Aharon Sharim (27) from Elad did not have a normal childhood in an ultra-Orthodox family, and he testifies to himself that he has always been a kind of outsider. Alongside religious studies and an ultra-Orthodox lifestyle, something was always missing in the background. He moved between settings, studied electricity, martial arts and even swimming, but it wasn’t until he was exposed to music at the age of 15 that he felt he had found himself.
1 Viewing the gallery
singing “I realized that I can take out my thoughts and translate them into sounds”
(Ryan)
These days he releases his first EP (mini-album) and fulfills his big dream. Until he is known in every house in Israel, he earns a living as an installer of Tami 4 water bars, but in addition to the service offered by him, you may receive a bonus. According to him, he sometimes encounters talented musical clients, sings with them and uploads videos to Facebook. Ask Anna Zak, who needed his installation services, and from their random encounter came a joint video as a tribute to the song “Who is it”.
Now he tells how he stuck to his big dream of becoming a singer and composer, how he went hungry at the religious boarding school where he studied when his MP3 was confiscated, and what he remembers from the days he studied with Hanan Ben Ari at the same music school.
“I was very introverted, shy, closed in on myself, I didn’t know how to express anything,” he recalls his childhood. “I grew up in Bnei Brak in an ultra-Orthodox, ultra-conservative family. I had a very hard time with the Gemara, the prayers, and understanding that this is the reason for getting up in the morning. They don’t necessarily say that, but there is a kind of understanding in the air.”
Was your difficulty faith?
“Not at all. I wanted them to give me another direction, to let me choose, even if it was a different direction. My parents and my older brother were the only ones who really contained me. They took me for an examination from which it emerged that my soul wanted to see something else beyond the four walls of the Beit Midrash. Someone they trusted took me for walks, to get some fresh air outside. I would sit for hours, see the view and steal away, as if for no reason.”
“I didn’t understand it at the time, but in retrospect it allowed me to see, experience and find myself. Later they bought me CDs that did the same thing. There were deals all the time – if you listen well in class, you’ll get it. So I gave a little of myself and got it. When my parents saw that I was more Spiritually, they sent me to martial arts, swimming, things that connect to the soul.”
How did you get into music?
“There were two singers who were a hit with the religious public: Haim Israel and Itzik Eshel. I heard them on loop and I felt that something opened up in me. Little by little I realized that I wanted to hear more, but I’m not allowed because I don’t have a permit to listen to non-religious music. That’s why I started collecting songs from Shushu mp3, and then I was exposed to the subliminal and the shadow that saved my soul, just like that.”
An ultra-orthodox boy from Bnei Brak hears subliminal and the shadow?
“No one knew except my eldest brother, we were loyal to each other with the secrets. From the point of view of the ultra-orthodox establishment, these are songs with sometimes problematic messages, obscenities. But something about the rapping, the confidence and throwing words – revived me.”
When he went to study at a religious boarding school, something in him was released. “I would take playbacks of Subliminal and the Shadow and write lyrics on them for end of year parties, Purim, Hanukkah,” he recalls. “I would do the rap and bring another guy from the yeshiva with me to do the chorus.”
And how did they receive it at the boarding school?
“Once, by mistake, my player came to one of the instructors who was shocked by the obscenities and what he heard. I was 14 years old, and that’s not appropriate, certainly not in a religious boarding school. The instructor confiscated my player from the educational place. I felt like my whole world was collapsing, as if a natural disaster had happened. I sat on the lawn all day and refused to speak. I decided I was going on a hunger strike because I had no reason to smile. The staff saw that this was the situation and did not let it deteriorate. They returned the player to me with no choice. At first they also told me that it was on the condition that I delete the music. I told them: ‘No way ‘”.
Did you do it from Anti’s place?
“No, from a place of listening to myself. I was never an anti child, I was just a weird chicken and I didn’t know how to ‘eat myself’.”
Sharim, who is characterized by a folk style with a Jewish flavor, began writing songs and would perform at the boarding school every chance he had. The reactions, at least at first, were not favorable. “A good friend who wanted my favor told me: ‘You were on stage and the audience laughed at you. It really got on your face. Don’t do it again, you’re embarrassing yourself’. The truth? I swear it didn’t bother me. I was proud of myself. It’s very strange Think about it because this is an age where you are built by what is said about you. I felt that I had found who I am, my calling. It took me 15 years to understand who I am, and only that day did I understand.”
How did you start playing?
“I was exposed to the guitar by accident and left everything – writing, studies, singing – and I was only concerned with learning to play. I neglected my professional studies. The staff tried to talk to me, nothing helped. They wanted me to learn a profession regardless, so be it. Because I didn’t want to move away from the guitar, they opened for me Majoring in music, the main thing is to have a framework.”
He was the only student in the major, where he was exposed, among other things, to scales and harmonies. “It was huge in my eyes. I was exposed to Metallica, Pink Floyd, Avitar Banai and Shuli Rand who tore my heart into pieces and put it back together.”
When he returned to his parents’ house, they agreed to finance his higher education in music, provided that it would be in a religious atmosphere. “I studied in ‘Mazmor’ in the class of Hanan ben Ari, when it was still anonymous,” he notes. “Hanan was a leader, a charming man. I was a child compared to him and he really respected me. He had a car and he would drop me home.”
Next to his love for music, another significant part of his life is his wife Daniel, the mother of his three children. “She’s the only girl I’ve dated my whole life,” he explains. When his eldest son was born while he was in military service, it was decided to release him against his will. “It’s a little sad for me,” he says. After the release he worked odd jobs, and music was pushed aside.
How did you get back into music?
“I felt that I was getting fat, so I decided to go for a walk. In the rain, in a frenzy, full of purpose. I don’t know what happened, but something was released. The song ‘When the heart cries’ by Sarit Hadad was playing in my headphones and something opened up in my heart. I realized that something was happening to me, and after years of not writing and composing , everything came back. When I finished the walk I had a complete poem.”
Since then he has written, composed and created continuously. He went to voice development and Daniel Salomon’s course, at the end of which he offered to produce the music for him. When he saw that Salomon’s schedule was busy and the dream was delayed, he decided to switch to producer Gilad Shmueli (Idan Raichel, Idan Habib and Yuval Dayan), and something again did not work out. When he heard Shuli Rand’s song ‘Punctua Tova’, he wondered who was responsible for the production and found out that it was Shmulik Daniel (his uncle Tessa, Amir Banyon and Beehive). He searched for it on the Internet, made contact, sent materials, raised the money and they set off. This week his first single ‘Waiting’ was released, while most of the songs in the mini album he wrote and composed alone.
Now that you’ve released a debut mini-album, what’s next?
“I realized that with God’s help I did everything: I got married, wrote, sang and produced an album. I fulfilled 90 percent of the dream, what’s left? Spread it, start performing and open the emotion to people.”