Adel Moustafa is the drummer of international Progressive Metal band Deadsoul Tribe along Devon Graves(who formed the band in 2000) on vocals who was the vocalist of Psychotic Waltz one of the pioneering progressive metal bands.
Adel Joined Devon as official drummer in an unexpected coincidence …
- 1) Were you born in Egypt?
My mom was pregnant with me in Egypt but one month before my birth she went back to Austria/Vienna, so I was born in Vienna!
- 2) Do you still visit your home country?
Well, Yes! I do visit Egypt
- 3) When did you start playing drums? How did you learn it? Who are the drummers that influence your drumming style?
I started to play Arabian tapla when I was three years old and my First Meeting with a real drum set was maybe by the Age of 10-12 Years or so, and I learned to Play by my Self but I never practiced unfortunately ,I should of but I was lazy 😉 I studied Jazz drums when I was at the age of fifteen or so but only two month then I quitted. I am a very emotional and non technical Drummer,wich means that I played almost every gig,show or Band rehersals totally different and it often depends on how my mood is that day.I remember one guy who followed us to several gigs and after one show he came to me and said “Hey Adel i did come to a couple shows in a row,because I liked that you played every show every song totally different,and thats what i love so much about your drumming;the emotional kind of drumming” and i was realy blown away by those words.I would still tell any drummer or musicians to practise because it is very important ,unfortunately i recognised it a bit late.
It’s hard to tell you which drummer I like the most because there are many good ones out there.I really had never ONE favorite drummer because you`ll find in any professional drummer something special thats what is great about it there is no best or better drummer just different wich is great I think. I’ll mention some that I like which would be Thomas Lang, Danny Carrey, Simon Philips, Carter Beouford ,Ralf Gustke.
- 4) Why have you stopped playing drums for years and how did you end-up auditioning for Deadsoul Tribe after that?
Like I mentioned before I played Arabian Drums early also kind a early with drums so my talent was that I was quick in learning playing Drums ( I was gifted with the ability to learn kind of fast and easy any kind of instruments of course not perfect but enough to build a song) so After years of playing in different local bands nothing happened like getting a record deal or something,it was always just rehearsal and gigs in front of your Friends, but at that time I was quite known in the Vienna music scene As a “good” drummer but I wanted to quit cause nothing really much Happens, so one day devon and I were in the Same rehearsal Studio where He was playing with some guys and the bass player knew me cause I was playing with him before, and Devon saw me and asked that Bass player who is this guy??? And Karl (the Bass Player) told Devon that I am a nice Drummer because He used to play with me, so Devon told Karl that He should give me a Call and ask me if I would like to audition, Karl called me and asked if I would like to go for a Jam Session and maybe join the Band (BTW I Never heard anything about Devon or PW before) so I said three times no I don’t want to play again and after the 3rd try I finally Said well ok Let’s try,..and at this Time I was 19 or so and could not speak one English word, so we played some songs from the first Deadsoul Tribe album and I just played along and after every song we stopped, and Karl and Devon started to talk in English and I didn’t understand what they were saying I thought they were saying like “what for a loser drummer boy’ and in my mind I Went “fuck they hate what I am doing I knew it would Be better to quit,..but After that practice we Went to a bar and Devon asked me if I want to join his band cause He was blown away by the way I played the Drums and wanted me totally for a Drummer, and I was so happy and surprised cause the whole time I thought they were talking Bad about me but when He really Liked it, so I Said sure I will join the Band,..But at that Point I hadn’t played Drums for over a year and did not even have a Drumkit.
- 5) How much did you contribute to the music on each Album? Which is your favorite?
Let’s say I didn’t do too much on the first album because Devon had already written the material so I just played the songs he showed me with maybe some parts I did add from my style of playing drums but most songs where done already,..at the second album I also didn’t do so much cause also those songs or most of them where written as well but I did more drum playing from me at least more than the first record,..And I really started co-writing songs at The January Tree album, when sometimes Devon called me and said”F-k Adel, I don’t have any ideas at the moment, so I also play little bit of guitar bass and keyboard so I started playing in the studio some guitar riffs and then Devon went like “hey dude do that again it sounds cool” so I did and we did that with couple songs on that record I also play guitar on The January Tree that is something no one knows.I play the guitars but no credits for that,..;) I think it’s the song “Why” were I am playing guitar.
Oh and btw I know one album we did was like I was playing drums for maybe two hours or so just stuff that’s coming out of my head and Devon was recording it…and then after hearing that stuff we made more than three songs.
For example, in that two hours of playing drums was a short part which sounded sooooo cool so we kept that made a loop and then build a song over drum rhythms I’d play…I think it was at The Dead Word or January Tree album…
What’s my favorite ? I don’t know if u mean song or album, but one of my favourite is for sure “Something you can’t return”.I like “The Deadword” album and also “A Murder of Crows” but it’s like asking who do you like more your mom or your dad. I do like actually all or let’s say most stuff but in a different way there are also songs I really totally DONT like, but if we would put the coolest songs from all 5 albums we could of have a killer “best of” record.
- 6) What is your most remembered live performance? Is there a place or country you would like to perform in?
Actually every gig or concert is something special, but let’s say my first gig with Devon was a major gig with slayer, in flames, Paradise Lost and so on, and if you have that as your first gig I think that’s very awesome for any guy who play in a band, right,.. so I never will forget for sure that one also I liked when we played the Dynamo Festival were like 30,000 people were there and we played with Within temptation, biohazard, Soulfly, and many more I mean how can you top that you know what I am saying,..;) And definitely AAAALL gigs in Greece were totally awesome the fans there are the most loyalty hardcore nice fans you can imagine, and that is also a place I would love any time to go back and play there for days and days.
- 7) What are your current musical activities? Any new Deadsoul Tribe project?
After that long Deadsoul Tribe break I did have many jobs as a drummer to record albums for bands, or play live shows if their drummer had no time and so on,.Unfortunately there is no new Deadsoul Tribe material coming-out at least not that soon, there is still a done live DVD from DST that we wanted to release but nobody knows if or when that will happens. The release date will surprise all including me and the rest of DST.
- 8) Have you received any offer to join another band? Have you considered forming a band or working on a personal project?
Like I said before there were a lot a offers for many different bands. I also had a project but it went down again for couple reasons then there was this last offer from a hardcore Metal band which is totally not my home in the sense of playing my drum style so it didn’t work out,..and I did start cool stuff with my long time friend and great Bass player “Paul Schleicher” also we two working quite great together as a rhythm section so let’s see what the future brings…
- 9) Do you know any Middle Eastern metal band? Have you heard their material?
Unfortunately I don’t know that much Middle Eastern Bands YET but maybe I will or maybe I do know but I just can’t remember the Name, Hahaha 😉
- 10) Do you have any message for the metalheads in the Middle East and the Lebmetal.com reader?
I really want to thank all loyal fans from all over the world who gave us a very great and nice decade, cause all the touring the CD selling the interviews and so on is only because of the fans so if there are no fans there would be no DST or no other bigger better METAL bands like we have today so stay straight and keep supporting that what you like believe me the different bands will LOVE ya for that…And also I hope it was informative what I told ya guys, so stay HEAVY take care and greets from VIENNA,…;-)
