INTERVIEW: Yoav
- Posted on February 4, 2008 5:29 PM
- 0 comments
THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT YOAV
Interview by Katie Spain
The first thing I'm struck by when I meet Yoav is his quiet nature. Although strikingly good looking in that sultry, effortlessly dishevelled way, he seems shy. It is just one endearing layer of a man with an amazing amount of talent. Armed with nothing but a guitar and loop pedals, this Israel-born artist wows audiences with his one-man wall of sound. Although Yoav isn't your typical in-your-face show pony, he does love a good natter. We’re informed that Radiohead need the interview room as soon as we’re done so we get straight down to business.
As we chat about busking, American Pie recitals, chipped guitars and a memorable Crowded House sing-along, it is apparent that Yoav is one of those artists who is meant for big things. It just goes to show, sometimes it's the quiet boy in the corner who goes on to make the biggest mark on the world. Let's just hope he remains as grounded as he is today. Check out his debut album 'Charmed and Strange'… watch out though, you too may fall just a little bit in love with this tall, dark stranger.
You lived in Cape Town for a while, you are initially from Israel and you have lived in New York and London. Where do you call home?
Well, at the moment I have an apartment in London, at least for the next few months. I haven’t decided if I want to carry on for the next six months or try to move somewhere else. I think ‘home’ would have to be South Africa but every time I go back it is less and less like home.
Do you like London?
I do like London yes. It is a different flavour from New York and where I was living. I wonder sometimes if I am a bit big-citied out though. I have been doing it for almost a decade now, but yeah…I find there is a bit more of an open-mind towards the arts.
Do you have a favourite part of London?
Well, there are different sides to London that I like. I love the Heath but I think that is just from being a Cape Town dude. I just love the space. I have been getting into the East End recently too. I do like the Heath though; it is a nice place to take my guitar.
You take your guitar down there? That’s great!
Yeah! I have always done stuff like that! I used to be a bit stupid about it in Cape Town. I would go up the mountain at night, which is a bit dangerous, on the summer solstice and play my guitar. That is the nice thing about not playing the piano!
Did you ever try busking when you were coming up through the music world?
Yeah, for sure; my first gig was a school carnival which was a busking gig and the longest rendition of American Pie ever. It was outside in the spring and I had bad hay fever, it added about ten minutes to it! Whenever I tried to get through a verse, I would start sneezing and have to stop. We did about eight versus in the end! I busked in New York too. I had just done some demos and had positioned myself in Washington Square Park to give away CDs. I tried to busk but it was very thankless. I wonder, even if you were an amazing busker, would it still be thankless? People are not there to listen. It is probably good for sharpening your sound though.
I can imagine London is even more brutal. In Australia, the sun is shining and people are a bit more willing to stop and listen. But over here, everybody is always rushing somewhere, especially on the tubes.
I do try and put a little bit of money in there for buskers. Increasingly in the world, people have less time for music. I think it is going to take a lot to sway you from your mission to get on a tube!
How was your recent 93 Feet East gig for you?
I loved it, it was exciting because it was my first proper London gig and it was sold out. That is pretty exciting to have not done much press at all or have had a record out but to get a sold out show. I was very pleased with the way it went. Loads of people knew the songs too. It made me feel really good about playing in London. If being a Rock star was a computer game, London would be level ten. It’s a little bit harder to win over than New York; I am not sure why that is though? In the record industry there are definitely clichés of musicians that the media pays attention too and stuff. I was really gratified to not come out of any particular scene or sound like anyone else and to get that response!
I have found that all bands from South Africa have been really easy to talk to. Maybe it’s because I am a little Aussie over here so it’s easier to connect?
Yes. I did have an interview yesterday though that was really awkward. I felt like I had to keep saying more because I haven’t said enough. I don’t think it was because he was inexperienced, I think it was just his technique but it was not enjoyable.
How did you first get into making music? Were you one of those little boys that were always banging pots and pans and doing recitals?
Music was always around; my mother was an opera singer and so I was heavily pushed towards classical music. My first piano lesson must have been when I was three of four years old. We had classical music in the house all the time and my brother, who is ten years older, played guitar too. I was always banging with knives and forks on the table! Pop music for me was a rebellion away from that side of music! I remember liking Classical music and then hating it because it was being forced down my throat. I loved Pop music - my parents didn’t know about it - and I was always humming Pop songs. I used to go to my friends or cousins and they had the latest songs; George Michael and Wham or whatever was happening in super Pop radio world! I was constantly singing these melodies even though I didn’t know the words. So, there was a fascination from very early on.
That and signing American Pie!
Yes! When I started playing the guitar, I started from a very folksy singer/song-writer. I was also listening to the Beatles and Simon and Garfunkel. Those were those first songs I learned to play, mainly from my brother’s influence. It is good grounding for song-writing. From there, I got into Rock and Pop and Hip-Hop. I listen to everything.
What was the first album that you ever bought?
I remember the first album that I was allowed to buy very well. Anything other than Classical was banned from the house so I worked around it and got a Simon and Garfunkel record. It was seen as kind of musical and serious. After that, I was allowed to have SGT Pepper. I wanted to play a stringed instrument so they said I could play the cello.
Oh, that’s not cool!
It is a beautiful sounding instrument but not when I played it. It sounded like I was murdering geese. After that, I got fully into Rock ‘N’ Roll. I didn’t mesh with my drum teacher; he told me I had no sense of rhythm.
You are signed and well on your way to what looks like a big musical career. The feed back is definitely going in the right direction. How does it feel in comparison to when you weren’t signed?
For years I was so frustrated about long it was taking. There was appoint when I was fresh out of High School in New York, I thought it was going to happen right away. I had just emerged from being this dorky, gawky adolescent with thick glasses and braces, being really shy and never having a girlfriend. My music was fairly straight down the line. It was not what it was now. When I lived in New York, I figured out what I wanted to say and what I wanted to play. It has been a journey. My whole attitude to it, even though I was frustrated in those years, my attitude is to continue to go ahead and write better music and learn new techniques on the guitar.
Let’s speak about your technique. It is very unique. There are other artists with a guitar but I think the way you do it is particularly effective. For the people out there who haven’t heard of you, can you give us a bit of an idea about what a live Yoav experience is like?
You’re right, there are a lot of other people with their guitars, signing their songs and there have been people banging on their guitars for hundreds of years now but, I think the way I approach the instrument is like a frustrated DJ. I am not banging out simple rhythms; I listen to guitar players, DJs, tabular players, African drummers and lots of different sorts of things. It is almost myself DJing on the guitar and creating the beats and putting the songs over the top. Eventually, I would like it to be like a continuous DJ set where, for a couple of hours, you are kind of on a musical journey. That is where I would like to see it going. Singer/song-writer and DJ.
Do you find that people ever have any disbelief that it is just you doing all of it?
There had been a bunch of press where they have said it is claimed that it is me on guitar. There are a couple of things that we did, the tricky stuff is obviously done with different snares and things, and there are different ways to hit the guitar so that the drum sounds filtered. There has been a little bit of disbelief. I think there is a moment on the record where we threw in a sample but other than that, it is 100% me.
Was it a long time in the making?
I started it about a year and a half ago. It began as a weekend in a studio in Oxfordshire where we did a demo. It took about six months on and off and then I went to South Africa for a break. Making the record in the countryside with no distractions though, I would do that again in a heartbeat. I wouldn’t make a record in London. There are always people coming by the studio and lots of other distractions.
I heard that your guitar got cracked on the way over?
Well, yeah, it might have been me though. My guitar takes a beating!
You toured with Tori Amos. Did she give you any advice or a backstage insight?
We were in Salt Lake City. Often, I didn't get a chance to sound check because she is a workaholic and would change her songs every night, so she would be rehearsing until doors. She did keep apologising. One night, she did a live recording right before the show started. They kept trying to hurry her up and she said ‘If they tell you that it is good but you think that it is not quite good enough always do it again.’
What do you do to relax, apart from going to Hampstead Heath?
I do find it hard in big cities. In Cape Town, I tend to chill out a bit too much. The hardest thing about what I am doing is there isn’t a time when I shouldn’t be working. There is always a song to write or a technique to work on. I have my little rituals before I play as well which take about forty five minutes; breathing and relaxing the places that I feel tension, that sort of stuff.
What’s the most memorable gig that you have been to as an audience member?
I will give you two fairly different music experiences. The best gig that I have ever seen was a Bjork show in New York at Radio City. She was touring Vespertine. I had not seen her before. When I came out, I thought that I would double for that. It was her with an Icelandic Philharmonic Orchestra, a choir of Eskimo women from Greenland signing her back up vocals and a harp player. No guitar, no bass, no drums, no keyboards. It was better than the record.
One of the first big shows that we got in Cape Town after the cultural boycott was Crowded House. I was in High School at the time. I used to play one of their songs all the time. They invited one of the audience members on to the stage but he couldn’t sing for shit so they were just like, let’s get back on with the show. A lot of people around me know that I could sing so they were pointing at me. He was like, “Ok, we will have one more”. I got shoved up on stage... There was no time to get nervous. After I sang the first line, this roar spread across the arena. I snag it really well and remembered all the words. It got to the point where people were saying that it wasn’t real and that they had brought me along for the end of the gig. I t was very random; a coincidental happening. I thought maybe this is something that I am supposed to do? Randomly, before my first audition in New York City after school, I had to play for the A&R department. I was walking into Sony with my guitar and out walked Neil Finn. I thought that was fairly strange!
Charmed and Strange was released on January 29, 2008 on Verve Forecast.
Releated Links:
Yoav on MySpace.
Review of Yoav's 93 Feet East gig.
Yoav tickets and listings on Seatwave.
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