Latest / In the Valley of Giants / When Rebellion Becomes Righteous: Jewish Heavy Metal | Dovi Halpern | ITVOG #40

Transcript

When Rebellion Becomes Righteous: Jewish Heavy Metal | Dovi Halpern | ITVOG #40 · In the Valley of Giants

• 0:00
  The climax of the song is the words A spark of God.
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  I am divine in Vegas. I come alive, a spark of God, I
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  am divine. And that just basically knowing
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  that in the darkness and the darkness of darkness, there's
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  still a fire inside of each and everyone of us.
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  That's not from us, that's from the one above that burning for a
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  reason, not just because wants us here, because God needs us
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  here right now. We are literally living
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  something that God needs us here today.
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  And if he didn't need us here right now, we wouldn't be here.
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  This week's episode is sponsored by the band Struffham Aflame,
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  bringing harder, deeper Jewish music for everyone to learn and
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  grow from. Hello everyone.
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  Today we're joined by Dovie Halpern.
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  Dovie Halpern is also known as Hashem's Warrior.
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  He is a metal performer in the Jewish field.
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  I know, odd, but also amazing. In there, we discussed his
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  experience with heavy metal music, the feedback that he's
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  gotten from making Jewish heavy metal music, and his experience
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  in creating himself with his own two hands and how it's looking
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  going forward. I learned a lot.
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  Hope you do too. Enjoy, Dobie.
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  Thanks so much for coming in today.
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  Awesome to be here. Yeah, yeah, this stuff I want to
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  ask you, and apparently the stuff that you want to ask me,
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  but I'm going to start. Sure.
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  What's wrong with you? Why couldn't you be a normal,
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  good Jewish boy and just be interested in classical Jewish
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  music? Why'd you have to stray?
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  I actually didn't grow up with any music because my parents are
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  both Bali chuva. They both became religious, so
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  the Jewish music that I heard didn't that.
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  I just really didn't speak to me.
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  Like what were you listening? But.
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  I wasn't listening to it, but I heard of like Miami Boys Choir
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  and I can appreciate that in my adult years.
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  But as a kid, I grew up in a out of town community that was a
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  seed coil community. So there were like the rabbi's
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  kids and they bought the Shiva's kids.
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  And for better or for worse, if you weren't a rabbi's kid,
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  you're a bit of an outsider. So they're.
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  In what sense? Like in a negative I mean it.
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  Sounds negative. Yeah, there was a superiority
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  thing there. That's very not Jewish.
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  Yeah, but kids are kids. What do you, what do you expect
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  from kids? OK, you know, you can, I can
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  psychoanalyze that. But at the same time, kids, kids
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  are kids. And that's just how childhood
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  goes no matter what, I'm sure, no matter what dynamic or
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  community. So, yeah, but I don't want to
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  get into the negative, but it happens to be that like, I
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  really didn't connect. And in fact, like the Judaism
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  that was available to me growing up, how do I say this?
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  It's like I really didn't never really spoke to me like I had to
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  The fact that I'm like sitting here with like Yamaka keep on my
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  head and have anything to do with Judaism today is from self
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  discovery. As quickly as I realized that
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  you can flip the light switch on on Shabbos and the world didn't
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  explode, I basically stopped keeping Shabbos.
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  So that I mean that's like young how?
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  Old were you when that happened? Middle school, early middle
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  school or maybe earlier. Like I, I would like, yeah, like
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  your. Parents like shocked that you?
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  Just I hid it. I hid it like we had, like, ATV
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  that we would bring on like vacations, like travel.
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  You remember the olden days? Bungee cord into the car.
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  Yeah. So I used to like, hide that in
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  my closet, take out of the storage room and watch on
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  Shabbos and. You never got caught.
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  I I, I'm sure I did and I got taken away.
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  My again, my parents are ball at you.
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  They're charting their own course.
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  They have no, they're have no family that's in this game.
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  They're just doing their own thing, taking advice from people
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  who grew up very differently than them.
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  You know, the seed koala families.
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  So I think that I was maybe someone that they I was a kid
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  that they didn't understand. And I think also a kid that the
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  seed koala families didn't understand.
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  So I was a bit of an outsider. So yeah, when there's the music
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  of that, I guess I heard my peers listening to I wasn't so
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  interested in. But then I started hearing the
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  stuff on the radio like that started to set my soul on fire.
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  Like like Linkin Park, like like a true, just a screaming of the
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  soul. Like, I mean, just calling out
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  in one in, in one's just, you know, just with all, all the
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  emotion and all the soul, that stuff spoke to me.
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  I mean, Eminem, you know, he's edgy.
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  He's you know, he's, he's everything your parents don't
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  want you to be listening to. Of course, that Eminem.
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  I mean, I grew up in Atlanta, so there's a lot of rap and hip
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  hop. So I was into a lot of that
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  stuff. And that that's probably started
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  around middle school. But for most of my childhood, I
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  didn't listen to music because my parents didn't know any
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  Jewish music. And all the music that they
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  listened to before they became religious, they just kind of
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  like went cold Turkey. So kind of went from music lists
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  with a soul that needed to express itself to finding that
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  on the radio versus I hope that makes.
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  No, it's your question. No, it does somewhat.
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  I mean, why? Why did Eminem and Linkin Park
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  hit you so hard? But.
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  Well, I guess look, I think it's a it's a music of like a of a of
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  a generation of misfits feeling out of place.
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  And that's that's kind of what I was, you know, it's funny.
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  I mean, like I don't and any and any of this stuff that I say
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  that might come across as negative, I have nothing
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  negative to say actually against any of the kids or the coil
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  families that I grew up with. They're they're very fine.
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  People. No.
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  Yeah, you do. Yeah, they made you feel like an
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  outsider. Which?
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  Was OK, I mean, listen, as a kid it was.
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  If you feel uncomfortable because you're not a rabbi, I'm
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  a rabbi, I can say that, no. Listen, as a kid, it wasn't a
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  great experience, but as an adult, I don't have anything
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  negative to say about them. I think they're fine people.
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  It was what they did to you, correct I think.
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  They didn't know what the heck they were doing.
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  That doesn't mean that it's not wrong.
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  OK, I mean, do I make all the best parenting choices?
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  No. But I no.
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  People do their. Best I make a mistake?
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  You make, you make so, so they made a mistake.
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  OK, so I mean, could I be resentful for my whole life?
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  I didn't say to be. I didn't say to be resentful,
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  OK? I'm just saying that we can.
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  We should. Call out.
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  OK. So yeah, for sure, for sure.
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  Would you? Would you ended up differently
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  Think if they. I let me say this, I left when I
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  became religious. I had a chip on my shoulder to
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  change the face of Jewish education and that's part of
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  what Hashem's warriors as part of some of the other projects
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  that I can talk to you about that I've done are sure are
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  about is they don't know what the heck they're.
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  I mean, maybe today things are I'm sure today things are
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  different. The whole topic of emotional
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  intelligence and personal growth are here today in modern the
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  psyche in a way they just totally weren't 30 years ago
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  when I was, you know, going getting into elementary school.
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  So we're living in a different world.
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  However, what? Remind me where your last
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  question was? Well.
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  I'm trying to get more at why you're not normal.
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  Okay. Which which is?
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  Which is the? The answer is is that you're
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  unique and you're. Yeah.
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  But I was, yeah, the pivot was why Lincoln Park and not?
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  Like what? 3 Doors Down, I don't know.
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  Timing radio Like the radio? No, no, there was Radiohead.
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  Maybe if I have? Like 4 bands I can mention.
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  Maybe if I was 3 or 4 years younger, like it was what was on
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  the radio. OK, yeah, I mean, there's some 3
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  drawers down I listened to for sure.
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  But you know, I don't know, like I think Chester Bennington was
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  the voice of a generation. He was just he could sing, he
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  could scream, he could do them all together.
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  He could he could switch from both, do them at the same time.
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  He there was there was there was something that.
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  Is Linkin Park rock or is it metal?
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  It's called new metal. Funny enough it's spelled NU.
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  So like like the Jewish knew like it's a like like new metal.
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  It's a Chester Aziz. As I know, I, as far as I know
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  he wasn't, but no, but that of the same genre like you have
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  like Disturbed and like maybe like Godsmack, I don't know,
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  like a lot of those bands that were around that time, it was
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  kind of a fusion between like alternative rock and maybe some
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  screaming. Disturbance.
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  So much more intense. Yeah.
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  Oh yeah. Oh, I love.
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  Oh yeah. I'm a big disturbed guy.
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  Has he achieved a guy? Yeah, for sure he was.
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  I met him before. Oh yeah, yeah.
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  Is that like what you were doing story?
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  I think so. I don't know.
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  I say that story. You want to it's that's.
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  One of the culture for a second. Go ahead.
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  So Hashem's warrior is a Jewish is is a he says.
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  I don't even know if I know if I want to call it a Jewish music
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  project. It's a project about infecting
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  the consciousness of the secular world with the word Hashem, with
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  the ideas of the Torah and Hashem.
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  So this is not Jewish music. Why not?
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  Why not? I held back from saying what was
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  on the tip of my tongue, but Jewish music.
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  Say what's on the back of your tongue.
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  The back of my tongue. Jewish music.
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  It takes a certain type of whatever.
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  It's too nice, it's too subdued. It's too.
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  Does that mean there's a? Neutral it's too OK for who it
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  speaks to. There's no there's no problem
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  with it. But doesn't I be well enjoy your
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  Jewish music. Does that mean no?
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  No, but I'm going to fight you on this one.
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  Does that mean that all music before 1965 was Jewish music?
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  What does that mean? Meaning it just because there
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  isn't the presence of something tougher, does that mean that
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  it's not Jewish? No, I didn't say that.
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  I'm just talking about Jewish music as I've heard it.
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  OK, so meaning so but but what what I'm confused about is
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  you're saying. By the way, as an adult, I love
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  Lave Tahore. She was like, they're like best
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  boy band ever after like the Backstreet Boys and In Sync.
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  Come on. No, come on, the original cover
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  was so good. Wasn't that wasn't the original
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  cover a little bit of a RIP off of Lave Tahore?
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  Wasn't like Lave Tahar the OG like original boy band am I
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  right? I don't know.
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  I don't know if. You're right, I don't know.
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  OK, that was my impression, I could be wrong.
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  Life Star's pretty good, though. Their original stuff.
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  Cult not so good. Music is pretty solid though.
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  Yeah. OK, but but but why can't this
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  be Jewish music? Why can't?
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  Why can't you just say I have? I used to call Jewish music, but
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  I don't want to be Jewish music anymore.
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  Why? Because I want to, because the
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  goal of this of the whole is about bringing humanity
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  together, teaching the world about the word of of Hashem.
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  And I'm trying to, if I'm trying to cater to Jews, that's like
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  this, this is what I'm going. To you don't have to cater to
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  Jews, you can be Jewish music like for example, so a few
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  months ago. Semantics.
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  Sure. Call it Jewish music.
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  But I think it's important because.
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  I meaning my music is about Torah, it's about Kabbalah, it's
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  about it's about the the the journey of the soul through
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  life's challenges. And that's pretty Jewish.
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  But but I don't want but, but I'd rather, I'd rather my
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  average like I don't want if I'm if I'm Jewish music and that's
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  what I'm doing. I'm going to get maybe Max 5 to
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  10,000 streams a month on Spotify.
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  I want Joe Schmo, you know, like I want like Finland loves metal,
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  Brazil loves metal. I want the.
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  I want to be big and. Let's, let's, let's, let's,
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  let's take a step back and hopefully we'll get to your
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  story eventually. So a few months ago, although
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  the episode just aired 2 weeks ago, but I spoke to Stephen
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  Keach from yesterday, saw that, yeah, it was a great, great
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  interview. And they pioneered more Brennan.
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  But when he came on the scene, I think he really changed the band
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  for the better. But they really pioneered
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  Christian music. I'll just take a second to say
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  the craziest story he told me said the reason why I got into
• 11:39
  metals because he went to a concert in the late 90s.
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  I forget the name of the band, but they were Messianic Jewish
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  band. So before they had their show,
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  they were from the Torah. And he said it was that that set
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  him off to religious music, which is wild if you think about
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  it. Like haste today wouldn't be
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  what it would be if it wasn't for someone reading from
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  Meteora. But but haste today is Christian
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  metal music. I don't think all of the
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  listeners are. Let me yeah, I mean, look, I I I
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  know I went on this thing where I don't want to be Jewish music.
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  What my my handle on Instagram, which was a was totally
• 12:14
  Heshkaka. Why did I get it is Jewish
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  metal? So I mean, that was the initial
• 12:19
  intention. This is Jewish metal.
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  It's a genre that doesn't exist. It's a genre that needs to
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  exist. I think I've pretty much for the
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  most part engaged and have been discovered by those in that
• 12:30
  scene that would gravitate towards metal.
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  I could be wrong, but I think on a large portion of people in
• 12:37
  that world who are Jewish, who are from who, who like metal,
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  like they've heard of me. So I kind of want to step beyond
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  that. It's like I feel like, I feel
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  like I'm like OK. I think you can do that by just
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  being good. And that's why I don't want to
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  like, I'm not trying to be a sickler.
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  What I'm trying to say is that I think you've created Jewish
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  metal. Yeah.
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  And it's and it's OK to be that. And it's Jewish, and people can
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  listen to it just like Christian metal.
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  Is it off putting to, you know, I don't know, Friedrich in
• 13:03
  Austria, who loves metal and spirituality and might stumble
• 13:07
  across a band called called and if he listens to a song by
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  Sham's Warrior, might love it. But if there's Jewish imagery on
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  it and if there's geology, maybe he might be like a skip that so.
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  So I want what I want to do. The all big bands were never
• 13:19
  afraid of that. Christian metal bands.
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  Not afraid of that, Why should you?
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  Because. There's a billion.
• 13:24
  Christians, yeah, but there's plenty of Muslims.
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  There's plenty of atheists. I know there's a billion
• 13:28
  Muslims, there's 1516 million Jews.
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  What I'm saying is I we are, we are inherently extremely niche
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  demographic. And if I want to go mainstream,
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  part of me thinks I need to keep the messaging as raw and Jewish
• 13:40
  as ever, but maybe water down the presentation.
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  I don't know. That could be wrong.
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  That's just how I'm thinking. Now, OK, I just wanted to, I
• 13:46
  wanted to know why you felt that way.
• 13:47
  That's like like you make art and you're saying it's not
• 13:49
  Jewish. And I was trying.
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  To figure, I'd like to say it's secular music that's rude in the
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  Torah, that's because that. Is this is that a political
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  statement? Maybe.
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  Okay, which is fine. Is.
• 14:00
  AG meaning is like, I have to, I want to find my identity.
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  I had my first album. It was great.
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  A lot of people. I got a lot of attention from a
• 14:07
  lot of musicians, like all sorts of people.
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  I got reaction videos from like big names in the metal world,
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  like Scott Ian, he's the guitarist from Anthrax, Jordan
• 14:16
  Rudis, who's the keyboardist from Dream Theater and like a
• 14:19
  bunch of others and, and like cool crazy reaction videos that
• 14:23
  you would never expect. Like just a real stamp of
• 14:26
  approval like that. What I've done is like actually
• 14:29
  a little bit legit, which is so humbling because metal is maybe,
• 14:33
  I mean, a lot of genres of music are very snobby, but metal is
• 14:36
  pretty darn snobby. And the fact that I have stamps
• 14:40
  of approval from real like Gadol him in the in the, in the genre.
• 14:44
  I mean it, it so, but the point is, is like, I feel like I feel
• 14:47
  like what's the next, What's next for Hashem's warriors?
• 14:50
  Kind of the space that I'm my head is in.
• 14:52
  So everything that I'm saying right now is maybe just been me
• 14:54
  hypothesizing could be in a month.
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  I I, I, I, I, I, I think back to what you say and it's like,
• 15:00
  yeah, let's just go with the Jewish metal thing.
• 15:01
  But I feel like Islam has a billion people, Christianity is
• 15:06
  a billion people. You can start an Islamic metal
• 15:09
  band, a Christian metal band if you have an audience if.
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  It's good people if. It's if it's good, if it's good,
• 15:13
  people listen to it. So that's always been my
• 15:15
  philosophy is that to create the best, like I want to create each
• 15:19
  song to be like one of the best metal songs a person has ever
• 15:22
  heard, period. And that that like that is like
• 15:25
  the goal of every single song. So I don't care what you're
• 15:27
  into. You like the the goal is really
• 15:32
  just blending together different influences throughout my life
• 15:35
  that have been like crazy impactful in ways that like, so
• 15:39
  like I wanted to have the commercial.
• 15:40
  I found a singer who sings like Chester from Linkin Park.
• 15:43
  I knew I needed someone who had a voice that would immediately
• 15:47
  like have that commercial emotional like activate the the
• 15:51
  connection between the, the heart and the soul, like
• 15:54
  immediately upon hearing it. And then it could also bring the
• 15:56
  screams, which expands that as well.
• 16:01
  And then you know what? But then you take my other
• 16:04
  influences, which a little bit more extreme were come from,
• 16:07
  like the melodic death metal world, which I don't know if
• 16:11
  you're familiar at all with. I'm barely for.
• 16:13
  I'm just. I just appear to be.
• 16:14
  No, that's fine. That's fine.
• 16:16
  Basically the coolest thing about melodic death metal.
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  And I didn't know anything about it until I had a a new friend
• 16:20
  who moved to town actually from Israel, who they listen to that
• 16:22
  kind of stuff over here. They weren't listening to that
• 16:24
  where, you know what? My my small.
• 16:26
  What's the name of the band? I'm just curious.
• 16:28
  OK, Children Of Bodom. Basically, this is a band that
• 16:32
  they were just crazy technical like they they were.
• 16:38
  There was the screaming and very like rhythmic, rhythmic, heavy
• 16:43
  riffage that you find in death metal.
• 16:45
  But then there was also Blues and jazz and pop metal.
• 16:49
  These and keyboard versus guitar battles and roasting sausages on
• 16:54
  stage in the pyrotechnics and drinking.
• 16:56
  Again, a smash. This was like the coolest,
• 16:59
  craziest band it ever heard there was, I guess it was like
• 17:02
  it was pop, it was metal, it was it was jazz blue.
• 17:05
  It was solo battles. It was like so anyone at least
• 17:09
  this is this is like mid early 2000s.
• 17:11
  Anyone who knew of Children Of Bodom back then, they were like,
• 17:13
  like, if you like they, they were like the, like I said the
• 17:19
  word gadolin before, but like they were like literally the
• 17:22
  like the gold standard in like what like heavy metal could be.
• 17:26
  And so that was kind of when I stopped listening to metal for a
• 17:30
  long time. They were like probably why I
• 17:33
  just, I just kind of moved on. I don't know, after high school,
• 17:35
  after my early 20s, I mean, you wouldn't believe it.
• 17:38
  I just kind of tried to calm down, tried to get to hit a
• 17:41
  different vibe. I was into country music for
• 17:43
  like a decade. It's so weird because I always
• 17:45
  find the people that like metal like country.
• 17:48
  Yeah, I find that so fascinating.
• 17:49
  I love country music. I love country music.
• 17:52
  OK, one second. We, yeah, we're all over the
• 17:53
  place. We went, we're all, which is
• 17:54
  fine, but. All right, So you're not from
• 17:57
  your middle school. You're listening to Lincoln Park
• 17:59
  and you're loving it. And it's hitting a chord that
• 18:02
  really never got, you know, strong before.
• 18:03
  Yeah. And now you're in high school.
• 18:06
  You finish high school and everyone still thinks you're
• 18:08
  from like you. No, no, no.
• 18:10
  OK, You got. Basically, look, it's like kind
• 18:12
  of like I said as, as as soon as I realized the world didn't
• 18:15
  explode when I turned on a light switch, I wasn't like chasing
• 18:18
  these things, but when I came about, I just stopped doing
• 18:20
  them. Like when my friends just
• 18:21
  stopped keeping kosher, so did I I, I wasn't like running to go,
• 18:27
  but like, it wasn't a value of mine.
• 18:29
  I didn't see the point of it. Like, did you go after high
• 18:31
  school? I went to near Yakov, near Jake.
• 18:33
  Why'd you do that? I knew people who went there and
• 18:36
  had pot who are good, like friends, family friends who had
• 18:39
  good experiences there. So you wanted a gap year?
• 18:41
  I wanted a gap year and also by the way, like my it was a very
• 18:45
  normal thing for my high school. People really went.
• 18:47
  It's so funny. I actually I was maybe there was
• 18:49
  a first big test of character of, of mine is that I went
• 18:53
  because it was very big thing for kids for my high school to
• 18:56
  go to Israel. My year.
• 18:58
  I literally was like the only one, only one for my group of
• 19:01
  friends that went and I still like everyone just wanted to go
• 19:03
  to college and you know. Knew the black sheep.
• 19:07
  I, I became the black sheep because I went and yeah, it was
• 19:11
  a, it was a very self redefining experience, right?
• 19:16
  Had to find what Judaism meant to me, if anything.
• 19:20
  And and it was, you know, kind of got the set the fire that
• 19:25
  that you know, is, is, is still burning today.
• 19:29
  And yeah, set me on my own journey.
• 19:31
  How did you hear the voice from that fire?
• 19:32
  What was that experience in Israel that turned it around?
• 19:35
  A person, a place, I think what? I think it was, look, it was a
• 19:39
  classic thing. I think, I think it was a snare.
• 19:41
  Jake's approach was great. Let the kids go out, let them
• 19:44
  party, let them burn out. And we're here.
• 19:46
  We're here to be their buddies. We're here to be their friends.
• 19:48
  We're here to be their confidants.
• 19:49
  We're here to be their Herbie. And we're here to, you know, we
• 19:52
  have life wisdom. We are living and building
• 19:55
  fulfilling lives and families. And here in in archestrawal and
• 20:03
  the land of Israel. And we're like rooted in purpose
• 20:07
  and what we what we do and how we live.
• 20:09
  And these are a bunch of kids who have very little of that in
• 20:12
  their lives. And when they, when they get a
• 20:14
  little bit burnt out and are, you know, we'll, we'll be here
• 20:17
  in the base waving and, you know, waving them in when they,
• 20:20
  when they stumble down the stairs, you know, at, at 11 AM,
• 20:23
  you know. Interesting.
• 20:26
  And from there, that was your access point to deeper thought
• 20:30
  and you got grounded. Is that what it was for sure?
• 20:33
  Who was the rub of that changer for you?
• 20:36
  I, I can't say it's one. I mean, I can, I can, but I'm
• 20:39
  more than happy to give Shout Outs the name of that first of
• 20:41
  all. I want what I want one.
• 20:44
  One, I can't. I can't give one.
• 20:45
  I'm telling you, they had such an All Star lineup.
• 20:48
  I mean, Rabbi Son Helm was my morning rabbi.
• 20:51
  He was from. He he he isn't hard enough, you
• 20:53
  know, You know who he is. No, you know, you know Rabbi
• 20:56
  Steinhartz. Rabbi Steinhartz was a big deal.
• 20:58
  Also, Rabbi lifts the Rosha Shiva.
• 21:00
  Rabbi Armel, it's my night sailer.
• 21:02
  Yeah, like, I mean, I just. I had, I think just All Star All
• 21:07
  Stars that I got to sit down with every day who are warm,
• 21:10
  super intelligent thought proposal king and I wasn't I
• 21:12
  wasn't someone who liked to think that much.
• 21:14
  I was like in high school, school was the last thing that
• 21:17
  mattered to me. Wrestling and sports was the
• 21:20
  only thing that mattered to me. Like I was just an athlete and
• 21:23
  that's that's all like athlete and music and like the heavy
• 21:25
  metal totally went with that. Just getting hyped up for, for
• 21:28
  wrestling matches. Like, you know, I, I think that
• 21:30
  that was like, that was all I cared about and I glad to have
• 21:34
  graduated. I really, really stopped, just
• 21:37
  like stopped school. Like some classes I was like,
• 21:40
  I'm not going to that class. I was like halfway through
• 21:43
  senior year and I, and I remember the audacity of my
• 21:46
  Hebrew teacher to give me an FI was like, are you kidding?
• 21:49
  I thought we were like, I know I didn't go to your class this
• 21:52
  semester, but like. OK, so how long were you near
• 21:55
  Jake? I was near Jake for two years.
• 21:57
  OK. And did you feel like you left
• 21:58
  strong? Very.
• 22:00
  OK, where'd you go after that? Sure.
• 22:02
  Yashuv. Oh wow.
• 22:03
  I just show Yashuv. And I went to Toro for a year.
• 22:06
  I got very burnt out about just like how that went and I found
• 22:10
  out about Fairly Dickinson. It was a kind of a program to
• 22:12
  finish college and just one more year.
• 22:14
  So I went and I did that and then I started a career in video
• 22:17
  production. After a couple years, I took
• 22:19
  another gap year, went back to H and Diaspora.
• 22:22
  And then after that, I came back, met my wife.
• 22:27
  I've started a career in recruiting, which I'm still
• 22:29
  working today, like a almost like a decade and a half.
• 22:32
  Like a headhunter. What?
• 22:32
  Yeah, headhunter. Digital media.
• 22:36
  That's what I did. Now I work in healthcare
• 22:38
  recruiting. But for many years, for almost a
• 22:41
  decade, it was digital media recruiting.
• 22:43
  And when did you decide that you wanted to do metal?
• 22:47
  That's a funny story because like I said, I didn't listen to
• 22:49
  metal for like 10 years. The only quick detail I'm gonna
• 22:52
  fill in is that I talk. I, I was the one non musician
• 22:55
  friend. I have so many musician friends.
• 22:56
  All my friends were into like the punk rock scene and like
• 22:59
  they had bands in high school. I was not part of that.
• 23:01
  I really wasn't. I, I enjoyed watching them in
• 23:05
  Israel near Jake. My Plan B was if I don't do
• 23:08
  anything with this yeshiva thing, I'm going to bring a
• 23:10
  keyboard and teach myself how to play it along the way.
• 23:12
  That was at my actual plan. BI brought a keyboard.
• 23:15
  And so while I'm listening to heavy metal, I don't know
• 23:17
  chords, OK, but I can do like I can, I know how to riff.
• 23:21
  I'll taught myself how to play by ear, listening to music
• 23:24
  that's pretty technical and pretty riffy.
• 23:26
  So I play keyboard like a guitar.
• 23:27
  So in my early 20s, I put out some instrumental music.
• 23:32
  I started composing a bit basic stuff in like garage band, but
• 23:37
  like, I was getting some pretty like, I'm very surprised by the
• 23:39
  reactions I was getting. People, like, really liked it
• 23:42
  and I was like, OK, whatever. Anyway, then I stopped.
• 23:46
  Then 10 years of note, like, no, none of this type of music.
• 23:49
  And then it was just a little, you know, Rosh Hashanah on the
• 23:53
  horizon, and I'm feeling super disconnected.
• 23:55
  Why? Cool.
• 23:58
  Let's say that on the tail of COVID, a year out from COVID, I
• 24:01
  think everybody's feeling a little bit all I mean, yeah,
• 24:04
  whatever. I was like financially, COVID
• 24:06
  was hard as heck. You know, companies had no
• 24:08
  budgets. Nobody's paying for recruiters.
• 24:10
  There was no work for a long time.
• 24:12
  We living here in. I was living in America, yeah.
• 24:14
  So I was, Yeah. I was feeling down.
• 24:17
  And I remembered like really connecting to Tahilam.
• 24:20
  I started reading Tahilam and I was.
• 24:23
  And and then one day there's some song by this band called In
• 24:27
  Flames that I used to live listen to also same genre as
• 24:30
  Children Of Bodom came on and it was like super hardcore like and
• 24:34
  it was a newer song of theirs went like cut my throat and
• 24:38
  throw me to the wolves. I'm just too tired, too tired to
• 24:40
  reload. And then it just keeps going
• 24:42
  darker and darker. And then the chorus goes, my
• 24:45
  God, I don't need you. I won't wait for you to come
• 24:48
  around. And I was like, wait a minute,
• 24:50
  wait a minute. What did I just read into
• 24:53
  Hillem? That's like the same thing, but
• 24:55
  the opposite. What if there was music, go dark
• 24:58
  and then just have a positive take away?
• 24:59
  What does like double him off do every single to hill him.
• 25:02
  He's like the middle original metal lyricist.
• 25:04
  He gets so dark. Oh my gosh, like I remember,
• 25:07
  like recently I read something about like a a battlefield full
• 25:09
  of corpses, like he the imagery and like the safer to hill him
• 25:12
  and like all the things he writes about how hard his life
• 25:14
  is and how hard and what he goes through, but he ends with like
• 25:18
  an expression of a moon. NB Tahoon And I was like, well,
• 25:21
  that's I don't really see anybody doing that.
• 25:23
  Why not? I guess I could try as I
• 25:26
  remember talking to a friend about it.
• 25:28
  Again, I'm not like, I don't really consider myself much of A
• 25:31
  musician or but I told a friend about who used to be like, we
• 25:34
  used to listen to the stuff together back in the day.
• 25:36
  He's like, look, if anybody could do it, it's you, I said,
• 25:39
  really. Why?
• 25:40
  All you had was a little bit a keyboard.
• 25:42
  We used to jam together a lot. I mean, like, he knew I could
• 25:45
  play, you know, I could play a keyboard, but he knew I could
• 25:48
  compose stuff too, because I could.
• 25:50
  Teach yourself how to compose stuff Like what?
• 25:52
  Just by ear? Yeah.
• 25:53
  I'm saying like no show GarageBand, you use the stuff,
• 25:55
  you use the the timing and the whatever.
• 25:57
  Like the I'm really not technical at this stuff in terms
• 26:00
  of my terminologies, but I can, I can get in front of me, get it
• 26:03
  done. I can get it done.
• 26:04
  OK, fine, so a keyboard. But you're technical so you can
• 26:07
  get it done, but you're just a guy in a garage.
• 26:10
  Exactly. A poor guy in a garage.
• 26:11
  Exactly. So no, you're right.
• 26:12
  So who am I to to start this? I don't know when I, when I
• 26:15
  wrote, when I launched Ashamed Warrior, most people that knew
• 26:17
  me were like, huh, As by the way, was I?
• 26:21
  I really couldn't believe I pulled this off.
• 26:22
  And I'll just try to tell you really succinctly how I did it.
• 26:25
  It's kind of not so complicated. I took basically some of my most
• 26:30
  bang and riffs from back in the day.
• 26:31
  They're just like the catchiest amazing stuff.
• 26:33
  I said I'm going to just put together some of the best of the
• 26:36
  best. I'm going to create a song
• 26:38
  around it. I'm going to write some lyrics
• 26:39
  and then I'm going to find a singer and I'm going to find a
• 26:41
  producer. And that's exactly what I did.
• 26:43
  And I am the composer. I'm not the singer.
• 26:47
  I did. Who's the singer?
• 26:49
  Some guy found on a gig website. Man, I was looking I there's
• 26:52
  here's the thing. Like I said, you.
• 26:53
  Got some Christian dude. No, he's not Christian.
• 26:55
  He's not Christian. He's like, he didn't grow up in
• 26:58
  any religion. I asked him.
• 26:59
  He doesn't have any. He doesn't have much.
• 27:02
  So our singer for for Hashem's warrior is some is some guy.
• 27:05
  We don't know what religion he's from.
• 27:07
  Doesn't really. He is not.
• 27:08
  As far as I know, he's not religious.
• 27:09
  I do know that he had a rabbi officiate a former rabbi
• 27:12
  officiate his wedding. OK.
• 27:15
  That but I'm not anti I'm just curious, no.
• 27:17
  Look, look, I also think it's an important distinction because
• 27:20
  can you sing at all? A lot of people I can sing
• 27:23
  enough that I can create it as like a template for a real
• 27:26
  vocalist to to work off of I I. No, let's hear a vocal.
• 27:33
  I don't want to do it. Oh, can you do it?
• 27:35
  No, I really. I'm not a singer.
• 27:36
  I'm not. Like I said, to be a singer you
• 27:37
  just have to be a little bit technical.
• 27:39
  I'm giving me a false chord, not.
• 27:40
  Technical you're not, so you can't you.
• 27:43
  Can't do a false chord. I can't do anything I don't I
• 27:45
  don't know anything about. I guess could you do, could you
• 27:48
  do like a fry ice cream? You can't do any of that.
• 27:49
  Nothing. OK, fair enough.
• 27:51
  But but in a meeting. Closer.
• 27:52
  I got taken away. I am, I am what?
• 27:54
  Your rock? What is it?
• 27:55
  Your Rockmail Vegan is to the Miami Boys Choir.
• 27:58
  That's we've gone full search. And I've done, yes, we have gone
• 28:01
  full search. I'm serious.
• 28:02
  Like, look, I'm telling you, I I come up with the idea and you're
• 28:05
  right. So like a lot.
• 28:06
  So, so some people push back. Wait a minute, the guy's not
• 28:09
  Jewish. I said wait a minute, the Torah
• 28:12
  and this earth was not given to the Jews to be a worldwide
• 28:17
  Jewish Kingdom. No, this was the base I make
• 28:19
  just was a place for all in bold different nations to all come
• 28:25
  together and serve as Shem. Serving as Shem is the.
• 28:27
  But why not find the Jewish singer?
• 28:29
  I tried and I I tried and I want you to know this.
• 28:33
  How many years later is it? 656 years later, I still have
• 28:36
  not found someone that can sing quite like this guy.
• 28:38
  I know a guy. I'd like to why?
• 28:40
  Don't you work with Strapham? A fling that That's a recent
• 28:43
  band of game out. Aren't they AI or is that a real
• 28:45
  singer? That's a real singer.
• 28:46
  Really. OK.
• 28:47
  I, I, I don't, I don't know anything about them, but I'm
• 28:51
  happy to, happy to speak to them.
• 28:52
  Sure. Interesting.
• 28:53
  Yeah. No, I, I, I don't, I have yet to
• 28:56
  meet someone. And I've put the word out on 1/2
• 28:59
  a dozen to a dozen times. I'd like to find a singer who
• 29:01
  she can sing like Chester from Linkin Park.
• 29:03
  Haven't found it. So that so, but but it actually
• 29:09
  really what I want. I just really want to finish
• 29:11
  that point that it really it really does fit.
• 29:12
  It does fit my mission that. And the it's not against.
• 29:15
  It's not. No, I don't think I'm not.
• 29:17
  Saying I want to say this for people who might be like but but
• 29:20
  seriously man how could you just have a non Jewish singer if.
• 29:22
  You're you know, I'm going to interrupt you actually, because
• 29:24
  I want to say one thing. The people that say that, it's
• 29:27
  just, it's, it's stump superficial meaning.
• 29:30
  If you have, I'll tell you something really funny.
• 29:34
  You'll see what I'm saying. OK?
• 29:35
  Like I want you to explain yourself, but you don't have to
• 29:37
  and I'll tell you why. So I think to some people I do,
• 29:39
  but go ahead. Yeah, so, so when I had Kichon,
• 29:43
  so there was some Ribbonam that said, oh, what you're doing is
• 29:47
  you're just promoting Christianity.
• 29:49
  And clearly that was the only intent of doing this episode.
• 29:53
  And spreading Christian music and Christian ideas as a
• 29:57
  positive thing is very negative. Wish anyone that listen to the
• 30:02
  episode or could think would never say right because that's
• 30:06
  not the objective. OK, so I don't know who created
• 30:07
  penicillin, but I bet you it was a guy.
• 30:09
  I don't think that you create penicillin and if not, we'll
• 30:12
  find some other sort of drug. So I don't think that that makes
• 30:16
  it Christian. Well, that I mean that generally
• 30:18
  what I, what I have to say is that like I get, I almost
• 30:22
  guarantee you that some of the most popular Jewish singers out
• 30:25
  there there are there's a decent amount of mixing and mastering
• 30:29
  that is going that is happening by someone who is not Jewish.
• 30:32
  But also their influences. And also there and also the
• 30:34
  musical influences. Yeah.
• 30:35
  So I mean don't. What's that?
• 30:37
  What's that rapper Nissan Black? Don't tell me that Nissan Black
• 30:39
  was not is not somewhat inspired by what he listened to as a kid
• 30:42
  or when he was D black back in the day.
• 30:44
  Everyone has this. It's what you're doing is you
• 30:46
  have an engine. And yes, maybe, maybe not.
• 30:50
  Jewish people founded that just like they found shorts.
• 30:52
  OK, And sometimes we wear shorts.
• 30:54
  That doesn't make us going. That's not hook us a game,
• 30:56
  right. So you just found a method of
• 30:59
  expression and you have put God in it.
• 31:01
  I don't I don't see that antithetical, you know, to to
• 31:05
  Jewish music. And if you had to do that by
• 31:06
  hiring a singer that wasn't Jewish, what is that was that
• 31:09
  make a a difference? Yes, it it's always nice.
• 31:11
  I would say almost on a kabbalistic level, right, to
• 31:14
  have because I think your soul does get, you know, affected by
• 31:17
  what you listen to, to have, you know, a Jew listen.
• 31:18
  But like, if you're going to complain that you're not going
• 31:22
  to listen to music, instead, you're listening to Metallica,
• 31:24
  but you're not going to tell anyone, but you know, you're not
• 31:25
  going to listen to certain Jewish music because it can't be
• 31:27
  Jewish because the singer doesn't have a keeper.
• 31:30
  I just think that that's. I mean, look at at the end of
• 31:33
  the day, I like I said, my Jewish soul yearned and
• 31:40
  expressed itself and was lit on fire by like listening to
• 31:44
  Chester from disturbed from Lincoln Park and then now now
• 31:48
  David from disturbed as a whole other.
• 31:49
  We can we can circle back to that.
• 31:51
  But for sure David also David Dreman and and who else like
• 31:56
  some 41. I don't know if you've heard of
• 31:57
  them. Love that stuff just like like
• 32:00
  punk rock, but that but that that to me, I needed a call to
• 32:07
  Hashem and something that sounded like that.
• 32:09
  And I did reach out to friends from back in the day who could,
• 32:12
  who could sing and maybe sing like this.
• 32:13
  And then actually it was the friend who I could think of that
• 32:16
  sounded the most like this sound I'm going for.
• 32:19
  He said, Oh no, you got to check out this website called sound
• 32:21
  better. And on this website you can say
• 32:24
  I want a keyboardist that sounds like I want to, I want to I want
• 32:27
  a vocalist that sounds like, and that's what I did.
• 32:29
  I said, I want to vocal. It sounds like Linkin Park.
• 32:32
  And that's how I found this guy. And we put together an EP with
• 32:35
  four songs. And, and here's what's
• 32:38
  interesting is like, so people like, how are you?
• 32:40
  How are you doing this? How am I doing this?
• 32:42
  I'm literally, I'm writing the riffs.
• 32:43
  I'm sending it off to a producer who I met through my vocalist
• 32:48
  who re records everything on real guitars and, and real, real
• 32:53
  instruments in his in his studio.
• 32:56
  And that's where the finished. Product.
• 32:57
  You wrote everything. But but I did all the, I did all
• 32:59
  the garage band, yeah. But like the the drums, the
• 33:01
  everything you've written. I usually stay away from drums
• 33:04
  because. OK, so you were at the riffs?
• 33:06
  Yeah, because I feel like he would do better with.
• 33:08
  I wanted to see what he would come because he was a real metal
• 33:11
  producer. OK, Yeah, I wanted him to bring
• 33:13
  the drums. OK, so that's maybe like the one
• 33:14
  thing I really didn't touch. So you did guitar and you did
• 33:17
  the lyrics? Yeah, and then this.
• 33:20
  How about for solos, right? Like Alexi Leho, the lead singer
• 33:24
  and guitar lead guitarist Oliver Shalom of Children of Odom.
• 33:29
  He I wanted, I wanted my guitar solos to sound like a Lexi Leho.
• 33:33
  OK, so how am I gonna do that? I went on fiver and I and I
• 33:37
  looked and looked until I found someone who played in that style
• 33:39
  and I didn't write and but there was a bit of me writing because
• 33:42
  he would send me back something. I would cut it up, chop it up.
• 33:45
  No, it should start like this with the melody here, start
• 33:47
  doing some light like tapping into the here and then I would,
• 33:50
  I would I'm a video editor, don't forget.
• 33:51
  So I'm very I was very involved in really every element of of
• 33:55
  the the initial EP that I dropped called Jacus in the
• 33:58
  darkness. Every almost every part of that
• 34:00
  was I micromanaged the heck out of it.
• 34:03
  So I guess you want to take my somehow I have some, I guess
• 34:07
  musical brain. I didn't realize I had combined
• 34:09
  that with my video editing background and I was really able
• 34:11
  to get super granular and really just managed from start to
• 34:14
  finish how this song sounded. What's the difference then
• 34:16
  between this and AI music? Because you're not really making
• 34:21
  all that stuff. What?
• 34:22
  So that that's why this is actually a very natural
• 34:24
  transition to AI in an, in an age where my singer has a bigger
• 34:28
  job, he has, he has his own band, he has no time for me.
• 34:31
  My producer and I worked for Warner Music Group.
• 34:34
  But all these producing the original setup who buy they're,
• 34:37
  they're all like really accomplished people these days.
• 34:39
  They're like off doing big things.
• 34:40
  They have no time for me anymore.
• 34:42
  So these days I've started using it and, and it's the same
• 34:44
  process. I AI spit something out, I
• 34:47
  micromanage it, I cut it up, I put it back.
• 34:49
  It's the same thing these days, I'm told.
• 34:51
  If there was no AI, there wouldn't be any more.
• 34:53
  Hashem knew Hashem's warrior. That's just that's the reality
• 34:56
  of the situation. The original crew is is off in
• 34:59
  their own direction. But even then, wouldn't it?
• 35:01
  Isn't it kind of the same? Meaning you're not it?
• 35:03
  Is the same that's what I'm saying that's why I actually for
• 35:05
  a long time I was it's not a good idea AI Then I'm like yeah,
• 35:08
  what I like you're saying right now wait a minute that's like
• 35:10
  what I was doing in the 1st place This time I don't have to
• 35:12
  drop 2 grand a song serious OK and and do you have wait and
• 35:18
  wait six months in between this deliverable from this guy and
• 35:20
  then this deliverable from that guy That was the process So
• 35:23
  instead I can bang out a song. Have you like, are any of the
• 35:26
  recent songs AI? Yeah, OK.
• 35:27
  Yeah, for. Sure, what do you use?
• 35:29
  So what? What's that?
• 35:30
  What I use Suno. OK, Suno.
• 35:32
  So right now, actually on Friday, it was actually my
• 35:36
  father's second York site. I mean I.
• 35:39
  Mean Ruvin Gersh and Ben Dobier. I'm Dova Van Rvinger.
• 35:44
  Yeah, it's so it it's it's a song called Portal through the
• 35:50
  prism and it's a very and it's going to be the name of an album
• 35:54
  that I that will be coming out later this year.
• 35:56
  And the idea is, is to really kind of go there into like the
• 36:00
  mind bending parts of Kabbalah and really bring it down.
• 36:02
  Like the idea of like the prism break white light breaking up
• 36:06
  into a spectrum of colors. The spectrum of color is
• 36:08
  separate. Are they really the same thing
• 36:10
  as the white light? Is it like what are we?
• 36:12
  Is it just a matter of perspective?
• 36:13
  Is there actual true separation here?
• 36:15
  And so that's kind of the idea of it is portal through the
• 36:18
  prism of kind of moving beyond the mind limitations, the mind
• 36:22
  being the prism, which kind of refracts whatever God gives us
• 36:25
  in terms of this reality we're experiencing into the article.
• 36:30
  The faculties of perception we have.
• 36:33
  It's all broken down and so that we can comprehend what's going
• 36:35
  on in here because we can't, we can't comprehend and take the,
• 36:38
  the the pure white light. That's what the the Simpson was
• 36:41
  and the breaking and the vessels and the creation story.
• 36:44
  So the idea is to really kind of bring these like crazy
• 36:47
  psychedelic metaphysicals, kabbalistic scientific ideas
• 36:52
  into metal. And I think it and I, and I
• 36:55
  think it it, it, it fits, man. Like again.
• 36:57
  Does it hit you? Like, do you feel like you're
• 36:59
  making real, like, spiritual music?
• 37:02
  Like, yeah, do people, I write it for me.
• 37:04
  I want to set my soul on. I want to set my own soul on
• 37:06
  fire. Totally.
• 37:07
  Do people ever tell you like wow your music is great or really
• 37:10
  affects me? Can I pull something up on my
• 37:12
  phone? Can I read something for it?
• 37:13
  Man I got this message like a week or two ago.
• 37:19
  It's it's like hard to not get emotional reading something like
• 37:22
  this. So this is a message I got like
• 37:25
  literally a week. We can have a go.
• 37:27
  Incredible to feel so connected to Hashem while listening to
• 37:30
  your music because it's what my soul is made of.
• 37:32
  I can't tell you the tears I cry listening to your music and
• 37:35
  feeling seen to combine my pure love of Hashem and metal and
• 37:38
  feeling like who I was before I came religious.
• 37:41
  I literally lost my breath it was unreal no joke.
• 37:43
  So seriously thank you and please never stop making music.
• 37:46
  I'm probably the biggest fan, so yeah.
• 37:49
  So this is, this is exactly what I was talking about, right.
• 37:53
  Just because you're doing something that's different.
• 37:56
  You could be Matara Satame. There's a Mikphone and you put
• 38:00
  metal in it. Yeah.
• 38:01
  And out from it came that. Look that, that I, I don't
• 38:06
  object that listen, maybe I, I came out swinging with, with,
• 38:09
  with my idea that this isn't Jewish music.
• 38:13
  But very much at the beginning, that was my idea was that I'm
• 38:16
  going to change Jewish music and I'm going to, I think right now
• 38:21
  I'm still kind of, I'm trying. I'm really, like I said,
• 38:23
  hypothesizing on how do I reach, how do I reach like bonafide
• 38:27
  metal fans who maybe have an interest in just spirituality.
• 38:30
  Are your numbers going up? They are.
• 38:31
  So that will happen. Yeah, Yeah.
• 38:33
  I like comfortably. Like are you, are there more
• 38:35
  listeners down than was last year?
• 38:36
  100% yeah. Well, I'm also, I'm not I I, I
• 38:39
  kind of broke the bubble and I stopped putting out music for
• 38:43
  like 3 years. In December I got together with
• 38:46
  an old friend from near Jake, my buddy Ezra Layton, former
• 38:50
  roommate, and he was always a super talented music producer
• 38:55
  and he knows what he does with Suno is not.
• 39:00
  He gets me, he gets the music, he gets the nuances of micro
• 39:05
  genres and really piercing exactly my vision together.
• 39:10
  And so we, we've been tag teaming all the new music that's
• 39:13
  been released since Hashem's Warrior kind of came to life
• 39:17
  with new music. So yeah, it's been, it's been.
• 39:20
  Awesome, is there anyone else in the Jewish?
• 39:23
  So I'll be honest, when I did that episode key chat and I
• 39:25
  actually couldn't find you, which means that that I'd love
• 39:28
  for you to have more exposure. Really.
• 39:29
  You type in Jewish metal and I didn't come up.
• 39:31
  Yep, that shouldn't be, really. Yep.
• 39:34
  The, I mean, the truth of the matter is, is that it is like I
• 39:38
  said, it's for about 3 years. There's been nothing since,
• 39:41
  since I released the EP. I mean, I've been to the fact
• 39:45
  that I'm staying, I'm here today.
• 39:47
  And it's not, it's not like simple because it, when I, when
• 39:51
  I, I mean on this earth, but I mean like here today back doing
• 39:54
  Hashem's warrior again. October 7th, my, my cousin got
• 40:00
  murdered a month later. My dad died six months later.
• 40:04
  But your cousin got murdered a month later.
• 40:05
  After October 7th, where Rose Lubin.
• 40:07
  You heard of her? She was the Hyelet who was
• 40:09
  guarding the old city walls. Yeah.
• 40:11
  Yeah. It's people who've heard of her.
• 40:13
  It's so. Yeah.
• 40:14
  She's my first cousin. And your father passed away.
• 40:18
  And then my dad passed away six months after that.
• 40:20
  So I've been, I've been in a place, man.
• 40:22
  And it was actually really around Ella.
• 40:25
  I started coming out of that place.
• 40:26
  And I actually want to credit a quote that I heard from Alex
• 40:30
  Claire. You know, you know who he is.
• 40:32
  I know of him. I know he's a he's a from guy.
• 40:34
  He's a from guy. He's like AI love to I think he
• 40:37
  might be Grammy. I don't.
• 40:37
  He's like big time mainstream, big time, super successful
• 40:41
  artist and he talked about how like the depression and a music
• 40:47
  artist feels after they put out something because it's it's the,
• 40:53
  you know, it's I want to maybe bring in my biggest inspiration
• 40:57
  for being religious and have anything to do with Hashem
• 41:00
  today, which is Rabbi David Aaron.
• 41:01
  I don't know if you're familiar with him.
• 41:03
  He talks about a guy who's climbing a mountain.
• 41:05
  So you're climbing a mountain, you're sweating, you're aching
• 41:07
  and you can see the top and man, is it far.
• 41:10
  All of a sudden someone comes by in a helicopter says where you
• 41:12
  going? Top of the mountain, hop on in
• 41:14
  you crazy. Look, it's a hot day.
• 41:16
  Get in. You look terrible.
• 41:17
  Like it's like, what would you do?
• 41:19
  It's like the journey, the top of the mountain isn't the goal.
• 41:23
  Top of the mountain is the means to the climb, which is the goal.
• 41:26
  And at the end of the day, when you reach the top of the
• 41:28
  mountain, and a lot of times people see this, experience
• 41:30
  this, and you train for the gold medal.
• 41:32
  And at the Olympics, you reach the gold medal.
• 41:34
  Like now what do I do with my life, right?
• 41:36
  And so, so that was kind of what Alex Claire was talking about is
• 41:39
  that like you, you release this creative expression and then
• 41:44
  whoa, like now what? There's like, there's almost
• 41:45
  like a void. And it's a mistake in every part
• 41:47
  of life. It's never about getting on top
• 41:49
  of the mountain, no, but it's about getting to the next
• 41:50
  mountain. It's a mistake, but it's the
• 41:51
  human nature. I mean, I agree.
• 41:53
  I mean it's. Everywhere.
• 41:54
  I don't think it's a music thing.
• 41:55
  Yeah. So so anyway, in hearing that, I
• 41:58
  was very motivated to just start, you know, start do it,
• 42:02
  don't do it perfect. And every day actually started
• 42:04
  in LL, I put out like kind of like a, there's a guy a mere
• 42:07
  Lehrer. I don't know if you see, he has
• 42:08
  these like daily B tukone things he posts on Instagram and
• 42:11
  WhatsApp. So shout out to him.
• 42:13
  They're awesome. They're like, they're literally
• 42:15
  like if you wanted to take 30 to 60 seconds a day on B tukone and
• 42:19
  like in that get like a source from from like Khazal, a quick
• 42:24
  meditation in and like, like it's like so concise.
• 42:28
  It was so brilliantly formatted. I said, what if I do something
• 42:30
  that's Hashem's warrior, like just about the same style and I
• 42:34
  got his blessing. He's like, yeah, totally take my
• 42:36
  style. You know, we all work for the
• 42:38
  same God. And I start putting something
• 42:40
  out every day. And that's actually how Ezra
• 42:42
  came to me. And I kind of how kind of this
• 42:44
  all manifested that this project came alive again.
• 42:47
  Is that Hashem? I started getting myself out
• 42:49
  there again. And that's, that's one of the
• 42:51
  things I kind of realized and kind of getting out of this funk
• 42:54
  that I've been in for a couple years is that for many years I
• 42:57
  didn't feel worthy, especially in this depression, worthy of
• 43:00
  the Hashem Warrior label. Like who am I just called myself
• 43:02
  Hashem's warrior? Like I'm going through this, I'm
• 43:04
  going through that. And what I've realized in
• 43:07
  hindsight is that's kind of the point is that like I'm the whole
• 43:13
  point from the beginning is that Hashem, I'm not necessarily
• 43:17
  anything more special than the next person, but I'm a soul and
• 43:20
  put here just like you and just like the next person.
• 43:22
  And that's an unbelievable thing.
• 43:24
  And that means we're going to struggle.
• 43:25
  And that's the right. And that means we're all
• 43:26
  Hashem's warriors. And that and I kind of forgot
• 43:29
  that like it's OK to like have a big arena and feel really out of
• 43:33
  it in life and just down and beaten up.
• 43:35
  And, you know, and I think a big thing was realizing that when I
• 43:41
  start to give back to the world, I start to receive back from the
• 43:44
  world. And I really want to say that's
• 43:45
  why Ishams Warriors is back alive today, because I started
• 43:48
  giving a little bit, then Ezra came.
• 43:49
  Was this climbing out? Is this this is you climbing out
• 43:52
  of? This is me climbing out of that
• 43:53
  pit and like everything's taking advantage.
• 43:56
  I mean like for many years, like I moved after making Aliyah 2022
• 44:00
  I was I was making more money than I ever made in my life.
• 44:03
  Take that back. Now contrast that down with
• 44:05
  babies sickly making almost $0.00 a year for the next two to
• 44:08
  three years. It was like the crazy.
• 44:11
  I was riding high man. When I moved here.
• 44:12
  I like everything I touched was turning to gold.
• 44:14
  Hashem's Warrior just released the EP.
• 44:16
  I was on podcasts all the time and this was like I was like
• 44:20
  people knew who I was and business was like poppin.
• 44:23
  And then so like even even before the whole thing with like
• 44:27
  October 7th and the in the loss that I experienced in my life,
• 44:30
  you already, it was already like I was already struggling and I'm
• 44:35
  just very grateful. Life's like really coming back
• 44:37
  together and I can only really credit it to trying to put back
• 44:40
  into the world, being a giver before I'm trying to and just
• 44:43
  instead of just hoping and waiting for God to give to me,
• 44:46
  doing something for God, doing something for his, his world.
• 44:48
  And also kind of like rejoining the cycle of Chefa.
• 44:54
  Like if I'm not, it's like if I'm not, if I wasn't, when I
• 44:56
  wasn't giving, I wasn't receiving.
• 44:58
  And I think it was almost, almost as simple as that.
• 45:01
  And yeah, I just find new things opening up in my life all of a
• 45:04
  sudden. Why am I on this podcast?
• 45:06
  I'm almost telling you it's because I because I started.
• 45:09
  And if if I didn't restart this again and you asked me to come
• 45:11
  on the podcast said I would, I would have said no way.
• 45:14
  Who is I? Who am I to call myself a Shams
• 45:15
  warrior, right? It it was so funny.
• 45:18
  I found you like by accident when I was getting ready for the
• 45:23
  to do the intro for that episode from Here's the Day.
• 45:26
  So I was just like the, and the reason why I did that is because
• 45:29
  I wanted to see how someone created metal music and how you
• 45:32
  could be spiritual in that way, which I think he answered very
• 45:34
  well. But I was like, I can't believe
• 45:36
  there's no Jewish version of this.
• 45:38
  I looked up. I was like, I can't believe
• 45:39
  that. And so I have a brother in And
• 45:45
  if something is wrong, he's going to figure it out no matter
• 45:48
  what. So he said, OK, I got your
• 45:50
  problem. So he looked up and then I found
• 45:52
  those two bands and I was like, OK, so now I know I need to at
• 45:56
  least speak to one of them. So I'm happy that.
• 45:58
  Who's this other band? It's rough from a flame there,
• 46:01
  but they're much newer than you. That's.
• 46:02
  What I'm saying, Are you sure it's not?
• 46:03
  AII know, I think it's AI assisted.
• 46:05
  I know the. Guy no, no knock on it because
• 46:07
  like, I'm doing it myself. Saying the same thing.
• 46:09
  I know, I know the guy that does the vocal this.
• 46:11
  Is very well produced. That's why I thought it was.
• 46:13
  And I know, I know the guy that does the vocals and I know the
• 46:16
  guy that does the lyrics. OK, now the guy, I'd love to
• 46:19
  meet him. I can, I can name drop some
• 46:21
  others in the Jewish metal scene.
• 46:22
  There's plenty. Yeah, I like.
• 46:24
  Mushiya Hoy had I heard? Of him that was like, that was
• 46:27
  like 20 years ago. There was, and then, but there's
• 46:29
  the guy who's before him, Eliezer.
• 46:31
  So but they put that nothing you're.
• 46:32
  Talking about modern, you're not right.
• 46:36
  There was Divine Providence, who was Shmui Batak's son, who was a
• 46:39
  guitarist. It was.
• 46:40
  It was a. It was a.
• 46:41
  It was. A bar though that that basically
• 46:45
  is interesting. And then there's another band
• 46:46
  called Sanagor. There are two guys here in
• 46:48
  Israel, but also there were they, they put out maybe a
• 46:51
  handful of songs and that was it.
• 46:53
  But yeah, I mean, for me, like the whole thing with Hashem's
• 46:56
  Warrior was like kind of going back to, I want redo it.
• 46:58
  Jewish Education. Would you, Would you, would you?
• 47:00
  Would you collab with anyone? Yeah, why not?
• 47:05
  I can give you the contact, Sure.
• 47:06
  OK. How do you do your lyrics?
• 47:08
  Cuz if AI right now is doing all of your melodies and stuff.
• 47:11
  So the lyrics is where your heart's coming out.
• 47:12
  So how do you, how do you, what do you write about how?
• 47:15
  What's your process? So now that AI is here, I'm kind
• 47:19
  of taking things that are dusty on the shelf out of the old
• 47:22
  Google Drive. And like, these are lyrics that
• 47:25
  existed long before AI. You know, I just kind of sit and
• 47:29
  dwell on a topic and I write and I'm, you know, I I can get 2 in
• 47:32
  my head. But like, you know, I'm walking
• 47:34
  down the street. I'm doing this and that.
• 47:36
  Little does someone know, I'm like, wrestling ferociously
• 47:40
  with, like, a rhyme scheme in my head to figure out.
• 47:42
  Like, like, no, it's, it's it's a it's, it's symptomatic of
• 47:48
  being someone who never have a brain that never stops thinking.
• 47:51
  Interesting. Yeah.
• 47:52
  OK, and but then eventually it gets you.
• 47:55
  It's so funny because also like the fact that I can write and
• 47:57
  like write poetically, I was not a writer.
• 47:59
  And when I started writing essays in college, I realized
• 48:02
  that I actually did have a little bit of talent.
• 48:04
  And that's where I kind of started, where I realized I
• 48:07
  could write stuff. But in high school, like I said,
• 48:10
  I didn't care ever. I did not care about anything,
• 48:13
  just go to school. So I never got good grades in
• 48:15
  this. I never knew I could write, you
• 48:17
  know, So a lot of like what this became was like a big surprise
• 48:21
  to me. I'm like what I was even capable
• 48:23
  of. And I want, I want to, maybe
• 48:26
  I'll circle back to the David Draymond story because I think a
• 48:29
  lot of the David Draymond story maybe something that was
• 48:33
  manifested. It seems like it was something
• 48:35
  that manifested because my original goal with Jewish metal
• 48:38
  is I want to write music that like rock stars, like bona fide
• 48:42
  rock stars who are Jewish in the Jewish world would love but find
• 48:45
  meaningful. What would like could Hag Bing
• 48:47
  to enjoy respect as good music and also perhaps maybe reconnect
• 48:52
  them with their Jewish roots. That was like a lot.
• 48:53
  That was actually like who's my demographic?
• 48:55
  I want to reach David Draymond. I want to reach Dan Sugarman
• 48:58
  from the guitarist from Ice 9 Kills and what's her name from
• 49:03
  Arch enemy Alyssa White glues like there's there's, there's,
• 49:06
  there's we got plenty of Jews out there and like the real
• 49:09
  metal scene and how so how can I get reach them with my music?
• 49:13
  So that was kind of the there I had this thing where I have a
• 49:16
  whole series of reaction videos where I basically, you know, how
• 49:20
  do you get how are you going to get a reaction video from a
• 49:22
  celebrity? How are you going to pull it
• 49:23
  off? There's a website called Cameo
• 49:25
  but you can pay someone 50 bucks to wish your sister a happy
• 49:28
  birthday or or someone so you know about.
• 49:31
  It and just. Shoot my shot I'm going to pay,
• 49:33
  you know, 75 bucks to have Scott Ian from Anthrax to to pitch him
• 49:37
  on doing a reaction video to my song.
• 49:39
  Guess what he might say no, then I then I'll actually have to pay
• 49:42
  a cent if he says no. But if I say yes, I mean, I get
• 49:45
  Scott Ian pay reaction video to one of my videos, and that's
• 49:49
  what I did. So I have a series of reaction
• 49:51
  videos and that's that was just the methodology I used for all
• 49:53
  these reaction videos is I just I found these like big names,
• 49:56
  Jewish names in rock and metal, and I just used cameo and they
• 50:01
  and so we have these amazing videos where like you know, like
• 50:04
  Jordan Rudis, who's you know. But but this guy from Disturbed.
• 50:08
  So, so, so, so again, sorry. Yeah.
• 50:10
  Thank you for keeping me on track.
• 50:11
  So David Draymond, David was always a big, big influence of
• 50:15
  mine, especially because I also knew he came from a similar
• 50:18
  background as myself. And I remember, like, my parents
• 50:23
  brought me to Baltimore to interview at a bunch of yeshivas
• 50:28
  when I was going into high school.
• 50:29
  I really wanted to go to the Modern Orthodox high school that
• 50:31
  I ended up going to my mom. Was in high school.
• 50:34
  YA Yeshiva Atlanta, which is now called AJA Atlanta Jewish
• 50:37
  Academy. But my mom really wanted me to
• 50:41
  go to like following the Hadraka of like the people in our
• 50:44
  community and the other people that are like her spiritual
• 50:47
  mentors and like rooted in a from life.
• 50:49
  We're suggesting I go to one of these out of town yeshivas in
• 50:51
  Baltimore. So I just kind of like remember
• 50:55
  was just like some before the interview went so just like
• 50:58
  rocking out to like down with the sickness on my on my on my
• 51:01
  little little headphones. But yeah, so just Needless to
• 51:06
  say, disturbed like was very much in my DNA, my song Vegas in
• 51:10
  the darkness. I really much wanted to bring a
• 51:12
  disturbed head banging energy to the to, to to the table.
• 51:19
  I wanted to get through to David.
• 51:20
  He's not on cameo. How I'm reaching other artists.
• 51:23
  How how do I reach David? So I know he went to navae back
• 51:26
  in the day, started doing some networking.
• 51:29
  Who had any cash out of David? Anybody know?
• 51:31
  That's kind of David. I'd love to show all my music,
• 51:33
  you know, So really coming up dry, somebody said, I know one
• 51:38
  rabbi who was like the last rabbi that David really close
• 51:40
  with that Navae. Maybe you can speak to him.
• 51:42
  So I got this rabbi's number. I called him he said I haven't
• 51:45
  spoken to David in over 10 years.
• 51:46
  I don't really don't know anyone who's involved.
• 51:47
  Is it connected with David? I said all right, fine, whatever
• 51:50
  I make Alia in 2022 July and I moved downstairs from someone
• 51:57
  who went to Nevae with David. Not only that he is good buddies
• 52:01
  with the one another one. Maybe there's more, but the but
• 52:04
  the last one of the last really good buddies from Nevae that
• 52:08
  David, his name is Yates, who David is still close with.
• 52:11
  And in fact, there's pictures of David at the Kotel when he
• 52:14
  visited one of the past times. Yet you can see it's in the with
• 52:17
  him at the visiting at the coat room.
• 52:18
  So he just had a connection with him.
• 52:19
  So he connected me. Zisha Webster's neighbor
• 52:22
  connected me with Yates and so we actually started learning
• 52:26
  with Yates in the morning, just started learning some Tanya and
• 52:28
  I would also send Yates like my music.
• 52:30
  I said keep my passing the song to Davis every now and then.
• 52:32
  You're such a Jew. He would, at least you said
• 52:35
  anyway. I didn't know I.
• 52:36
  Didn't know if I'm good for it right you're.
• 52:37
  Shooting my shot, man, that's like that's that's all you,
• 52:40
  that's all that we have in life is to shoot our shot.
• 52:42
  My father says try your best, try your best.
• 52:44
  Yeah, so OK, so then all of a sudden so then so OK, so like
• 52:53
  I'm. I'm in touch with you.
• 52:54
  It's back and forth over the next was the.
• 52:55
  Then the news comes out that Disturbed is coming to play late
• 52:59
  June 2023 in Tel Aviv. And maybe it was around.
• 53:06
  I had mentioned it to yes, here and there.
• 53:08
  Are you you think you're going to go?
• 53:09
  He's like, I've never he's I've never been to a a a Devin
• 53:12
  avenged a disturbed concert. And that's, I think that's one
• 53:14
  of the reasons, by the way, that why D Yitz is still true friend
• 53:16
  to David is that like he's not like David Draven.
• 53:20
  He's like, it's my buddy David. He's like, it's my buddy, you
• 53:23
  know, like meaning there's something and and that was like
• 53:26
  whatever. Also my experience backstage,
• 53:30
  there were the people backstage, David Draven and there was Yitz.
• 53:33
  He was like, I'll talk today. If he gets to me, I'll talk to
• 53:35
  him. He knows I'm here.
• 53:36
  I'm going to say, you know, like it was a different, it was a
• 53:38
  different mindset. Some people were like David, I
• 53:40
  got to say hi to David. He's just sitting on the couch,
• 53:42
  just like I'll see him when he's, you know, but, but so, but
• 53:47
  basically what happens? I said, can you, can you do
• 53:49
  this? Can you get, can you get tickets
• 53:51
  to, to, to go to the concert? And he said, OK, I'll try.
• 53:56
  And I think it was maybe 2 days before the concert, they got
• 53:58
  back and he said, all right, I got tickets, we're going.
• 54:00
  And so I was like, whoa, okay, I'm about to go like backstage
• 54:05
  pass disturbed concert and just to Hashka and all of this and
• 54:10
  how I moved downstairs from Zisha and he connected me with
• 54:13
  yits and I'm like, so I'm like buzzing and like this is real
• 54:16
  fun. So I go to just I go there and
• 54:19
  we, you know, we get the the tickets and I remember there was
• 54:23
  this like completely Heloni guy who I have a Shams warrior shirt
• 54:27
  that's a picture of a guy in a tallis and and a flaming sword,
• 54:30
  like doing a like a deathly stare down.
• 54:32
  Are you a guy in Witcher? Yeah, it's originally me in my
• 54:35
  living room holding a broomstick that that I had that my wife
• 54:38
  took that that my that I used before AII went out to Fiverr
• 54:42
  and had an artist like draw. So I'm like staring down the the
• 54:46
  the Satan, the serpents of darkness with my flaming short
• 54:50
  and tell us to fill in. But so I'm wearing this shirt
• 54:52
  and this guy like this older Keloni guy.
• 54:54
  And while I'm waiting for the in line for the tickets, he said he
• 54:57
  pointed my shirt and he's like, what is that?
• 55:00
  I said, well, you want to hear his crazy story?
• 55:02
  So I told him about what is manifesting right at this moment
• 55:06
  and he was just like what? And so anyway, he's like he's
• 55:10
  but he's been following the music.
• 55:13
  That's so funny. But so anyway, so we get we get
• 55:15
  backstage and it's great. I mean, it's very surreal
• 55:17
  experience. Like Davidde parents are there
• 55:20
  and his like cousins and brother and nephews and and like old
• 55:24
  friends and in me, I'm like, I'm like a total fish out of where
• 55:28
  like what am I even doing here? This is crazy.
• 55:30
  And then all of a sudden David Jamie walks into the room.
• 55:32
  Like I said, there were people like jumping up when I say hi to
• 55:34
  him, you know, just me and you were just sitting on the couch
• 55:37
  and like it's just like, yeah, you know, I'm sure we'll get to
• 55:40
  see him and don't worry, that finds.
• 55:42
  So meanwhile finds me. I get my chance to go.
• 55:45
  So yes, goes on and says hi to David and I'm sitting sitting
• 55:50
  next to you it's and after he's David says yes, he looks at me,
• 55:54
  he looks at my shirt and he looks at me and says, oh, you
• 55:57
  I'm like. What's?
• 56:00
  Oh, so you knew your music? Well, I'm just like, what do you
• 56:02
  mean? What do you like, what do you
• 56:03
  mean? Oh, me in my head, I'm like,
• 56:04
  that's like if there's anything that was going to throw me off
• 56:07
  is David Draymond recognizing who I am?
• 56:10
  So I was like, yeah, I just. And I, you know, I gave him,
• 56:13
  which I have a few for you if you want your students.
• 56:16
  I said, I said, you know, look, the message here is that, you
• 56:21
  know, we we're here, you know, this isn't an easy world.
• 56:25
  We're here to bring the light. And I just, I just want to like
• 56:27
  commend you for the type of, you know, one of the things that
• 56:29
  David does in his music is his music is about fighting.
• 56:34
  Fighting the darkness is about he has songs about don't give
• 56:37
  up, don't commit suicide. Like all he is literally going
• 56:39
  around the world talking about suicide.
• 56:42
  And don't kill yourself. It is worth the fight.
• 56:44
  Is there any more like champion of Torah values of like the.
• 56:49
  It's a high. I'm serious.
• 56:50
  What is it? What do we say to Rabbi?
• 56:52
  I'm sorry. She was life.
• 56:53
  Yeah. I'm with you.
• 56:54
  I'm with. You.
• 56:55
  He is literally. Teaching.
• 56:57
  Like cola but but you understand when I think.
• 57:00
  Of when I think of like, you know, these moral things, the
• 57:03
  first thing comes to mind is the Rambam.
• 57:05
  It's not. It's OK.
• 57:08
  Guess what? But I.
• 57:09
  Agree with you. I agree he has literally I agree
• 57:11
  with. Selling out stadiums around.
• 57:13
  Every corner of the planet teaching people that their life
• 57:16
  is worth fighting for. Is there a more divine Jewish
• 57:20
  like what a Oh my God, it's very laudable.
• 57:22
  Like whoa, it's very fun. I.
• 57:23
  Told him I just said. Like I said, what you're doing
• 57:25
  is no. And who else is doing that in
• 57:27
  metal, really? I mean, there are some
• 57:29
  inspirational songs out there from some bands.
• 57:32
  Well, apparently what? Apparently, yeah.
• 57:34
  So so I. Just I basically said, I said
• 57:36
  like, you know our, our I just told him about the music.
• 57:39
  You know your music. I don't.
• 57:40
  Know how much we didn't really schmooze?
• 57:41
  It was a very quick. Interaction, I gave him a
• 57:43
  wristband and then after the show, I just kind of also
• 57:45
  commended. I just said I was so blown away
• 57:47
  by his performance and also seeing his things where he
• 57:49
  talked about his own personal struggles in life and coming
• 57:51
  through them. And I just said, I said from a
• 57:54
  foot soldier to a general, I'd take my hat off to you, man.
• 57:58
  Just keep that was a good line. That was a good line.
• 57:59
  That was a good like. What?
• 58:00
  That was a good line. I mean, I think.
• 58:03
  I have I guess. My job is to write.
• 58:04
  Good lucks. True.
• 58:07
  OK, one more. Thing I want to talk to you
• 58:09
  about kickback. Have you ever, have you ever
• 58:10
  gotten like you should do this? This is wrong, right?
• 58:14
  Or have you heard like negative feedback from the religious
• 58:16
  angle? No rabbis love.
• 58:19
  My music Rabbitsons love my music.
• 58:21
  Everybody loves my music. Hush cuffically.
• 58:24
  It is part of what I try to do is it has to be hush cuffically
• 58:27
  perfect. And when I say hush cuffically
• 58:29
  perfect, I mean I'm, I am ferociously rooted in the
• 58:36
  teachings of Rabbi David Aaron. I we didn't really even go into
• 58:38
  him, but he is the reason I'm from today.
• 58:40
  Even despite Nir Yakov, I had my challenges early 20s found the
• 58:43
  teachings of Rabbi David Aaron learned from him for he had a
• 58:46
  year class for aspiring educators that was devoted to
• 58:50
  teaching all the source material behind his book, The Secret Life
• 58:52
  of God and man. I mean, that's why I'm from
• 58:56
  today. Rabbi David Aaron, like I, I, I
• 58:58
  so, but his whole thing is you are a soul.
• 59:02
  You are a spark of God. You are God is the sun, you're a
• 59:05
  ray of his shine. God is it how your God is the
• 59:09
  ocean. You're a drop in that ocean.
• 59:11
  Like we are divine. And that is like the song, like
• 59:13
  I have a song called Vegas in the Darkness that was very
• 59:16
  inspired by, I don't know how much time we have left, but it
• 59:20
  was very inspired by there was a boy in in my neighborhood that
• 59:23
  took his life in Shoal with tefillin on.
• 59:26
  He had stayed after night seder overnight at Shoal and he
• 59:29
  unfortunately, he had a weapon with him and he took his life
• 59:32
  the next morning. There were SWAT teams.
• 59:33
  There's a whole thing. But what was found afterwards is
• 59:37
  the Torah was open. This is a kid in his darkest
• 59:40
  moments with grappling with, with the devil, with the Satan.
• 59:43
  He was trying everything he could to to to connect with God
• 59:47
  and that like haunted me. And so the song Vegas in the
• 59:51
  Darkness is really, I think, a very screamy, intense song about
• 1:00:00
  pining for God and. Realizing the the climax of the
• 1:00:04
  song is, is the words a spark of God, I am divine in Vegas, I
• 1:00:08
  come alive, a spark of God. I, I am divine.
• 1:00:12
  And that just basically knowing that like in the darkness and
• 1:00:15
  the darkness of darkness, there's still a fire inside of
• 1:00:17
  each and every one of us that's not from us.
• 1:00:20
  That's that's from the one above that's burning for a reason, not
• 1:00:24
  just because wants God wants us here because God needs us here
• 1:00:27
  right now. We are literally living
• 1:00:29
  something that God needs us here today.
• 1:00:31
  And if he didn't need us here right now, we wouldn't be here.
• 1:00:33
  That's right. So that, I mean that's that.
• 1:00:36
  Is. That is like the fuel for what
• 1:00:39
  really got all this started. So.
• 1:00:41
  So try to challenge that hash cough.
• 1:00:42
  Does that upset you hash graphically?
• 1:00:44
  No. Does that upset anybody hash
• 1:00:45
  graphically? It shouldn't if it really has.
• 1:00:47
  I've I've gotten the only pushback I've ever gotten to my
• 1:00:49
  music is now that I'm starting to utilize AI.
• 1:00:53
  But like I tell them, I said, you like Hashem's warrior.
• 1:00:55
  You want to hear more Hashem's warrior, I'm going to use AI.
• 1:00:57
  Otherwise, project's done like I, I've no, I love the recourse.
• 1:01:01
  There's a there's an artist I want to speak.
• 1:01:02
  To again, I had him earlier this year, but he's a a famous video
• 1:01:08
  and photography artist. My Phil Bielski, he's real
• 1:01:14
  senior artist and I'd love to speak to him about AI art.
• 1:01:18
  Does he consider artificial intelligence art to be art?
• 1:01:21
  I think my humble opinion is we really should do an episode
• 1:01:24
  about this, but that art is whatever you want art to be.
• 1:01:27
  I think art by definition is subjective.
• 1:01:30
  It's also equalized the playing field meaning.
• 1:01:33
  Like here's the thing, like real art, like when I say real
• 1:01:36
  artists, let's say old school artists, old school musicians
• 1:01:39
  are very challenged by this because now anyone can do it.
• 1:01:41
  But I want someone but but that. But here I want to make that
• 1:01:44
  distinction is just because anyone can do it, it doesn't
• 1:01:48
  mean it's wrong. A&B, more so a creative soul, a
• 1:01:52
  very creative soul, an extremely creative soul who has not spent
• 1:01:56
  20 years honing his craft can now express extremely creative
• 1:02:00
  ideas in ways that move other people.
• 1:02:01
  Yeah, no, it doesn't bother me so.
• 1:02:03
  But but but. I'm trying to, yeah, but that's
• 1:02:04
  what I'm trying. To say is, even though they're
• 1:02:06
  bothered by it should understand that like you know it it it
• 1:02:12
  doesn't. So I.
• 1:02:13
  I think it doesn't make it less and.
• 1:02:14
  Authentic and at least also like for me is I already have a very
• 1:02:18
  scientific system behind how I make my music in the 1st place
• 1:02:22
  and this just kind of like you said it just a really not it was
• 1:02:25
  all outsourced in the 1st place and it just a really natural
• 1:02:28
  sense as I say I mean people now now you know I have there is a
• 1:02:34
  very well known guitarist who was actually one of my first
• 1:02:37
  like 100 followers on Instagram. He is any time I send a message,
• 1:02:41
  he messages me back. He's pretty pretty well known.
• 1:02:45
  He gave me some muscle for AI and I just said look that I I.
• 1:02:50
  Just had. It's always been.
• 1:02:51
  Outsourced. It's still outsourced.
• 1:02:52
  It used to be humans. I waited two years to get back
• 1:02:55
  to me to I will say this. No, I will say this.
• 1:02:58
  The listening between real music and AI music, there is a
• 1:03:01
  difference. So the difference, there's a
• 1:03:03
  difference. There's the.
• 1:03:04
  AI music can sound. Really good, but a lot of time
• 1:03:07
  will be missing soul and that's an and that's with drums and
• 1:03:09
  that's with guitar and that's so I I would I would like to.
• 1:03:12
  Think, and I could be wrong, I would like to think that my
• 1:03:15
  music's a little bit different, so that's predicated on.
• 1:03:18
  An existing. Sound that.
• 1:03:20
  I think a lot of the AI music, for example, if you if you
• 1:03:24
  wanted to go out and write a metal album, you probably could
• 1:03:26
  in 5 minutes or less. I doubt that.
• 1:03:29
  No you could. Why not?
• 1:03:31
  No, no, no. I all I mean is you just need to
• 1:03:33
  click your button enough times and you have a metal album on
• 1:03:35
  sooner. OK, I'm sure, but.
• 1:03:38
  And so that's why people don't like it, but.
• 1:03:40
  It wouldn't, but it wouldn't be meaningful.
• 1:03:42
  And that's why people don't like it, because.
• 1:03:44
  What I'm trying to say so put meaning in that music.
• 1:03:46
  So I'm saying I I. Get.
• 1:03:47
  I get the replacement. I understand what you're doing.
• 1:03:49
  I just still think that it doesn't.
• 1:03:52
  It doesn't sound it doesn't sound like someone's crying in
• 1:03:55
  the background. That's all.
• 1:03:57
  I'd like to think that mine can and will.
• 1:03:59
  And does me because because that's that's what I'm, that's
• 1:04:03
  what I'm working off of. But but I agree with you.
• 1:04:05
  To me, the difference is I don't care, I'll tell you.
• 1:04:07
  Why? Like, yeah, there's a
• 1:04:08
  difference. There's a difference and and I
• 1:04:10
  think the difference is, you know, it's 90% versus 100%, OK,
• 1:04:15
  right. But that's not why you don't.
• 1:04:17
  Listen to music. And also by the way.
• 1:04:19
  I do want to say my grand like dream and vision.
• 1:04:24
  I'd love to. I'd love I'd love to open for
• 1:04:25
  Disturbed one day. I'd love to have a band that
• 1:04:28
  like can play major shows because of shams word.
• 1:04:31
  Go for it. Well, so.
• 1:04:32
  Whatever I'm the feelers are getting.
• 1:04:34
  Out there and, and we're not saying what I'm saying, do some
• 1:04:37
  vocal I I. Actually, just last week I was.
• 1:04:39
  Talking to a vocal coach who I said how long would it take to
• 1:04:42
  get from where I am now to get to where this song is and he
• 1:04:45
  said like it could take you 6 months but it would be pretty
• 1:04:47
  intensive. I'm not sure if I have a budget
• 1:04:49
  exactly for what he why not, But the point is is it's in the
• 1:04:55
  cards. It it it's a it's a future
• 1:04:57
  vision. And even though it's AI music
• 1:04:59
  now, I would love to be out there playing real shows.
• 1:05:03
  I think that that's that's obviously the vision is if if an
• 1:05:06
  amazing singer came to me tomorrow and said, let's go out
• 1:05:09
  and play shows, I'm there. I mean, you know, let's put a
• 1:05:13
  band together. I mean, that's the so, so even
• 1:05:15
  the so it's like even the AI is assisting the continuation of
• 1:05:19
  the project. But for me, it's still very
• 1:05:21
  human, and it's still very no, for sure, no, especially since
• 1:05:24
  you're writing the lyrics to. Me.
• 1:05:25
  To me, the power of a song is the lyrics, right?
• 1:05:28
  For sure. It's the heart.
• 1:05:30
  Yeah. Everything else is, you know,
• 1:05:32
  flesh and bone. But the heart, it's the message.
• 1:05:34
  Just the lyrics. Yeah.
• 1:05:36
  OK, so usually I ended episode here, but I know that you wanted
• 1:05:39
  to ask me questions before. If you want to ask me questions,
• 1:05:41
  I'll let you do it now in the year.
• 1:05:44
  Yeah, I just. And as a, as a, as a, for those
• 1:05:46
  that know, it's meant to be a, like I said earlier when I
• 1:05:50
  talked about it, a real just kind of elevation and experience
• 1:05:54
  of Vegas. So I basically took like the two
• 1:05:57
  craziest shredding bands out there, like Dream Theater and
• 1:05:59
  Dragonforce, and tried to meld them with Skrillex, who you
• 1:06:03
  know, you call Take the head banging and the face melting,
• 1:06:06
  and put them together in a song that's all about translation.
• 1:06:09
  I'll take you right for it. I'm more interested at party.
• 1:06:10
  I'm not Bucky like you. I'm saying that's for those that
• 1:06:13
  listening. To those, no, just the
• 1:06:15
  description, but so questions I had for you.
• 1:06:18
  What's your why? Why do you have why do you have
• 1:06:19
  me on? Why do you have haste the day on
• 1:06:22
  What's your interest in metal? So, OK, that's a great question.
• 1:06:27
  I as a kid, I listened to a bit of Haste the day and I was
• 1:06:35
  really annoyed by their music because it was really, really
• 1:06:38
  good. I felt as a kid, I don't listen
• 1:06:40
  to, of course, stuff like that anymore, but their, their
• 1:06:44
  messages were really powerful, but they just weren't Jewish.
• 1:06:48
  And sometimes they got so it's really wrong, right.
• 1:06:51
  And, and, and I was realizing like they've had a really big
• 1:06:54
  impact on the world. And then they were like really,
• 1:06:56
  you know, early 2000s, like they're really, you know, that's
• 1:06:59
  new on the field and it's really attracting a lot of people like
• 1:07:02
  to lean to their, you know, religious fervor.
• 1:07:05
  And I was just like, you know, it'd be really great if someone
• 1:07:07
  could like quote them in Russian, you know, correctly or
• 1:07:11
  they took him correctly or what happened correctly.
• 1:07:14
  And I think that that would be really powerful for the Jewish
• 1:07:17
  scene. And that was also before like
• 1:07:18
  Jewish rap. I hate rap, OK, But but it would
• 1:07:21
  be great if if someone would like this feel like there's all
• 1:07:25
  this expression that we can do and we can do better because,
• 1:07:30
  you know, Christians don't think we have the right faith.
• 1:07:33
  I don't think they have the right faith.
• 1:07:34
  We can be friends. But like, I think that that
• 1:07:37
  Yiddish credit is correct. So I, the most correct thing I
• 1:07:40
  think should go out there from my perspective.
• 1:07:41
  So and so that's why I'm interested in, in, in kind of
• 1:07:46
  that sort of music cuz it's a different level of, of
• 1:07:50
  expression or they can make the argument, but like, why not
• 1:07:52
  painting and stuff like that, which I also do find very
• 1:07:54
  interesting. I like, I'm not an artist.
• 1:07:56
  So I, I love these different sort of experiences.
• 1:07:58
  That's the kind of the point of the podcast is for me to learn
• 1:07:59
  from people. I learn when we call them.
• 1:08:01
  I've never learned from otherwise, but mental particular
• 1:08:04
  I feel is so is so is so emotional.
• 1:08:07
  It's so real, it's so serious, It's so it's so it's it is
• 1:08:13
  spiritual, I feel and instead of what people think, I think
• 1:08:18
  sometimes, which is metal music, which is just like screaming at
• 1:08:21
  the top of your lungs and we hate everything and burn the
• 1:08:23
  whole world to the ground and etcetera, etcetera.
• 1:08:26
  I I look at it more like it can be that, but what it is is it's
• 1:08:29
  you can't control yourself because you feel something so
• 1:08:31
  much and you have to let it out. So instead of being traif, like,
• 1:08:35
  why can't that be like, I love a coach Waco so much or Yaakovina
• 1:08:38
  was amazing, you know, like, why, why can't we scream that
• 1:08:42
  message? Because that's, that's what
• 1:08:44
  we're all about. We're all 100% at college
• 1:08:46
  brothel. If you're 50% at college
• 1:08:48
  brothel, you know, you could, you could, you could sing a
• 1:08:51
  country song easy. If you're 100% for a coach
• 1:08:53
  brothel, how could it? How could you not scream on the
• 1:08:54
  top of your lungs? I guess that's, that's that's
• 1:08:57
  what I'm thinking of. So there was years ago, I was in
• 1:09:00
  the mirror and I spoke to a very well known Ruff who everyone
• 1:09:04
  knows. I'm not going to mention his
• 1:09:05
  name. And I told him, I said, look,
• 1:09:08
  you know, I'm a fairly good writer.
• 1:09:11
  Maybe I'll write something. And, you know, if you didn't,
• 1:09:14
  we'll get together and maybe we'll create a band.
• 1:09:15
  I think I'd really do a lot of Cure.
• 1:09:16
  When he thought about me, he said, yes, I think that's a
• 1:09:18
  very, very good idea and you should do it.
• 1:09:20
  And I got close and then do it. And then I got close.
• 1:09:22
  And but when do I have time to do that stuff?
• 1:09:25
  But I was like, someone's someone's going to do this.
• 1:09:29
  So that's why I was interested because you're one of the like
• 1:09:33
  the one of the you're there's only two bands that exist right
• 1:09:36
  now that are doing this stuff. That's it.
• 1:09:39
  There's nothing else. And I think that that's a pity,
• 1:09:43
  but it also means there's a hearer story about both of you,
• 1:09:47
  and that means something to me. Cool.
• 1:09:50
  So that's been good, Sir. Awesome, great to have.
• 1:09:52
  You today bye for having me light colors combine a.
• 1:09:55
  Bridge through the world's the truest