{"id":9352,"date":"2011-01-06T14:48:15","date_gmt":"2011-01-06T21:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=9352"},"modified":"2011-01-15T16:20:38","modified_gmt":"2011-01-15T23:20:38","slug":"the-raw-men-empire-dangerously-addictive-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=9352","title":{"rendered":"The Raw Men Empire: Dangerously Addictive Music"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
The Raw Men Empire\/Photo: Ayelet Dekel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Raw Men Empire can be found somewhere between folk and surreal, in a small room in South Tel Aviv with dozens of musical instruments, several computers and two cats, one friendly and one aloof. Coming from different musical backgrounds Tsvika Frosh, Yonatan Miller, Itai Kaufman and Nadav Lazar have been playing together as The Raw Men Empire for a year and a half, taking the word playing to unexpected places \u2013 just when you think they\u2019re four guys fooling around, they create beautiful melodies with undercurrents of ironic harmony and complexity. Dangerously addictive.<\/p>\n

With 2\u00a0EPs out \u2013 The Rise and Fall of<\/strong><\/em> and Elodie<\/strong><\/em>, and just before they embark for their first European tour (Germany, Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia \u2013 click here for details<\/a>) The Raw Men Empire will perform at Levontin 7 in Tel Aviv on Friday, January 14, 2011 at 21:30 with guest singer-songwriter Daniel Bedingfield from the UK.<\/p>\n

In a studio visit with the band, almost any question led to spontaneous song, random philosophizing or simple hilarity. Their quadraphonic conversation of solo riffs, baroque counterpoint and folk meanderings was hard to sort out when transcribing the interview recording; any errors in attribution are deeply regretted by Midnight East. After a raucous take-off on Tom Waits \u2013 on thumb piano \u2013 Tsvika told me that he and Yonatan are childhood friends. Asked if they grew up playing music together, the wild conversational romp began:<\/p>\n

Tsvika: \u201cActually we\u2019re just playing D & D together and it really like made our imagination work for us. D & D is like a really good exercise to write songs in a later age [insert: sound of laughter all around]. So if you want to write songs you should definitely play D & D. No, I\u2019m kidding\u2026like we always had imaginary friends and worlds\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Yonatan: \u201cI didn\u2019t have any imaginary friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tsvika: \u201cIt sounds exotic, flow with it\u2026Everybody has a different story here, for myself I can say that I started with music at the age of 27- 28.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nadav: \u201cHe\u2019s a late bloomer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tsvika: \u201cIt really came to me in a very intuitive way because I\u2019ve been writing words or stuff all my life. I studied art and cinema at Camera Obscura six years ago and when that was done I suddenly realized all I wanted to do is play music somehow and took the guitar and started to make some noise or started to make some melodies.\u201d<\/p>\n

A clip from the show launching their 2nd EP Elodie<\/strong><\/em>, gives a sense of their vibe:
\n<\/embed><\/object>
\nI asked Tsvika whether he was the main songwriter for the group.<\/p>\n

Tsvika: \u201cYes and no. Maybe sometimes I bring the songs but it really feels for me and I guess for everybody here that this is like, we don\u2019t like have this hierarchy or anything here. Everybody brings their soul into this and like together we have our voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Itai Kaufman and Nadav Lazar\/Photo: Ayelet Dekel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ayelet: \u201cYou describe your music as \u201cfreak folk\u201d what does that mean to you?\u201d<\/p>\n

Nadav: \u201cWeird folk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Itai: \u201cFake folk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yonatan: \u201cNothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tsvika: \u201cIt means nothing because labeling music and genres-\u201d<\/p>\n

Yonatan: \u201cIs for losers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tsvika: \u201cI feel that every time people ask you \u2018what do you play?\u2019 instead of saying \u2018we\u2019re four people with instruments and we\u2019re singing in English\u2019 it\u2019s easier to say – we\u2019re freak folk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nadav: \u201cIt helps you communicate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tsvika: \u201cYeah, it helps you communicate and convey some ideas but at the bottom line it doesn\u2019t say a lot. It\u2019s folk that\u2019s kind of freaky, but then again it\u2019s so general.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yonatan: \u201cIt falls short.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tsvika: \u201cMost songs write themselves up they\u2019re just there and you just have to pluck them – whether it\u2019s just me and the guitar or me and Yonatan\u2026we just meet, we play something. For myself I can just say that I\u2019m a melody buff, words come second. And it\u2019s all about the vibe and what\u2019s beautiful here is that every body comes from different worlds and we somehow like really connect.\u201d
\n\u00a0
\nNadav: \u201cEach one brings something different.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tsvika: \u201cMiller studied jazz for years and he\u2019s a singer\/songwriter himself and this guy [Nadav] was playing in progressive rock bands \u2013 I mean, how gay can you be? He\u2019s like a progger for Christ\u2019s sake and Itai studied in Rimon and he\u2019s a genius on keyboards and for some strange reason he plays on the drum.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nadav: \u201cI think if you look at each of us, at our CD rack at home all of us have Tom Waits CDs or Beatles CDs or whatever but each of us has completely different tastes in music and this is what\u2019s cool about it. It doesn\u2019t sound like what Tsvika would make or what I would make it sounds like what all of us are making together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tsvika and Yonatan wrote Between You and Me together.
\n<\/embed><\/object>
\nThey always invite a guest to perform in their concerts. Past guests have included Daniela Spector and Tamar Aphek.<\/p>\n

Nadav: \u201cIt\u2019s about bringing something new. It\u2019s like adding a fifth band member for a week. We learn new things; we take something from the performance and incorporate it into the way we play the thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Itai: \u201cTo the roman fabric.\u201d<\/p>\n

The guest for their upcoming Levontin 7 gig is Daniel Bedingfield, a singer-songwriter visiting from the UK who happened to meet Itai and Tsvika, and ended up writing a song with Tsvika. The multi-talented team create a video before each show, the Bedingfield video was not yet ready at the time of the interview, but their previous effort with Daniela Spector is well worth a look:
\n<\/embed><\/object>
\nTalking about their new EP Elodie:<\/p>\n

Yonatan: \u201cIt\u2019s named for a French teacher who\u2019s a big music fan. She goes to all the shows. She\u2019s really a music fan, a real music lover, and she has a beautiful name.\u201d<\/p>\n

Itai: \u201cWe try to get the recording as close to live performances, sometimes we over dub it but we try to keep it raw as we perform. Try to lay down tracks live and be in the room all the time, everybody in the room all the time keep it raw.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nadav: \u201cWe usually record playing live and this is the basis for the sound – looking at each other. Most of the stuff is recorded right here\u2026trying to capture something that happens in a very specific moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Yonatan Miller\/Photo: Ayelet Dekel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There are a few extra minutes of silence on the EP. Why?<\/p>\n

Yonatan: \u201cThey\u2019re geeks that way \u2013 they lengthen the CD for a few seconds [to make it 18 minutes, 54 seconds long] which is the year of the first Atlantic or Pacific sinking. [Midnight East is a geek this way: the SS Artic sank on September 27, 1854, off Cape Race, Newfoundland, after colliding with the SS Vesta in the fog]<\/p>\n

Tsvika: \u201cIt helps if before the songs we laugh or do something nice and then say the song.
\nIf you play the song with too much seriousness it comes heavy and to get your mind off of it\u2026 even if we play something melancholic songs or more sad songs we still smile and put good emotions into it’s not like: ok this is sad, lets be sad. Because when you play something melancholic sometimes its just beautiful and you just have to let it shine, not be gray more like nice bluish.\u201d<\/p>\n

They played two songs for me that they have not yet recorded: Graduation and Orangeland. I asked if the songs were new.<\/p>\n

Tsvika: \u201cFor me it\u2019s old. I wrote it [Orangeland] like a long time ago. When I played it first it was like really ballad-like then came the idea for the bass line\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Nadav: \u201cIt was on a sound check in Haifa and we were bored, jamming\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Ayelet: \u201cI like what happens when you\u2019re bored.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tsvika: \u201cThat\u2019s the best way to come up with ideas without thinking. When you think, it comes from here [head] and music doesn\u2019t supposed to come from there\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Nadav: \u201cA different kind of music\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Tsvika: \u201cMost of our music is based on two chords, and if it\u2019s complicated it\u2019s three.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nadav: \u201cWhen it\u2019s four we call it jazz.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tsvika: \u201cBut it\u2019s interesting if you take something really simple and if we mesh well and really feel connected then you can do all kinds of things on that, everything really.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nadav: \u201cLike where I come from, progressive rock, a lot of my friends are very sophisticated musicians and I was talking to one of them I told him\u00a0 that most of the songs are just two chords he said \u2018what really, I didn\u2019t notice,\u2019 because it sounds like a lot more is going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Tsvika Frosh\/Photo: Ayelet Dekel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As a relatively new band survival is always an issue, but they are committed to their music.<\/p>\n

Tsvika: \u201cIf I work hard I would still have an overdraft and I\u2019d have less time to play music and if I do less work I still have an overdraft and somehow manage to pay the bills and I have more time to play music. When I talk to musicians everybody feels the same way: if you really believe in what you do, you really have to be there. There isn\u2019t a dimmer, like I\u2019m going to do it on minimum. It\u2019s like a toggle switch you\u2019re either on it or off it. If you really want to do it then you should do it, and do it gladly with lots of love and be ready for everything whether it\u2019s good or bad and just be there and feel it and experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0Braving the European winter for their first tour, they are gearing up with warm clothes. How do they feel about the tour?<\/p>\n

Nadav: \u201cWe\u2019re excited.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tsvika: \u201cMaybe this will be our last interview we\u2019ll ever make. We\u2019re all gonna freeze to death on some deserted road in Poland. We\u2019ll run in some field and start eating each other then they\u2019re gonna find us with the last video we ever shot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nadav: \u201cWe\u2019ll freeze to death and two people are going to see us \u2013 it\u2019s still going to be an amazing experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Raw Men Empire
\nTsvika Frosh: lyrics, music, vocals, guitar, flute
\nYonatan Miller: lyrics, music, guitar, vocals, smile
\nNadav Lazar: bass, glockenspiel, percussion, guitar, melodica, programming, vocals
\nItai Kaufman: beatbox, percussion, basss, melodica, programming, keyboards, charango, vocals<\/p>\n

Their EP is available at the Third Ear (www.third-ear.com<\/a>) on King George 48, Tel Aviv; and Krembo Records (www.kremboshop.com<\/a>) on 96 Ben Yehuda Street, Tel Aviv. Soon to be available online.<\/p>\n

Find The Raw Men Empire and listen to their music on YouTube<\/a>, Myspace<\/a> & Facebook<\/a> and you can download songs here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Raw Men Empire can be found somewhere between folk and surreal, in a small room in South Tel Aviv with dozens of musical instruments, several computers and two cats, one friendly and one aloof. Coming from different musical backgrounds Tsvika Frosh, Yonatan Miller, Itai Kaufman and Nadav Lazar have been playing together as The […]<\/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-9352","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\/9352","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=9352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9352\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}