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"There is musical racism in the country": Metal producer Yishai Schwartz opens his mouth Israel today

2020-11-12T09:12:02.920Z


With a debut album for his band, Yishai Schwartz, the metal producer, takes the time to talk about this industry that is being abandoned in Israel: "Cultural discrimination cries to heaven" | Music


The veteran producer releases his band's debut album "Tomorrow's Rain", which hosts Israeli artists you would not expect to take part in a metal album - and talks about the attitude to this music in Israel: "As they treated the Mizrahi in the eighties"

  • Yishai Schwartz (second from the left) and the band

    Photography: 

    Dori Bar Or

The metal scene is very diverse, not only in the world, but also in Israel.

There have always been and will be the various camps, some for Metallica and some for Maghad, some for Relig Metal and some for thrash metal, and of course some for punk and some for metal in the first place.

The umbrella of metal is wide, each metalist is a different entity who listens differently to music, and not everyone at all knows the same bands.

But there is one character, and only one, that every metalist in Israel knows - and this man is Yishai Schwartz.

Schwartz, 44, a native of Raanana, divorced and a 14-year-old father, is the oldest metal producer in Israel.

He has been active in the field since 1997 and is responsible for bringing dozens of metal bands to Israel, including big names such as Paradise Lost, Kreator, Sabaton, Behemoth and more.

Schwartz, who never stopped believing in the field, even when it seemed unprofitable financially or mentally - lives the metal and continues to fight over a very small scene, which sometimes seems to spit in his face.

However, he does not look or speak as you would expect from a "tough metal man", and he is revealed in the conversation as one of the most verbal and in-depth people known in the world of productions.

Now, with the release of the debut album of his band Tomorrow's Rain, it can be said that he is also one of the most intriguing people in the music industry in Israel.




The band's debut album is not Yishai's baptism of fire in the world of music.

He has created quite a bit in the past, but it seems that in this album that is now coming out (called "Hollow"), Yishai decided to give it his all, take out the heavy weapons, all the connections he made, the friends he acquired, the abilities he developed, the various drawer and art writing over the years , And make of everything one big album that centers on everything he has become in his 44 years.

The album features impressive collaborations with major international artists from the field of metal, including members of the bands Paradise Lost, Nevermore, Septicflesh, My Dying Bride and more.

In addition to the international album, the band members chose a unique course in which they also released another version of the album, which apart from two songs, was fully translated into Hebrew.

Beyond the uniqueness of metal songs in the Hebrew language (something that happened a few times in history, and usually did not go well), the artists that Schwartz and his band chose to take part in these equally special versions.

These are top Israeli rock artists, including Ricky Gal, Shlomi Bracha, Micha Sheetrit and Avi Ballali.

In addition to them, Israel's biggest metal ambassador, Kobi Farhi, lead singer of the band Orphaned Land, is also taking an active part in the album. 

In honor of the release of the album during a very difficult period of Corona, where it is not possible to hold performances or sales of albums and merchandise as usual, I caught up with Yishai Schwartz to talk about everything he and his band have been and still are, and of course dive into this very special album.

Music as a first language

From the age of 18, Schwartz began working, albeit not in a metal band, but always in works that surrounded the field.

"At one point I even had a magazine called 'Rockpoint' that I would publish," he says, "and at the height of the record and record stores I had a distribution and import company called 'Raven' that brought metal to the country and marketed it in all chains. The company still exists but most stores have closed. .

You are very active on social media and in front of an audience.

Yours more than once you wrote on Facebook that this album is the soundtrack of your life.

How it manifests itself?

"This album is a summary of my path so far in the music world. As a kid in the eighties I would sit 10-12 hours a day in front of the radio and record whole shows and then listen to them, write down what I liked and go buy the records of those bands. That's how I got exposed to bands like Cure , The Smiths and the Sisters of Mercy. 

"I was afraid to deal mentally with the content of the songs and with this exposure. This is not an ordinary album, it is completely autobiographical and everything written in the songs happened."

"At 13 when my classmates were deep on Madonna and Duran Duran's trip, I was looking for more exciting, deeper things, and in the wee hours of the night on the radio I definitely found them. Metal came in parallel, it was always in parallel: Iron Maiden with the Cure, Judas Priest with Ehud Banai and Black Sabbath with The Smiths, this is actually the musical dish of Tomorrow's Rain that was created in my head at a very young age.

For many years I groped my way in the music industry.

I wrote hundreds of songs as a child, at the age of 15 (1990) I sent lyrics to Barry Sakharof, who was then before the release of his first album, and read somewhere that he was looking for materials.

Age did not stop me.

I released a book of poetry ("Prophet of Wrath") in 1993 and started performing with my first band, Betrayer, in clubs like "Roxanne" and "Real Time".

Two or three years later, we released an international album, so the gate was opened for me to import records and market them to music stores.

"Music has always been a language for me, sometimes even a first language. Already at the age of 16 I had a collection of more than 2,000 albums at home and the styles were as I said before - very diverse."

What led you at the age of 44 to first release substances that you actually started working on as a child? 

"Since this is the first album we did not stand with a stopwatch but took the time, we took the truth a lot of time ... The band was formed in 2002 under the name Moonskin and operated until 2006, then went into five years of coma. In 2011 we re-formed the band, changed to -Tomorrows Rain and we started to put things together, in 2016 we started performing intensely and recording sketches, and last year the album was recorded, we broke the record of Axel Rose while waiting for the album. After all, the next album will be released in 2022 18 years.

"It's important for me to note that although a lot of me is invested in this album and a lot of the content talks about my experiences or thoughts, it's not my project, it's a band. Apart from the singing performed by, Tomorrow's members are Rafi Moore, who has been with me since its inception - the veteran guitarist Formerly a member of the well-known Israeli metal ensemble Distorted, Nir Nakav the drummer from the mythical Israeli metal band Salem, as well as several prominent members of the newer generation of metal in Israel: guitarist Yoni Bitton (Ferium), bassist Yagel Cohen (black widow) and keyboardist Shiraz Weiss.

"Why have I not released the album so far? Because I was afraid to deal mentally with the content of the songs and with this exposure. It is not a normal album, it is completely autobiographical and everything written in the songs happened, we as a band have faced a chain of crises and pains in personal life. Screenplay for an entire movie.When we started recording I thought it was mostly my story, during the recording process one band member lost both his parents in one year, the other had to break up 25 years of marriage, the third was injured, and suddenly it became the story of us all.

"Another thing I realized is that I 'live in a movie' that people really listen to and read words, I have no reason to be afraid not because the songs are not revealing to the brides, but because 95% of people today listen to music as they make salad - in the background, as a soundtrack to another daily task. "Some of this insight also released some barrier for me that I had in preparation for the release of these very sensitive substances to the world's air."

So why the name 

Tomorrow's Rain

"'Tomorrow's rain will wash the stains away, But something in our minds will always stay'. This is a sentence from Sting's' Fragile 'song, one of the perfect songs in the universe, and this sentence reflects our message:' The rain will fall and cleanse the pain and the soul But something I scar will always stay there. "

Let's talk for a moment about Corona: Do you feel that the momentum was right with everyone's pain and rush alongside the content the album presents, or that the timing is problematic, because it is actually impossible to perform with the album at all at this point?

"The corona brought with it another crisis to the pile we already had and 'added another toothpick to the fire.' The first blow was huge financial losses without any aid, a 'grant' to be returned to the state - it is not aid but an interest-bearing loan.

"The second blow for me personally was the breakup of a long relationship I had, and the corona ironically actually 'took off the mask' from the other side and reflected to me that that woman might have had fun with me, but she had more fun with what I had in my pocket than with what I had in my heart. The third hit is like you said, that it is really impossible to perform and celebrate with our audience in the world and in Israel the release of the album.

"But as you already understand we are used to snatching all sorts of explosions forward and moving on in our own way, and this time too that is exactly what we are doing despite the pain and difficulties."

"We achieved an interesting effect"

"Hollow" has two versions: one in Hebrew, the other in English.

The one in Hebrew includes two songs left in English, raising the question of why the entire album was not translated.

"The idea was to give the Hebrew-speaking audience the album in our mother tongue," Schwartz explains. "To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time in Israel that an album is released simultaneously in Hebrew and English. The untranslated song about World Dayan is flooded with images from songs he wrote over the years. That's the whole thing was lost in translation. And the other one left in English, the theme song of the album "Hollow," is the only one I did not write but our keyboardist, Shiraz Weiss, and it's a brave song about parting from a woman's point of view. We tried to translate it, even Ricky ( Gal) tried to help me, but it did not seem to me that a translation would convey the same feeling. "

"One of the first people to hear the album in Hebrew was a guy named Lee Lavie, from the Israeli metal band 'Shredhead', and he said to me 'Listen, when I listen to it in Hebrew it's suddenly not a metal album, it's a dark, gloomy and charged Israeli rock album, and it's weird because it's The same production, the same arrangements, just the language is our language. "And it showed me that we achieved an interesting effect. At the end of the day music is music, did anyone ever write 'the hat band wearing the hat' or 'the ski band sleeping' or the gothic rock band Minimal Compact "In life no. Only when it comes to metal does this unnecessary discussion of 'yes metal / no metal' take place. For me, the three elements that will always be in our music are that it will be exciting, gloomy and powerful. As long as these three exist, we are happy."

"The second blow for me on the personal side was a breakup of a long relationship, and the corona actually 'took off the mask' from the other side and reflected to me that that woman had more fun with what I had in my pocket than with what I had in my heart."

The album has a song that is a tribute to Worl Dayan, lead singer of the bands Nevermore

and

Sanctuary

.

Why did you choose to dedicate an entire song to him? 

"Worl Dayan is a vocalist with a huge voice and mesmerizing lyrics, but like many musicians of the time, even with a severe drug and alcohol addiction problem. Worl was a good friend, even though we are very different in this segment, I have never touched any kind of drug and after a beer and a half I Retiring to mineral water ... but we connected very much on the personal side, he was supposed to produce our album and visited the country several times for performances.Once time we sat together in a restaurant and talked about future plans and his rehab, which this time succeeded, I told him how proud I was and we exchanged suggestions For future projects.

"It all dissolved after two years when I brought him back to Israel, but this time the man was in a very bad condition, returned to heavy drinking and was no longer 'with us'. It was clear he could not produce an album, could barely communicate with the environment. All I wanted was for him to stop itching. I could not reach him mentally the last time, and it was very sad for me. A year later he passed away. Even though it was in the air before, it tore me to pieces. I wrote a song in his memory that relied on motifs from songs he wrote in "Nevermore to commemorate him and simply because I love him and miss him. The world lost a huge musician and singer, and I lost a friend."




Why did you choose to cover Nick Cave for the song "Weeping song

" that closes the album?

"I grew up on Nick Cave from a very young age. The choice to make him a cover came after I saw him perform here in Israel, right after his rocking album and after his son's death, Nick chose life and chose to document the mourning in music and share it with the audience. He is an example of mental strength in moments of dealing with the worst. "

"Niche of that audience"

The band's album includes guests such as Riki Gal, Micha Sheetrit, Shlomi Bracha, Avi Ballali and Eran Tzur.

Not quite who we would expect to hear on a metal album that includes grunts and a distorted saw.

"The album was previously written in English," says Schwartz, "and began collaborating with guest musicians from well-known metal bands (My Dying" Bride "," Paradise Lost "and more) who were featured on the album, who sang and who played. When we began to formulate Hebrew, I was debating how to approach the roles. These, because it is not possible to ask an English, Swedish or Greek to sing in Hebrew.

"Then I had the idea to collaborate with rock artists in Israel, who I love and who are related to the album in terms of influence or love for their work, who will give a piece of the world and their vast experience within our material. I turned to Micha Sheetrit, Riki Gal, Eran Tzur, Shlomi Bracha and Avi Ballali, And the truth that really excites me is that they're on the album, it's a kind of artistic statement that says you can make heavy, atmospheric and deep Israeli music, and it doesn't have to be featherweight pop dance, they have a place too - but we too. We and every band that makes music here is different And different, that he is regularly excommunicated and difficult for him.

"It is impossible for them to write about us all over the world in all the most relevant music magazines, from Japan and Australia through Brazil and Germany to England and Sweden, and precisely here in our house they will ignore us. I'm sorry, but it's a kind of artistic musical racism that comes from those editors and reporters And inferior in the worst case, we are treated as they were in the eighties to oriental music, 'it's a niche', that of the 'that' audience. So I identify when Avihu Medina talks about cultural discrimination, with us it screams to heaven, because all over the world embrace and cheer "It's not for the radio. Say, 'Are we in the Middle Ages? This conservatism repels me. It represents a fixed and arrogant perception that has no place.'

Why, in fact, did you not apply (apart from Kobi Farhi) to any of the other Israeli metal artists for collaboration, as you did with foreign artists?

"Our musical story has always been a combination of the metal world with the rock world. When I talk about the album in Hebrew it has metal, heavy singing and the whole atmosphere, and also as mentioned Kobi from Orphaned Land. What I was missing was the rock side and it's a bit hard to achieve with soloists. Death Metal, I wanted to bring into it the influence of the darker Israeli rock of the eighties, and the truth is that the opposite question should be asked: Why in the English album did you bring only metal artists and not musicians from rock, gothic and New Wave bands? And the answer is that I did not feel comfortable contacting Peter Murphy "Nick Cave or Andrew from the Sisters of Mercy immediately on our first album, and I preferred to accumulate there and be recognized first. But there is always the next album."

"I identify when Avihu Medina talks about cultural discrimination, with us it screams to heaven, because all over the world people hug and cheer and here if there is a drop of guitars then 'it's not for the radio'"

"I'm not just addressing the audience from the metal scene in advance, I make music and for me anyone who connects to it is welcome. I will not make my music more commercialized to sell more but I will definitely appeal to anyone, no matter if he is a fan of Led Zeppelin, Nick Cave, Remy Fortis or Morbid Angel (better of all together).

Most of the songs on your debut album are in collaboration with other artists.

You do not feel that

Tomorrow's Rain is

losing a bit like that from the stage, or that you have disappeared in the middle of it all?

“All the songs were written years before we thought of bringing guests, so the songs are 100% us.

The fact that there is a guitarist who is hosted in one song or a singer who sings a section of the song in another song - it is a spice, an important and interesting addition, but the meat of the matter are the songs, and it is also what makes a person listen again and again to the album.

It makes sense for the listener to be intrigued by the guests and come to hear the album in the first place, but if he does not like the songs, he will not continue to listen to it. "

The connection with the metal artists from the world scene is understandable, most of them you brought to perform in Israel.

But how did the connection with the Israeli rock artists come about?

"As for the artists in the country, everyone agreed immediately with our appeal to them, who because of the personal connection (Ricky has been my voice development teacher for years, and we connected very quickly) and who because of the connection to Yossi Elephant and my personal story with him and theirs with him, and some just liked the direction of our writing. "And what we come to create. I ultimately believe that for everyone it is the material itself that ultimately gave the last word, because any personal connection or connection to Yossi Elephant would not have made anyone participate in the album if he did not think the song in question was good."

What's really the story with Yossi Elephant and you?

And what is the impact on the work itself?

The song 'Trees' was written about my and Yossi's childhood together in Ramat Gan.

We lived one floor above him when he was a kid and I have lots of deep memories since, he undoubtedly made a huge impact on me and the album, his spirit is woven throughout the songs and with it all my childhood on Mevo Zeev Street in Ramat Gan, many years before Elephant himself became famous.

Yossi's father, David, was an Auschwitz survivor, my grandfather Moshe was a partisan and they found a lot in common.

I can talk about Yossi for hours, the man is with me in a place dear to my heart and always will be.

Anyone who listens to some of his songs after listening to our album, will be able to find a lot of similarities and connections between the two. "

The album begins with the sound of children playing, which can be heard both at the beginning of the first song "Trees

" and at the end.

Does this recording have any meaning?

"Absolutely. These are children from the 'Sheila' school in Ramat Gan who were recorded playing during the break. Yossi Elephant and I studied there. It was very important to me that it be recorded in the same school and nowhere else. This is a return to our childhood and these are the next generation's voices. ".

Source: israelhayom

All life articles on 2020-11-12

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