"I'm sick of muscular dystrophy, breathless and unable to speak. The smallest thing makes me happy"

Peter Roth sings the theme song from the second project of Shai Meshulam, who suffers from muscular dystrophy, and also features Yoni Rechter, Nurit Galron and Ehud Banai.

Shai: "I choose life, happy for my part and feel good that I have a vocation."

Peter: "I judged his songs without letting ALS intervene artistically, and I immediately connected"

Sagi Ben Nun

05/12/2021

Sunday, 05 December 2021, 09:00 Updated: 09:21

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"People do a silence workshop. I've been silent for four years."

Shai Meshulam with Peter Roth and Shai Moshe Moshe (Photo: courtesy of the photographers, Ilan Sapira)

"When Shay approached me and offered to participate in the project, I decided with myself that I would try to judge the songs as they are and not let ALS disease interfere artistically," says Peter Roth to Walla! Culture following the release of "Same Thing", the fourth single and theme song from the project of Shai Meshulam, a talented, charming and inspiring artist and creator, suffering from muscular dystrophy. In a song released today using Mint Disc, Meshulam signed the lyrics, Shai Moshe Moshe on the melody, arrangement and musical production, and Roth on the performance and bass (watch the clip). "I immediately connected to Shai's writing, and the song 'Same' felt to me like I wrote it myself. I also really liked the other songs on the album, and asked to take part in creating the album and playing it."

"We met several times in the studio of Shai Moshe Moshe, the music producer who also composed the song," adds Roth. "We have remained largely the same for decades and centuries, with so much changing around us.

Musician Shai Meshulam, 43, from Oranit, married with three children, was diagnosed at the age of 30 with ALS (muscular dystrophy). At first his left hand weakened, and later he faced the loss of independence and tried to come to terms with the fact that he could no longer return to his pursuits as a guitarist, drummer and gas technician or swing his children in the air as before. Despite the difficulties, in 2017 Meshulam released his first album, "End or Beginning". The amount for which he raised at Headstart. The singing in it was recorded quickly, for fear that Meshulam would lose his voice. The album featured the best artists including Ariel Zilber, the Jews and Eviatar Banai. For the past year, although he can no longer speak and communicates by indirect means, he is working on a new album, "Same Thing", with producer Shai Moshe Moshe, Yad Yeminu. His poems describe on the one hand loneliness, despair and depression and on the other hand also hope and joy for what is. So far, three songs full of magic have been released from his second album - "Children's Song" performed by Yoni Rechter and Nurit Galron, "Hatikva" sung by Ehud Banai and "The Heart "in the voice of Ohad Shragai, and this morning the theme song" The Same "performed by Peter Roth will be released.

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Peter Roth: "There is a moral and social deterioration in Israel"

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Peter Roth performs "The Same Thing", the theme song of Shai Meshulam's project of the same name

"I get up in the morning, choose life and am happy for my part."

Shai Meshulam (Photo: Courtesy of the photographers, Ilan Sapira)

"I met Peter Roth in an artist class at the artist's house. I approached him at the end and gave him an album of my first project, 'End or Beginning,'" Meshulam says in correspondence with Walla! culture. "He said he heard about the album, I told him about the project at the door and asked if he would agree to take part. He was happy and gave me a phone number. We met in the studio, he heard the sketch and said he likes and will be happy. 'Same thing' is the first song we worked on from the project. The theme. Peter took part in the whole album, played bass in all the songs and did it for free. It was exciting for me. "

"The song, by and large, talks about the fact that over time the landscape changes, the technology, the material, the towers, the costume," adds Meshulam. "But the emotion, the need, the person, the love, the pain, the fear, the sadness and the joy - all the same, and in the end what is left? The first person also felt sadness, joy, pain and need. The apparent difference, between my father's childhood and my childhood and my children's. He's in abundance of possibilities, in the bar we invented for what counts, what's worth and what's smart. With everything there is today compared to once, my child also wants more. He too can say 'boring to me'. "Good. Today you have to buy in the tower. Why was it once good enough and today it is different? The person is the same person, with the same needs and feelings."

"Out of my world, as a sick person, without independence, without the ability to speak or eat, who is breathless, I too feel moments of happiness, joy, sadness, anger, fear or apprehension. And I have no options. That's what it is. What I need to do to feel "A moment of happiness are the little things, which are usually taken for granted by a healthy person. What does that mean? No matter what you really have, in the end everything is the same."

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The previous single from Shai Meshulam's project: Ohad Shragai performs the song "Halev"

You are a real inspiration. Despite your challenging situation you manage to create, and not just but create really, really beautiful songs. How is the writing done in practice?

"I write on a computer with special software. I have a camera on my computer and a sticker on my nose. I move my head, and it's like a mouse. "Right, and they call it a rat."

"People see me, and from the outside it looks much worse than I feel. I got into a situation, and God forbid I do not say it out of arrogance, that the healthy person is no less dangerous than me: he runs and runs, in constant pursuit, he has lack and temptations. And he can choose, He has choices what he needs to do to feel a moment of happiness. My world has shrunk. I am in front of the tree of knowledge and can not pick but in time I do not need it. I am filled with happiness from the smallest things. Nothing is taken for granted, not even the smallest thing I can not forget for a moment, from the low place, that I really love myself. I get up in the morning, choose life and happy in my part. I influence my environment and it's a good feeling of way and purpose. People do a silence workshop, I'm silent for four years. "A dining table is full of everything good and not food. It's empowering. I feel strong."

"It is important for me to note that all I have said is not arrogance or wisdom but things that stem from a lack of choice, from a given situation where one world closes and another world opens," adds Meshulam.

"There is a person with a small problem for whom it is a big problem. And there is a person with a big problem for whom it is something simple. It's all a matter of observation. "That takes him to a good place. So what is a smart person? I think a smart person is a person who understands that there is no smart person, including himself. That's why I listen to the heart."

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"People see a person fall, I felt rising and blooming."

Shai Meshulam (Photo: courtesy of the photographers, Ilan Sapira)

"There is a person with a small problem for whom it is a big problem. And there is a person with a big problem for whom it is something simple." Shai Meshulam with Peter Roth and Shai Moshe Moshe (Photo: courtesy of the photographers, Ilan Sapira)

How did the corona period go through you, and how did it affect your health, mental state and your creativity?

"There are things you see from here, that can not be seen from there. Even before the Corona I was a person who does not go out to restaurants and parties, nor do I work, so the Corona did not renew me much. I missed friends and family who did not come and kept me. "And I was not at birth because of the corona. The family saw the alliance in Zoom, which is strange. But by and large even before the corona my life was more or less the same."

"I played guitar and always loved music. I grew up on bands like Natasha's friends, Mashina, Kevin and Tenant Straits, and also on Aviv Geffen. I was excited by words. I hear everything. Can hear both Mizrahi and Hava Alberstein. The main thing is to have a message and depth. Today I am mostly I hear Israeli music, everything from everything - Erez Lev Ari, Dudu Tessa, Eviatar Banai and many more ".

"There are love songs for my wife and children, a song of pain about another world, about the fact that the enemy of man is man himself, and an optimistic song about the simple and beautiful things in life."

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• Shai is paid

• Peter Roth

• als

• Muscular Dystrophy