Reggae, already
LUCY CARNE
16jul06
WITH your eyes shut, Matisyahu makes sense.
Infectious dancehall reggae and a Jamaican accent singing Old Testament themes of Babylon and Zion. Nothing new there.
But then you have the singer. A white, lanky, 196cm tall New Yorker, who also happens to be an ultra-Orthodox Hasidic Jew.
Introducing Matisyahu, the world's first Jewish reggae star who is storming up the US charts.
Sporting full Hasidic dress, even on stage, complete with yarmulke, beard, thick glasses and wide hat, the 26-year-old may seem like a bad Ali G joke – more rabbi than rasta.
"I guess to a lot of people a Jewish reggae star seems insane, but to me it doesn't seem insane," the softly-spoken singer says, as he plays with his son in a London park.
"It's just real life, this is my life."
Jewish newspaper Daily Forward named him one of the top five most influential Jews in America, whereas Esquire magazine awarded him Most Lovable Oddball.
He is, perhaps, the first musician to credit rabbis on his CD sleeves. Drugs and working on the Sabbath are outlawed, as is stage diving – as he is forbidden to touch any woman who is not related. He even turned down dinner with Madonna as his beliefs don't permit women to perform.
But despite his eyebrow-raising restrictions, Matisyahu's booming record sales quickly dismiss any hints of gimmick.
His breakthrough album Live At Stubb's, which hit Australia last week, has sold more than half a million copies in America and the UK.
His follow up album Youth went to number four on the US Billboard charts and he sells out concerts across the world.
"It doesn't concern me," Matisyahu says, dismissing the novelty accusations.
"I would say nothing to those people, I would have nothing to say.
"If I feel that I'm doing what's true to me, then it doesn't matter if someone else thinks it's not true.
"If you're just sitting in your lawn chair and having a lemonade and that is what you do, then you won't care if someone walks by and says that's not really lemonade, it's iced tea.
"That's the constant struggle for myself – to do what's real for me, to try and find the real thing for me."
With lyrics including: "Torah food for my brain, let it rain till I drown, Thunder! Let the blessings come down," Matisyahu's spirituality has struck a chord and uncovered a previously untapped and clearly profitable market.
"Maybe it touches upon something human in people, whether that's a spiritual thirst or whatever it is," he says.
"It doesn't matter if it's 100 people in a club or 500,000 people listening to the music on the radio on their way to work. If people are responding to the music, then they've responded."
Born Matthew Miller and raised by a non-observant Jewish family, Matisyahu's first gig was a Grateful Dead concert as a toddler.
He spent his teenage years devouring Bob Marley, OutKast and the Roots.
He rebelled with dreadlocks, beatboxing at the back of the classroom, dabbling in drugs and following jam-band Phish across America.
But his spiritual awakening unfolded when he bumped into a rabbi in Washington Square Park and was introduced to the Lubavitch organisation.
Surprisingly, Matisyahu's love of reggae and skull-cap rap continued to flourish under the constrictions of the strict sect, even as his success grew and he found himself inside the often hedonistic world of rock.
"I just see my music and my religion being a focal part of what I do, and not one really being used for the other," he says.
"Being a musician and being successful is no contradiction to my religion. And it's not so hard touring. Sure, you have to find kosher food and synagogues and try to be focused and on a path. But that's like anywhere. Whether I'm on tour or not, trying to be devoted to anything is tough.
"While I have to be somewhere like a festival, you have to take it in and be aware of what's happening around you, but at the same time as connecting with it be separate from it. It's kinda tricky, but it can be done."
16jul06
WITH your eyes shut, Matisyahu makes sense.
Infectious dancehall reggae and a Jamaican accent singing Old Testament themes of Babylon and Zion. Nothing new there.
But then you have the singer. A white, lanky, 196cm tall New Yorker, who also happens to be an ultra-Orthodox Hasidic Jew.
Introducing Matisyahu, the world's first Jewish reggae star who is storming up the US charts.
Sporting full Hasidic dress, even on stage, complete with yarmulke, beard, thick glasses and wide hat, the 26-year-old may seem like a bad Ali G joke – more rabbi than rasta.
"I guess to a lot of people a Jewish reggae star seems insane, but to me it doesn't seem insane," the softly-spoken singer says, as he plays with his son in a London park.
"It's just real life, this is my life."
Jewish newspaper Daily Forward named him one of the top five most influential Jews in America, whereas Esquire magazine awarded him Most Lovable Oddball.
He is, perhaps, the first musician to credit rabbis on his CD sleeves. Drugs and working on the Sabbath are outlawed, as is stage diving – as he is forbidden to touch any woman who is not related. He even turned down dinner with Madonna as his beliefs don't permit women to perform.
But despite his eyebrow-raising restrictions, Matisyahu's booming record sales quickly dismiss any hints of gimmick.
His breakthrough album Live At Stubb's, which hit Australia last week, has sold more than half a million copies in America and the UK.
His follow up album Youth went to number four on the US Billboard charts and he sells out concerts across the world.
"It doesn't concern me," Matisyahu says, dismissing the novelty accusations.
"I would say nothing to those people, I would have nothing to say.
"If I feel that I'm doing what's true to me, then it doesn't matter if someone else thinks it's not true.
"If you're just sitting in your lawn chair and having a lemonade and that is what you do, then you won't care if someone walks by and says that's not really lemonade, it's iced tea.
"That's the constant struggle for myself – to do what's real for me, to try and find the real thing for me."
With lyrics including: "Torah food for my brain, let it rain till I drown, Thunder! Let the blessings come down," Matisyahu's spirituality has struck a chord and uncovered a previously untapped and clearly profitable market.
"Maybe it touches upon something human in people, whether that's a spiritual thirst or whatever it is," he says.
"It doesn't matter if it's 100 people in a club or 500,000 people listening to the music on the radio on their way to work. If people are responding to the music, then they've responded."
Born Matthew Miller and raised by a non-observant Jewish family, Matisyahu's first gig was a Grateful Dead concert as a toddler.
He spent his teenage years devouring Bob Marley, OutKast and the Roots.
He rebelled with dreadlocks, beatboxing at the back of the classroom, dabbling in drugs and following jam-band Phish across America.
But his spiritual awakening unfolded when he bumped into a rabbi in Washington Square Park and was introduced to the Lubavitch organisation.
Surprisingly, Matisyahu's love of reggae and skull-cap rap continued to flourish under the constrictions of the strict sect, even as his success grew and he found himself inside the often hedonistic world of rock.
"I just see my music and my religion being a focal part of what I do, and not one really being used for the other," he says.
"Being a musician and being successful is no contradiction to my religion. And it's not so hard touring. Sure, you have to find kosher food and synagogues and try to be focused and on a path. But that's like anywhere. Whether I'm on tour or not, trying to be devoted to anything is tough.
"While I have to be somewhere like a festival, you have to take it in and be aware of what's happening around you, but at the same time as connecting with it be separate from it. It's kinda tricky, but it can be done."
posted by Editor at 10:04 PM
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