Soundcheck: music inspired by the Middle East

Meet Freddie Million, the rootsy troubadour behind the strong self-recorded, Dubai-inspired EP Middle Eastern Diaries.

Musician Freddie Million. Pawan Singh / The National

Freddie Million's Dubai-­inspired EP, Middle Eastern Diaries, is rich in depth and texture – listen, and you will hear marching drums and searing strings, a symphony of sound crafted for your ears.

What makes it even more impressive is that it’s the work of one man with a laptop and a borrowed microphone. Guitars are layered, keyboards patch in bass beats and strings. Household objects double as percussion. The result is a virtual bedroom band that somehow sounds like a group effort.

Released online with no promotion, the EP’s four tracks have picked up more than 30,000 Soundcloud plays in the past year. Not bad for a 29-year-old sports teacher making music as “a hobby”.

It could have been a different story. Million – yes, that’s his real name – might have “made it”.

Born in the west of England, he spent his early twenties gigging in bands, trying to forge a career in music while making ends meet working a variety of odd jobs, including on a building site and driving a bus.

In one of the bands, called The Daze, he played alongside Freddie Cowan, who went on to achieve fame and fortune with UK indie darlings The Vaccines.

With The Daze, Million played a high-profile BBC gig supporting Feeder and he was later tempted with a solo stateside recording contract, which never quite materialised. Soon after, he gave up music.

“For me, the rock ’n’ roll dream is dead,” says a sombre Million. “I was in a couple of bands and had a good time but nothing really came out of it. I realise now I probably should have carried on with it. But when I got to 25 I put the guitar down and got a job in Dubai.”

Four years ago, Million was hired to teach sport at Repton School Dubai. A little over a year ago, he picked up a guitar again.

Taking inspiration from his new environment, within a few weeks he had written the four songs on Middle Eastern Diaries. He has since recorded two more tracks.

“It was just moving to Dubai, and the thoughts and experiences that came to me being here, looking outside my window,” says Million.

“Lyrically, I always try to stay away from the cliché – but I try to make the music as clichéd and catchy as possible. Every chord has been played and every note has been sung before – it’s the way it comes together.”

Million's already talking about a Middle Eastern Diaries 2 but what he really wants is to form a band, to challenge the precarious status quo of local talent.

“The scene is growing massively,” he says. “But finding people to play your own songs with, and really go for it, is still quite ­difficult”.