{"id":10769,"date":"2011-03-07T01:01:18","date_gmt":"2011-03-07T08:01:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=10769"},"modified":"2011-03-11T02:24:56","modified_gmt":"2011-03-11T09:24:56","slug":"talking-to-acollective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=10769","title":{"rendered":"Talking to Acollective"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Acollective\/Photo: Ziv Shenhav<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t wake up in the morning and say I\u2019m going to start a band. It\u2019s something that happens with time, you start playing with someone \u2013 sometimes just for fun, at home\u2026and it develops,\u201d says Idan Rabinovici, one of Acollective, a group of friends that have been playing music together for years, a journey that became a band. The 7 member band is fronted by Roy Rieck and Idan Rabinovici, who wrote the songs, and includes: Daniel Shoham, Joseph E-Shine, Roy Rabinovici, Emanuel Slonim, Nadav Luzia. Acollective will launch their debut album Onwards on March 10, 2011 at the Barby in Tel Aviv, but the band is already living up to the name, always moving onwards, performing everywhere and inviting everyone to join a collective \u2013 any collective.<\/p>\n

Just before the big launch, Roy Rieck, Idan Rabinovici and Daniel Shoham met with Midnight East to talk about becoming Acollective and recording Onwards with producer Chris Shaw.<\/p>\n

On the way to becoming Acollective, they had played together in different groups, with some individual recording projects along the way, \u201cThat was our journey,\u201d says Roy, \u201cwe learned a great deal from it – we were a band and didn\u2019t realize it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The movement and searching is an integral part of the band that they have become, in Acollective each of the seven musicians may take on a completely different part or instrument, depending on the song. Their array of instruments and the ease with which they move from one to another is impressive.\u00a0Acollective’s live shows generate energy enough to power a movement, a movement that is constantly changing; a wild and joyous freedom.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt any given moment there are enough stupid toys of all kinds onstage to find the cadre of things that we are working with,\u201d says Idan.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it doesn\u2019t come from a place of \u2026let\u2019s try to put together as many instruments and styles as we can – that\u2019s not at all what we\u2019re about,\u201d says Roy, \u201calthough it might look that way. We try to listen to a song and understand what will serve it best, and we sometimes have different opinions, but in the end\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Daniel continues, \u201cWhat comes about in the end\u2026 my main instrument is the guitar and when I listen to the album I hear a song where I play and then suddenly a song where Idan plays guitar or Nadav plays guitar and it\u2019s fun to listen because its not the same sound, each time someone else gives something different to the instrument.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are a band that talks a lot,\u201d comments Idan, \u201cbut the good thing is that our talking comes from caring about what we do and it gives us energy. We have our aesthetic differences\u2026is this part too full, is it too empty \u2026and how we solve these differences\u00a0 – that is our secret, it\u2019s part of the fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one says that because you are a musician in a band you have to come and play in a certain way,\u201d says Idan, \u201csometimes you are more to the front and sometimes you\u2019re more in the back, what\u2019s more important is that the journey this search takes place within the context of a narrative that ties the group together \u2013 our relationships, and our passion for what we do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are no fixed rules,\u201d says Roy, \u201cok, this is Idan\u2019s project so Idan will sing and Roy will play harmonica and someone else on guitar or drums. Suddenly we understood that these borders had been breached. At first it was scary, but we soon saw the advantages in every way \u2013 musical, and personal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s what makes us who we are as a band,\u201d added Idan, \u201cthe ability to find balance, a place of searching, movement, the raw energy you bring, the chaos and that almost childish behavior where you just pick up an instrument and play and in a way it all makes sense. It doesn\u2019t sound like 18 different bands, it sounds like one band and it creates a certain character. When someone plays an instrument that they usually don\u2019t play, they bring something very special to it, because it comes from a different place.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUntil we recorded this album, I had never picked up an electric guitar,\u201d says Roy, \u201cand suddenly found myself with the instrument.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re describing this thing,\u201d reflects Idan, \u201cand I think someone an outsider might say \u2013 Come on, this sounds like total chaos – what do their rehearsals look like\u2026it is chaos but what connects us is that we are good friends and we are on this journey together \u2013 we\u2019re having a blast.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is our philosophy,\u201d smiles Roy, \u201cwhen things get rough, we tend to celebrate with a very Saturnalian feel to it\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

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Acollective\/Photo: Noa Magger<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Musically diverse, the band members come from different backgrounds \u2013 jazz, classical, blues, funk, and punk, to name a few. \u201cWe are a band with many perspectives,\u201d says Idan, \u201cwe\u2019re the least homogenous group I know,\u201d and Roy continues the thought, \u201cdifferent musical education, outlooks on life, we don\u2019t see things the same way but ultimately there is a balance within the group, if you take just one out of the set\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

These many perspectives can be heard in the complex texture of their music, and, as they describe, are also part of their creative process. Although Idan and Roy write the songs, Idan says, \u201cWe have the freedom of creation within the band; often I can say that the song, the way it ends up, is sometimes very far from the song that first came into the room.\u201d Two examples from the album that immediately come up are Seven Year Stitch and Lewknor Arch, and the conversation around the table reflects the collective process.<\/p>\n

Discussing Lewknor Arch, Roy starts out saying, \u201cIt was an acoustic song\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Idan continues, \u201cIt wasn\u2019t really a song, it was 35 seconds of nothing.\u201d
\n\u00a0
\nWithout missing a beat, Roy continues the story, \u201cand one day when we lived together in London I heard sounds from the basement (where we rehearsed). I see Idan and two other friends playing on all sorts of gizmos\u2026something strange\u2026but it was also amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The seven musicians lived together in London for several months, a time that Idan calls \u201ca kind of call to arms for the band. We were in all sorts of projects together but we didn\u2019t really have one steady framework where we knew – ok we\u2019re in this together through fire and water. There were a few months when we didn\u2019t work together as a band, some of us were abroad and we were on a sort of break. We decided:\u00a0 let\u2019s embark on this journey, not as a band but\u2026 let\u2019s experience something new. We were commited to it, we worked super-hard, we were willing to be there a long time and we lived together – it was a domestic collective. We initially went to London for three weeks \u2013 that turned into half a year. Like many things that musicians do without thinking about it, but we came out of it with a band but we didn\u2019t know that before we started. It was boot camp.\u201d<\/p>\n

Working with legendary producer Chris Shaw on the album was a memorable experience for the band. \u201cWe trusted him with our work,\u201d says Idan, \u201cit\u2019s hard to bring someone from the outside especially since we are friends who know each other so well. Chris understood how we feel towards one another.\u201d They had initially written to Shaw and corresponded for several months before the recording sessions began in Israel. During that time the band worked on the songs, and Idan says, \u201cWe had joke among ourselves that we\u2019d toss out whenever we disagreed, and when you rehearse for an album for 6 months\u2026 we\u2019re talking about microscopic decisions, who plays guitar in this section, etc. We\u2019d say:\u00a0 we\u2019ll let Chris decide when he comes. And when he came, he said \u2018Fuck you, you decide for yourselves. I\u2019m not here to decide what you think.\u2019 He always guided us to make our own decisions as a band.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has an approach I really connected to,\u201d says Daniel, \u201cIn our minds we were thinking of the day Chris would arrive, Yossi and I play guitar, and we prepared an entire fleet of guitars to show him. Then Chris comes, it\u2019s a moment you imagine for months in the studio and you ask him which guitar sounds best\u2026and in the end he said \u2013 play your own guitar. What was comfortable and right for us – not all the things we imagined, and I think that was his perspective on the album too, that it come, as much as possible, from us. He wanted it to be recorded live as much as possible, and that\u2019s not easy when you have seven people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recording at Pluto Studios, they were the first band to use every possible nook and cranny in the building in order to create the separations needed to allow live recording, with separate tracks. \u201cThere was someone in the basement and someone on the floor above,\u201d recalls Daniel, \u201cwe heard each other through earphones.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is the greatness of Chris\u2019s method, it was a colossal headache, and I think he\u2019ll never forgives us\u2026the set up for each song was very intensive and it took a long time, but he wanted to set it up so that the moment we start playing we\u2019ll be at ease and play naturally. So we\u2019re just playing the song and not worried about hitting the part right and are we in time or not in time and is my guitar making noise – and we\u2019re listening to the song in the way that we want it to be heard.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe difference between live and not live,\u201d says Daniel, \u201cif I\u2019m recording guitar in a session that not live I\u2019ll make sure that it\u2019s perfect and the end result is something very pure – maybe too pure. What the live recording gives you, even on takes that are not precise and perfect \u2013 it gives you the soul and the feeling of the band all together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s more than the sum of it\u2019s parts,\u201d says Idan, \u201cit has to be recorded together with the right energy and Chris managed to capture many of those moments on the album. With most of the things I hear on the album the magic isn\u2019t from things that we decided ahead of time but rather from the uncertainty that recording process introduced. What I ended up playing on Turn to Cry \u2013was different from what I played a year ago. It came out at that moment because I was nervous and excited and because the take came out the way it did.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s part of the group interaction that was created over time,\u201d says Roy, \u201cwith Turn to Cry, we were sitting in the living room of the apartment in London while everyone cooked lunch I played Daniel the song and he began to play a riff on the guitar and the song suddenly took a turn to the left.\u201d
\n\u00a0
\nThe song\u2019s evolution continued in the recording process, as Daniel describes, \u201cIt was a Friday and we were very hot. We did the balance and it took a long time, it was already\u00a0 noon and we were ready to do takes. Each take is better than the one before but we see that Chris is worried. He plays it and to us the song sounds better than we\u2019ve ever heard it before, but for Chris there was something about the drums, what sounds best sonic wise. The way the sounds are arranged in the space didn\u2019t work for him and you don\u2019t hear it, you only hear that the song sounds excellent, but Chris, something is bothering him and we feel powerless. We are dying to do the take and feel happy and released, but until he worked it out \u2013 something with the drums and the mic\u2026and until suddenly you come out and see that he is satisfied and you relax. That\u2019s what I remember from our work with him: there is someone with genius, who hears things that you don\u2019t hear.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were moments when Chris was pressured,\u201d recalls Idan, \u201cyou walk into the control and he looks so stressed, any minute now he\u2019s going to start tearing his hair out and you think: WOW I must be playing really badly, he probably hates me. We\u2019d come over and say Sababa (roughly translates as \u2018OK\u2019) Chris, aside from the fact that you think it sounds like shit, did we play all right? And he\u2019d say: Yeah everything\u2019s fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter we recorded the album there was suddenly one perspective instead of seven,\u201d says Roy, \u201cthere is something that became fixed, eternalized, a reference point for everyone.\u201d
\n\u00a0
\nFrom this point, Acollective plans to move onwards, launching their album at the Barby in Tel Aviv on Thursday, March 10, 2011 and then performing throughout the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe collective is a movement for everyone,\u201d says Idan, \u201cNewletter, album notes \u2013 it comes from us, we really enjoy all of it. It\u2019s all part of the same process and the result is the music but the way we go about it is part of that. Being part of a collective\u2026 it\u2019s not just a band and listeners, it\u2019s greater than that. Everything we do has the same artistic weight as the music.\u201d<\/p>\n

Acollective will launch Onwards on March 10 at the Barby, 52 Kibbutz Galuyot Street, Tel Aviv, 03-5188123. Doors open at 21:30 and they expect to start at 22:30. Tickets are 60 NIS, 90 NIS with the CD \u2013 advance orders only for the CD. You can listen to their music on the bandcamp page<\/a>, and join Acollective on facebook.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cYou don\u2019t wake up in the morning and say I\u2019m going to start a band. It\u2019s something that happens with time, you start playing with someone \u2013 sometimes just for fun, at home\u2026and it develops,\u201d says Idan Rabinovici, one of Acollective, a group of friends that have been playing music together for years, a journey […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10769\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}