"Just move out of it."
Mika Karni (photo: photography: Matan Eshel, clothes and styling: HIGHLIGHT STUDIO, Or Yair Biton)
The new song "Zeza Meza", sung by Mika Malka Karni to the words she wrote with Dan Thorn and composed with his son Handler, is about freedom and the ability to move on from a situation that makes you feel bad.
"The song connects to all kinds of places in my life," says Carney, "even to destructive relationships. Even to situations at work. To any relationship with another human being that did me no good, and sometimes it took me a while to move on from it. 'Move on' also in the light sense of To dance and also in the part of moving away from it, as if not to analyze it, not to dig into it, not to think why, just move away from it."
The song is included in the new and 13th solo album of the singer-songwriter Karni, "Dream in the Day" of his name, which is released today (Sunday), a joint creation of her with Dan Thorn and his son Handler, who also produced the music.
The groovy songs on the albums once again clarify Carney's impressive ability to renew herself musically, which over the years ranges between different genres - folk, Eretz-Israeli, electronic, pop, rock and classical, just as she also renews herself in her personal life, for example when she returned the name Malka to her identity card under which she was born, and appears next to the name Mika.
"My birth certificate only says Malka. Then there was Mika Malka on the identity card. Then I completely removed the Malka. A few years ago I put it back," says Carney.
"When I get angry, my husband says 'Malka, calm down', and I immediately smile at that. I felt it was right for me to use this whole name and not hide it, after I always hid it and was always ashamed of it. Someone wrote beautifully on Instagram that 'a full name is a full essence' . And there is something in that. It's my name. So I don't want to be ashamed of it, it's a part of me, the name Malka."
This is your bar mitzvah album.
When a child reaches Bar Mitzvah age he usually becomes angrier.
But the 13th album is not angry at all but rather happy and groovy.
"It was a decision in advance, when I gathered these people, Beno (Hendler) and Dan (Thorn), I said I wanted to make a record that sounded happy and groovy. This album for me tells some kind of story. Each album sums up a period of my life. And you choose how to tell the story. I chose to tell the story in a groovy and happy way. I listened to a lot of Quincy Jones, and something in the documentary they did on him really influenced me in this regard. He says something there that I identify with - that there are no genres in music. The only genre is good music or music Not good, but otherwise do what you want. That's something I've done throughout my career, I've always gone where I wanted to go and never stuck where they wanted me. Something about Quincy's music always gives you a lift even if it's not about happy things, Even if it accompanies crime scenes in movies. I love it and connect with music that way. As a listener, music has always brought me out of pits and always taken me up."
You say "I always went where I wanted and I didn't get stuck where they wanted me", and this relates to the fact that you reinvented yourself musically many times;
Do you still have a certain degree of creative dilemma between the desire to renew musically and to preserve elements that the audience and the media liked about you in the past?
"It's not in me. I certainly don't want to be a prisoner of the audience or of how the audience has decided that I am. I also think it's cool to surprise your audience every time. I think that in my singing they always recognize straight away that it's me, no matter what style I do , I sing in a certain way, I have a certain instrument with its limitations. In everything else, I completely allow myself to follow the work. The more I stay true to myself, the more faithful I will be to the audience."
This is the first time you are working with Dan Thorn, who told me in a preliminary conversation about the collaboration with you and his son Handler: "The fun was discovering the work of the three of us. Two in a workshop is good. Three is better."
"I really, really sympathize. It started when Dan and I sat down and wrote. My son and I have been working for several years. Then Dan said, let's sit down, the three of us. It was really amazing, because it's not just writing but also composing together and writing the words into a beat and into a melody , and everything happens together. It was really huge. It worked great mainly because the three of us are no longer at the age of the ego. Each one is strong in other things. In all the docuseries I've seen about music, I think that today in the world they mostly work like this, in teams. It's quite rare that a person sits alone and writes Songs. The whole team is greater than the sum of its parts."
Dan Thorn is, among other things, an amazing songwriter.
Tell me about some advice or inspiration you received from him.
"Dan helped me a lot, mainly because he's not afraid to go to all kinds of places that call you to the same thing. I learned from him that in writing, you don't necessarily have to stick only to the story you want to tell. You can suddenly go to your childhood, you can suddenly go to how you imagine yourself in 10 years, you can do whatever you want. He reminded me of this freedom in writing."
While making the album, you and Dan discovered that you both loved the late American Jewish rapper and producer Mac Miller, to whom you were exposed through his son and daughter.
In what way did his music and groove inspire you?
"Mac Miller is a favorite of mine. He is supposedly a rapper but he sings crazy melodies. His lyrics and performances are full of humor. He must have been a very depressed person but also a very happy person. We were inspired by him to dare to write texts with a lot of words, to be thrown with the text in all kinds of ways Places and associations, when each song is like a little story about a character or from a character, and dare to use language like the sound of an instrument."
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"I don't want to be a captive of the audience."
Mika Karni (photo: photography: Matan Eshel, clothes and styling: HIGHLIGHT STUDIO, Or Yair Biton)
The album's theme song, "Daydream", creatively travels between parallel universes.
Do you have thoughts about what would have happened if you had chosen some other step in your life?
"In this song, I imagined myself and my daughters on Hydra Island ten years from now. Because Leonard Cohen and Suzanne were there, I correspond with them there as well. It's like it's happening while it's happening. Actually, I haven't been to Hydra yet and they've already been. It's like all the times are mixing. The song Also talking about this matter of not regretting things that happened to you because something good always came out of them. It's all because time is ticking for me. I'm already at an age where I don't want to regret the past but to say that your present can always contain the past and the future. Something like that. I say in the song that it's a shame to waste time thinking about what would happen if I met someone else or something like that, because everything is imagined anyway and everything is in the eye of the beholder anyway. So I don't want to waste my time on that."
In another song on the album, "Izo Girl" which includes an Afro beat, you use the controversial autotune tool.
In your case it was also done as an artistic means.
However, hasn't the greatly increased dosage of the use of this instrument crossed the line a bit among young female singers today?
"No, it didn't cross the line. I also use autotune, not only in the song 'Some Girl' where we did it in a very excessive way. All my songs use autotune. It's because we, as listeners, have gotten used to a kind of cleanliness that wasn't there before. Today When I listen to my first album, sometimes I say wow, today they wouldn't have let it go like that, our ear has already gotten used to a different cleaning, and you have to use it. By the way, regardless of autotune, there have always been artists who were stronger in the studio, in laboratory conditions, and artists who were stronger Live on stage. By the way, I've worked very hard on singing in live performances. I have a voice that's not strong and it's very difficult to join a band. It took me a few years to bring myself to the point where I'm disappointed with how I sound in a performance, where, unlike in the studio, there are no laboratory conditions."
Last year, on the 25th anniversary of your self-titled debut album, you re-recorded it in its entirety under the title "Anew".
To which other moments from your past would you today, at the age of 50, be willing to return - and to which there is no chance you would return: would you agree to return to the position of Shlomo Artzi's escort?
Would you pose for "connected" again?
"Shlomo Artzi yes, 'connected' no. Everything related to music, I have no problem doing again with joy. I am always intrigued as to how I will do it again today. I love doing voices and the violin, so I would gladly come to accompany Shlomo Artzi. You Connected' I wouldn't do it again, because I went into it without taking many things into account: one, I wouldn't film my children again. I don't think it's the right thing to do. And second, because television is something that requires drama all the time. Life is not necessarily all Call for drama. They constantly turn life into... it's not real. That's why it doesn't suit me."
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A week and a half ago, there was a tribute show to Josie Katz at the Culture Hall, "My Loves" named after her, on the 60th anniversary of her activity, in which you participated.
Your cover version of the classic she originally performed, "I'm All Right," has become iconic in its own right.
You said that Josie is perhaps the most loved and influential singer in the world and that you knew her motherly side.
Tell me about the connection between you.
"There is something about the character of Josie Katz that I always really liked. She was part of such a very rock scene, and alongside all the rock 'n' roll, she was always a mother who took care of her puppies and was not afraid of anything, anything or anyone, and always fought for them and their peace. And then, when she released 'I Forgive You,' it was so beautiful, because she's a real motherly soul, who also forgives after all. That's a side I've always seen in Josie. You know, she called me after I released 'Azli Everything is fine', and asked for my address in Emirim, so that she could send me a baby suit for my daughter, Amalia, after she was born. She sent her a duck suit like this. It was so beautiful. She is a very moving person. And she moves me very much as a mother."
And by the way mothers, the 50-year-old Karni is the mother of six children from three different fathers.
She married her first partner when she was 16, and then also became a mother to her eldest son, Yotam.
In 2019, after she and her partner Maor began a surrogacy procedure, when the surrogate mother was already in her fourth month of pregnancy, they unexpectedly discovered that, contrary to the medical opinions, Karni had become pregnant.
At the age of 48, she embraced two babies who were born five months apart from each other - Michael who was born in Ukraine to a surrogate mother, and Rumia, who was born to Karni months later.
The age difference between her and her eldest son is more than 30 years.
Reshef Levy said wow!
Culture: "Seven children is wonderful. If we had more it would also be good, but you should always be happy with what you have."
Are you threatening to compare or even surpass Rashef in the number of children?
"No, no. I think I have enough. You know, I still have two little ones. I also want to rest sometime. I can tell you that it fills me up and rejuvenates me, that's for sure. It's the most meaningful thing I do, motherhood. And It also always feeds the creative world, there's nothing to do. It gives a crazy drive to development."
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Two new babies at the age of 48. Mika Karni (photo: photography: Matan Eshel, clothes and styling: HIGHLIGHT STUDIO, Or Yair Biton)
As a father, a phrase that serves as a mantra for me, and was told to me by the musician Moshe Levy: "When I am with my children I try to be the best version of myself."
"You know, it always catches you when you're suddenly tired or you don't know what, and your child needs you, you can't say 'no, I'm tired'. You have to respond. And it really proves to you that there is no end to your strength - and to you. It's giving unconditional".
Last month, you were one of hundreds of musicians who signed a manifesto against harming the corporation, which stated that "democracy is being emptied of its content", and also included the line "It is no coincidence that those who try to stage a coup d'état chose the elimination of public broadcasting as one of their first goals."
How much do these predatory measures by the government bother you?
"The corporation is dear to my heart. I love this channel. It's the best channel on television today. Really, it's just an excellent channel. That's what I signed up for. I don't go to demonstrations. The truth is that I'm really an apolitical person. I don't understand a thing and a half about politics And every time I come across arguments about politics, it's simply destructive, and I move away from it. It causes division. It's really important to me that this nation be united. I don't understand it enough to take a position. It's important to me that people here don't hate each other. More important Let us be united. Let us not put up barricades against each other too much. We are a small nation, a small country, we have enough enemies from outside."
Against the background of the threats and persecution by coalition members after LGBT people, maybe the day is not far when your song "I kissed a girl" will be censored from being played on the radio?
"Well, I have more songs," Carney laughs.
"I'm kidding. By the way, 'I kissed a girl' is about female fraternity. I don't think we'll get to that. It's the kind of intimidation that I don't agree with. I really don't think we're going there, let's not go overboard. There's always a balance somewhere. There's always a place To everyone. Let's believe in the good. Let's be optimistic."
In another song from the new album, "Where are we going" that you wrote with Dan Thorn, the lines appear: "All we have left / is to remember where we came from / and try to understand where we are going".
"It's a song that I direct more towards my children, and it talks about how sometimes you say, 'I can't believe it's my mom' or 'I can't believe it's my dad.' It's good and how do you improve further. This is what I meant to say in the song. This is my appeal to the children. You always have complaints against your parents, but you always find good things that you took from them, and the bad things that you see are things that you are aware of in the desire to improve what you pass on to your children , I think that's how it should be. Every generation needs to grow up."
Mika Karni will perform on March 1st at Notorno in Jerusalem in a band show and will host Jenny Pankin, on March 23rd at the third ear in Kibbutz Gosherim with an electro acoustic show, and on March 29th at Ozan in Tel Aviv in a band show and will host Dan Thorn.
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Mika Carney
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