Scott's Spotlight #22-- Rabea Massaad
Originally posted to Facebook on February 27, 2025
Link to post:
https://www.facebook.com/share/1BMtsfbU9x/
Welcome to Scott’s Spotlight (#scottsspotlight) issue #22. For more information about this series, please click here:
So, for this week’s issue, I am going to do something slightly different. Rather than doing a particular band, I am going to focus on a particular musician, and the various bands and solo projects he has been involved in. That artist is Rabea Massaad (aka BEA), guitarist extraordinaire, particularly known for his YouTube (his own and for Anderton’s music store in the UK) and Instagram videos. Rabea’s career is a textbook example of how a 21st century musician builds a successful career.
This feature has been cobbled together from various sources on the internet, as he does not have a Wikipedia page or a definitive bio that I can find online.
Massaad was born in 1988 in the UK. At the age of 7 or 8, he began his journey as a musician by taking up the drums. However, as a teenager, a skateboard injury resulted in a torn ACL so he was unable to play drums. His father was a guitarist and Rabea started experimenting on his father’s 1979 Fender Strat and 1994 Jackson Professional. Eventually, he got his own Epiphone Les Paul Studio model. BEA would eventually attend the Academy of Contemporary Music in Guildford, Surrey, UK, which had been co-founded by Peter Anderton of Anderton’s Music Store in 1997.
In 2011, Massaad had a chance meeting with Rob Chapman who had become noted for his YouTube instructional videos and his collaborations with Lee “The Captain” Anderton (who had taken over his family’s business from his father and grandfather) on Anderton’s YouTube channel doing many product demonstrations and “Blindfold Challenges.” Chapman took the younger musician under his wing.
For a number of years prior to this Rabea had been in bands that included drummer Ben Minal and bassist Dave Holligsworth. When the singer in their band became ill and the band stalled out, the three decided to form Dorje with Rob Chapman in 2012; with Rob on vocals and guitar. The band played progressive metal and released three EPs– “Primordial Audio Chronicle, Volume 1” in 2012, “Catalyst” in 2015, and “Centered and One” in 2016. Dorje announced their breakup in 2021 after several years of inactivity, although all are still apparently on good terms. The playing on these recordings are top-notch, while Chapman’s vocals may be an acquired taste for some.
As Dorje was getting underway, Rabea began participating in Andertons’ YouTube videos, and became well-known along with “The Captain and Chappers” (Lee Anderton and Rob Chapman) and “Danish Pete” Honore’. Rabea is still known to participate in the videos, occasionally doing a “blindfold challenge" of his own.
During times of inactivity, while Rob Chapman was away for the birth of his son, etc, the other three members of Dorje decided to create a “parallel” band called Toska, playing instrumental progressive metal. (see this YouTube Video for Rabea’s explanation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18GkyfQubE0. ) Toska released an EP called “Ode to the Author” in 2016, a live version of the EP in 2017, and a full-length album called “Fire by the Silos” in 2019. Toska announced their break-up in 2023, on good terms.
In addition to working with Rob Chapman in Dorje and on Andertons’ videos, Rabea became a “Signature Artist” for the Chapman guitar company, co-owned by Rob Chapman and Lee Anderton. Later Rabea was given the opportunity to be involved in the design process for his own signature guitar from the brand. The “ML3-BEA” was released to great success in 2020. However, in late 2022, Rabea announced is departure from endorsing the company, stating that:
–Begin quote–
So this is something I’ve deliberated for a long, long time, but I figured as we approach the end of 2022, it’s an opportunity for change with the new year, and so it’s time to do what I feel I need to do for myself and move on from Chapman Guitars as a signature artist.
It’s been an amazing 10 years, and I couldn’t be more grateful for the love and support I’ve received from Rob, Lee and everyone at Chapman Guitars over the time I’ve been with them.
They gave me a signature model guitar when I was literally just starting out, and it was such a nice, cool and kind gesture, opportunity and platform for me to grow as an artist, and as a product designer.
It was Something Rob and Lee really didn’t need to do, and I assume was potentially a risk at the time! But they wanted to because they’re friends and wanted to help me grow, and that is something I’ll be eternally grateful for.
Rob, Lee and myself have been good friends for a long time, and I’m grateful for all the good times we’ve had together at Chapman. Just to be crystal clear it’s all good for those wondering! We are still friends and there are no bad vibes between us at all. Just love and support!
There are still some of my guitar models left and available from various retails [sic] and online, but after they’re gone, they’re gone. I have mine and I’ll play them from time to time, because they’re something I’m immensely proud of and it’s a truly great memory and achievement I’ll hold onto forever 
So with that, it’s time to say goodbye.
Thank you Rob, Lee and Chapman Guitars
Rabea
–End Quote–
A few months later, Massaad announced that he was now partnering with Ernie Ball Music Man Guitars, who have signature models for, among others John Petrucci, Steve Lukather, Steve Morse and Albert Lee, so he is in quite good company! His signature model is called: “The Rabea Massaad Artist Series Sabre.” The guitar includes his signature “Bare Knuckles Silo” pickups. He plugs it into his signature “Victory VX Kraken MkII” amplifier, via “Klotz Titanium” brand cables. I am quite sure he has signature effects pedals as well, as Chapman made some for him, but not sure who markets them currently. He is certainly well sponsored by gear companies, which is a testament to his influence as a guitarist.
In between Toska releases, Rabea released the first EP in his ongoing series of solo releases; and when I say solo, I mean SOLO. Rabea plays guitars, bass, and drums on them (with the exception of the occasional guest player). Each of the releases is called “Grinding Gears.” Vol. 1 was released in 2018, Vol. 2 in 2019, Vol. 3 in 2020, and Vol. 4 in 2024. These EPs each have several short instrumental tracks and clock in between 24-34 minutes each. To me, they are somewhat similar to what Toska was doing. Fans of bands like Animals as Leaders, Periphery or Polyphia will likely enjoy these mini-albums. He has also released several other tracks as singles that were not included on the 4 Grinding Gears EPs.
Avid YouTube watchers may be familiar with videos from “Frog Leap Studios” featuring singer Leo Moracchioli turning well known pop songs into metal songs. At least as early as 2018, BEA began working as the guitarist for the project (this is the earliest date I can find related to Rabea’s involvement in the project, but a clear answer as to when Rabea came on board has proven to be elusive). In 2019, they took the project on tour in Europe, and released a live album as well as a documentary DVD about the experience. The Frog Leap “Live in Europe” album features songs like “Eye of the Tiger,” “Uptown Funk,” the “Pokemon” theme song and the must-hear version of Toto’s “Africa.”
Following the break-ups of Dorje and Toska, Rabea began a new project with a longtime friend and skateboarding partner (yeah, apparently BEA still skateboards despite the serious accident as a teen), drummer Liam Kearly of the band Black Peaks. The two of them recorded their first EP in 2021 called “2880” under the name The Totemist. Rabea describes the recording as three songs “created in two days, by two dudes.” Rabea plays guitars, bass and synths while Kearly obviously plays drums. They are quite good though, even though they are similar in style to Toska and the Grinding Gears EPs, with maybe a bit more of a post-rock vibe to them. Their second EP came out in 2023, called “Less We Know.” This time the description says: “Following the trend of writing music in a short space of time, this 4 track EP was written in 3 just days.”
Following the pandemic, Rabea’s first live gig was at the “Reading and Leeds Festival” in 2022, where he was hired as a hand-picked, one-off session player to headline the festival with the (apparently well-known) rapper Stormzy. I am not familiar with Stormzy in the slightest, but this seems to have been considered a really big gig for Rabea. If you want to know more about it, check out this article from Guitar World Magazine: https://www.guitarworld.com/.../rabea-massaad-reading-and...
So it seems that BEA is staying quite busy and his career is well established. As of the time of this writing he has 386k subscribers to his YouTube channel which contains 840 videos. His Instagram has 263K followers with 991 posts. Rabea often cites Joe Satriani, Nuno Bettencourt, and the band Incubus as primary influences over his playing and songwriting. Now he is influencing a new generation of guitarists with his inspired playing and entertaining recordings!
Thanks for reading! If I have peaked your interest about Rabea Massaad I hope you’ll check out the Links for Listening below, and if you REALLY enjoy it check out his Bandcamp page at https://rabeamassaad.bandcamp.com/ and purchase some music.
Thanks again! Please like the post and comment below if you like my work.
Links for Listening:
(Arranged chronologically by the first release of each band or project).
With Dorje:
From: “Primordial Audio Chronicle Vol 1”
“Too Weak”
From “Catalyst”
“Catalyst”
“White Dove”
From “Centered and One”
“Centered and One”
With Toska:
From “Ode to the Author”
“Chalk Teeth”
“Chasm”
From “Ode to the Author Live”
“Phoneme”
“Infantile”
From “Fire By the Silos”
“A Tall Order”
“When Genghis Wakes”
From Solo Albums:
From “Grinding Gears Vol. 1”
“Brute Force”
“True Grit”
From “Grinding Gears Vol. 2”
“Cthulhu”
“Hey Now”
From “Grinding Gears Vol. 3”
“Oh My Getgoodness”
“Plini More of That”
From “Grinding Gears Vol. 4”
“Juscos”
“Calification”
With Frog Leap:
From “Live in Europe”
“Eye of the Tiger”
“Africa/Outro”
With The Totemist
From “2880”
“Don’t Kick It”
“Dos Huevos”
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