Yizhar Ashdot (photo: screenshot)
At the opening of the second episode of the excellent series "Fleishman in trouble", which was recently released on Disney Plus, the song "Shadow of a Summer Day" by Yizhar Ashdot was unexpectedly heard.
The song appears against the background of a scene that takes place in 1994 in a restaurant in Jerusalem, which goes back to the memory of a group of three that includes Jesse Eisenberg and Lizzie Kaplan during their youth in the Holy Land, trying to recover from a hangover they ate.
Toby Fleischman's best friends, seen by his side in this scene, represent his lost youth.
"I really don't miss any age and I'm happy for everything I've been through, my path and my place," says Lavala!
Tarbut Yizhar Ashdot.
"I don't regret anything. I also don't regret anything except for the loss of dear people. I just wish to myself that I will continue to have the strength and health that will allow me to continue doing this as long as I have left."
Perhaps similar to the gang in Fleishman in Trouble,
"Look, it's a kind of luck that I have and I think it's rare. Maybe it's a little reminiscent of people who serve in the reserves for 30-40 years and have the same friends with whom you'll always be 22. But in the case of Tislam, it's much more layered and much more interesting, Because we represent the age of 22 not only to ourselves. We also represent to our audience their youth. On the other hand, I feel in the performances that we also represent to people the sane and appropriate way to grow up because no one wants to grow up and feel that their life is irrelevant and that they have lost the energy and spirit of youth , in the healthy sense of youthful spirit, not in the sense of dressing up young, dyeing your hair black, putting on a wig, wearing jeans and going to 17-year-old clubs. I mean that good energy that allows you to still create at any age, as long as your health allows it. I think there is something in Islam, and I also see it in the audience and the dialogue we have at the shows, that we are here, and we got here the right way, and we are here thanks to it."
Yizhar Ashdot (Photo: Ohad Romano)
This year will be the 40th anniversary of the dissolution of Tislam.
Take us back to the period of dissolution, and how you look at it in the perspective of four decades.
"I remember the specific day, October 22. I think it started from me, with my desire to move on with my music, not as a singer but to work with others, work in the studio and get off the stage a bit. Everyone started pulling in their own direction. Then we decided that instead of fighting and breaking up Now, we maximized it and decided on a date, half a year ahead. And what happened was that this half year was the sweetest, friendliest and most energetic half year of Tislam. We recorded two new songs, 'Hatzevim Porahim' and 'Kohavim', a song that quite speaks about Our end. And then the dissolution itself was actually from a place of reconciliation."
After parting with Islam, you were very successful in musical productions and working with other artists, and one of the peaks was your work with Ofra Haza, when you jumped her to the international top.
Not long ago, Rolling Stone chose Ofra Haza as one of the 200 greatest singers of all time.
As someone who has worked with her a lot, what does this mean to you?
"It mostly saddens me that Ofra didn't get to experience this feeling. It expresses something related to the path that Ofra took: somewhere, the appreciation for Ofra in the world is much stronger than in Israel. In Israel, Ofra grew and grew, and she may have had less interesting stages in her career from a musical point of view, But she came out into the world as a mature singer, at her best, after all the attempts, came with her authentic place and with the decision exactly what kind of music she wanted to make. That's how the world accepted her and that's how it remembers her. No matter how subjective the Rolling Stone list is or not, but thanks to the way This one of hers made it to such lists."
I once heard a music producer define his work as a "doctor of songs".
What image do you have for your work as a music producer?
"It's a process of healing, assembly and disassembly. Basically, a music producer is like a director in a movie. You're basically the person with the artistic vision of the project. There's the singer, there's the people who write the songs, and those who play and the technicians, but there's someone who looks at it from above And sees the path, from the raw song to this thing that goes on the radio. Yes, a kind of director. From project to project it changes completely. There are projects where I do everything, as in the case of the singer Adam, where I wrote the songs, played most of the instruments, produced, mixed and everything. On the other hand, in albums like the Monica Sex one that I produced, I was only the responsible adult, I was only listening, advising and a catalyst, helping them build the energy, choose the songs and the take, but I don't write the lyrics - they come prepared."
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Tislam celebrates the 40th anniversary of her debut album with Danny Sanderson at a concert (Photo: Daniel Aharoni)
These days Ashdot is celebrating the 30th anniversary of the beginning of his solo career and because of this he continues with his special series of concerts.
On March 10th he will perform at Zappa Tel Aviv and host Yermi Kaplan, on March 28th he will perform at Zappa Tel Aviv and host Guy Mazig, and on May 12th Amphi Shoni will perform at Zappa and host Danny Sanderson.
"I started recording my first solo album at a relatively late age, 31-32," recalls Ashdot.
"Usually this happens at a younger age, but after Tislam it was not urgent for me to become a performing artist. It was more important for me to continue studying, to be a musician, to produce, to work with other artists, to learn and improve in everything related to studio work, arrangements and production. That's what mattered me, less to deal with my own ego. After Tislam, with all the admiration, I actually wanted to get away from it. I guess I was also less confident in my abilities as a singer and performer. The last catalyst before I started recording my first album was Tislam's comeback tour in 90. After For years, I felt comfortable and good on stage. This was also after the adventure with Ofra Haza in the world. And I realized that the next thing I wanted to do was my own thing, and I started making the first album which was very successful."
After 30 years of a solo career, what in your life was the biggest success - and what was the most resounding failure?
With more or less the same songs or at least some of the songs from the second album.
I mean, there was karma or correction here that happened so quickly, a very big and deep depression - to the feeling of wow, I'm back."
Yizhar Ashdot and his son, Ilai Ashdot (photo: courtesy of the photographers)
Against the background of the global exposure that the hit "Shadow of a Summer Day" recently received in the "Fleishman in Trouble" series, tell us an unknown or lesser known fact about this song, which you performed and composed to the words of your partner Alona Kimchi.
"There is a beautiful story about how the melody of the song was born. The melody was composed before Alona wrote the words, and it was actually three separate melodies that I composed. When I started working on my second album with Moshe Levy as producer and partner, I started playing him melodies. One of the melodies became the house, 'Your look is cold fire' and all, he said wow, it's terribly beautiful, but we need a chorus. I told him, 'Listen to another tune,' and then I played him a tune that became the chorus, 'the smell of dust in my hair,' and all. He said, wow, How beautiful, we have an almost complete song, now another instrumental transition section is missing. Then I played him the melody that became the transition section in the middle. He told me beautiful, Bull. So actually Moshe helped it become one song,
You mentioned the live album at the Hard Rock Cafe, which reminds me that you recently re-released the "Arrow from the Heart" video from that show, and used AI technology to improve the image quality.
Would you also use AI to help with writing and composition - or do you think that's crossing an artistic boundary?
"There is nothing that for me crosses the line in this sense. These are other tools. It's like a painting palette. More shades. More possibilities. Technology has changed so much in the decades that I've been working as a musician and every time I've adopted it and sometimes I've changed my way of working completely. I really like Technology because it's liberating. It allows you to experience things differently. Realize that there are more options for your creation and music, beyond the six strings of the guitar and the 88 keys of the piano. There are more options, and any external instrument that you use in good taste is legitimate and much more than that. So of course I'm opening the door to new tools."
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Demonstration against the legal revolution (photo: official website, Or Hadar)
You have a wonderful solo career, yet you rarely record new material.
"My response is - the fourth concert album is on the way. In this tour of 30 years of career, at each concert I hosted a musician I like, most of them people I worked with in the past, we created together or I produced records for them or we recorded together, and new and exciting performances were created for a lot of songs. It is requested that people They will hear it. I sang with Berry Sakharoff, Rona Keenan, Micah Shtrit, Arkady Duchin, Dana Berger, Tislam, Monica Sax, Peter Roth, and in the following performances with Yermi Kaplan and Guy Mezig. Very fun, new and fresh performances, and of course it will be on an album. I really like concerts, they release one-off things. No one blamed the Greatful Dead for having like 200 live albums. Because every show feels different, and every song can sound completely different. On the other hand, I create new things but when it comes to new work In front of an audience I'm much more critical, so it takes time. I'm really looking for the reason and the way to get these new songs out."
Eilai, your son and Alona Kimchi, is a talented musician and, among other things, produced Naomi Aharoni-Gal, known as Nono.
When they worked together before Hack, did you know it would be such a big success?
"No, no. That's what's beautiful. It kind of reminds me of our beginning in Islam. It's a different time and a different generation and different music, but it reminds me of the beginning of Islam in the sense that no one knew the moment before what it was going to be because it wasn't Really like nothing else before it. It was different enough to make it hard to predict what would happen. It was the same with Nuno. Truly, Ilai's talent is so prominent there, and Naomi herself who is such a talented girl. I've known them playing music since high school , and suddenly it matured into something so beautiful."
In 2005, when Ilai Ashdot was seven years old, Yizhar revealed to me in an interview with Haaretz: "I wanted to write a song for my son, in the style of the classic songs that fathers write for boys, with declarations of love, hope and all that. I tried, but I saw that it came out pathetic. I realized that my son should not A song to tell him that I love him, that's what I tell him anyway. Instead, I decided to dedicate the song 'A World of Men' to my son. It's a song about a boy who lives in a world driven by the most basic urges of men in key positions. The male urge corrupts and causes to a lot of trouble that happens here."
That song, "A World of Men," included the lines "No peace, no Oslo, no ceremony, no manners / It's as easy as killing, as simple as dying."
When I asked Yizhar at the time if it wasn't too early to warn his seven-year-old child against a cruel and corrupt world, he said: "He is an intelligent and understanding child, and the words of the song will remain with him even when he grows up."
Since then the boy has grown up, and the song remains painfully relevant.
This week, Ashdot adds: "I am thinking about the last few days, about my son as a man of almost 25, about his friends and his generation, who are facing the Israeli reality of the last months, and about the fact that they are debating how to take a position, what to do and how to react. It is suddenly theirs That's what the song, 'A World of Men,' is about, which says: I leave you a world that is not easy. And now they receive on a silver platter this world, this country, the complexity, the problematic, and what to do - the bad wind that blows and threatens to violate The genesis of our country. So I think about my son a lot these days, and talk to him."
How much does it worry you?
"Of course I'm worried and I'm even disappointed that this is what we brought them, that we failed to stop it before, that we failed to produce a country whose culture is much more stable and much more empathetic and much more caring. We failed. The conflicts here are too great. Now the conservative and fearful and aggressive side because It raises your head. It's not easy. And it's worrying,
At Tislem's concert at the end of last month, at the end of your song "Face of the State", you said "It's clear to everyone where we stand, which side we are on" and then the audience stood up and started chanting "Democracy, Democracy", and it was a very powerful moment.
It is unfortunate that the call "democracy" has become left-wing.
We just need to respect each other and learn to live together and make such a deal.
That's how it works in reformed countries.
I think that leaders should strive for real unity, not artificial and not sentimental and not to unite people around war and not to unite people around fear but out of a desire to really create something here, and to live in peace.
This is what people want on all sides."
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Yizhar Ashdot (Photo: Reuven Castro)
A little over ten years ago, Ashdot's song "A Matter of Habit" written by his partner Alona Kimchi was disqualified from being played on the IDF airwaves following a meeting with combat reservists in "Breaking the Silence" and a tour with them in Hebron. "Very," he says. "It's seen as some kind of luxury."
You were previously placed 107th and 88th on Meretz's list in election campaigns. Meretz did not pass the threshold in the last elections. Were you upset that Merev Michaeli did not agree to unite with Meretz?
"You can point out all sorts of factors that led to this happening, but the writing was on the wall. The right's support for the government of change during these charming year and a half - was almost artificial. It was clear that it was temporary and that after that it would be even more extreme than it was. The fact that Meretz did not enter the Knesset It's already technical matters. What's important is what happens next. Because the strange paradox we're seeing these days is that we see hundreds of thousands of people on the streets, but in the polls both Havoda and Meretz barely enter the Knesset. So it could be that all these people on the streets now, they could be looking for a new way to express oneself politically, and not necessarily in these parties. People who want a liberal Israel, which respects the rights of secularists, of minorities and of everyone, this Israel is measured on the streets by hundreds of thousands of people - but is not sufficiently represented in the Knesset."
After 30 years of a solo career, what are your expectations for the next 30 years of your career?
"I don't count on 30 years, at my age it's hard to count on 30 years. I can think ahead at the level of months and weeks, and hope that I'll stay with enough strength and health, as long as possible, to do what I love. And I've been lucky to this day to do the What I love. And of course all the people I love will remain healthy and intact."
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