The singer who filled the Menorah Hall in a “sold out” show and is working on another show on 6/29, talks about the crisis he went through following his breakup with Ben El (“Hear the pain on the album”), the musical change (“We recreated Static, with a lot of self-criticism”) And the legal reform: “Violence and incitement scare me”
Last night Static held the first solo show in his career, and included the hits from the new album alongside the great hits of Static and Ben El, performed by Static without his musical partner and the excitement for the show is definitely evident on his face. “I’m very excited about it,” he says.
What is it like to do a big show alone for the first time?
“Shock, shaking and brokenness, peak excitement, but I felt ready.”
You sing songs of the duo, how did you do it?
“Wow, seriously and with a lot of investment. I sing Ben El’s parts.”
You have a completely different tone of voice.
“Yes, but I don’t think anyone expects me to be Ben El, imagine Ben El would do a show right now and sing ‘Todo Boom’. He was never me, he wouldn’t sound like me, no matter if he flips 200 times, but he can bring it as a son of God, and so am I. I’m not trying to be a son of God, I bring it as me – Liraz.”
How did you feel when you found out that all the tickets were sold?
“There are no words for it in Hebrew, I think I consider myself someone who knows the Hebrew language through and through, I’m just shocked, I’m shocked, I didn’t expect it, and it puts a lot of responsibility on my shoulders.”
How does Static’s music differ from the music of half of the duo Static and Ben El?
“My music today, compared to Static and Ben El, is a completely different genre. I feel like we were a lot more pop, a lot softer with the messages. I feel that today I have a bit of the ability to say ‘OK. Guys, I’ve grown up a bit, I can talk more openly about completely different things’, and I also feel like I’ve been charged with an inexhaustible amount of pain to sing about. This is a topic that we hardly opened with ‘Static and Ben El’. In ‘Static and Ben El’ the only two songs that have any kind of pain in them are ‘Stem’ and ‘All for the better’, while on this album you can hear the pain much more, even though it’s only my debut album. I feel that this year was very complex, both personally and professionally, and it affected my abilities as an artist and the way I express myself.”
whole language
In order to create his debut album Static shut himself up in a villa in Caesarea. Alongside him, producer Jordi, Ron Beaton, producer duo Triangle and Ithi Shimoni worked on the album. Now he is already looking ahead.
What’s going to be on Static’s second album?
“It is something that is still in the process of creation. I don’t know how to predict the future and say today what will be on the album, but I can say that I feel that I have found something that was missing in Israeli music. Nothing sounds like this album that I just released, and as you can see the hall is full, a sign that it has a place in Israeli music. Now my job is to try to turn it from one album into a whole language that continues with me.”
In the song “Liraz” from the album there is a conflict between the character of Static and Liraz Russo. Is it a conflict you feel?
“I feel like we made the new album and tried to create this new static, so the first thing that had to be done was a lot of self-criticism. This song is a kind of record of this self-criticism. I sat in the studio and thought: ‘What would Statik answer to that?’, it was like writing a script.”
Since the disbandment, the international programs have stopped a bit, did you get to talk to the people who worked on your career there?
“The truth is, I talked to them more than once, for now everything is there, but we’ll see what we decide to do with it.”
Are you still looking for a career abroad?
“Not sure, we need to do some serious thinking here.”
Speaking of abroad, what are you handing over to our representative in Europe, Noa Kirel?
“May she have lots and lots of luck and may she bring a lot of honor to Israel. She is already bringing honor to Israel, and I wish her all the best in the world.”
How aware are you of what is going on in Israel these days?
“This is a painful subject for me. I love the country very much and it pains me to see the physical and verbal violence that is happening here now between Israelis and Israelis. It hurts me to see this fight. But on the other hand, the right of all of us to express our opinion is also important to me, it’s part of this thing called democracy. So I am in favor of people expressing their opinion, but without violence. There is a lot of incitement, violence and unrest, and that’s what scares me.”
Do you have an opinion on the reform?
“I have, I just don’t share it that much, because I think I’m short of being that person who will influence people’s opinions. There are people who understand it better.”
Shlomo Artzi recently gave up a huge prize
“What he feels at the end, you can’t say if it’s true or not.”