Matisyahu opens up about his new EP, 'Hold The Fire,' what inspired him to write his upcoming song "Ascent" that speaks out against rising antisemitism, becoming an independent artist, what, why his trip to Israel following the October 7th attacks made him hopeful for the future, his concerts that were canceled in New Mexico and Arizona and more!
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00:00 I was feeling really hopeless about like what the future is gonna look like for for all of us and
00:05 Went to Israel and it renewed like my faith in humanity. What's up? This is modest Yahoo. You're watching Billboard News
00:14 Hey everybody, it's Ronnie on if those with Billboard News and I'm so excited we're sitting here today with modesty Yahoo
00:29 Hello
00:31 You have a new EP out hold the fire and something I've always liked about your music is it's always a music with a message
00:56 So tell me a bit about the theme surrounding this EP and kind of the inspiration when writing it
01:01 Sure
01:02 The theme comes from basis is a dream that I had maybe about 10 years ago in my early 30s as I was
01:09 playing lots of shows and
01:11 Started out, you know with my career and then had a family and you know lived in that in New York and moved to LA
01:19 But playing really grinding and playing lots of shows a year like maybe 200 shows a year in order to survive
01:25 You know up until Kovac one of the themes that became relevant to me
01:29 It's like how do you still like stay in love with music after you've been like
01:33 Playing so many shows and playing those songs over and over again, and I went through a lot of
01:37 complicated
01:39 relationship with the music because it's like your dream when you're a teenager and then it becomes
01:44 Reality and then it's like your dream come true and then you're making music and there's the art and there's the business
01:51 Then there's like it's like a relationship, you know
01:53 This EP is called hold the fire and it's about stamina as an artist and it's about how to not let you know
02:00 Yourself kind of get like your fire go out but at the same time, you know
02:05 If you still care fire too much, it could burn everything up
02:07 I think you could burn up in your own fire. And I guess the idea is in the opening track is called fireproof
02:19 And the second verse I talked about a dream that I had where I was in this like ancient synagogue
02:24 somewhere in the Middle East
02:27 Basically I was playing with a baby tiger and then the mother tiger was like shooting fire out of her eyes
02:36 Well, then I was like corner and I was on flames, you know
02:39 I was in for on fire and then all of a sudden I looked down at my hand
02:43 I saw was made out of water and then I thought of the burning bush in the Bible
02:47 You know the story that motion Moses speaks to the God through the burning bush
02:51 The burning bush is a fire that doesn't consume itself. That's what it says about it. You know, it's a fire
02:56 that's not burning up and
02:58 motion means drawn from the river drawn from the water, you know, cuz
03:02 Pharaoh's daughter pulled him out of the river
03:04 so this idea of balance, you know and being an artist and how to continue being in love with music and creating good art and
03:13 Also make a living at the same time. It's kind of I guess one of the main themes of the record with fireproof
03:19 Specifically, I like the theme of gratitude that you have in it because it's something that I try to focus on constantly in my life
03:26 And I love the lyrics. I'm overwhelmed from the altitude. I take a breath and feel gratitude. I shift my attitude
03:32 How do you maintain I guess?
03:34 Gratitude with so much happening in the world in your life and everything like bringing back to that grounded centeredness
03:40 I don't know. That's a great question. But what popped into my head like immediately is like humility
03:45 Like that's how you have gratitude. I think just like, you know being appreciative to
03:51 to be alive and to have what you have and to kind of like go deep into the
03:55 idea and the feeling of humility probably is
03:59 The best way yeah, I agree and fireproof is one of five songs on the EP crack
04:06 Yeah, how do you go about picking which songs end up capturing what you want to portray on an album on a project?
04:14 I'm an EP. I'm not a fan of throwing songs away
04:17 Like I know a lot of artists will be like we wrote 400 songs and use 10
04:21 I wrote 40 songs last year and these five songs are part of those 40 and I'll release all 40 of them
04:27 Oh great
04:28 I like to release everything and in today's day and age with the way music works now you can release music every like a song
04:34 A month or whatever and that's pretty much what most people do and it's actually the best business model the idea of
04:41 Releasing 12 songs and then going away for two or three years, which is what I've done earlier in my career is like absurd
04:48 You know
04:48 so I love it because for me always as an artist was like I'd make an album and then it would be like
04:54 Months or years before those songs would come out before I could play them live and by that point
05:00 I've already moved on in terms of this music that I'm listening to that's inspiring me and the concepts in my life
05:05 So the idea of like recording music and just releasing it as you're living and you're performing it, you know
05:12 Like this EP right now. I'm performing it, you know
05:14 And when you release music when you write a song is one level, you know
05:18 Then when you release it is like another level and everyone's hearing it
05:22 But when you start performing it for me as a artist who does a lot of live performance
05:26 It's kind of like that's really when the song starts to really come alive, you know, like every day, you know
05:33 You're performing it at a show. I love the idea of like recording a lot releasing a lot doing it all in time
05:40 As you're as you're living, you know and that you have the freedom to do that now
05:44 Especially because you're releasing this EP you've released it as an independent artist on your own record label
05:50 Is that something that you wanted to do because you want it to be able to release music as you want it?
05:55 Well right now, you know
05:57 Obviously you always want to have like a partner and you want to have a partner who is like, you know
06:01 Powerful who doesn't want that for their career their music, you know
06:05 But if you don't have that you can release music it didn't used to be like that
06:09 You used to be much harder to be an artist where you had to either be on a major
06:14 You have to listen to everything what they're telling you
06:16 They might sit on your album for years or not put out your music or say that you need incubation. Who knows?
06:22 So now it's like boom boom boom you have a song you want to release it like my sons are 18 and 17
06:28 They're releasing music and you know, they're like, whoa
06:30 We want to have you know, talk to labels and this and that it's like no just release your music
06:34 You want to make a video make a video just do it, you know
06:36 You want to get followers post content like it's a completely
06:41 Different world that we live in and in some ways it's it's really freeing you also have a song coming out
06:46 That's not on the album ascent. Yes. Tell me a bit about the inspiration behind that
06:51 I love the name. It's it comes from the song song of ascent, which is a prayer
06:56 Hebrew prayer sheer Hamalos. This song is about anti-semitism
07:01 I wrote it after Kanye and all that stuff happened and people were asking
07:05 Before October 7th if I had any response to the anti-semitism and it wasn't really at the forefront of my being at that time
07:13 You know over the years even though I came out as this like Hasidic Jewish artist when I first broke and that was how everyone
07:19 Knew me over time being Jewish
07:22 I would say became less and less the central theme of my being and of my music and as I kind of like toured
07:29 in America and around the world for years and years and meeting different people and
07:33 Learning different things and being a father
07:36 I have six kids and you know a partner going through divorce addiction all kinds of things my music became way more
07:43 I guess I've just about human experience and less about the Jewish experience
07:48 but
07:49 Someone played me this beat Michael Goldwasser played me this beat
07:52 It's like so it sounds like this golden era hip-hop beat and I just like I said, I just started free associate
07:58 Writing and I ended up writing a song about anti-semitism. I think it's pretty powerful
08:03 I think it's gonna be really empowering song. It's not like the one day that you might know from modest Yahoo
08:15 It's a little bit more fierce in the sense of me calling it people out on
08:21 anti-semitic thinking and a little bit about our history and
08:25 Then I went to Israel prior to this tour that I'm on right now
08:29 I'm on 34 city tour in America
08:31 And I just my oldest son is studying in Jerusalem right now in yeshiva
08:34 And I just wanted to see what was going on
08:37 So I went and we shot the video at the site of the Nova massacre
08:41 You know the music festival or like hundreds of people were massacred and we shot it in the kibbutzim that were burnt out again
08:47 Where people were murdered and massacred on October 7th, it's really really powerful video
08:53 It it has lots of footage from you know
08:57 The course of history of the Jewish people being kicked out of whatever it was Spain or Russia or Germany or wherever?
09:03 so
09:05 Yeah, that's the scent and it'll be out. Hopefully in March
09:09 Obviously, you've been very outspoken about the ongoing Israel Hamas war
09:13 What is something that you experienced while you were in Israel that you would like people to know that maybe are not on the grounds?
09:21 I experienced hope which is like the first place
09:25 I hadn't experienced that you know for the Jewish people right now and for a lot of people is this feeling of isolation
09:31 separation anger fear
09:34 I was feeling really hopeless about like what the future is gonna look like for for all of us and
09:40 Went to Israel and it renewed like my faith in humanity. It renewed my faith in God
09:47 You know
09:48 I have to say I left with this feeling of light and I've been trying to take that and I'm really
09:54 Put that into the music and into the shows and we're facing a lot of
09:59 Tough situations right now, but that's what I keep going back to you know
10:03 I think about the people that I met there the survivors of those of that festival the soldiers that I met
10:07 the families of the hostages and what they're going through and
10:12 You know, that's what's giving me the strength to to
10:16 Be myself and not be quiet about what's happening right now
10:21 Is there an experience that gave you like a very particular sense of hope an interaction you had that really particularly moved you?
10:27 Yeah, there was quite a few of them
10:29 I mean being on site of the festival was was powerful being someone who is a
10:34 musician who goes to went to festivals prior to being a musician and
10:39 Understands that culture and really getting a feel hearing the stories of some of the survivors
10:46 That was very powerful for me because I can picture myself in that situation
10:50 You know it Sun is coming up at a music dance festival
10:54 Everyone is on some type of psychedelic or Molly or something like that
10:57 and then all of a sudden there's terrorists falling from the sky and you're jumping into a garbage can and then it's
11:03 Getting blown up or you're getting like brought back to the tunnels in Gaza like you're being taken hostage
11:09 Yeah, it's horrific horrific thing to think about and and to meet those survivors was like
11:15 I felt like it was like meeting a Holocaust survivor to see like how they're continuing and and
11:23 You know that was just very powerful for me. I met a young woman in that same hospital who was shot 12 times
11:28 She's in a wheelchair, and she's just telling me the story. You know she lives in a kibbutz
11:32 It's like those are very peaceful places. They were working very much on peace with
11:36 with the Gazans with you know
11:39 Palestinians their whole lives were based on that that's why they were living there
11:44 These are these very peaceful kibbutz in kids are like living all together
11:50 Sort of at the edge right by the fence that was brought down
11:53 So that's where like the teenagers and young people in their 20s
11:56 So this one young woman was was there and they came in and they went into the bomb shelter her and her boyfriend
12:02 And then eventually they would like shoot at the handles so she got shot in the hands and the legs
12:06 Oh, and then her boyfriend is like you have to go out the window you have to jump out the window
12:10 She looks out the window and like
12:12 20 feet in front of her there's like 50 terrorists, and they're laughing and they're eating while they're murdering people babies
12:19 and then
12:21 She has no choice, so she jumps out the window and starts running
12:24 It's like Game of Thrones or something they start taking target practice at a video shooter in the legs
12:29 She falls she gets back up. They laugh. She runs a little more somehow. She dug herself into a hole and
12:35 Survived whoa and then is there telling me the story like firsthand. You know hearing that so and then you see the resilience
12:43 I know exactly what I was gonna say the human spirit you see the people coming together
12:47 You know you realize this is something that's bigger than than this time period it's something that our
12:52 ancestors have been going through for years and years and it's something it's something godly that somehow kicks in and
12:59 makes the Jewish people or the Israelis in particular come together in this
13:06 Incredible way that I've never seen anything like it before and I'm just I feel blessed to
13:10 To be sort of a part of it
13:13 And you know just even seeing it and talking to people you know of course while you were in
13:17 Israel you performed a sold-out benefit show in Tel Aviv
13:21 That must have been a really special experience yeah, that was great
13:31 I played with friends of mine that live in Israel that are musicians that you know honestly can't make a living
13:38 Touring around the world because they get boycotted you know and Israel
13:42 You know for those that don't know is the size of Rhode Island like there aren't that many places to play like in America
13:47 You know I can play a hundred different cities in one year if I want to
13:51 in Israel, it's not like that so I used an Israeli band for that and
13:56 You know there. It was very special was very very very heartwarming show. You know beautiful
14:02 Jerusalem, lift thy faggot yoke
14:04 In what ways does Judaism
14:11 Affect your life now or drive your life right now. It's back at the core of the center of my being you know
14:18 It's like whether it's like we're in that we're in that place right now
14:21 We'll be reminded of it
14:23 You know where if you want to wear your star out you know in certain countries right now and even in places in America
14:28 People are gonna come at you for me the opposition
14:31 Does something to me in terms of my Jewish identity it always has and that's kind of when I sink the most into it is
14:39 When I feel opposition from being Jewish a lot of Jews are like that
14:43 You know the Michael Rapaport's and the Brett Gelman's and the Montana Tucker's
14:46 There's a few of us out there that have this kind of punk rock rebel spirit
14:50 And if you come at us we're gonna dig deeper deeper and deeper into our Judaism
14:54 And then there's a lot of people that are you know not necessarily as
14:58 As sure where they stand with that, but for someone like me who I you know
15:04 I took went into the depths of my identity in my early 20s where as I was you know on this path of
15:10 Self-discovery that took me into the basement of Crown Heights for you know for two years where I all I did was study Torah
15:17 Became fully Hasidic and then lived in that community and for ten years. I certainly have you know
15:24 Where what what to take in terms of inspiration from that and then at some point?
15:29 I had to free myself of it
15:30 You know as I felt it was like constricting and constraining wasn't helping
15:34 But I definitely know how to lean into that when and and feel that the time is is right for me to do that now
15:41 So you had a few shows recently that got canceled can you tell me a bit about what happened there?
15:52 There are have been protesters at my show and two shows got canceled one of them in New Mexico at a place called Meow Wolf
15:59 Where after we had driven you know hundreds of miles set up had a sold-out show fans were starting to come the staff
16:08 Claims that they were afraid to come into the show because of like ten protesters
16:15 we've you know discovered that that's obviously not true and they and they
16:19 They chose to not come in and to wait till the last minute so that we had to cancel the show the next night there
16:25 Was similar situation that happened and when they let us know that the show was canceled
16:31 I myself started making phone calls and found another venue a legendary reggae venue down the street
16:38 this was in Tucson, Arizona, so the Rialtos who canceled and
16:41 the rock which is where little Pete that was where his last performance was and
16:47 We went there a guy named Joe opened up the place for us
16:50 You know they claimed there that it was a security issue at the Rialto
16:55 So we moved everything found a completely new staff in two hours and had a beautiful concert with no security issues
17:03 So again, you know it's like you know people can say what they want
17:07 But we know why these shows are being canceled the bottom line is that we're gonna continue
17:11 And we're gonna play every show on the tour and any venue that cancels I have backup venues in every city in America
17:17 I've been doing this like I said 200 shows a year for 20 years in this country and
17:22 So we will play our shows regardless
17:25 You do a great job at
17:32 Putting forth unity and hope in your music and you do that not by also not confining yourself in different genres
17:40 You like to play around with different genres you like to go with what you're feeling at the moment
17:45 What gives you the confidence I guess to be able to do that and trust that your fans will always support you along the way
17:49 Well you have to be willing to take risks
17:52 And you have to be willing to lose fans if you're gonna kind of like go in the art route
17:57 You know we were talking about that earlier of that balance between business and art if you only
18:03 Kind of like think about what the fans want you'll make yourself crazy
18:07 For modest Yahoo at least because I have so many types of fans that right you know and in today's day and age with
18:14 With social media and being able to hear what everyone thinks it's not good for an artist
18:18 I don't think I think it can really eat away at your soul
18:22 And I had my experience with that early on with social media and stuff
18:26 So I think you have to do as an artist. You know what's real to you, and you know
18:32 Sometimes that might not always be exactly what the fans want
18:37 Mmm. Hopefully it is if it is then you're blessed. You know if your fans
18:42 Just want your pure art, then you're great
18:46 And I do have fans like that I have fans that have said to me like oh
18:49 I was at this show and I was like oh man that was like a rough one
18:53 You know and they were like modest like every show we've come to the reason we come is because of the authenticity
18:58 Of it and like wherever you are you're like you're up there whether you're bleeding on stage
19:03 Or you're like you know like leading this like redemptive like moment for everybody you're being real
19:10 And that's why we come to your shows
19:12 You also have a
19:19 Young artist as your sons as well as there's someone that
19:22 You're into like a young artist that you're really liking right now that you kind of hope they take from or that you feel
19:29 inspired by watching their growth
19:32 No, I don't really have my eye on any one artist other than my sons
19:35 You know I mean I I listen to a lot of I guess younger artists my favorite two artists are Oma Leigh and Black Sheriff
19:42 Those are both Apple pop artists that I've been listening to for the last few years
19:46 And those are my favorite like current
19:49 singer rapper
19:51 you know
19:53 Artists
19:55 That do kind of similar to what I do that
19:58 You know I'll follow their career a little bit my sons right now
20:01 You know like I've been in a place last few years of like trying to help coach them
20:05 Which has been like very awesome as a dad to have kids that want to do what you do and yeah
20:11 Are talented or excited about it motivated my oldest son his name's Levy
20:17 It's LA IV why I like that yeah, it's like Levi, but it's just how you pronounce
20:22 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you can check him out and my younger son his younger brother is dope bear
20:29 D of capital D OB B e a are which is
20:32 I love that is it tough I guess
20:38 When you're trying to give advice to your kids who are going in the same career path that you're going to but without maybe
20:45 Overstepping kind of letting them carve their own way at the same time is that tough or you figured it out
20:50 I had an experience with my older son where he was playing a show at SOB's which is a place
20:55 I used to go to when I was a kid and he was playing a show there
20:58 and I I saw him rehearsing for this show and like putting it all together was like his first showcase and
21:04 The sound like the sound guy had gone outside for a smoke or something and it wasn't working
21:10 It's like a limited amount of time and no one could hear anything and I like got on stage
21:15 Like I'm like SOB's where's the sound guy I went up to the sound booth
21:21 I started like helping him and it was like a mess like everything was wired wrong
21:25 So it wasn't like a quick fix right? I stopped it and did like a maniac like so
21:30 The next show that I saw of his was in Tel Aviv and I swore I'm like, okay
21:35 I learned my lesson no matter what happens. There were a lot of dads out there that were they were like way to go
21:40 They were like I would have done the same thing
21:43 But I was like no matter what happens like it's not my deal
21:47 I'm just gonna sit here and it was like the most beautiful show. I watched him
21:51 On a stool with a great band that he had put together
21:54 Doing you know, I think it was like a 35 minute set which is not easy to like keep people for that long
22:01 And not just hitting his notes, but having presence like all the stuff that we worked on together
22:07 You know and all the little things and I was just like bawling the whole crying the whole time
22:13 That's be a dad. You were just like watching your kid. Yeah, and to me it's like that's all that matters
22:17 You know, it's like whether or not, you know, you become you know
22:21 The biggest artist in the world or you just do this like that was beautiful
22:28 That was a beautiful moment that you worked for that and you got that and you had a whole room of people singing the chorus
22:34 To your song that it's meaningful to them, right? And
22:37 Yeah, it was a special moment for me
22:40 (upbeat music)
22:42 (whooshing)