, or Lenny looks up stuff online. A movie or a TV show they remember seeing. Every time it’s different; you can’t do the same thing twice. People become stagnant and bored.

Even when you’re touring something specific, for yourselves, how much leeway do you have for tweaking your show or experimenting with new songs on the road?

It depends on the mood. It’s pretty natural; however we’re feeling that day. We have a bajillion songs right now, so right now, we’re more focused on playing the Cardamom Garden songs.

Honestly, we just try to do whatever on a daily basis, what we think is best. Whatever we’re happy with, is what we go with. What the crowd would be happy with.

Do you find a different reception to your songs, to your live shows, from coast to coast? You’re based in New York now, so what’s it like playing the west coast?

I love the west coast! The west coast is the bee’s knees. People come out and they’re super hype. We have our Burger [Records] brothers out here, and they come through and it’s an automatic party time.

I wish we were able to do this more often, but we’re all so busy in New York and everything. The audience out here is super receptive and chill.

I feel like Habibi’s music actually fits better with the west coast aesthetic. When I found out you were based in Brooklyn, I was like, “Oh, I don’t know if I’ve ever met a New Yorker who sounds this relaxed.”

Rahill and Lenny are from Motown. Me, I’m Puerto Rican, so we have that drum aspect. We’re gonna sound beachy. We have Rockaway Beach! And the Ramones. But on the west coast, you can actually go into the water.

We’re playing Tijuana after this show. Right now we’re thinking about going to the Madonna Inn; we’re trying to treat this as a vacation because we’re on the west coast for ten days. We’re trying to go to Legoland in San Diego. This is the first time we’re doing a tour where it feels like we can go on adventures. Then we’ll be in LA for a minute. And I’m gonna try to go to Disneyland; I’ve never been.

PHOTOGRAPHY SAM KEELER WORDS LILIAN MIN