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Solo fish: Yaya Cohen Aharonov Independent in the field Israel today

2022-04-21T16:56:43.338Z


He twice recovered from Corona ("Both Alpha and Delta"), lost his beloved mother to cancer ("I learned from her to be optimistic"), and never stopped juggling between projects • At 45, Yaya Cohen Aharonov releases a third solo album and explains how different it is from playing And perform with his mother band, The Snake Fish


A year and a half ago, musician Yaya Cohen Aharonov faced a painful loss.

"My mother, Hannah, passed away and I was left an orphan, after my father succumbed to cancer 22 years ago," he says.

"My mother had Parkinson's, and eventually died of cancer too. It was not an easy thing. She was very important and central in our lives, the four children. We said goodbye to her - my two older brothers, my sister and I - by her bed in the hospice where she slept. We were with her. Until the last minute.I had to deal with it, and it was not easy.

"All her life she taught us to be optimistic, and that's what I took from her. She went through the Holocaust as a child, immigrated to Israel alone, widowed my father, moved to sheltered housing, dealt with serious illnesses and always looked at the half full glass. It gives a lot of inspiration. I always try to be optimistic. "

This week, Cohen Aharonov, who is listed on the ID card as Yair and is recognized as the bassist of the Snake Fish Band, celebrated his 45th birthday.

At this time comes his third solo album, "Out", created in the last two years, with in the background a halt to routine due to the plague, orphanhood from the mother and the crisis of after the age of 40, in which questions about life begin to be asked.

On top of that, he also managed to infect himself in Corona, twice.

"I was also ill with the alpha strain, one of the first in the country, and also in the Delta, and suffered some intense days of fever and cough, but I did not get to the hospital. In the first round I infected the whole family. We coped and got out of it."

Gather the audience again

One of the standout songs on the new album, "Every Step," talks about the optimistic look that Cohen Aharonov inherited from his mother.

"There is a sentence in this song that for me is a motto for life: 'Every stone that hit me, from it I will build the bridge.' "I read and composed the lyrics even before I heard Aviv's song, which is of course in a different melody."

Cohen Aharonov's previous solo albums were released in 2008 and 2012.

He is now returning as a lead singer to the front of the stage.

“One of the big caps I got was on the first solo album, when I came from the most successful band in the country, performing in front of thousands of people, and suddenly 40 people come to my show, even 30, which is hard and weird.

"You get a kind of surprising slap from life, go back to the beginning and start from scratch. I know now I have to re-gather the audience (he will perform on June 18 in Gray Tel Aviv). I'm ready for that, and I know it's a long way. "Everything. On your shoulders, and all emotions to the maximum."

Is there a fear that it will not work?

"There's a fear. I hear what's going on on the radio, and that's less what I like. The whole radio is pop, and I do not think everything should be pop. There should be room for other music as well. No song from the new album has entered Galgalatz yet. I did not expect, "It does not undermine my confidence, because I know the album is good, and I really want it to reach people. Today, in the flood of information we live in, it is difficult to reach them."

Are you going back to a solo album because what you do with Snake Fish is not enough for you?

"The Snake Fish is a band of creators, where everyone has the freedom to work on their own projects, because obviously the band can not contain everyone's creativity. There were years when I brought songs to the band that did not fit its concept."

How did the band get your desire for a solo career?

"At first the thought of going solo was not simple, because it was not a natural thing. It was too new to know how to react to it between us. Over time, the understanding permeated that it was legitimate, and today there is much more paragon towards each other. Of the band.If there was no creative freedom, the band would not last.

"By the way, now we're starting to formulate a new album, working in a studio. Musically I think we're unique in the world, with our own fingerprint. You can not say about the snake fish that it sounds like something else in the world, of course there are influences."

What is your place in the band's social fabric?

"I am optimistic, I believe that good things will happen. For example, Mazi Cohen recorded the song 'Nobody' with us for the debut album, and for years I suggested that we contact her to be a guest on our show. People in the band would laugh at me because she always refused. "At our show at Barbie, and again I suggested we go to her. They laughed at me again. I decided to call her myself. I said to her, 'Mazi, I dreamed you were a guest. It's been 18 years since the song came out, let's be a guest,' and she agreed," he laughs.

"Came up by surprise, and it was very strong."

In the last decade since his previous solo album, and alongside Snake Fish, Cohen Aharonov has worked with other artists as a creator, arranger and producer.

He composed, for example, Muki's "Daddy's Child," which was chosen as the song of the year.

At the same time, he and his brother Ran founded the successful "Children of the Tree House" project, in which the best Israeli artists sing original children's songs, which the brothers create, with their children's voices included in the album.

The project has become a series on educational television and has so far yielded four albums, one of which is a double, forcing them to create a very large amount of new songs in a relatively short time.

"We did not come from a place of making money and breaking the market," he says, "but to create an album of quality songs for children, as I grew up on 'The Sixteenth Lamb.' All the singers we approached agreed to participate. Hanan Ben Ari told me 'first "And now tell me what song."

Together with his brother Ran, he also gives a lecture to various audiences entitled "Bringing Change".

"Ren tells about a change in education, and I about my way in the world of music, through all the difficulties and successes. The 'children of the tree house', like the snake fish, no producer and no company wanted to produce at first. They did not believe us. It was hard and took time Our message is to walk with your truth, and also that social change can be brought about through educational and musical action. We lecture to principals, schools, conferences, teenagers who go to Poland.

"We tell the youth about our mother, the late Hannah, who was a Holocaust survivor.

She was born in the Netherlands, and was hid from the age of three to six by a Christian family.

Her parents hid elsewhere.

The family girl, who hid her and had to keep her a secret for three years, remained her friend until my mother passed away.

The Christian family is in touch with us to this day.

My brother wrote a children's book about it, which became a show at Meditech in Holon.

"She was chosen for the children's show of the year, and now we are in talks to produce a film in the Netherlands and in Israel, with the Endemol company."

How do you cope with so many different projects?

"It's very challenging. The situation in the music industry in Israel is that even if you're a member of the most successful band in the country, you have to do more things to live fine. When I realized that, 15 years ago, I started developing my work with other artists and all the projects I have done since then. .

"On the other hand, I decided I would only work with whoever I really want to work with, and I'm lucky to do that. I gave up all sorts of offers with a lot of money, like commercials for commercials, for example, because I did not feel like it. available".

With the snake fish (left).

"Even if you are a member of the most successful band in the country, you must do more things," Photo: Ohad Romano

Songs that comfort people

He is married to Irit, a yoga teacher, and the father of Uri (12.5 years old) and Yonatan (8).

"My children are very musical, my daughter sings and the son learns drums from me. I'm not sure I do not want them to be musicians. There is no doubt that this is a very, very difficult profession, and over the years it becomes more and more difficult, but on the other hand The what you love and also gain power to influence people.

"Songs you write comfort people or make them make decisions in life, and these are not necessarily hits that have succeeded and everyone knows. There is something very powerful about it. I started playing the piano at the age of four, and my mother sat on me practicing every day. At four and a half I performed in front of my kindergarten children. With the songs of the Land of Israel that I learned. "

The Cohen Aharonov family lives in a rented two-story house in Moshav Magshimim near Petah Tikva, with a large yard.

On the ground floor is the home studio where most of Yaya's new album was recorded, in which he himself plays almost all the instruments.

Funding for the project, which included filming three clips, came from his own pocket.

"The album is distributed digitally these days. I still strongly believe in albums that tell the story of whoever created them, which can not be done in one song," he says.

The thread that connects musically between the songs of the new album is the oriental elements - in melodies, musical instruments and accompaniment roles.

“I started this album from tunes I wrote on the beach in Goa, India,” he recalls.

"I took the family there for a month, after a very busy year at work. While sitting on the beach, I suddenly got oriental phrases from my guitar. When I returned to Israel, I also started playing while and bouzouki.

"Before that I had never messed with Mizrahi, but I'm half Persian, on my dad's side, and maybe it's something that goes on in the gardens and suddenly pops up. The Persian and Oriental music is more in-depth. "

How did the words come about?

"After I had the tunes, I wrote lyrics for them or adapted songs written by others, like Yahli Sobol in the song 'Something More.' "What is important and what is not important, and everything connected even more. I realized that what matters is the basic things: family, friends, music and my connection with myself. This is reflected in the song 'Do not need', for example."

Other songs such as "Crowded" and "Swing" Yaya wrote about his family life and his relationship with his wife, about which he relates: "I really like buying clothes for the municipality. I bought most of her beautiful clothes, some on snake fish tours abroad.

I go to the shops and buy for her, and she trusts me. "

The connection to oriental music could be heard at the launch of the new album that took place last month at the Barbie Club, where he hosted Alon Olarchik and Shai Lahav.

Among other things, he performed, along with the new songs, 'Come to the Neighborhood a New Guy' and his own version of 'Time to Wake Up' by the mother band.

The show has marked him as one of the top performers currently on the market.

In the spirit of "time to wake up" and the spirit of protest of the snake fish, the last two years have also found Cohen Aharonov more politically involved than ever.

"I was very moved by the protest against the previous government. I went to demonstrations twice in Balfour and demonstrated here, at the junction outside the moshav. For me it was a protest by 'caretakers' who demonstrated every Saturday in Balfour and the bridges. I demonstrated against corruption.

"I got into a situation where I did not believe who led the government, I did not believe that the policy was not tainted by foreign considerations. It is not a matter of right and left. Even those who supported the government knew there were personal considerations navigating. And where. Behind every decision was a question mark. "

What dream have you not yet fulfilled?

"Succeeding Abroad.

In Snake Fish we went on 25 tours around the world, mostly in Jewish communities, and I wanted us to put out more songs in English and try more.

But in order to really succeed there - you have to move to live there. "

shishabat@israelhayom.co.il

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Source: israelhayom

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