Beirut-based musician/songwriter Kodor Ellaik (a.k.a Kid Fourteen) is a mainstay of Lebanon’s musical underground, and channels an intense operatic sound that draws upon new-wave and synthpop through a dark and introspective lense.
Active in Beirut since 2010, Kid Fourteen is easily one of the region’s most forward thinking artists, and has released music on many notorious underground labels like Tian An Men 80 and Pinyon, as well as having collaborated with experimental music legends like Jamie Stewart of Xiu Xiu.
In March of this year, Ellaik completed and released his third and most recent album Love., which started off as an exploration of the 12 phases of love as represented in classical arabic literature. As the project developed, focus shifted in a different direction, instead pursuing an exploration of the complexity of intimacy, and how visceral feeling and vulnerability would sound like if all other senses of expression were lost.
In the wake of the release of Love. Kid Fourteen has launched a music video/documentary for the first single off the project, “Nobody Came, Nobody Wants To”, which was directed by documentary filmmaker, DJ and Beirut Groove Collective founder Jackson Allers and produced by Lebanese production house Clap Clap Studio.
The music video, which aims to highlight the difficulty Middle-Eastern men face in expressing vulnerability, premiered via Clap Clap Studio’s Late Knights, a music platform that showcases the many faces of the alternative cultural landscape of Lebanon and the surrounding region, with a mission of showing the world that the Middle East isn't necessarily just what is represented on mainstream television through content by local, regional, and international artists who have made an impact on the scene.
Through ‘Nobody Came, Nobody Wants To’, Kid Fourteen explores toxic masculinity and the lack of proper outlets or awareness in the Middle-East, inviting viewers to explore “what it’s like to be seen as someone you're not,”, a theme explored heavily on Love. Filmed just a few months before the world went into covid-19 lockdown, and just prior to the tragic Beirut port explosion on August 4th, Allers’ documentary illustrates a heartbreaking image of Beirut and the people of the Middle-East, who are “often portrayed as monsters that are used to tragedy in their daily lives.”
“We have fears too.” - Kid Fourteen
Check out the full documentary for ‘Nobody Came, Nobody Wants To’ below:
Follow Kid Fourteen on Instagram and Facebook
Listen to Kid Fourteen on Bandcamp, Spotify, and Anghami
Follow Late Knights on Youtube, Instagram and Facebook
