I wrote the song ‘Fuck Peace’ in 2006. I am not sure of the exact date, but I know it was sometime during the July War (2006 Israel-Hezbollah War). 

I remember being intoxicated and angry. I strummed the guitar vehemently as I watched the Israeli warplanes bomb Beirut — more precisely, south of Beirut — one late afternoon. The antiquated Lebanese anti-aircraft weapons were activated, but their shots looked like harmless and unimpressive fireworks in the sky. The sunset was delayed or postponed that day, it seemed, as if a sleepy god was trying to finish a low-budget movie before going to bed.

The so-called war made my blood boil. It was senseless. I did not understand why our country was at war. I was somewhat conscious of Lebanese politics, but I still could not find a reasonable explanation. What triggered the war could have been labeled a simple misunderstanding. It could have been solved within hours.

I was an eighteen-year-old boy who wanted to enjoy life — like a hedonist. I wanted to fall in love, make art, get drunk, play music, have sex… I did not want this war. I had nothing to do with it.

I stopped strumming the guitar. Five minutes of nothing. I nursed a beer and smoked a cigarette. And then I started strumming again.

As I played the two notes in a loop, the words came out like frenzied bats out of a cave. I spat them out. I did not sing; I shouted at the world. I didn’t think about the song, whether or not it was sophisticated, beautiful, soothing, etc. It was an eruption. I just played it… angrily. Over and over again until the verses were born. And the chorus was, “Fuck peace; it ain’t gonna happen.”

… I liked performing Fuck Peace in front of friends, and I did play it every now and then. Even after the war. Everybody seemed to like it, especially the part where I make “sick noises.” But then, after recording an acoustic version of it, I forgot about it for some time. I just stopped playing it. That was in 2009 or 2010.

To be honest, the recorded acoustic version was horrendous. I recorded it when I was drunk one night. But when it came out, I shared it anyway (with close friends only).

In 2010, In Sanity Q was formed and newer songs were written, such as Blow, The Way I am, She Wants My Sex, Clown of the Town… In fact, we were composing so many original songs that I didn’t even think about turning some of my old songs, such as Fuck Peace, into In Sanity Q songs. Everything seemed to be going great.

But then something strange happened.

One day, I heard that someone was playing Fuck Peace, telling people that he wrote it. I knew the guy; so I got a little mad but did nothing. But a couple of months later someone else started playing my song. I did not understand how or why, but it was then that I decided to start performing it again, and this time with In Sanity Q. 

Originally, Fuck Peace was an acoustic song. If we were to perform it as In Sanity Q, we would have to add some flavor to it. And that’s what we did. For instance, the solo part and the reggae-ish part were added later to make the song less monotonous… and so on.

I guess that’s more than enough info.

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