DHAHRAN: Zamzam and Mustafa Koheji are siblings first and bandmates second — a family duo with a closeness all their own, trading riffs and exploring melodies together, all while bantering in Arabic and nerding out on instruments and inside jokes in English.
Zamzam, the older of the two, began seriously making music independently while at university in Australia, releasing material under her own name before returning home to the Kingdom and eventually collaborating with Mustafa, five years her junior, who had been composing and experimenting quietly for years.
In their band, named Zamzam, Mustafa is the composer, producer and — at live shows — drummer, while Zamzam is the lead vocalist, lyric writer, and guitarist. Both are quick to admit the lines often blur, though. “We take on a lot of roles because there are only two of us,” Mustafa tells Arab News.
Their recorded music could most easily be classified as soft rock — albeit sometimes sharper and harder, sometimes gentler. Their live shows give out a whole different vibe and energy though.
Both siblings started playing music early during their childhoods in Riyadh.
“I picked up an instrument very, very young. I remember my parents bought me a ‘Barbie’ (keyboard),” says Zamzam. “It had letters — like, paint-by-numbers but with musical notes. It was a very, very awesome toy. And there was sheet music with it, so I learned to play ‘Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star’ and ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb.’”
Mustafa played on that same “Barbie” keyboard, but also fondly remembers a red toy guitar and later, a “Spider-Man” CD player, which he broke almost immediately — an event he still recalls with genuine heartbreak.
Neither of them had any formal training, but music was ever-present in the car and around the house.
“Our parents had very diverse taste,” Zamzam says. “That shaped everything.”
Things shifted when the family moved to the Eastern Province, where many of their relatives resided. They had uncles who played guitar, and cousins who were classically trained in piano, which prompted impromptu jam sessions at their grandmother’s house when they got together.
The siblings’ age gap matters, musically. Zamzam grew up squarely millennial, shaped by analog CDs, Disney soundtracks, and lyric-driven songs. Mustafa, born in 2003, came of age as a digital native, discovering artists through solo scrolling on a device rather than spontaneously catching a song on the radio. Zamzam was fluent in all the top hits of the day. Mustafa curated his own lists. “I liked Tyler, the Creator — it felt like something I found on my own,” he says.
Those differences show up most clearly in how they approach songwriting. Zamzam is fiercely lyric-first. Mustafa, who is simultaneously more chill and experimental, believes emotion can live suspended in sound alone.
“He once told me you could sing ‘Egg, egg, egg’ over a great melody and people would love it,” Zamzam says, laughing. “I hated that argument.” Mustafa grins.
Over time, they learned neither approach was wrong — just incomplete on its own. Their current process reflects that truce: Mustafa builds the sonic world, Zamzam shapes the words, and both revise relentlessly until it feels right.
They began performing together live shortly after COVID-19 lockdown, making their debut at Bohemia Art Cafe & Records in their hometown. Quarantining together simply made collaboration easier due to proximity — and eventually, alignment.
“For the first time, we both agreed (on the sound),” says Zamzam. “That rarely happens.”
Their most recent single, “Western Flower,” which ended up becoming an ode to veteran US rocker Bruce Springsteen, took nearly a year to complete, passing through multiple versions and revisions before settling into its current form. Entire melodies and lyrics were scrapped. Choruses they loved were abandoned.
“That song needed time,” Zamzam says. “I had to let it live in my head before it made sense.”
Zamzam says she loves performing live, but finds it emotionally exposing — “like reading your diary out loud.”
While Mustafa focuses on graduating this year from his university in Bahrain, Zamzam has begun formal music study for the first time, learning music theory, reading sheet music (she has evolved beyond the Barbie keyboard) and rebuilding her foundation intentionally. “I wanted to understand what I’d been doing instinctively all these years,” she says.
Like their songwriting, the duo’s evolution is unhurried. But they say we can expect new songs in the summer.
Some things, they both agree, “just need time.”
