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Jul 17, 2024 By Caleb Campbell Photography by Gavin Nourallah

Dallas-based musician Salim Nourallah has built up a prolific catalog over the past two decades, bridging various permutations of the indie, Americana, and power pop worlds as both a producer and singer/songwriter. He returned most recently last year with his latest album, A Nuclear Winter, and he quickly followed this year with a series of new singles. Today, he’s back with his latest track, “Hold the Sun” premiering with Under the Radar.

“Hold the Sun” finds Nourallah at his most warm and comforting, offering a golden-hued paean to optimism. Nourallah’s vocals wind through the track, offering a charming and plaintive focal point as he adorns his melodies with sparse guitar and dreamy Beatles-esque keys. Later on, the track takes on a floating psychedelic feel as keening pedal steel and windswept textures swirl into the mix. All along, Nourallah floats weightlessly above the instrumentation, sounding plainspoken and unassuming. At moments, his vocals take on a similar timbre to Jeff Tweedy of Wilco.

Yet despite the track’s placid sheen, his songwriting also manages to move and penetrate deeply, with his lyrics both recognizing life’s harsh realities and steadfastly holding on to hope: “Life is tough / Sometimes the battle is too much / It’s always tempting to give up / It’s hard to carry on / But dream of peace / And maybe peace will come to you / I hope it does, I hope you do / Find comfort now and then / Hold the sun.”

Nourallah says of the track, “Is this a message song? I guess this is a message song. Well, the message came to me in a dream. Really. I woke up with the tune and some of the words. I dream music all the time, but the songs are usually gone when I wake. This one was determined, it survived the crossover from dreamworld to our world. Yet another example of how mysterious this music thing is.

I’ve been hearing music in my head all my life; it started when I was a kid. That’s a big reason I went down the road I went down - committing much of my life to songwriting. ‘Hold the Sun’ is the most recent reminder of why I’ve continued to do this all these years. The songs keep coming, whether I want them to or not.”

Listen to the track and watch the accompanying video below. You also can read our Q&A with Nourallah below.

How did the song come together, both musically and lyrically?

I think the way “Hold the Sun” was ultimately constructed is a great example of having to use what you know as a songwriter - your craft, so to speak - to ultimately drive the song home after being hit with the initial creative bolt of lightning. Even though I’d been gifted maybe 25% of it, I still needed to finish the other 75%. That’s a lot of remaining work. I thought the 25% I’d been given was strong enough to warrant putting the time in. That time basically involved trying to get to the heart of what the dream lyrics were saying and finish it with words that I felt lived up to the initial bolt of inspiration. I’ve become fairly methodical with lyric writing over the years and usually spend a fair amount of time doing that. I feel like almost anyone can bang out a decent tune, but what you’re saying and how you say it is really what separates a good song from an average or throwaway one.

What was the recording process like?

The recording was basically just Billy Harvey and me. Billy is a singer, songwriter, and producer who lives in Nashville. We met over 15 years ago in Austin through a mutual friend, and he produced my fourth record, Constellation. Over the years, he’s become one of my closest friends and main musical confidant. This song is part of two albums’ worth of material that we’ve been working on over the last few years. All of it was recorded in my studio, Pleasantry Lane, which is in Dallas.

What is this song’s message?

It’s fairly straightforward. It’s ultimately a song of encouragement. We’re all riding the wave, surfing the unexpected good and bad times. Never truly knowing what’s coming next. My hope is that “Hold the Sun” is something to put on that offers some sort of comfort or encouragement to someone that might be having a bit of a hard time.

I “hope” that it conveys some sense of hope. I’ve lived long enough to know that usually, if you can just hang on and make it through the difficult times, a happier time is perhaps just around the corner.

Speaking of messages, the video is quite emotional to watch. What message do you hope the video shares with those who view it?

It’s nice to hear you found the video moving. When I initially saw it, I was moved, too. I feel like Jordan Thompson really elevated the song with his visuals. He took a small sentiment and blew it up in a way. He spread the message out to encapsulate something larger than what I was thinking when I wrote it. He achieved something that is very rare in the video-making world - actually making something more powerful than just the song on its own. The video was strictly Jordan‘s vision; I had no input whatsoever. When I saw it for the first time, I was astonished by the beauty and depth of the visuals. I felt like it was a work of art. We didn’t make a single revision.

How do you describe your music to people who have not heard it before?

I’m ultimately the result of being heavily influenced by The Beatles from a very young age. Everything I’ve done throughout my career in music has probably been informed by them somehow even though I’m also a huge punk and post-punk aficionado. Over the years, The Beatles’ influence was stronger early on, before I’d really found my own blueprint, my own voice. So to those who haven’t heard of me before, I’d describe myself as some sort of classicist influenced by The Beatles in the way that I view pop music as art, not bubblegum.