What inspired you to first start making music? And how did you come to be in your current incarnation? Or if you prefer, a brief bio about you.

I guess that growing up as outsiders in a foreign country is a great start. When you introduce that fact together with discovering rock music in your teens, Things are just bound to happen. Me and my twin brother David were pretty much living in our own bubble, in a way I think it was a sort of defense mechanism against our new “surrounding”. Our family moved to Israel when we were five years old, the thing is that this bubble never bursted, up until we discovered rock music in the age of fourteen. It was a huge impact that struck us deep in the heart and made us feel a huge amount of connection with those odd and eccentric sorts of musicians such as Brian Molko, Thom Yorke and Morrissey. They were all outsiders and it felt like it’s a club we belong to…we felt like we have something to say… that we could express ourselves and that music is the best way to do so.
By the time we were in our early twenties, we wrote and recorded seven songs. We were in the process of auditioning musicians and forming a band, but everything stopped when David got diagnosed with leukemia. He passed away two and a half years later. Right now, I am releasing these songs for the first time while working on new material

Provide us with some info about your latest release…

“Pollywogs” is our first and final album together. The main theme is the quest of the self; popping out into this big great white world. A place so easy to get lost in. Yet, there’s so much out there that you can find and embrace. It’s a huge driving force in your early twenties, and this album is a product of that. David forever remains frozen in that phase. for me, this album is almost like polaroid pictures of his eternal youth.

Which ones would you consider your main influences both music-wise & non-music-wise?

Music-wise surely Placebo, The Smiths, Radiohead and R.E.M. I’d say that Placebo’s Brian Molko is the biggest influence of them all – he struck us so deep in the heart. His vocals, lyrical style, the way he delivers emotion and overall image…it’s just that nothing ever touched us in the way he did. I’m very happy that we discovered his music early in life as it helped us to deal with very personal feelings and overcome many fears. the song “Commercial for Levi” absolutely depicts our very own specific lifestyle and strangely enough “Levi” is also our family name, so yeah, our relationship with Placebo feels very personal.

Non music-wise Both of us have very bizarre and vivid dreams, we both keep dream diaries, lots of inspiration comes from there. The presence of a very intense nostalgia feelings and childhood imagery brimming with emotion. We would often dream of the exact same fictional place where so many things had happened. Each of us drew a map of that place to compare it and it was identical. There is also that part of experimenting with mind altering substances; Sometimes it can be a whole chorus mumbled or piece of imagery projected into your head in a split of a second. we are also in charge of the art department so all the art around the music is also us, as for right now, just me.

In what way does your sound differ from the rest genre-related artists/bands and why should we listen to your music? In other words, how would you describe your sound?

Our rule was to only record those songs that gave us goosebumps while writing and singing them and not just to fill a space in the album. We write from the heart and the aim is to get to the heart of the listener. I also noticed that our songs are incredibly uplifting and positive in their nature even when touching very dark subjects. In terms of sound I’d say that the project came to be somewhere between grungy indie pop and garage pop. There is a somewhat power pop kind of song structure presence that all together gives the whole album its signature sound.

Please name your 3 desert islands albums, movies & books…

Albums:
Placebo’s Meds, Smashing Pumpkins – Siamese Dream and The Bands by Radiohead.

Films:
There’s this film called “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” it’s our both favorite, the amount of sympathy we feel toward the main character as he’s looking to find his other half while the film mainly focuses on a very deep and philosophical questions such as can a person become whole as a half? Right now, for me this question takes a whole new form and stays relevant more than ever.
Akira
Mysterious skin

Books:
Errr, “How to survive in a deserted island for beginners?” Or “Survival tips 101”?
“How to build a boat out of a palm tree – a step by step tutorial”?

Can I take video games instead?

I’d take:
Silent Hill 3 for the ps2
Threads of fate for the ps1
Inside for the pc

Do you prefer studio or performing live and why?

I wish I could say live, but all my live experience sums up to open mic evenings, just me and my acoustic guitar. As I mentioned before we were auditioning musicians to our project so we could perform live but then everything stopped. I couldn’t form a band without David in the picture and was hopping that he will get well, that was the plan. It never happened and right now there’s this whole Covid situation. Preforming live in a band is a massive dream of mine and I will most definitely get to it as soon as this whole Covid thing is over.

Is there any funny-unique story you would like to share with us, always in relation to your music ‘career’?

We were looking for a cool location to shoot our first video clip for “Down Here on the Bottom”. I was in a cab on my way home from work. we drove through a highway, I noticed a very interesting looking abandoned park on the side and asked the driver for locations…it was in a middle of nowhere so it was very difficult to coordinate, he gave me the number of the road along with some other directions…I told about this location to David and we had a plan in mind for what we’re going to shoot there. Two months later we were all set up and ready to go there with a filming crew. I gave the coordinates to a taxi driver and he took us there only to find out it was the wrong place…the highway was there alright but no abandoned park…just a random highway in the middle of nowhere, the only thing about it was that it wasn’t very busy in terms of traffic. we quickly realized that it’s perfect as it captures the concept of the song very well. Without second thoughts we started filming. We had shots of us lying in the middle of it while lip syncing the lyrics, jumping on cars that were passing by and just going full crazy. Few hours later the police have shown up and presented us with seven different calls they got, all of them were describing different acts of what we did on that highway. on top of it all we had crazy makeup on, I had my hair dyed orange we were both wearing black sclera eye contacts. The police were in shock as I tried to explain them what was going on. they told us to scatter away immediately which we did only to come back there again on the next day…the double punch is that the video ended up being black and white as we went way too far with the looks. Go check it out “Down Here on the Bottom”

Which track of your own would you point out as the most unique and why?

“Where Are You” is a song that’s been written completely by David. The song focuses on thoughts that are presented as unanswered questions, quickly overshadowed by more questions with the line “where are you” being repeated. As for today, this line suddenly takes a much more direct meaning for me rather than a philosophical one as intended by him originally.

Would you like to share with our readers your future plans?

I am currently writing and recording new material to be released at the beginning of the next year. There will be cool new videoclips and hopefully live shows, so stay tuned !

Free question!!! (Ask yourself a question) you wish to answer and haven’t been given the opportunity…

What is the most difficult thing for you as an artist?

Using my twin brother’s death as advertising! Radio stations, bloggers, influencers etc. You all guys like a good story, so there you go! I’ve got one for you! I truly wish it wasn’t my story to tell. I had to wrestle a lot with myself over this one, as it is incredibly personal and more than just “a story”. I don’t want it in any way to overshadow the music itself but for some people that is the exact thing that will make them go and listen. As long as it serves that purpose it’s the right thing to do but then again, it’s very difficult.

Curated by: Christos Doukakis

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