The buzz on Asaf Avidan and The Mojos has grown into a roar with their album, 'The Reckoning.'
By DAVID BRINNAsaf Avidan 88 224(photo credit: Ran B)
When he's talking, Asaf Avidan's voice sounds positively normal. But get him on a stage or in a studio with his guitar in hand, and the Jerusalem-based singer/songwriter is transformed, as one observer commented, into "the lost love child of Dylan and Joplin."
Approximating something between singing, ululating and a few vocal effects that haven't yet been defined, the electrifying performer has set local audiences on their ears over the past two years with his high-pitched, impassioned vocals, poetic lyrics and raw blues and folk-based English-language rock and roll he makes with his band The Mojos.
One thing's for certain - nobody who's heard Avidan remains neutral. Either you love him or you go… "What?"
"I don't think I ever realized there was anything unusual about my voice until I started performing and singing in public. I knew that I loved using it and trying to do things with it that were not standard," Avidan told The Jerusalem Post recently, shortly after returning to Israel from a brief tour in Germany.
"But you know, actually, it's not true. I don't think my voice is so special. It's not like I thought one day, 'OK, I'm going to sing in this voice.' Maybe it's just that the emotions that need to come out make my voice go higher and in different directions."
Emotions certainly run high on his self-released album, The Reckoning, which has proven to be an indie runaway hit since its release earlier this year. It's impossible to listen to the CD or come away from one of the 28-year-old artist's shows without the firm impression that, like a young Van Morrison or Bruce Springsteen, his songs are the most important thing in his life.
Ironically, though, only two and half years ago, music was hardly part of Avidan's life at all. Following graduation from the Bezalel School of Design, he had built a career as a successful animator and was happily ensconced with his longtime girlfriend in their Tel Aviv apartment.
"I found out - not so quickly - that making my own movies at Bezalel was a different experience than working on industrial animation for commercials. I needed my freedom and went into freelance work. It really worked out perfectly for me.
"I was successful, my films won awards at festivals, and the money was fine," he said.
"But it was becoming apparent to me that I was becoming less and less content with different things in both my relationship and in my work. Within a very short time, I broke up with my girlfriend, quit my job and left Tel Aviv and went back to Jerusalem," he said.
Avidan holed up for a few weeks house-sitting for a friend and picked up his guitar - an instrument which had provided solace and inspiration to him throughout his IDF service.
"I had a guitar since I was 14 or so, but then I didn't have the patience to sit and learn chords. In the army, I had started writing songs - actually, more poetry than songs you actually sing. At the time, I was reading a lot of Hebrew poets like Alterman and Amichai. But, with those lyrics... there was suddenly a reason to pick the guitar up and learn how to vocalize those thoughts," said Avidan.
"It may sound corny, but I found a hidden gift that I hadn't realized before. It was completely therapeutic. I think that's why people go to shrinks, there's something about verbalizing your thoughts and hearing yourself say them that's liberating," he added.
DESPITE THE attraction music provided, Avidan's high school major in design at the Charles Clore School for the Arts in Jerusalem provided an alternative magnetic pull just as he was considering a stab at a post-army musical career.
"When I got out of the army, my first instinct was to make music. I recorded a short demo and put together a band that performed one show," he said. "Then I saw an ad for the animation department at Bezalel, so I applied, was accepted, and pursued that instead. But music was always in the back of my mind. All the time I worked as an animator, I kept on writing songs, just for me."
With his life in crisis following his job/girlfriend/city upheaval, Avidan wound up writing eight songs while house-sitting in that Jerusalem apartment, six of which wound up on his first EP release in 2006, Now That You're Leaving. The untested singer began performing acoustic shows in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
"I knew I needed a band - I could hear my music being performed with bass, drums and electric guitar. I tried to put something together, but it didn't fit, so I started doing acoustic shows," he said.
It was at one of those shows that he was approached by bassist Ran Nir, who enthusiastically offered his services after hearing Avidan's offbeat songs and delivery. Through other personal connections, the Mojos slowly emerged, consisting of Avidan, Nir, guitarist Roi Peled, drummer Yoni Sheleg and later, 19-year-old Hadas Kleinman on cello and melodica.
"I had always had a dream of performing in an acoustic band with a couple acoustic guitars, a cello, some percussion - and in a rock and roll band at the same time. I always loved the acoustic side of my music, but something in me wanted to rock and roll," said Avidan.
"I was working with the three male Mojos, trying to work on the rocker songs. And Yoni gave me Hadas's number. And she provided the connection between the acoustic and the rock. You can hear it on Reckoning, somewhat, on the songs Hadas plays on. I love how our show builds up, since I come from a movie-making and screenplay-writing background. There's some acoustic material, then songs with the cello, then it blows up with the band."
According to Avidan, the transition from animation to music feels totally natural, as it's simply another avenue which enables him to express himself in an unfettered manner. "The medium is not as important as the kind of personal therapy that comes with letting something out of you," he said.
THE NEED to express himself has been with Avidan as long as he can remember, but it wasn't until he was seven years old that he began doing it in English. His parents, both Foreign Ministry officials, were sent to Jamaica for four years, a move which had a profound impact on the youngster.
"I heard reggae all around me. I can't say that I was influenced by it or liked it at the time. But if you asked me my top five artists now, Bob Marley would be one of them - but not because of reggae," he said.
"It was something I realized later. What I like about art in general, no matter the medium or genre, is feeling that honesty, that it's something coming from the depths of someone's soul. It needs to be out there - for him, not for anybody else."
When his family returned to Israel, and to a new home in Mevaseret Zion, Avidan found the transition difficult, and it affected his studies. In today's jargon, he would have been described as a talented, but academically challenged, student.
"I didn't get along with anybody there and almost got thrown out of junior high in Mevaseret a number of times. Luckily, my mother heard about the arts high school in Jerusalem. Back then, it was really small, and they took people that were outsiders from all different schools in the area, anybody that had some kind of potential for art. They didn't care about the potential for academics," said Avidan.
Fortunately, that nurturing environment provided the encouragement Avidan needed to pursue his major in design and cinema, and hanging around his iconoclast fellow students enabled him to feel a sense of belonging for the first time. And as any visionary rocker worth his salt will tell you, it's that struggle between being an outsider and the desire to belong which usually provides the most worthwhile muse.
Avidan's material and delivery certainly place him in a class of sensitive, tortured artists who know how to rock out, and his jagged edge has struck a chord with fans tired of slick, watered-down emotions. The buzz on Avidan and the Mojos has grown into a roar, despite his decision not to sign with a record label and release The Reckoning on his own, with his manager, brother Roie.
"We met with most of the labels in Israel before we released the album, and after going over the contracts they were offering, we saw no reason to give up what they were asking us to give up in return for what they were willing to give," said Roie.
"I think that decision has proven itself. [The album] just passed the 10,000 sales mark, which, for Israel, is quite a landmark. It was an ideological decision, but it's also been a sound business move. And we see no reason to change the strategy now and sign with a label."
THAT SENSE of self-confidence that Avidan possesses something special and is destined for greatness is also reflected in his mixed reaction to receiving a coveted opening slot for last summer's show by seminal post-punk hero Morrissey.
"It was the culmination of two or three months in which I started blowing up in the mainstream. A year ago, nobody had ever heard of me, and suddenly we were playing everywhere, and mainstream radio was playing our songs," said Avidan.
"The opening slot for Morrissey was the final thing. I don't know how true it is, but his PR person said that he asked for us personally, so I can only be flattered. At the same time, there's something about opening acts that doesn't sit well with me. I know I'm just starting out, and it's a perfect way for me to win over a new audience, but I'd rather play in front of 800 people that came to see me than 8,000 people who came to see somebody else. I didn't like that everybody was there waiting to hear somebody else."
However, with Avidan poised to break through in some European countries, and with North America on the horizon, both he and his brother Roie realize they'll have to play the music biz game to get anywhere.
"We're not kidding ourselves that we could do this on our own on an international level," said Roie. "We just played last week at Pop Komm, a big industry festival in Germany. And we're starting to get lots of offers from labels and for festival appearances in Europe."
In addition, Avidan and The Mojos are on a ballot to perform at the MTV Music Awards taking place in Liverpool, England on November 7. Results of the fan ballot will only be revealed later this week.
But, even as he skirts along the cusp of stardom, Avidan is hesitant at the thought of loosening the reins a little and having to deal with the "industry."
"I'm not sure I'm that kind of person that can let go. Now, I get to choose the people I work with - from the promoter to the publishing deal. I read all the contracts, and I talk to the people involved," he said.
"I know I'm a product - that in the end, my music and myself are a product for sale. People buy tickets and records, and I'm not that naïve to feel that it's different.
On the other hand, I hope it's not like going to buy a chair at Ikea. It's art… and it's more than that. Because the lyrics are so personal, it's me.
"So I need the people that work with me and represent me to completely understand me and enable me to trust them. I don't want to wake up one day and find out I have a commercial to shoot for McDonald's."
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