{"id":9079,"date":"2010-12-23T14:35:03","date_gmt":"2010-12-23T21:35:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=9079"},"modified":"2010-12-30T16:19:42","modified_gmt":"2010-12-30T23:19:42","slug":"who-is-eatliz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=9079","title":{"rendered":"Being Eatliz"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Eatliz live at Franz K club in Germany\/Photo: Nir Oz<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cEnglish is the mother tongue of Rock n\u2019 Roll, and that\u2019s what we do: Rock n\u2019 Roll,\u201d said Guy Ben Shetrit, guitarist and bandleader of Eatliz \u2013 an alternative rock band with an intoxicating sound that has been defying easy definitions while making their mark live and in the studio \u2013 in English. Their third album Teasing Nature is now available online and in stores, and will be launched with concerts in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa \u2013 with the first major concert on January 5, 2011 at the Barby in Tel Aviv.<\/p>\n

After two albums (Violently Delicate 2008, Delicately Violent 2009), several awards (including the Babelgum animation prize for the animation video to \u201cHey\u201d awarded by Spike Lee at the 2009 Tribeca Festival), and some changes in band members over the past few years, Eatliz is: Guy Ben Shetrit \u2013 Guitars; Lee Triffon \u2013 Lead Vocals; Amit Erez \u2013 Guitars; Hadar Green \u2013 Bass; Omry Hanegby \u2013 Drums; Or Bahir \u2013 Guitars. Talking to Guy and Or over hot tea on the eve of Teasing Nature\u2019s official launch, I ask if at this point the lineup of Eatliz is stable. \u201cThere is no such thing as a stable band,\u201d says Guy, \u201ca stable band is a boring band.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Eatliz live at the Franz K club in Germany\/Photo: Nir Oz<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Why are their songs in English? \u201cIt comes from the music,\u201d says Guy, \u201cwhat the song does to us, how the language expresses the music. If the lyrics were in Hebrew it wouldn\u2019t have the right pigment, because the language has its own intonation, rhythm, sounds and music.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eatliz is known for the internal diversity of its sound \u2013 racing from metal to melodic, with layers of different genres. \u201cWe\u2019re many people,\u201d says Or, \u201cand our musical direction is not a single line, it\u2019s many lines radiating outward in different directions. It\u2019s lots of different places merging together\u2026 I can\u2019t say that Eatliz is rock n\u2019 roll or progressive metal\u2026when we create a new piece we\u2019re not limited \u2013 \u2018oh that\u2019s not us\u2019. We\u2019re like a musical chameleon. We can change but still remain with the imprint of Eatliz.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guy adds, \u201cWe were sending out rays in different directions for a long time, six years. We were breaking through, trying to touch everything we love musically\u2026and we were influenced by modern progressive groups like Mr. Bungle (California 1985 \u2013 around 2000, released three albums) you hear it, you hear the metal that steals into all sorts of songs. And we\u2019re still like a hyperactive colt that can\u2019t calm down\u2026 kicking even in songs where that kick wasn\u2019t necessary. Songs that are good, that you could play on a classical guitar around the campfire and would still sound good. But something urged us on to do more and I emphasize that only because on the last album the lines are starting to converge, to focus on what is Eatliz.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Guy Ben Shetrit - Eatliz at Levontin 7\/Photo: Inbal Zach<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What is Eatliz? Eatliz is a verb rather than a noun; it\u2019s what happens between this group of people, their instruments and the music. Asked to talk about the process of creating the music, Guy says, \u201cI compose at home then bring the song to the band. Each one takes himself to that place and tries to express the atmosphere of the song, the atmosphere the song dictates. Eatliz has touches of metal, funk, punk, bossa nova. How do we make that song Eatliz \u2013 that\u2019s not the question, that\u2019s not how we work. It\u2019s what we find in the song.\u201d<\/p>\n

That search is very much a group process, according to Guy. \u201cFirst I see if they like the song,\u201d he says, \u201cif not, OK.\u201d In other words, and he says this has happened on occasion, if the rest of the band doesn\u2019t connect to the new material \u2013 it\u2019s dropped, and they move on to something else. \u201cAfter they like it,\u201d says Guy, \u201cthen we move with it. It begins and evolves and changes and goes back to the original \u2013 just like in a painting, or a drawing \u2013 drawing and erasing, drawing and erasing.\u201d<\/p>\n

They have described their new album as a kind of departure, moving out of their comfort zone. \u201cOur comfort zone of Eatliz is that dispersion,\u201d says Guy, \u201cThe explosive outburst is what feels comfortable. The easiest thing for us to do would have been to make another album that does the same thing. Keep the customers satisfied\u2026.the kids who would comment on the new album on facebook: this is not Eatliz. And there are responses like that, people who are saying: this is not Eatliz, what happened?\u201d<\/p>\n

Guy says that these comments come \u201cbecause it\u2019s soft, it\u2019s much more soft. Our response is to say \u2013 listen to the entire album. The quiet, beautiful, melodic and calm songs are no less amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/a>
Or Bahir and the guitar - Eatliz at Levontin 7\/Photo: Inbal Zach<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cOn the other hand,\u201d says Or, \u201cit\u2019s not a statement that from now on Eatliz is not metal or Kasach (Hebrew slang: to hit violently) we\u2019re not doing it any more or we\u2019ve stopped loving it\u2026maybe our next album will be wild hard core. It\u2019s a different phase we\u2019re in that is happening to everyone at once\u2026what we love at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf World War III breaks out, we\u2019ll be in a completely different atmosphere from this calm,\u201d Guy smiles, and then continues in a more serious tone, \u201cAn artist feels things on his flesh and lets it out with his art. We can\u2019t fake tension we can\u2019t fake toughness in the music. We\u2019re feeling sensitive now, exposed, vulnerable\u2026we\u2019re feeling sensitive with the release of our third album, with the critics looking us over, are we good or not\u2026.we\u2019re vulnerable because rents are so high in Tel Aviv, and we\u2019re vulnerable because we\u2019re 30+ and still don\u2019t have real jobs\u2026we\u2019re feeling vulnerable and sensitive and we\u2019re making sensitive music.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

Somewhere along the way between album two and three, Eatliz experimented with classical arrangements of their songs. \u201cWe had one classical performance, and we\u2019ll have another on February 9, 2011 at Tmuna Theatre,\u201d says Or, \u201cwe had an opportunity to perform at the Tel Aviv Music Festival (October 2010). Our record company Anova asked, \u2018What would you like to do?\u2019 And Guy, with his crazy ideas said, I\u2019d like to perform with a full orchestra of 80 musicians. We ended up with a budget for an arranger who is also a pianist – Uri Sherter, and three cellists. And the band Eatliz gave touches\u2026 not in our usual format – acoustic instruments, everything is very minimalist\u2026a touch that help gave the classical arrangement more color. It\u2019s mostly fun because the feeling is as if someone produced these songs anew and it\u2019s how he sees them. It\u2019s a complete reversal, a renewal\u2026 and we came from the side.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eatliz gave Uri almost complete freedom to work with the songs. Guy recalls telling him, \u201cThink of the songs the way you think them, we\u2019ve already finished making our statement on how we think they should sound. Give us your associations to the words and music what would you do and you\u2019ll be using completely different instruments \u2013 strings, piano, cello. The question came up \u2013 can\u2019t I use electric guitars? And I said, I prefer that you don\u2019t. It\u2019s like letting go of the ground under your feet, you fall into the unknown. Someone will do something with your song and you have no idea how it will turn out. It\u2019s frightening. On one hand you don\u2019t know if you\u2019ll like what they do, and on the other hand there\u2019s the curiosity and the curiosity is so much stronger than the fear.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Lee Triffon - Eatliz at Levontin 7\/Photo: Inbal Zach<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Were they influenced by hearing their songs differently?<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course,\u201d says Or, \u201cevery time you hear something in a way you didn\u2019t think of it surprises and moves you. The natural response of any artist when their work is produced -speaking from the perspective of a producer – taking a work that was protected and whole unto itself, suddenly you come to this thing and give it a new flavor and the artist doesn\u2019t understand where it came from\u2026 he opens up and can receive new elements\u2026and I think now we\u2019ll have new windows to open. There were many ideas in the classical performance that in terms of playing caused Eatliz to play differently than we are used to playing as musicians.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked to comment on the dialogue between metal and classical music, Guy says, \u201cRock artists have an unsolved romance with classical musicians. Rock musicians love to reach a certain magnitude and pathos. There\u2019s that place in a song when everything rises and you feel like you\u2019re climbing a mountain – we call it a \u201cpeaks solo.\u201d And in classical music when the orchestra reaches its peak\u2026 it sounds like the peak. In movies when they want to express the grandeur of the landscape, like in Lord of the Rings, they turn to classical music and not distortion. Distortion is the support for the magnitude that the rocker tries to achieve, but real magnitude is obtained with classical music and an orchestra of many musicians, and not with distortion and drums.\u201d<\/p>\n

In terms of the relationship between the studio recordings and live performance of Eatliz songs Guy says that the live performance is always \u201cnot only faithful, very faithful but also much better than the studio recording. Live we always reach feeling we want, to reach that feeling of something strong and real we have to spend several more hours or weeks in the studio. The song stands live first.\u201d As for improvisation, \u201cThere is little freedom for creativity. In the last couple of years we are opening this place up\u2026 it\u2019s ok, it\u2019s all right to be free after you play a song for a few years you can play with it, take it in different directions when you know the material. Every spark of creativity and improv in Eatliz songs can be heard to a great distance. It\u2019s like performing a dangerous trick within something that\u2019s already a dangerous trick\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Coming from a completely different direction, Or says, \u201cI see performances like a football game. To play your best, to know how to play that is\u2026and to arrive at the stage where you play and you don\u2019t need to look at the guitar and you can jump that\u2019s what you do in rehearsal. Onstage you can\u2019t know what the outcome will be in the end. I come to have fun. It turns out that when I have fun I play well – it fits the energy and what happens, to have fun on the stage.\u201d
\n\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Eatliz\/Photo: Ohad Romano<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Is their music influenced by being an Israeli band? \u201cIn every gnu born on the savannah the instinct is the same,\u201d says Guy, \u201cto get up on his legs and stand. It doesn\u2019t matter where he is born, in the south of Africa or the north. I compare that to the sources of music, it is born within you; it doesn\u2019t have a country.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI am in a kind of ecstasy, my mind is very misty, floating somewhere and listening to the sounds that the universe is sending me, and at that moment I am not thinking about the fact that I am in Israel and what do people like to hear or want to hear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet he continues, \u201cWhen I go to shuk HaCarmel (the Carmel outdoor market) and I hear and I smell, the spices and flavors and the stew comes from that. I won\u2019t use peppers from Thailand, I\u2019ll use the peppers that I find in the Carmel market. Right, I am influenced, and I taste and smell and create a new dream. The place and the experience always touch the music but the mind that creates doesn\u2019t have a state.\u201d<\/p>\n

Teasing Nature is available in stores and online from Anova Music<\/a>. For a taste of the new album, Eatliz is offering a free download of the single Berlin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The main launch show will be on January 5, 2011 at 22:00 at the Barby in Tel Aviv, with guests and special video art. 52 Kibbutz Galuyot Street, Tel Aviv, 03-5188123.<\/p>\n

January 13, 2011 at 22:00 at the Yellow Submarine in Jerusalem with guests. 13 Erkevim Street, industrial area, Talpiyot, Jerusalem, 02- 6794040.<\/p>\n

January 22, 2011 at 22:00 at the Beat club in Haifa with guests. 124 Sderot HaNassi, Haifa, 04-8107107.<\/p>\n

AYELET DEKEL<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cEnglish is the mother tongue of Rock n\u2019 Roll, and that\u2019s what we do: Rock n\u2019 Roll,\u201d said Guy Ben Shetrit, guitarist and bandleader of Eatliz \u2013 an alternative rock band with an intoxicating sound that has been defying easy definitions while making their mark live and in the studio \u2013 in English. Their third […]<\/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-9079","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\/9079","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=9079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9079\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}