Posts Tagged ‘Live4ever Presents…’

Sarai Givaty is an upcoming artist from Israel who has already enjoyed big success in her homeland and is now starting to find similar recognition in places as far apart as the UK and Los Angeles. Take a read through this interview to find out more about Sarai:

You recently returned from doing a few dates in the U.S., including stops in Los Angeles, South By Southwest, and New York – how was the tour?

SXSW was very intense, buy a great experience, it all went so fast! Everyday after finishing playing my show, I went and saw five other shows including one of my idols Erika Badu! NYC was very exciting – it was a full house at Pianos in the Lower East Side, and people knew the songs I was playing my EP!

What are some of the main differences between touring in Tel Aviv and Europe as opposed to the US?

I guess the main difference for me is the fact that i’m less recognized here in the states, so people come with no expectations. But, somehow it didn’t feel foreign to me, music was music and people responded in the same human way, felt the groove, and got very quiet on the ballads, just like anywhere else. That’s the beauty of music and why I love touring so much.

Your music has got great folk, acoustic, and electronic/pop melodies. Can you tell us some of your influences?

Nina Simone, Erika Badu, Bill Withers, Sarah Vaughan and more. I love blues and soul. I think it all started when my dad use to listen to Louis Armstrong and Frank Sinatra. Since i was traveling the world from the age of 18, I always wrote and sang in English so that anyone I met could understand and enjoy it. I’m more influenced by American and British singers songwriters.

You did the March tour in the U.S. as just a dual acoustic set-up. Do you perform with a full band ever?

Yes. Normally I  do perform with a full five – person band. But this was our first tour in the US, and some of the sets where not that long, they were more showcases, so we decided it would be more practical to do it as a duo. Although, we didn’t want to lose our full sound, so each of us played multiple parts. I played the keys, percussion and some parts on an iphone app and my band member Amit played guitar, tambourin, harmonica and base-drum.

You are already an accomplished model and actress in Israel, but you’ve been playing music for years. What’s making you focus on your music now?

Music and acting were always my two lovers. With acting, you can only practice by getting a job. But music is yours to play whenever you wish, however you wish, so I kept my music to myself and my friends over the years.  When I was shooting the video with Enrique Iglesias for his single Somebody’s Me, Anthony heard me playing an old piano that was on set, and he was touched by it and insisted that I record a few demos – and even introduced me to two great musicians that became my band. After our first showcase there was no going back.

What’s coming up for you this year? Any plans to return to the U.S.?

I’m starting to record my album by the end of April and i’m very excited about it. I’m already performing with the new material so i had the chance to test and improve it through the audience. I should be back to the US for a couple of show this Summer as well!

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What is your initial thought when you think of the sprawling megatropolis of Los Angeles and Southern California?

One might think of the surf culture of Venice beach; The Doors playing The Whiskey A Go Go; Iggy Pop getting arrested by the LAPD along Sunset Strip (in a puke stained mini skirt) during the implosion of The Stooges, and all manner of musical poets, down the ages, making tripped out, sunshine daydreams on wax about bikini-clad babes and hot rods.

Such an environment has also been partially responsible for sculpting one Davis Fetter, and the unique place he is currently carving for himself in the musical landscape.

When Oasis’ manager stated that the band, ‘Does not exist anymore’, after an altercation between the Gallagher brothers in the bowels of a Parisian music festival in the summer of 2009, some feared the final nail in the coffin for a brand of contemporary rock & roll music which harks back to its original roots of carefree swagger, attitude and intrigue.

Talent scouts and the collective music media alike continue to search in desperation for the next guitar band that will supposedly ‘save rock & roll’, but arguably not since The Libertines, or more recently the Arctic Monkeys, have we witnessed a band able to command the attention of a nation in the manner of the Nineties Britpop-dominated music scene, when rock music transcended a basic style with anthems capable of uniting an entire generation.

In steps Cold Committee, a four-piece guitar band jointly hailing from the North Wales coastal towns of Prestatyn and Rhyl, with influences sourced from decades of past rock luminaries such as The Who and The Beatles, all the way up to the present day with the Arctic Monkeys and Oasis. The intrinsic link with Oasis in particular goes beyond merely a strong musical inspiration however, with the band having recently played a string of private in-store gigs in aid of Liam Gallagher’s Pretty Green clothing line.

Saying someone has ‘the voice of an angel’ is bandied about so much in the media these days, almost to the point of cliche.

At moments like this, it can be almost guaranteed that certain facets of the general populace will roll their eyes, or sit rocking for a beat or two, holding their heads in their hands and wondering – with a hint of rose tinted nostalgia – where did a bit of good, honest, decent heart and soul go? Why does everything sound so damn average these days? And what the hell does the voice of an angel actually sound like anyway?

Can the answer be found within the vocals of 23-year-old Winston Yellen, by chance, of alt country ‘project’ Night Beds?

Questions, questions!

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Having safely navigated the devastating torrent of Hurricane Sandy at the back end of October, Long Island-based The Last Internationale are gearing up to release a superstorm of their own in the shape of their blues drenched ‘New York, I Do Mind Dying‘ EP.

The band released their self titled debut album in 2009, while 2011 saw the release of follow-up record ‘Choose Your Killer’, both of which showcased songs containing socialist layered, lyrically lucid, anti-capitalist statements in the similar mould of fellow musicians crying out for revolution – Rage Against The Machine. Tracks such as ‘Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Indian Blood’ tackled the injustice of usurpation by white settlers of a once Indian inhabited American land, acting as a metaphorical protest march in song form to the rich and poor divide we see in Western culture today, while further strife arose from the complex nature of human emotions is laid bare on the pared down acoustic number ‘Fuzzy Little Creatures’, documenting the social domestic demons still existing in modern society where gender equality is concerned.

Newcastle upon Tyne is often vastly underrated for a music scene which has provided us with sixties gritty blues phenomenon The Animals, while the abrasive alt-punk of Maximo Park put the city back on the map during the mid-Noughties indie peak, reminding us that the Geordies should be recognised for much more than the Brown Ale drinking, football crazy stereotype.

As if to reaffirm that Tyneside is still a force to be reckoned with musically, synth-pop act Shields are said to be the brightest light to emerge from an increasingly exciting musical vista at the heart of the area. A much anticipated EP aptly labelled ‘Kaleidoscope’, matching with the vibrancy of the rainbow bursting, psychedelic wall of colour in their new rave based sound, is set to drop as a free download from the band’s website on November 19th.

When Bob Dylan infamously struck his first electrified chords to a public audience back at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival to signify his transition from cult folk hero to eventual folk rock legend, few would have dared believe the moment would resonate yet louder on a 21st century musical landscape currently dominated by folk inspired rock musicians.

Mumford & Sons have topped music charts either side of the Atlantic, and folk/punk singer-songwriter Frank Turner gained a coveted Olympic Games opening ceremony slot in front of an audience of millions in the summer, seeing the heavier take on the traditional genre still very much alive and well.

Will Miles, brought up in the west-country on a healthy musical cocktail of blues, grunge, jazz and folk records alongside the obvious influences of Dylan and early bluesmen, is the latest London based musician looking to take up the mantle of his heroes and ride the wave of current frenzied popularity in the folk rock field.

Refreshingly, despite fevered interest from various indie labels, Miles appears well grounded in DIY principles when it comes to releasing his music, not content with merely latching onto the coattails of a burgeoning folk rock movement by way of association with his contemporaries. His first commercially available, self-produced double A-side single, ‘Shallow Water/Angela‘ will be released via grassroots label Wildheart Records on 26th November, as a limited run CD with handmade sleeves alongside a digital download format.

Years from now, some may call it ‘The 1975 Paradox’.

It will apply to those artists that embrace anonymity and cover themselves beneath a blanket of secrecy, only for the fervour, hype and clamour around them to grow. Give ‘em nothing, everyone comes-a-knockin’.

This carefully constructed aura of mystique may not be new in the music industry – remember The Cuban Boys? Or even the press-shunning early years of The Stone Roses? However, few – if any -  have executed this tactic so superbly as Mancunian 4-piece The 1975; a band clearly playing their own game, by their own rules. It’s a masterful marketing technique, refreshing in this Instagram-era of immediacy, fame-hungry desperation and disposability.

Brontide work their trade in a tough and often unappreciated field.

Purely an instrumental band, their music isn’t typical of the genre they hail from. Rather than being sparse, experimental or even generally progressive, their songs tend to take shape as an exhilarating stew of beat driven electronica, complimented by heavy metal guitars for good measure.

Somewhere, someplace among the rolling meadows of Somerset comes the sound of chaos. Pure and bitter chaos.

Thrusting their guitars and vocal chords forth with a polarising conviction that deliciously reflects their name, it seems that young upstarts The Waves of Fury are wholly responsible for this. Five knuckleheads who for whatever reason are dissatisfied with the world around with them, they embrace classic rock roots and inject a biting force of aggression into the formula.