In Black & In White!
(I don't wanna live in)
This song began from two conversations.
One conversation was with a Greek man who is a staunch supporter of the Palestinians and he believed that Israel was to blame for everything.
The other conversation was with an Israeli man who believed whole-heartedly that any criticism against Israel was anti-semitism.
Both of these men, as passionate and as knowledgeable as they were, viewed these conflicts in black and white, in good and bad, in right an dwrong, in truth and lies...There was no middle ground, no room to listen, no empathy for the pain of others, no different perspectives.
The polarization of ideas fuelled by politicians who thrive on “divide & conquer” and fragmented media with agendas is splitting communities apart because people are forced to choose sides. Even worst, it enhances hate and violence.
iThis song is meant for people who can still agree to disagree while striving for common goals.
Bow To The Screen
We all know what it means to be addicted to screens. We spend way too much time watching and interacting with endless content which does not add anything tangible to our lives. The infinite amount of content means that there isn’t a time frame and the power of the algorithm means that the content is getting more adapted to each and everyone of us. No human interaction can be endless and so adaptable, hence, our addiction to screens. Screens offer us the luxury of doing nothing of significance and yet feel OK with ourselves (at least while we are watching). Since I grew up way before screens (yeah, even before TV), I can see the difference it makes in social interactions. It’s scary and sad at the same time. And as the full repercussions of AI loom ahead of us, the power of screens will jump exponentially. It makes me believe that the sci-fi idea of the Matrix could become a reality.
Scars
I once met a Greek woman who had a tatooed “I thank my scars because they remind to never forget who I am” in order to symbolize that she wasn't a victim, she was a survivor.​​I focused my song on two women who are very close to my heart: one was raped and one suffered from social exclusion which triggered her anorexya. We all have scars: Failures in love, rejection, betrayal, violence, failures, losses... The path from victim to survivor goes through our ability to forgive the ones who gave us the scars as well as forgiving ourselves and taking responsibility for our actions and feelings in the past, the present and the future and doing what needs to be done to not be a victim of this type again. I hope that this song will support victims to rewrite their narratives as survivors.
October Winds (Nova 7/10/24)
On October 7th 2023, Hamas terrorists invaded Israel from Gaza and, by what seems to be a last minute decision, they raided the Nova trance festival where they executed, burnt, raped, tortured 364 innocent festival goers and kidnapped,another 44. The survivors of the festival not only lost their friends and loved ones: most were traumatized to the core as the terrorists hunted them down as they hid and ran for their lives. This song is dedicated to the victims, the survivors, as well to their families and loved ones of the Nova massacre.​On October 7th 2024, I imagined this song from the as one of the survivors at a remembrance ceremony, overlooking Gaza, on a cold windy day. In Hebrew the word for winds also means the souls and the spirits of the victims, of the survivors and their loved ones.
The Lady Of My Heart
I had just written a love song to my wife "My Gift Is My Song (and this one's for you)" in which "love" was from a 60 year-old point of view. After I heard a Dylan playlist for about two days (I heard Desolation Row about 20 times in a loop), I started to hum this passion-fueled and eternal love song which is not bound by trivial things such as time and death. I sort of imagined this Bonny & Clyde situation in which criminals, who may have done terrible things, fall in love. Unlike "normal" law-abiding citizens, they live off crime and on the run but that only adds to the urgency of love when they do find each other. The tune came from the very first words. Just popped up. Having said that, I had to rewrite this story quite a lot to turn it into a song.
Sleepless Lullaby
This song emerged on a night where I couldn’t fall asleep. I had just binged on a three seasons of Succession in 4 days (I kept the 3 because it sounded better). I barely worked, barely functioned and when I went to sleep on the third night, I felt that I wasn’t living my life but the lives of the characters in the series. I started humming myself a lullaby but instead it came out more bluesy, more threatening. But here and there, I heard an angelic voice which soothed me. At the end I fell asleep hearing the tune of the chorus. From here, I thought about other similar moments for me and for people I love. Moments which seem endless. Moments which are the opposite of the wonderful fluidic disappearance between consciousness and sleep. Moments of looped woories into the unknown future but at the end we always fall asleep. Here the angelic voice is my middle daughter’s Lenny. Somehow, she manages to light up this song with hope.
It's Getting Late (Didi'd Song)
This song was born in death. Didi, someone I knew and was friends with, died suddenly at an early age. We hadn’t really seen each other in about 15 years apart from accidental meetings followed by “let’s meet”. There were always good intentions but we never did meet up again. When I heard of Didi’s death, I immediately thought about her husband, her three children, her parents, her loved ones…But then I thought about my loss of not knowing her more because we each went our separate ways in life. During the time that Didi died, a close friend of mine, Dida, was battling cancer and had been given a year to live. While I wrote this song, I thought of Dida as well - the similarity in their names and the fact that they were both too young to die. This song is also dedicated to Dida - I miss you both. Loss can and should be prevented before it is too late.
My Gift Is Their Songs
(and this one's for you)
This song is made up of 27 quotes from songs and artists I respect & admire. I changed some of the words to adapt them to my story.​Lyrics: Joy, Paul Simon, Paul McCartney / John Lennon, Roger Waters, Bono / U2 / Edge, Radiohead / Mike Hazlewood / Albert Hammond, Roger Waters / David Gilmore, Cat Stevens, Keith Richards / Michael Jagger, Adele Laurie Blue Adkins / Daniel Dodd Wilson, Henley Donald Hugh / Frey Glenn Lewis / Felder Don, Elvis Costello, Elton John / Bernie Taupin, Prince, Otis Redding / Steve Cropper, Ben E. King / Jerry Leiber / Mike Stoller, Carole King, Bob Marley, Leonard Cohen, Yoko Ono / John Lennon, John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Brian Eno / David Bowie. See if you can spot them all... It’s a love song for my wife, Orit, based on two specific moments in my life when I missed her terribly and at an event in which I sang this song to her. It’s a love which spans 33 years filled with vulnerability, partnership, fun, friendship, hope and commitment.
The Bells Of Change
This is actually the first song which awakened my interest in writing and creating music. Music was always a big part of my life but I never decided to plunge in and write lyrics, develop tunes, nor sing. It's a song about freeing myself from my (un)comfort zone and to stop procrastinating or finding excuses. Part of the essence of this song is that I have to sing it. I have done thousands of presentations and lectures in my life but I had never dared to sing in front of an audience (ouside of karaoke nights). The change starts with a goal to sing this song in front of others or at least in front of friends and family (which I finally did!). Having said that, I had this nagging feeling that I wasn’t really going to change anything.