Old Shoes, New Shoes                          From Marauder #8 - January 2013

It’s a common phrase and these days highly overlooked; To put yourself in someone else’s shoes. This is one of the most important things one can do as they walk the planet searching for their own truth. No matter your position in life, weather still ‘learning’, looking for a job, or engulfed in a busy ‘career’ that is deemed successful and gives you the happiness. Even in a job that you despise that makes you feel like you’re stuck in a rut that you can’t get out of, whether you are in a great relationship, flying solo or running a beautiful family, it’s something that everyone should remember and actively try out!
 
People build their own worlds around their lives, friends, neighbors, routines but they sometimes forget or don’t make time to get out of their comfort zone, out of the ‘bubble’ we’re used to. As the New Year approaches, and we survived yet another teethclenching end-of-the-world scare, I urge you to plan something different. With or without the people closest to you, something you might not have even thought of before. It could be an experience or a destination that wasn’t in any bucket list. Meet people who travel a completely different walk of life, volunteer for something that you might be interested or truly care about. Talk to someone who might not have all that you have and hear their story. Each person has a story to tell and many have had it harder than you. It’s sort of a reality check because it’s someone else’s reality and I promise it will be more rewarding than you think. You can always help someone, as there is always someone who is in a worse position. The term “Why Me” will never be a justified thought and we are all privileged just to exist and lucky that we get choices and opinions!
 
Let’s all appreciate our own existence along with everyone else’s, as life is fragile and special. The world we live in is something unique and exciting that has so much for us to learn and experience. As the planets align and spin in a beautiful unison, don’t forget to be part of the rhythm that life creates.

 
 

I’d like to truly thank everyone we have met on the road, everyone we have seen and communicated even from our past lives. You have made our journey fruitful and as a stranger once told me “You must be rich a man” and he pointed to his head. You’ve made me and us as travelers rich; a unique wealth that nobody can experience unless they were there! Good luck in this next New Year! Always positive always happy, no matter what!

- Photography Courtesy of Philip Al-Hajj

- Written by Philip Al-Hajj

Revisiting – Reconnecting                     From Marauder #7 - December 2012

Sometimes we are LUCKY enough that the road we are on brings us back to places and people that were once new. It’s a sort of affirmation of their significance in our expedition to travel and be present in places that we once never knew existed. Seeing the familiar faces, remembering their names and hearing of the changes that have happened since our first visit gives the traveler the sense of real life reality that we all once had; something that is always present but is easier to get away from when constantly moving to different places. With Round 2 of our European tour one amazing thing that sticks out is the excitement and anticipation in everyone’s energy of us ‘being back’ and playing our music for them once again. It is humbling and something that can sometimes be hard to recognize but it is this that feeds the soul. It is this energy that all people need to learn how to cultivate and use to push the boundaries of comfort and familiarity for the greater picture, for the larger purpose of our existence. Sure some of these luxuries (ie: anything more than what we need to survive as human beings) are hard to rid of, but we can at least lessen their importance in role of the whole purpose. The reason I feel that this subject is something very important to be recognized is that we are starting to be enslaved by these luxuries instead of using them as tools. Many people in the past have predicted a generation of individuals who forget the importance of human interaction and are stuck with an electronic luxury that interacts for you, or gives you it’s own perception of how interaction should be. Plug in, click here, type here, upload here. Where does energy, the energy we have in us that we need to share in order to connect with our own universe come into play here? It’s an obvious decoy that is distracting everyone away from reality and creates the virtual reality that now plays a larger and more important role than the purity of looking in a person’s eyes and exchanging a smile.

Of course these tools we have at our disposal are very good to keep in touch with people far away, just like the hand written letter you used to send once upon a time with a postage stamp and a return address. Or was that a whole different thing? Finding the paper you want to write on, looking for a working pen or a sharpened pencil, physically engraving the paper with individual letters to make up the words that you are thinking and feeling. Licking the stamp and envelope, writing a name and address off the last letter you received. Walking to the mail box and letting the letter disappear; anxiously hoping that it will be sent and received and when the night falls looking up at a star and thinking about what you sent out, feeling the energy that you are receiving back. Yea, I would call this something very different and almost ancient. Much more energy and personality required to do something like that. 
In any case, we accept that things are changed, things are easier now but we have all that left over self-energy. What do we do with it? Maybe this gives us a chance to redirect it to something else, something better? We need to understand that we need to give in order to receive. We now have more energy and knowledge than ever before and a lot of it unfortunately turns into distracting noise. Instead of falling victim to noise, use that energy to clear the mind, clear the body, be as present in the real more than ever before. It could be the cure humanity needs. We all have the remedy within us and after we reach our personal silence and internal peace by recycling this internal power we are given by the universe through real communication with others. Only then will we be able to understand and be understood. Be accepting and become accepted; truly revisit the pure and liberating concept we call life. The eyes hold the truth and connecting them share the truth with the people you encounter, the people you make your family. No words or noise necessary. Like in the silence that exists in space and in the stars. A simultaneous peace, cycle and presence of everything.
Be aware and respectful of the greater picture that you are part of. Don’t waste, learn, connect, and re-connect so that we can all build the world we want it to be. As unique beings created by all these connected random events in a Time we call NOW. That brings us to our next destination; completely planned and left to fate (or chance if you prefer).



- Pictures courtesy of Chris Evans Photography, Philip Al-Hajj, Freddie Al-Hajj
- Written by Philip Al-Hajj

Affirmations (An Entry written in July 2012)                                     From Marauder # 6 - Fall 2012

I find myself in a familiar situation, in a familiar home, a situation that can only be arranged by the universe. We are in London and have been traveling and playing our music in England for almost a month now and at this moment the cosmos has given us time. Something mentioned in a past article with accusations of time moving too fast.

It was in my first or second Marauder newsletter write-up, where I recall talking about how to avoid this exact dilemma. It was something like ‘stop and smell the flowers’. Well in the early stages of this big move we called European Money Shot 2012, an offer to stop and take a breather was given to us and it was something of a necessity.

In this merciless non-stop world we all find ourselves in, I realized that it is not a negative thing to say ‘hold on, I am not moving forward any longer until I’m done with what I was working on”. We all pile more than we can handle on our plates, that’s a known fact, and most of the time it's not even our choice. We have to be able to multi-task and take on projects upon projects just to make one ideal come to life.

If you’re an artist, you have to create your art, find a place to display it or perform it, practice, set up and run your online media for people to see, create fliers and cards to give to people that you meet that MIGHT be of help, make connections, book future events, create more art and realistically have a day job and inevitably a family. Let’s not forget the bills, and rent that are swiftly delivered to your front door every month!

You all know that we live for our music and for our music to live and be successful we take on all projects and do it all ourselves. It’s a philosophy that reflects the ‘I can’t rely on others to do it’ and in many cases this is true. Just like in personal matters, if you want something done, if YOU WANT something done, it is YOU that will make it happen. Why would someone else want to help you? Usually it’s because they want something out of it, if not monetarily then in other ways would say the pessimist.

Of course we live for our art, we don’t live for the money and you may know that I’m not the pessimistic type. There are people and friends that genuinely want to help but you need to be genuine with yourself first; with your art with your ACTIONS.

We were in Forward Motion Studios near central London for a week and there we made a new brother. Someone who genuinely has offered to help us in any and every way so that we can be as ready as possible for the rest of our travels in this European tour and there was no chance that I or any of us in the Clepto tribe would have ever considered the fact that a help like this was possible.

We decided to extend our stay in the UK for more England shows but also to more correctly organize and ‘catch up’ with ourselves and with your help making it over the Atlantic and getting our new gear and new van (interestingly license plated EO02UHR; sounds like “Europe Tour”) we were again given yet another opportunity to REALLY catch up with a full on studio to our disposal. It felt like the London version of our Olystis LA studio! Another home!

Ironically, in the name of slowing down and taking a breather we started doing more! That’s the funny thing of this all, do less to do more sounds contradicting but it IS the way to do it. You have this long list of things to do, and the long list of what you want to do, and the long list you have to and many times hate to do. In any case, it’s one step at a time, one action at a time one meditation at a time will get things done. It might even lead making the lists shorter and we all want that!

Speaking of lists, mine’s getting longer and longer as I write this article so until next Marauder newsletter, good luck, breathe deep, live and love. Always keep positive and real as the Universe hears and sees all and DOES give back so long as you are true to yourself and true to your cause.

Written by Philip Al-Hajj

Photos Courtesy of Chris Evans Photography, Seb and Albert's Photography

Right Time at the Right Place, Money is Time 

From Marauder # 5 - Spring 2012

Dear friends, old and new!

The past few months have been some of the most interesting and chaotic days for us on the road as we made our way through the US back to Canada in preparation for our upcoming Europe tour which starts in less than a month!

As we drove off further and further away from our beloved California we did manage to run into many more new friends who helped us along our way back to Canada.

Connections and art lovers who we will meet again upon our return!

It feels like we have come full circle from when we first left the Great North in search of the famous and dreamy Hotel California. Something we did manage to find and be part of; something that changed us but reaffirmed our beliefs and our music! Driving back into Ottawa and seeing the first bars that we ever played in after leaving Saudi back in 2002 ; it's a weird feeling. We've made this our stepping stone between transitions as we finish old chapters and turn to a new blank page, starting a new phase in our lives and careers.

From Saudi Arabia, to Canada, to California and back to Canada now we take the biggest leap as a full fledged, full time band and company.

Armed with our experiences, music, our good friend and photographer Chris Evans, the backing of our own Olystis "On The run Studios" in LA run by our very own John Langford and Yianni, as well as the hoards of great wishes, energy and love from all our friends and family I would call Clepto in Europe unstoppable. We will only rest when we cannot walk any further, until we have made it to the top of the mountain, until we have won and you've only made us stronger and more relevant. I feel humbled and proud that we've done so much and gone so far. Some people say you have to be at the right place at the right time but I say the right place is here, the right time is now. Sure, sometimes luck and fate smile upon you but there is no logic in sitting cross legged to wait for that to happen. After all, they also say 'Time is Money!' Aint it?

It feels great to know that no matter how much we have, even if we have nothing, we can rely on you, our friends, fans and family to give us the extra push,

the extra confidence and courage to continue on this journey and this life that we chose.

Thank you for everything, literally EVERYTHING you've given us! Now we cross our fingers take a deep breath and dive into the beautiful unknown! See you there!

Love to all! - Philip

Olystis Music and Productions

www.clepto.net