Lilas Mayassi (left) and Shery Bechara (right) are the founding guitarists of the all-female Lebanese thrash-metal band, Slave to Sirens, as seen in the documentary Sirens, directed by Rita Baghdadi.
There’s a moment in the documentary Sirens when Blaakyum’s Bassem Deaibess declares that heavy metal is “100 percent pure sacrifice.” Deaibess says this to Shery Bechara, one half of the guitar tandem in Slave to Sirens, the all-women thrash-metal band from Lebanon who are the focus of the new film,directed by Rita Baghdadi. Deaibess was a close friend to Slave to Sirens in the band's early days. “I think what he meant by that was, you give a lot, for a long time, and don’t expect anything in return, especially if it’s here in Lebanon,” explains Bechara. “There’s so much sacrifice.”
Though much of Sirens ultimately focuses on guitarist Lilas Mayassi’s coming out, and how that inadvertently creates turmoil with her bandmates, Baghdadi’s deft filmmaking simultaneously captures just how challenging it is for a band like Slave to Sirens to even exist in the Middle East, much less grab the proverbial brass ring. Aside from the familiar struggles one might encounter in pursuit of a music career (or any artistic endeavor, for that matter), Slave to Sirens finds themselves face-to-face with cultural dogma, political protests, regional unrest, catastrophic disasters, and limited opportunities. The film is a metaphorical back-and-forth between the band’s own struggles and societal dysfunction writ large, but the magnitude of their quest is perhaps best amplified when Bechara’s father, Roger, tells her that less than one percent of the population in the Middle East listens to metal. You could make the argument that heavy metal is a fairly marginalized musical genre in the United States, but in the Middle East, a queer, all-female thrash-metal band is literally an against-all-odds gambit.
And yet, through sacrifice, fierce commitment to their ideals (some of which emerge throughout the film), and perseverance, Slave to Sirens starts to gain some traction within the metal community, particularly outside of Lebanon. Their performance at Glastonbury Festival in 2019 is a pivotal moment in the film. Solicited by Earache Records to perform on one of their stages, it is Slave to Sirens’ first international gig, and a seemingly triumphant opportunity. Their time slot, however, runs simultaneous with a Babymetal performance on one of the main stages, so they are left playing to a single-digit audience. Baghdadi artfully crafts an emotional rollercoaster from such bittersweet moments. Think ABC’s “The thrill of victory … and the agony of defeat” slogan from Wide World of Sports in the 1970s—disappointment and exaltation abound equally.
Slave To Sirens - Salomé (OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO)
“Glastonbury was an amazing experience, and we learned a lot from it,” says Mayassi, who seems far more upbeat about it now than she did in the film. “We were unlucky in the time slot, but we didn’t really care, because the point for us was just performing and having fun.” It’s been about four years since Sirens was shot, so distance clearly provides some perspective.
“I think whatever happened with us, especially with the revolution and the port explosion, it just stays there—it stays and inspires, and everything that happens affects us personally and musically.”—Lilas Mayassi
Slave to Sirens was formed by a chance encounter between Bechara and Mayassi in 2015 in Lebanon during an anti-government protest regarding a waste management crisis. In 2018, they independently released their debut EP, Terminal Leeches, which pricked up some ears around the globe, leading to the invitation from Earache to perform at Glastonbury. Lyrically, the band addresses much of the societal strife that seems to plague the Middle East. Musically, the songs are infused by the thrash and death metal influences of their youth, and Mayassi and Bechara both attack their instruments with a kind of swagger that belies their years.
Shery Bechara's Gear
Bechara is the lead guitarist in Slave to Sirens, but both she and rhythm guitarist Mayassi write equally and switch on parts whenever the mood takes over.
Photo by Sally Mïre
Guitars
- Vox Custom 25
- Dean Dime Razorback Slime Bumblebee
- Dean Exile Select 7-string Multiscale
Amps
- Peavey Heritage VTX Series 12-watt 2x12 combo
Effects
- Line 6 POD HD500 multi-effect/amp modeler
Strings and Picks
- Fender 250R Nickel-Plated Steel .010–.046 strings
- D’Addario Regular Light XL .010–.046 strings
- Ernie Ball 2215 Skinny Top Heavy Bottom Slinky .010–.052 strings
- Dunlop Ultex Jazz III 1.38 mm picks
- Dunlop Primetone Jazz III 1.4 mm picks
- Dunlop John Petrucci Jazz III 1.5 mm picks
- Levy’s Leathers guitar straps
- D’Addario Planet Waves cables
The guitar playing is tight and tenacious, featuring quirky, unexpected rhythmic patterns courtesy of Mayassi, and nuanced melodic note choices and phrasing from Bechara. In 2022, the band, which also included bassist Alma Doumani, drummer Tatyana Boughaba, and singer Maya S. Khairallah, released the bludgeoning single “Salomé,” but as of January 1, 2023, they announced on social media that Khairallah and Boughaba had left the band, and introduced Anita Tóth from Hungary as their new lead singer. There’s been no official announcement yet regarding their new drummer. According to Mayassi, they’ve currently tracked about 80 percent of the guitars and bass for a new album. “We have new members,” she clarifies. “So, we’re trying to finish the vocals.” She says they’re mixing at Dyne Engine Studio in Italy with Manuele Pesaresi, who worked with them on Terminal Leeches.
“I think what he meant by that was, you give a lot, for a long time, and don’t expect anything in return, especially if it’s here in Lebanon.”—Shery Bechara
According to the film credits, Mayassi and Bechara occupy fairly distinct roles in Slave to Sirens—Mayassi is billed as the rhythm guitarist, while Bechara is billed “lead guitar.” Mayassi admits that she’s mostly fascinated by the rhythmic aspects of a song. “My focus always shifts to the drums and bass,” she explains. “Shery is more about the soloing and all the dynamics that truly animate a song—she adds the color.”
Bechara describes Mayassi’s style as rough and very thrashy. “She loves the ‘djent, djent, djent,’” she says. “I like that, too, but she has a different approach to it than me. Also, she’s really good on the clean parts, with chorus and vibrato—I see something in her eyes. It’s like, ‘Mm-hmm [laughs].’”
Lilas Mayassi's Gear
Mayassi started playing guitar at age 13, and would spend hours at an internet cafe studying shredders on YouTube.
Photo by Sally Mïre
Guitars
- DBZ Venom Flying V
- Dean Thoroughbred Select
Amps
- Marshall MG30FX 30-Watt 1x10 combo
- Marshall JCM800 2203X 100-watt head
Effects
- Electro-Harmonix Memory Man XO Analog Delay/Chorus/Vibrato
- DigiTech DF-7 Distortion Factory
Strings and Picks
- Ernie Ball Regular Slinky .010–.046 strings
- Ernie Ball Power Slinky .011–.048 strings
- Dunlop John Petrucci Jazz III 1.5 mm picks
Despite such seemingly clear-cut differences in how they approach guitar parts, there is a moment in the documentary when the two are working on a song idea and Mayassi is playing the single-note melodic phrases, while Bechara backs her up on rhythm. So clearly there’s some wiggle room when inspiration strikes. “Whenever I feel like I have an idea, I’ll solo over it,” says Mayassi. “If Shery has an idea, she solos over it. We just go with the flow, whatever we feel like [laughs].”
Both Mayassi and Bechara picked up the guitar in their teens and were mostly self-taught. Mayassi started playing when she was just 13. “I didn’t have access to guitar lessons or anything, so I relied more on a friend in high school who would take pictures of his playing and I would mimic his finger position on the fretboard,” she explains. She would also go once a week to an internet cafe to watch hours of guitar shredding on YouTube. “That was the turning point for me. I started learning, through the videos—that’s what I had access to.” Today, she holds a bachelor’s degree in music education from Lebanese University (LU).
Bechara says she learned from her dad but is also mostly self-taught. She did study for a month at a music school and wants to go back. “I want to learn more things and improve,” she says. “There’s always something to learn. I’m trying to get into music theory and put technique with it.”
Terminal Leeches is the 2018 debut EP by Slave to Sirens, and was recorded at Dyne Engine Studio in Castelfidardo, Italy, with Manuele Pesaresi. The band is currently putting the finishing touches on a new album at Pesaresi’s studio.
As for influences, Bechara says her dad was into rock, blues, and jazz, so those genres influenced her as she was starting out, but she quickly got into heavy metal. “[My dad] never was into metal,” she chuckles. “He used to tell me, ‘You’ll get over it,’ but when he saw how committed I was, and he heard a few bands that I listened to, like Iron Maiden and Carach Angren, he was like, ‘Okay, the riffing on the guitar is very, very good,’ but he’s not into the growling [laughs].”
“I didn’t have access to guitar lessons or anything, so I relied more on a friend in high school who would take pictures of his playing and I would mimic his finger position on the fretboard.”—Lilas Mayassi
Mayassi lists Joan Jett as perhaps her biggest inspiration, but also name-checks Alexi Laiho from Children of Bodom, Steve Vai, and Joe Satriani. “Then I fell in love with thrash and death metal,” she says. “So, it’s like Testament, all the ‘Big Four’ bands [Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, and Anthrax], and Death, the band.”
Aside from musical influences, Mayassi raises the specter of inherited trauma in the film and the impact that has had on their personal and professional lives. “My parents were kids back when the civil war started [in 1975],” she says. “They were affected by what happened, and that trauma, that fear—it’s some kind of pessimism. These events leave some kind of a scar that doesn’t really go away. The body stores trauma, and it appears in the form of stress. And now, I think whatever happened with us, especially with the revolution and the port explosion, it just stays there—it stays and inspires, and everything that happens affects us personally and musically.”
YouTube It
Sirens is a documentary that follows the Lebanese metal band Slave to Sirens as the five members fight to make a path in music while dealing with societal and personal conflict in their home country.
As for her coming out while shooting the documentary, Mayassi says, “One of the main reasons I felt unapologetically myself in this documentary is because I had the girls with me.” But in a culture that essentially prohibits same-sex relations, and LGBTQ rights are fairly nonexistent, Mayassi admits to being concerned about the fallout from the film. “When the film was released, I started realizing, ‘Okay, I think it’s going to be a problem,’” she says. “We had a lot of tough conversations with Rita. We were lucky that she was able to understand where we come from, and our concerns were respected. But when the film happened to spotlight me and my friends, first I had concerns about their safety, and then the safety of the band. So, at the start, we didn’t feel bad, but during the last years of filming, we started being aware more and more.”
The documentary closes out with the aptly titled Sound of Resilience concert, which was organized by Baalbeck International Festival, and led by conductor Harout Fazlian and the Lebanese Philharmonic Orchestra. It took place on July 5, 2020, at the Temple of Bacchus. Both Bechara and Mayassi are featured on guitar during a performance of Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir.” It’s an auspicious moment, in a stunning setting, that seems to foretell a promising future for the two of them. “It was a new experience and a huge honor,” says Bechara. “Actually, playing with an orchestra was something like a dream.”
George Benson’s Dreams Do Come True: When George Benson Meets Robert Farnonwas recorded in 1989. The collaboration came about after Quincy Jones told the guitarist that Farnon was “the greatest arranger in all the world.”
On that recommendation,Benson tapped Farnon for a 1989 recording project encompassing the jazz standards “My Romance” and “At Last” next to mid-century pop chestnut “My Prayer,” the Beatles’ “Yesterday,” and Leon Russell’s “A Song for You,” among others.
Across the album, Benson’s voice is the main attraction, enveloped by Farnon’s luxuriant big-band and string arrangements that give each track a warm, velveteen sheen. His guitar playing is, of course, in top form, and often sounds as timeless as the tunes they undertake: On “Autumn Leaves,” you could pluck the stem of the guitar solo and seat it neatly into an organ-combo reading of the tune, harkening back to the guitarist’s earlier days. But as great as any George Benson solo is bound to be, on Dreams Do Come True, each is relatively short and supportive. At this phase of his career, as on 1989’s Tenderlyand 1990’s Count Basie Orchestra-backed Big Boss Band, Benson was going through a jazz-singer period. If there’s something that sets the ballad-centric Dreams Do Come Trueapart, it’s that those other records take a slightly more varied approach to material and arranging.
When it was finished, the Benson/Farnon collaboration was shelved, and it stayed that way for 35 years. Now released, it provides a deeper revelation into this brief phase of Benson’s career. In 1993, he followed up Big Boss Man with an updated take on the smooth, slick pop that brought him blockbuster fame in the previous two decades and delivered Love Remembers.
Love is Blue (feat. The Robert Farnon Orchestra)
This kind of stylistic jumping around, of musical discovery, is a thread through Benson’s legendary career. From his days as a young child busking in Pittsburgh, where his favorite song to play was “On the Sunny Side of the Street,” he evolved through backing Brother Jack McDuff and leading his own organ combo, into his soulful and funky CTI Records phase, where he proved himself one of the most agile and adroit players in the jazz-guitar game. He eventually did the most improbable—and in anyone else’s hands thus far, impossible—feat and launched into pop superstardom with 1976’s Breezin’ and stayed there for years to come, racking up No. 1 hits and a host of Grammy awards.
At this moment, deep into his career at 81 years old, Benson continues to dive into new settings. While anyone observing from the sidelines might conclude that Benson has already excelled in more varied musical situations than any other instrumentalist, he somehow continues to discover new sides to his musicality. In 2018, he joined the Gorillaz on their technicolor indie-pop single “Humility,” and in 2020 he tracked his guitar onBootsy Collins’ “The Power of the One.” Benson assures me that not only are there more recordings in the archive that he’s waiting to reveal, but there are more wide-ranging collaborations to come.
On Dreams Do Come True, Benson covers classic jazz repertoire, plus he revisits the Beatles—whose work he covered on 1970’s The Other Side of Abbey Road—and Leon Russell, whose “This Masquerade” brought Benson a 1976 Grammy award for Record of the Year.
PG: The range of songs that you’ve played throughout your career, from your jazz records to 1970’s The Other Side ofAbbey Road or 1972’s White Rabbit album to 2019’s Chuck Berry and Fats Domino tribute, Walking to New Orleans, is so broad. Of course, now I’m thinking about the songs on Dreams Do Come True. How do you know when a song is a good fit?
George Benson: Well, you can’t get rid of it. It stays with you all the time. They keep popping up in your memory.
All the stuff that Sinatra did, and Nat King Cole did, and Dean Martin, that’s the stuff I grew up on. I grew up in a multinational neighborhood. There were only 30 African Americans in my school, and they had 1,400 students, but it was a vocational school.
I remember all that stuff like yesterday because it’s essential to who I am today. I learned a lot from that. You would think that would be a super negative thing. Some things about it were negative—you know, the very fact that there were 1,400 students and only 30 African Americans. But what I learned in school was how to deal with people from all different parts of the world.
After my father made my first electric guitar. I made my second one….
You made your second guitar?
Benson: Yeah, I designed it. My school built it for me. I gave them the designs, sent it down to the shop, they cut it out, I sent it to the electric department, and then I had to put on the strings myself. I brought my amplifier to school and plugged it in. Nobody believed it would work, first of all. When I plugged it in, my whole class, they couldn’t believe that it actually worked. So, that became my thing, man. “Little Georgie Benson—you should hear that guitar he made.”“I can let my mind go free and play how I feel.”
George Benson's Gear
The Benson-designed Ibanez GB10 was first introduced in 1977.
Photo by Matt Furman
Strings & Picks
- Ibanez George Benson Signature pick
- Thomastik-Infeld George Benson Jazz Strings
Accessories
- Radial JDI Passive Direct Box
So, your environment informed the type of music you were listening to and playing from a young age.
Benson: No doubt about it, man. Because remember, rock ’n’ roll was not big. When the guitar started playing with the rock bands, if you didn’t have a guitar in your band, you weren’t really a rock band. But that was later, though. It started with those young groups and all that hip doo-wop music.
I was known in Pittsburgh as Little Georgie Benson, singer. Occasionally, I would have the ukulele or guitar when the guitar started to get popular.
What’s your playing routine like these days? Do you play the guitar every day, and what do you play?
Benson: Not like I used to. Out of seven days, I probably play it four or five days.
I used to play virtually every day. It was just a natural thing for me to pick up. I had guitars strategically placed all over my house. As soon as I see one, my brain said, “Pick that up.” So, I would pick it up and start playing with new ideas. I don’t like going over the same thing over and over again because it makes you boring. I would always try to find something fresh to play. That’s not easy to do, but it is possible.
I’m looking for harmony. I’m trying to connect things together. How do I take this sound or this set of chord changes and play it differently? I don’t want to play it so everybody knows where I’m going before I even get there, you know?
“I wasn’t trying to sound loud. I was trying to sound good.”
How did you develop your guitar tone, and what is important about a guitar tone?
Benson: Years ago, the guitar was an accompaniment or background instrument, usually accompanying somebody or even accompanying yourself. But it was not the lead instrument necessarily. If they gave you a solo, you got a chance to make some noise.
As it got serious later on, I started looking for a great sound. I thought it was in the size of the guitar. So, I went out and bought this tremendously expensive guitar, big instrument. And I found that, yeah, that had a big sound, but that was not it. I couldn’t make it do what I wanted it to do. I found that it comes from my phrasing, the way I phrase things and the way I set up my guitar, and how I work with the amplifier. I wasn’t trying to sound loud. I was trying to sound good.
George Benson at Carnegie Hall in New York City on September 23,1981. The previous year, he received Grammy awards for “Give Me the Night,” “Off Broadway,” and “Moody’s Mood.”
Photo by Ebet Roberts
When I think about your playing, I’m automatically thinking about your lead playing so much of the time. But I think that your rhythm playing is just as iconic. What do you think is the most important thing about rhythm guitar parts, comping, and grooving?
Benson: That word comp, I finally found out what it really represents. I worked with a man called Jack McDuff, who took me out of Pittsburgh when I was 19 years old. He used to get mad at me all the time. “Why are you doing this? Why are you doing that? I can’t hear what you’re playing because you play so low”—because I used to be scared. I didn’t want people to hear what I was playing because then they would realize I didn’t know what I was doing, you know? I would play very mousy. He said, “Man, I don’t know if you play good or bad because I can’t hear you. Man, play out. People don’t know what you’re playing. They’ll accept whatever it is you do; they’ll think you meant to do it. Either it’s good or bad.”
So I started playing out and I found there’s a great truth in what he said. When you play out, you sound like you know what you’re doing. People say, “Oh wow, this cat is a monster.” It either feels good and sounds good or it doesn’t. So, I learned how to make those beeps and bops and things sound good and feel good.
The word comp comes from complementing. Whoever’s coming in to solo is out front. I gotta make them sound good. And that’s why people call me today. I had a record with a group called the Gorillaz. That’s the reason why they called me is because they realized that I knew what to do when I come to complement somebody. I did not have a lead role in that song. But I loved playing it once I found the space for me. I said, “Man, I don’t wanna just play it on an album. I wanna mean something.”
I did something with Bootsy Collins, who is a monster. I said, “Why is he calling me? I’m not a monster, man.” But he heard something in me he wanted on his record, and I couldn’t figure out what it was. I said, “No, I don’t think I can do it, man. I don’t think I can do you any good.” He said, “Try something, man. Try anything.” So I did. I didn’t think I could do that, but it came out good. Now I’m getting calls from George Clinton.
You worked on something with George Clinton?
Benson: Not yet, but that’s what I’m working on now, because he called me and said, “Man, do something with me.”
That’s not going to be easy. You know, I gotta find something that fits his personality, and where I can enhance it, not just throw something together, because that wouldn’t be right for the public. We want something musical, something that lasts for a long time.
“I can let my mind go free and play how I feel.”
In the liner notes for Dreams Do Come True, you say that there’s always more to be discovered. You just mentioned the Gorillaz, then Bootsy Collins and George Clinton. You have such a wide, open exploration of music. How has discovery and exploration guided your career?
Benson: Well, this is the thing that we didn’t have available a few years ago. Now, we can play anything. You couldn’t cross over from one music to another without causing some damage to your career, causing an uproar in the industry.
When Wes Montgomery did “Going Out of My Head” and Jimmy Smith did “Walk on the Wild Side,” it caused waves in the music industry, because radio was not set up for that. You were either country or jazz or pop or blues or whatever it was. You weren’t crossing over because there was no way to get that played. Now there is.
Because I’ve had something to do with most of those things I just mentioned, my mind goes back to when I was thinking, “What if I played it like this? No, people won’t like that. What if I played it like this? Now, they won’t like that either.” Now, I can let my mind go free and play how I feel, and they will find some way to get it played on the air.
YouTube It
George Benson digs into the Dave Brubeck-penned standard “Take Five” at the height of the ’80s, showing his unique ability to turn any tune into a deeply grooving blaze-fest.
