Songwriters draw on all sorts of sources of inspiration in their work. But if, for example, you are writing a romantic ballad, it can help if you have experienced the beauty and emotions of falling in love firsthand.
Michael Abayev was, sadly, able to fuel his own creative juices when he decided to put together a number dedicated to Neta Epstein.
Epstein was killed when he jumped on a grenade that was thrown into the safe room where he and his fiancée Irene Shavit were hiding from the Hamas terrorists at Kfar Aza, on October 7.
Abayev, an Ashkelon-based rapper known professionally as Miki, was moved by an interview he watched on TV in which Shavit told the story of the tragic event. “It was so emotional for me,” he recalls. “I don’t normally watch a lot of news, but I watched the interview over and over. It got to the point that I could recite everything Irene said verbatim.”
The story behind the young rapper
The 20-year-old rapper has his own traumatic backdrop. A couple of years ago, when he was in a preliminary program for the Navy, he was seriously wounded. He was diagnosed with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) whereby sufferers experience prolonged intense pain in the affected area. “It is the fourth most powerful pain known to the medical world,” he says.
That injury left the then-teenager with debilitating trauma and severe physiological issues to cope with. Luckily he came across a means of letting off some emotional steam, and channeling his feelings and thoughts in a productive and artistic way, when he heard seminal American rapper Eminem’s hit number “Stan.” “When I listened to his music, that helped me get through my bouts of pain,” Abayev says.
With those sentiments fully on board, Abayev began thinking about doing something to benefit others with similar challenges. “What went through my head was, I want to do that for someone else.”
That philanthropic intent clicked into high gear when he saw Shavit telling her painful story. The bottom musical line is Abayev’s latest song “Kochav Shellee (My Star),” which he recorded together with singer Tehila Bariach who opens the song with her emotive velvety vocals before Abayev weighs in with his own heartfelt rhythmic yet tender rap lines.
He took Shavit and Epstein’s story and ran with it. It was a labor of love from the start, and an epiphanous juncture in Abayev’s own road to recovery. “I saw the interview and I had a feeling in my whole body I had never experienced before. It was something else, pain that wasn’t mine.”
That sparked something and the muses sprang into action. “That night, when I couldn’t sleep, I took the slips of paper with words I had written down and I got the chorus together. I came out with the words ‘layla tov’ (good night) and one stanza.”
Abayev duly moved through the gears. He talked to his producer, Ron Ashkenaizer, about the song-in-the-making, and the two rented an Airbnb in Netanya, away from the Hamas missiles and sirens, and got down to serious work. They worked through the melodic parts and Ashkenaizer added beats. They took a break for Friday night dinner with Abayev’s sister and returned later to the makeshift studio. The recess did the trick. “We got all the beats, the lyrics, and melody together, and we had a rough draft by 1:30 a.m.,” Abayev says.
The rapper says he was wary of making the end product too polished, and he joined up with celebrated producer Tom Furman who enhanced the base material with some Israeli elements. “He added the sound of a shofar and a flute,” Abayev explains. “It was Israeli hip-hop, less hardcore but with rap elements. Tom did a great job. We had the whole thing done in less than a week.”
Then came the really hard part. “I was wary of sending the song to Irene. I didn’t know if she’d like it or would be insulted by it,” Abayev continues.
Abayev didn’t need to worry. “She loved it, and so did Neta’s family. Irene said she was very moved by the mention of Goldstar (beer) in the song because Neta loved beer. He’d planned on brewing his own.
Abayev connected with his own emotions and came up with the sensitively crafted song, which can now be listened to on YouTube, at: https://youtu.be/xnAZjkgDstc.