Ethnics (Photograph: Ido Shaham Editing: Amir Cotigro)
A source close to the band: "What connects Tamir and Zeev is only financial interest. There was a simply ugly, emotional divorce, there was an attitude of 'I'll bury you.' "
"After it was decided on Tamir Kalisky's return to Ethnics, the first meeting between him and Ze'ev Nechama was not cordial. It was very businesslike. There was no hug. But there was a handshake," Lavala reveals!
Tarvat is close to the band Ethnics.
"The most important thing for them was to put things behind them and not mess with them. What happened is different from the school of thought that says that wounds should be healed. Tamir and Zeev decided not to touch it. In their meeting there was only a five-minute conversation about the past, each took responsibility for their side. They They decided that if they continue to dwell on the past it will not advance, that it is enough that they wasted more than six years on this thing and they decided to look to the future. What are we doing to put the band on operative tracks and move forward."
These were close to seven bad years.
Dramatic conflict, bad blood, mutual lawsuits, long and dirty, which although mostly ended in the victory of Nachama over Kaliski, but in the bottom line - economically, image-wise, emotionally - it seems that both sides lost.
Therefore, it was a big surprise to be informed about the union, when this week also the announcement of its launch under the title "Only Love Will Win", on February 4th.
Is this title authentic or ironic?
The renewed connection between the two leaders of the band can be described as cults at the top of the musical unions in Israel these days.
This is a large and unusual wave of comebacks and reunions of various types of bands and bands that in the second half of 2022 will return to one activity or another, among them Shebek S, Subliminal and the Shadow, Cypress, Mango, The Porcupines, Izvo, Terry Poison, Havannah Nechama, Nuer Shulim, the Shwang of The pita, punch, Pollyanna Frank and the redheads.
Following this, we dedicate Bavala!
Culture A series of articles about the stories behind the unions and the reasons for the increasing phenomenon.
This is the first article in the series.
together again
Ethnics band (photo: Omri Rosengart)
"The first meeting between Zeev and Tamir was not cordial. It was very business-like. There was no hug. But there was a handshake. There was only a five-minute conversation about the past, each one took responsibility for his side. They decided that if they continue to dwell on the past it is not will advance"
Decades before the war of instinct between them began, Kalisky and Nechama's joint path began in the protest band called "Moscow", in the mid-1980s.
They then played their song "Talking Bird" to Helicon director Ronnie Brown.
He, for his part, thought that the name "Moscow" was not interesting, connected them with Yoad Nevo and the name was changed to "EthnicX", alluding to the connection the band makes between East and West.
If at first the band received a suspicious attitude, and there were those who saw the band as a gimmick, in the nineties it was already one of the most successful bands in Israel, producer of big hits such as "Strawberries", "Jessica", "The Fruit Spot", "BMW Black", "She will not return", "Bring some Dineros", "Katurna masala" and others, who is considered to have had a great influence on Israeli pop and the attitude towards Mediterranean music.
More in Walla!
Ethnics: "Israel is presented as pluralistic, but it is actually dark"
To the full article
"Now they want to, after all the mud we've been through?"
But in the last decade, a conflict broke out between the members of the successful band.
It began in the summer of 2016, when it became known that Kalisky intended to sue Nechama, the band manager and the record company alleging financial irregularities in the band that deprived him of income totaling hundreds of thousands of shekels.
After that, Kalisky was kicked out of the band, and then began years of bad blood and mutual lawsuits between Tamir Kalisky and his brother Dror and Ethnix members - Nechama, Gal Hadani and Yoram Poizner, which ended with Nechama's victory and an overwhelming majority of his claims being accepted in court.
After years of difficult and well-publicized struggles, in July of last year a verdict was received in the Tel Aviv District Court in the lawsuit filed by the Shultan company, whose majority shareholders (two-thirds of them are Dror and Tamir Kalisky), against the members of Ethnics Nechama, Hadani and Poizner, and also against Eyal Golan.
The Klisky brothers, through the Shultan company, claimed that the Shultan company received at least 2.5 million shekels from the joint shows of Ethnix and Eyal Golan that took place in 2018. Their claim was rejected, and the Klisky brothers were ordered to pay Ethniks and Golan expenses of NIS 70,000.
A previous ruling was given in June 2021 in a lawsuit filed by Nahema against the Kalisky brothers, in which he requested that the court force them to sell him their share in the Shultan company, claiming that the company was established at the time to serve Ethnics and since the conflict broke out and Tamir Kalisky is no longer part of the band, Shultan does not serve the band.
In the end, on the recommendation of the court, the parties reached an agreement, according to which Nechama will indeed purchase the share of Dror and Tamir Kaliski as he wanted.
It was also determined that the shows Nechama has with Zehava Ben will not be included in the valuation of the company as the Kalisky brothers claimed should be done.
The court adopted Nechama's position.
A third verdict was given earlier that last month in the Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court, in a lawsuit in which the Kalisky brothers claimed that 10% of the band's profits should be transferred to the Shultan company.
The court also rejected these claims.
"The sentences between them were a war of mutual attraction, they burned a lot of money on it, a fortune," says a source close to the band.
"There is a way to say goodbye, and they did it in an emotional and ugly way."
Conflict between more than six years.
Kalisky in court in one of the mutual lawsuits against Nechama (photo: Walla! NEWS system, Sagi Ben Non)
"Nachma said that without Kaliski, the number of shows decreased, and the situation of the band is not the same as it was. Zeev told a person in the industry to talk to Tamir. Tamir answered him: 'Now they want to bring me back, after all the mud we went through? For what and why?'"
The first swallow to thaw the anger between the parties appeared last August.
In the same month, it was announced that Nechama had won Acomm's Lifetime Achievement Award, and many in the industry expressed surprise that the award was not given to Kalisky as well, since the two founded Ethnics together and jointly created dozens of hits. While the industry criticized Acomm's decision, Kalisky Himself, surprisingly, did not sound angry in the conversation with Walla!
Tarbut, and said that he felt he deserved the award as well - but at the same time he also sent congratulations to his former partner.
"I feel that the award given to Zeev is also mine, and it steals my ears that Zeev said he would be happy if I shared the award with him on stage. If they gave me the award with Zeev, I would agree to go on stage with him," Kalisky said at the time, but added: "It's Zeev's day and you have to concentrate on Zeev. I think Israeli music has received an award. It's a holiday."
Later, at the award ceremony, Nechama thanked Kalisky on stage.
Now it becomes clear what was not known at the time: even before the announcement of Ze'ev Nechama as the winner of the Akum Award, the ice between the parties began to thaw and preliminary inquiries were made regarding a possible return to cooperation. Kaliski has at least two "messengers" sending messages that he is interested in returning to the band. One of the messengers is a man who has been the band's driver for many years, and the other messenger is a music industry person.
He thanked his friend when he won the Akum award. Zeev Nechama (Photo: Reuven Castro)
"Already at the beginning of June of this year, Nechama told a person in the industry that without Kliski the number of shows decreased, and the situation of the band is not the same as it was", says an insider of the band Lavala!
culture.
"The industrialist asked him: 'What do I hear in your voice, that you want Tamir back? So I'll pick up the phone and find out if he's even ready to come back, after what you did to each other.' Zeev told him, talk to him. He called Tamir with the message from Zeev , and Tamir said to him: 'Now they want to bring me back, after all the mud we went through? For what and why?'. The man said to Tamir: 'Be my business, yes or no.' What unites them is only financial interest. There was a simply ugly, emotional divorce, there was an attitude of 'I'll bury you'. In family courts you find more pleasant stories than what was between them. But apparently money connects people, like music connecting people".
"After Zeev sent Tamir through a third party vague, imprecise and unclear messages, from which Tamir could not understand that Zeev wanted him to return," says a close associate of Kalisky, "the third party came to Tamir again with a sharp, precise and clear message: Zeev wants you in the band. Zeev wants to meet with you. Tamir, on a split second's instinct, said come on. This clear message, by the way, was delivered about a week or two after the announcement of Zeev as the winner of the Acumen Award.
After that there was a very short phone call between Tamir and Zeev, in which they wanted to see that it was real.
Tamir called Zeev and confirmed that he was coming.
Zeev said: Good, I'm waiting for you.
Such a short conversation." The first meeting between them, as mentioned, was not cordial but business-like, according to an insider of the band, while they spend no more than five minutes to talk about the past, and the two returned to work together.
"A true return to their base"
At the end of October, in the week in which the rappers Subliminal and Hatzel reunited after a break of about ten years, the founders of Ethnics also revealed the reconciliation in an interview with Jonathan Rieger in "Studio Shishi" on News 12. Along with the interview, they also performed excerpts from joint hits, including the song "She will not return", in which The words of the chorus to "Here he is again".
In an interview, Kalisky said among other things that he didn't think he would play with his bandmates again.
In response to the question of what caused this to happen precisely now, he replied: "Now it's ripe."
Van Nechama said that "We had to understand that we are fools to go through a fight, no matter what its results are. We seem to have lost proportions within ourselves. Artists know how to fight and also know how to reconcile."
"You understand that the main problems are things related to the ego. I say to myself: How did we fall into this stupid thing? But the wisdom is to know how to fix it," Kalisky added in the same interview.
The two did reconcile, but Nechama said that "no one should ask for forgiveness", and his friend noted that "everyone accepted responsibility for their part".
To the question of how to start over, Nechama replied: "From the same point it stopped."
More in Walla!
"How did we fall into this stupidity?": the surprising reconciliation of Ze'ev Nechama and Tamir Kalisky of Athens
To the full article
The new single, "Good Morning"
In an orchestrated campaign, two days after the interview, Ethnics released a new song with Kaliski, "Good Morning".
After the long years of the conflict, Nechama and Kalisky were unable to produce hits separately, the new song created together immediately entered the Galglatz playlist, although it still did not have great success.
"We know how to write songs. Fight less, probably," Kalisky said on News 12. Nechama added with a smile: "I'll strangle you and then we'll have a song," and added: "We're celebrating a victory. Despite thousands of differences, Lennon and McCartney did not complete the work. We talk And we went back to work."
The comparison between the duo of musicians and the legends of the Beatles is also surprisingly repeated by Boaz Cohen, Radio Echo 99 broadcaster and member of the band Punch, which recently reunited on its own.
"Ethnics is Ze'ev Nechama and Tamir Kalisky. Any other way to try to make the band - it's weird. They are the Lennon and McCartney of Israeli pop, nothing will help, and separating them produces nothing. It's impossible because Ethnics with both of them is the same thing," he says Cohen and voila!
culture.
"It's clear that people like it, there is nostalgia for it, and today Ethnics is also identified with something that is a bit retro and even a bit cult. Ethnics also gained volume over time. Time has been good for them in terms of critical attention."
"Any other way to do ethnics is weird."
Boaz Cohen (Photo: Zeev Yanai)
"When Tamir and Zev spoke, they said that they really wanted to go back to being the two young men who were carrying men and keyboards on line 5 on the way back, and believed in themselves. Here is a matter of a real return to their base, that Tamir would look from the right side of the keyboards and see Zev singing, and Zev would look from his side and will see Tamir"
As for the reason for the wave of unions in Israeli music, Cohen mentions the severe consequences of the Corona period on the local industry.
"For a long time the business was pretty stuck," he says.
"And sociologically, a society that is in a sense of distress, survival, confusion and the ground shaking economically and politically - immediately goes to the past, to the feeling that it used to be better and safer. And almost any union that will happen now is sold out."
And what caused Kalisky and Nechama to reunite precisely now, after more than six years of bitter conflict?
"The sentences between them are over," says the person close to Kaliski, "and it may be that this is the period of time that had to pass for things to calm down, time in this case took its toll."
And maybe there are other motives as well.
It is worth noting the fact that Nechama and Kalisky were not particularly successful in their separate ways.
Ethnics did not produce a hit with the new lineup, and those close to the band say that there was a decrease in the scope of its performances after his departure.
On the other hand, the band founded by Kalisky, called "Exit" in what seems to be a nod to the name "Ethnics" - and some saw it as an attempt to put a finger in the band's eye - failed completely.
In addition to the words of one of the sources brought before, according to which Kalisky himself admitted in a closed conversation that the union has a financial interest, several people close to the band and sources in the industry say to Walla!
Culture which is the main motive for unification.
@ethnix.official
We heard so we came
♬ Sensual Seduction - Snoop Dogg
An industry executive assesses: "The relationship between Zeev and Tamir will never return to what it was. The war between them clouded everything, and it seems to me that they will pay the price soon. I think that the union of the two will not be strong and there will be no hysteria. There will still be a bitter taste - because You can't fake reality"
On the other hand, another person close to Kaliski rejects the things, and according to him, the motives are completely different.
"When Tamir and Zev talked to each other, they said that they really wanted to go back to being the two young men who were carrying men and keyboards on line 5 on the way back, and believed in themselves. There is a real return to their base here, for Tamir to look from the right side of the keyboards and see Zev singing, and Zev to look from the side his and will see Tamir shaking his head at him. For them, this feeling is above all else," says the person close to Kaliski.
"Tamir's return to the band may have a good financial result, and it may have a mediocre financial result. But that's not the point. The relief, or as Zeev calls it, the 'healing', is worth the reconnection. For Tamir, if they succeed financially then great , but that's not the issue right now. Maybe it will be an issue in the future. Right now, Tamir's issue is that by typing the word 'ethnics' results will appear on his return to the band before results will appear on the sentences between him and Zeev.
Kalisky noted in closed conversations with people in the industry that Nechama's separation from his and Ethnics' manager, Micky De Paz, contributed to their union.
According to a person close to Kalisky, "the breakup between Miki and Zeev lowered Tamir's suspicions. In his opinion, when Miki was the band's manager, he should have done a lot so that the separation about six and a half years ago would not have happened. It is a big management failure when something like this happens under your nose and you are unable to control it , and even constitutes a catalyst for this to happen. The fire started as a small fire and he did not extinguish the flames and even increased the flames, took a side and incited everyone against another side."
De Paz refused to comment on what he described as "gossip from closed conversations" and welcomed the unification of the lineup.
"I will only say that I greatly welcome the union that happened. I would have been very happy if there had not been a separation, it would have been unnecessary - but the past is not important at this moment. We must deal with the future. I think that we, for all the people of Israel, have yet to receive good music from the creator of the band Ethnics ", a message to Walla!
culture.
More in Walla!
"I heard that he said he would have been happy to share the prize with me": this is how Tamir Kaliski reacted to winning a consolation prize
To the full article
Now that the conflict between the parties has been left behind, the question is whether the band will take off again.
The opening was good, with the entry of the new song into the playlist and the enthusiastic reactions to the union, but time will tell.
Estimates in the industry on this subject differ.
A senior source in the industry estimates that "the relationship between Zeev and Tamir will never return to what it was. The war between them clouded everything, and it seems to me that they will pay the price soon. I think that the union of the two will not be strong and there will be no hysteria. There will still be a bitter taste - Because you can't fake reality. You can rewrite it, but you can't fake it."
However, another factor in the industry sounds more optimistic.
"Ethnics have a challenge. It's not easy now to make a comeback, when the young people dominate the music. They started Tiktok two weeks ago but didn't really do it right. But if they really let love win, they have a chance," he says.
A response from Ethnics has not yet been received.
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