Anas Maghrebi wanted to stay in Syria and make music for Syrians. But civil war overwhelmed his country.
"There was no place for music as much as for weapons and for war," he says.
So, like hundreds of thousands of Syrians, Maghrebi fled across the border to Lebanon. Darwish, his guitarist, eventually deserted the army and joined him, and they formed a new band.
It's called Khebez Dawle, or State Bread, an oblique reference to the subsidized bread in Syria — and a metaphor for the foundation of a better society. Their songs, all in Arabic, tell the story of Syria. The first were written as the euphoric demonstrations began; the last, as violence descended.
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