THE BIG BANG. COMEBACK.
Summer 1993. To avoid three long years of military service Moksha Freeman, born in Damascus/Syria on 21st February 1978, set out on the motorway to Turkey. Crossing the Black Sea with nothing but a few Lira hidden in his shoes and a bag of cheap cassettes, Freeman knew exactly what he was heading for.
“There were no records in Syria. But you could buy tapes in a corner shop: Elvis, The Beatles, early Who, T Rex, David Bowie, Queen, Electric Light Orchestra. As a small boy I spent hours listening to those tapes while staring at the covers. I knew I wanted to be like Elvis and John Lennon and Freddie Mercury.”
Via Bulgaria and Romania Freeman travelled to former Yugoslavia where he found some more tapes he could add to his collection.
“I virtually discovered Punk and New Wave on a market place in Zagreb. There was a girl called Petra selling all those tapes her elder brother had given to her: Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Jam, The Smiths, Blondie. To me it was like a revelation.”
When Freeman arrived in London in late ’94, there was only one person he knew: his uncle.
“He bought me my first guitar. I played it night and day dreaming of tapes of mine being sold by a heavenly angel somewhere on the motorway to Damascus...”
Freeman spent the latter part of the 1990’s travelling all over the world with his guitar, a bag full of tapes and a toothbrush.
“In late 2001 I went to Hamburg to check out all the places The Beatles had played in the early 1960’s. It was there I met Lothar Meid.”
69 year old German Rock & Roll legend Meid liked Freeman’s songs from the start and suggested to record them in a proper way.
On New Year’s Eve Freeman lost his bag of tapes in a taxi in New York City.
“That for me was the turning point. I woke up all alone the next afternoon and knew I would have to write and record my own songs, if I wanted to get on.”
Recording started in New York in 2002. It took about six years.
