Arkady Duchin is depressed and melancholy, but this is not new.
Indeed - today, after the corona and just before the age of 60, he is already convinced that Israel is certainly galloping to its end.
No, not because of the corona.
"Today, all the stars of the 70s and 80s are being pushed into a niche. They have become a guard of about 50 very, very good artists, who can still contribute to Israeli culture, into a niche. It's a niche, that's a niche. A masterpiece, who is a 'singer from time immemorial'? He may have problems with his knees and prostate, but the human being creates and exists.
"Leonard Cohen's latest, before he fell and died, is the best album he has ever made. Neil Young is a niche? There are old men in the US who are always relevant, and they prove to the universe that there is no connection between an artist's age and his essence.
"I, at the height of my impudence, say with certainty that I create music younger than young people who produce old music. So why does my new music not exist in the mainstream? Why don't my new songs be broadcast? Because it's weird for people 60's to rap. 60? 'What, is he crazy? Is he a child?'. That's how people see me. But if I do it son of a bitch, then why not?
"As long as I'm not senile and geriatric, I continue to keep up to date and love fashion and buy all the latest studio machines at home. But in Israel I can push everything down, just because of my age. At the same time, I'm a successful record Age 50.
"I came to Tel Aviv with NIS 200, and today I live in a house bought from the success of music. I have 1,000 songs in ACUM, and more than 1,000 songs in a drawer.
I create compulsions in compulsive quantities.
I have techno albums, hip hop, classics, spiritual albums, children's albums, I have Natasha's friends, I have what you want.
"And my new music is no less good than the old music. It is topical. There is no better Israeli hip hop than my songs, there is only a prejudice about a person.
"There are people in the country over the age of 50 who are super talented, but maybe three who managed to penetrate this inferno. I remember that Naomi Shemer was mainstream even at an advanced age. We do not just burn the artists we hide from the public. A country that burns its past will not have Future: Respect, play one new song by every artist who made revolutions here, just out of respect for the fact that he burned 300,000 shekels on the album.
"Dude, since 2004 I've released some 400-300 songs, and the vast majority have been blocked. It cost a lot of money, I do not even want to say how much. On the other hand - 100 plays a day of music I did before 2004.
"I'm not angry at one transmitter body or another, as I used to be angry, in a primitive and screwed-up way. Today I look at it differently. I understand that all bodies are distorted and swallow reality, because there is nothing to do."
• • •
Duchin was born and raised in the USSR, in a violent reality of murder, delinquency and alcohol. And entered the pantheon of Israeli music.
Duchin is a hit-making machine.
Throughout his career, he has written and composed iconic songs for dozens of singers, from Arik Einstein to Eyal Golan.
He bound his greatest hits of all time for an intimate piano show, which will be launched next week (this coming Wednesday at the new Zappa Tel Aviv, and the next day at the Zappa Kerem Barkan).
Although he only recently closed a successful tour with the Natasha to mark the 20th anniversary of "Radio Bella Bella", he now feels mostly confused and resentful.
"My field remains competitive, and when someone succeeds, the others wish him 'death.'
No duets created out of mutual appreciation?
"All collaborations stem from a commercial interest. If I appeal to certain people and offer them to make music together, they will say, 'Wow, but what will I get out of this?', 'How much money will I make if we form a band?'
"It could be that even if they really like Arkady, they will say, 'This is a person who will be less helpful to our success.' Or they will say, '50,000 shekels, and I will come sing with you at a show.' That was when Micha and I met in our youth and started working together.
"We once realized that if you connect one and another one and another one, it is worth power, and as a result there is more success and money. If four people fail it is easier because there is a shoulder to cry on. Who wants to start a band today? There is a computer, you can do everything yourself And not to share in success or money. "
Is that why there are no more bands today?
"Yes. They died. There were always at least seven or eight bands in the country, and today nothing. Even in this world it is like that. Even Coldplay announced that they would disband in 2025. And why did they die? Because the ego suffocated their ass, and everyone wants to be alone. Terrible change we are experiencing?
"I sit here at home, crying, and ask why people don't come here, so we can play a little together? On the other hand, I'm like that too. I do not get up in the morning and go play with people for free."
Have you tried to create new music with Natasha's friends?
"We tried in many stages. We say, 'Yes, we will,' but in practice it is very difficult to make it happen. We really enjoy the stage, but there is no desire to get up in the morning and say, 'Come on, let's meet together and create.' I can not change The world alone, I need more people to want.
"In the beginning we were dependent on each other. For example, when Micha and I were children, I had no food. So at the end of his day in the army he would put on a uniform and hitchhike to bring me food from his family. And I would wait for him. He would feed me and take care of me. .
"And vice versa - later I took a loan from my father to help him. There was an unwritten mutual guarantee between us, because it was clear to us that we could not survive alone.
"Today, once everyone has a family to take care of, it gets harder. I no longer get up in the morning and think, how can I help Jean - Paul Zimbris (the drummer; NU) to have some more food.
That may be the big difference. "
Can you find some optimism in this darkness?
"I'm starting to recognize sparks of something positive and deep in the music here. There are talented artists - Dudu Tessa, Tuna, Hanan Ben Ari. Eden Hasson is amazing to me. Eviatar Banai does good on the heart every time.
"It's hard for people my age to go in and be a part of this guard, and I get it. Okay. I lost the urge to make new music in the country. So, without offending or getting angry, I turn to other channels."
which?
"A decade ago I had a song in the first place in Russia, and I even had to travel and bring a prize from there. I wrote a song for a film by Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman. I had a theme song in a cartoon that came out there, and also a song with a Russian band called 'Windmills,' Who was a few months in first place in the Russian parade.I mean, I have some land in Russia that I abandoned a bit, and now I'm back.
"I realized that in recent years I produce a lot of material that mainly goes to Spotify, and I want to broaden my horizons. Luckily I have the phenomenon called YouTube, where every child can discover you. So I live on YouTube, live on Facebook. Even there it's not easy for me, I release songs there. "Occasionally just so as not to suffocate. Because I'm an obsessive person who does three or four new songs every day. And when you don't take anything out, it's hard."
You sound angry.
"No, I really have no anger. I understand that all this business is changing. Nearly 80,000 new songs are released all over the world every day. Think what it is, you do not have time to hear everything. Luckily, for my songs like 'Melancholy', 'Stupid' , 'She's Not Like' and others have no fragrances of old age.They are topical to this day.It's also a talent, producing songs that are almost timeless, like Paul McCartney.
"When I lived in Moshav Dor, I would go into Puridis and they would sing to me 'On the starting line' and 'Freddie on the morning'. At first I was in a market where Israeli Arabs also know my songs.
"So I have nothing to complain about in the past. I'm just sorry about the hip hop I've been creating for seven years and have not grasped, and I would like everyone to hear."
Why does it not catch on?
"The Israeli ear is romantic, loves the melodic incarnation. It is difficult for her with such music. It is music that is suitable for protest, you are allowed to express an opinion. That is the reason I chose it. In Russia today there is nothing else, just rap. So I continue to create for the Russian audience."
Would you move there?
"I will never leave Israel. This is my home. The most wonderful place to live."
Natasha's friends at the beginning of their journey, Photo: Moshe Shai
• • •
When Duchin outlines the guidelines for the destruction of the world and speaks about the need for change, he shifts most of the responsibility to the institutionalized media.
"The media is built on interests. It's true that it has beautiful things, because people are intelligent, but the stench stems from its need to bring blood to dinner. When the old world collapses in favor of the new and good world, the media will disappear first - because it is like gladiator organizers And they will eat each other, because then there is an audience and there is a rating and there is a poop.
"I find it hard to forget how journalists traveled to my house, without asking me, following a song called 'Need You.' Lying in his songs.
"Or they distorted me on television when they wanted to expel the Hebrew Negroes from Dimona, and treated me as if I were voting to expel Bibi. And I never take sides for or against a leader, because I do not believe in politics. By the way, politics as we know it today will disappear. "Along with the radio, the newspapers, the television and the other unnecessary objects. My girl no longer knows what a radio is, she's streaming. And I'm not watching the news for half a year. I turned off the television. Well, I'm relieved."
Do you watch musical reality shows?
"Sometimes. There are a thousand singers there, everyone wants to be first place, so the TV comes and says: You can watch the audience eat them, until someone stays last. Really young, these poor gladiators. From personal acquaintance with singers who were there, a lot of people They leave with a mental scratch and then need a psychiatrist. "
If that's what you think, why did you audition to judge The Voice?
"For a moment it will not be understood otherwise: I am free for trucking, free for commercials and any other offer. I am not a better animal than anyone else. I am only talking about the world I would like to live in.
"I really like 'The Singer in the Mask.' If they tell me to wear a mask, I'll wear it. The least. "
If the institutionalized media is erased, whoever remains in control of the world will be Facebook's algorithm.
"Listen, I started writing in Russian now. I wrote a song with the words 'bitch,' 'whore,' and 'cat.' 'And they threatened to close the page for me if I continued like this. Come on, read the song. It's not against this poor girl, but meant to show how much she was abused.
"Understand what world we live in today. A robotic world, where you are censored without understanding what you meant. In the end we will get into a situation where people will go to jail just because they wanted to protect some prostitute. And you will prove that your sister is not."
At least thanks to social networks you have a direct line of communication to the audience?
"Basically yes, but if you do not put a few pounds, you can not get your opinion out properly. It's kind of a trap: I was told, 'Come on, open Facebook, grow.' I grew. I had 55,000 friends, but I can not Tell them nothing without paying 400-300 shekels per post, otherwise it will not appear in their feed at all.
"Recently I also opened a Twitter account, but I recoiled. There if you are not cynical and sarcastic, you will not get a rating. If you say something nice, it will not interest anyone. When I was cynical and sarcastic came about 900 likes, but if you do not have anyone to sting, sit down Tweet ".
"Our world is broken. In 'Apocalypse Now' Marlon Brando is looking for the general he is supposed to kill and realizes that the world is so broken, that we need one big bomb, burn them all and start all over again. I kind of agree with him. We broke down."
"I sit at home, cry and ask why don't people come here to play a little together? On the other hand, I also don't get up in the morning and go play with people for free."
Duchin and the cat, Photo: Kfir Ziv
• • •
Duchin longs for the closing days of the corona plague as "the most beautiful period of recent decades."
He mostly misses the first closure, which locked the world in homes and shook humanity.
"Suddenly it was quiet. I opened a window and saw birds. Yam, my child, left the computer and went to the neighbors. God kissed me and I started writing songs just like before, without thinking whether they would play them or not. I created a crazy piece and composed a play by Wissotzky 'Alice in Wonderland. '. In that period alone I wrote maybe 200 songs. Everything was pure, because there was no competition.
"As soon as we got out of quarantine, I sent a sketch to a certain musician. He told me, 'Nice song, get it out.' I told him, 'But I sent you, because I want us to do it together.'
"So what does this say about us as human beings? Once they have released the world back to the routine of life, everything is officer again.
"I think we need to learn a new profession in school, called 'human nature.'
"I immigrated to Israel from a shocking country, where they were murdered and killed on the basis of alcohol. I said, 'In Israel there is morality.' There is still much more morality here than in Russia.
"For example, all the murders in the Arab sector. It is an illusion to think that they will not come here, to the center. What is their problem to travel 200 kilometers and spray them all? Tomorrow it could be under our house. We have to take care of them now, this Arab population, the weak population, suddenly. Holds automatic weapons.
"Israeli citizens should not buy guns to protect themselves. I do not want to be the United States, this is the country I hate.
We need to unite and find a new method. "
Do you feel a change since the government changed?
"The only change is that they stopped talking about Bibi for a moment. It was an obsession, to take one person and say it's all because of him. Tomorrow another person will be taken, and he will be guilty. You can not expect a new leader to change everything without us being part of the change.
"Peace must start between us. We must put aside the crisis with the Palestinians, and before we fix things between us and Gaza, fix between us. If that happens - it will take all the countries around the air, and they will want to fight us less. In religious terms it is called 'and love To a neighbor like you. "I mean, take care of others."
• • •
He lives in Givatayim with his wife Sima and children from Mai and Yam.
Four months ago he and Sima fell ill in Corona.
"It was shit. I came back from a Natasha show in Caesarea, I got a tongue in cheek, and I suffered. I went to the dentist, I thought it was the tooth. They sent me from here to there, until one day, after a week at home, I felt suffocated.
"I called Sima, and she took me to the emergency room. I hate hospitals, I have a hard time with doctors, I'm always scared of them. As we arrived, they checked me: 'Sir, you have Corona.' It turns out I walked around like that for a long time without knowing.
"I'm a little chubby, a little sugar, so obviously my body is weaker. I was not hospitalized, but I returned home for three weeks of terrible suffering. I could barely get up or lace up my shoes. Dead to get phlegm out and not succeeding. Everything suffocated. I coughed myself to death. I was thirsty for three weeks, I could not believe there were such diseases.
"Sima also got kidnapped, but not like me. If it weren't for the vaccines it could have ended much worse."
When you see the war for and against vaccines, does that not annoy you?
"I will not express an opinion, because it is complex. The people of Israel are a hard-hearted people, and they have to learn from their mistakes. I can not force anyone to get vaccinated. I do not have that right. If he feels naturally vaccinated, nothing will happen to him or the vaccine Will ruin his body - I can not convince otherwise.
"I can only say from experience: if I had not been vaccinated, I would not have survived. I would have died. I ate shit when I got sick after two vaccinations, and it's a terrible disease. So make your judgment, I do not care. I can not fix a world. Everyone has to fix Himself.
"It's true that we all eat it because of this thing. In a time when there is a cloud over performances, I as an artist am harmed by the lack of collectivity. But every one of my audience eats it just like me."
Since recovering from corona symptoms, Duchin has been working again to reduce his weight, a struggle he has been waging for most of his life.
He takes weight loss pills and tries to maintain himself, due to the physical upheaval during the illness.
With his wife Sima and the children from May and the sea, Photo: Ariel Abigail Studio Skyline
• • •
Duchin is a man of conflicts.
Again and again he markets to me the tenets of Kabbalistic Torah, conveys to me spiritual currents and a contemplative mood, but also refuses Sima's offer to light incense in the studio at the end of the living room, to obscure the scents he left in the family cat room.
"I have a very complex relationship with God. I do not eat pork, but it does appear on Friday. I am not religious, I am spiritual. I do not believe in the simple God. God is nature, he is within us, and he is most often revealed between two people. One understands it.When you are alone, there is less God.When you are with someone else, God is revealed.
"Kabbalah is the inwardness of the Torah. It scientifically analyzes human nature, and the most important rule there is to love others, or at least try to understand it. They might now say 'Arkady went crazy, he repented.' .
"I really teach myself not to hate anyone, even those who took millions of shekels from me at the beginning of my career (Hed Artzi, which the band sued and was compensated with 1.7 million shekels for violating the payments and rights that came to the band; N.W.).
I learned to forgive them.
Anger is one of the most horrible traits a person has, it is a very crippling trait.
I'm just trying to take the first step in fixing the world. "
To listen to Arkady Duchin's new album on YouTube
nirw@israelhayom.co.il
Were we wrong?
Fixed!
If you found an error in the article, we'll be happy for you to share it with us