Below is the outcome of several emails between myself and the members of Gevolt. Answers have come from the entire band, written by various members, but always labelled or addressed where answers are specific to one of the crew.
Photo by Alex FreiterHow did the founding members meet and come up with Gevolt?
In the early 90's Anatholy Bonder and Dima Lifshits met in the collage class.
Together skipped the entire last semester of the first year and successfully failed the exams))
On the second year they even didn’t try, preferring to play, play, play…
Then they found Vadim Weinstein for a drummming and started a punk rock band called "Pot Of Honey", but in a while military service duty came so they had to split.
In 1999 Anatholy as a singer and Leonid Polonski as a song writer started a project called "ruins of kaballah" - made of programmed orchestration and vocals only.
The Ideas of that project has served as the basis for the GEVOLT in the future. ( some of the songs like “2+2” and “Molotok” were recaptured on a SIDUR album.)
Somewhere in 2001 Anatholy came with desire to make it in electric by gathering a band.
This marked the beginning of GEVOLT.
I'm very glad that you succeeded in failing your exams. The world wouldn't be nearly so much fun without GEVOLT. Out of interest, what were you studying?
Electricity
I consider that rather appropriate :)
'Electrify', 'buzz', 'a bolt from the blue', and more electricity-related turns of phrase all describe what your music is to me in these initial stages of merging it with my mind. In the days since I first found you have have graduated from my main play-list, to my workout play-list, and onto my driving play-list, which is the most critical, as I LOVE to drive, and insist on the best music.
Right music for driving is surely important, that’s true.:)
Photo by Alex FreiterWhat do you guys listen to when you are driving or travelling? Also, who would you consider to be your primary influences? I'd really like to hear from all of you on this, as you each bring your own material to your work.
Misha: It’s always depends, on a company ,mood , time of the day, but mostly it’s energetic.
I often use car audio systems as sound reference when mixing.
I can say with certainty, we are listening to all kinds of genres. We often discuss songs or even whole albums either metal or classic, making some kind of analysis, just to understand more accurately the tastes of each other. We share music between us as well.
Our drummer is a big music lover, listens to new music all the time.
His influences: Deep Purple ,Rainbow, Camel, Kayak, Symphony X.
Anatholys influences:
Egor Letov(Grazhdanskaya Oborona), Auktyon, Sektor Gaza, Nirvana, Ozzy Osbourn, Manowar, Sex Pistols, Rammstein, System of a dawn, Pantera, Metallica, Death, Fedor Shalyapin, Nogu svelo, Green Day, Kusturica and No Smoking Band...
Chants of northern and steppe peoples of Asia.
Those days at work: Letov, Gogol Bordello.
Mark says:
Well, I don't drive, but I listen to music a lot when I'm in a bus on a way to work.
Lots of old good Motown records, Stevie Wonder, David Bowie, Queen, Nirvana, Limp Bizkit, Korn, Slipknot, Michael Jackson, Pendulum, Enter shikari, Air, Mogway, Flaming Lips, Weezer, The Strokes, Blur, Gojira, Pomplamoose, 30 seconds to Mars, Short Stack, Bjork, The Beatles, Imogen Heap, Jan Tiersen, Wagner, The XX... it's about 10% of my iPod content;
influences:
Everything that sounds good. It can be either pop music, indie rock or extreme metal...
Misha: My big influence was Black metal genre, once I played in a band called Arafel - participated on the recording of the first album.
By the way, you can check my other projects :
FB [force]
EIN
Photo by Alex FreiterWas any of the ruins of kaballah project recorded and released?
7 songs were recorded and never released. Rest of the band didn’t even know this recording existed before the interview, so now some of the members became really curious to hear it.))
Haha! They're not the only ones. Do you ever think you would release those songs, perhaps as part of a retrospective project?
Yes, we will.
We will just post em on youtube or something...
And how have you found your new members as older ones have sloughed off?
We have a musician's community(rock\metal), where mostly everyone knows the other, so when someone decides to leave the band, the hearing spreads quite fast. For example, our guitar player already played(jamming) with the drummer before he was invited to the band.
And the Bass player was well known to us from playing in another bands.
Does the magic change, or do you select new people to fit the gaps they're to fill?
Naturally, the changes are always remain its mark.
Of course the magic has changed. Cause it’s – Magic:)
Indeed it is - I'm spellbound. I'm going to have to buy Sidur. What should I expect, in terms of differences to AlefBase?
AlefBase – alphabet. ))
sid·dur n. pl. sid·du·rim (s-drm, sd-rm) Judaism A prayer book containing prayers for the various days of the year.
- a kit of songs for practical use.
We find Sidur more atmospheric, in some way mysterious with a gothic touch.
Are most of your iTunes sales for Sidur in the Israeli store, or are you getting a healthy market building in other countries too?
We think that we got more iTunes sales outside of Israel)), probably because iTunes is not that big(popular) in Israel.
At this moment, we distributing SIDUR through CD Baby (physical/digital) and its not only in Israel.
The territories from which people are buying and downloading your albums from is useful information. I get the feeling you will do very well in the same territories as Rammstein, partly because of the kinship between Yiddish and High German, and the Russian/former USSR connection, but also because, despite the differences, your sound is appealing on many of the same levels as theirs. Have you explored the Spanish-speaking markets?
Not yet.))
Photo by Yevgeny Raw
While I am on the subject of Rammstein, have they had any influence on the development of your sound, or have you worked in a more parallel way?
We like the way Rammstein sounds, but it never was the landmark on developing our sound.
How did the fusion of metal and Yiddish music come to happen? It seems an unlikely marriage, and yet it works.
We like to do incredible things.
Are all your songs based on existing Yiddish songs, or have you composed them from scratch, only to create a feeling of the old style of music. I feel like I recognise some songs, but can't be sure, if it's because they're old and pervasive, or because you are very skilled at composing in that style.
The entire AlefBase album is based on old good traditional Yiddish motifs.
We have made total changes, rearrangements and adds to the originals, guided by our taste.
Recently we started to work on a new album, which hopefully will consist of a new material in Yiddish and we'll not stop on the sound we got in the AlefBase, we'll move forward to get more (maybe more heavy, maybe more folk, maybe more fun, maybe all together)
In that case I probably am recognising the underlying material.
Photo by Yevgeny RawEvolution is important, so I'm glad you're not going to let yourselves get bogged down in the texture of the current album. Are you intending to shift away from the traditional theme for the next one, or are you going to develop on that further?
We're more likely to expand horizons in both ways, to create more individualistic and innovative patterns.
I'm really looking forward to this. How long have your previous albums taken to develop?
About 4 to 5 years each.
We all have daily duties, sometimes it's just hard to find enough time for making music.
At that time we have a discussion within the band for most productive system to make the next one faster but with highest quality.
That's a reasonable development cycle. Can you tell me what you each do outside the band?
Eva is a professional Violinist, plays in orchestra
Anatholy: Family and working as programmer.
Mark says:
I work as an art director in some small design studio. At free time I draw a lot, play with my other bands, write material for my solo project and do a bit of sports.
Dimitry is a sound engineer, post production.
Misha: I work as a sound engineer, recording and producing, mostly working with rock\metal bands.
Photo by Alex Freiter
Are you trying for the beauty, along with the brutality, or is that an inevitable side-effect of the Yiddish style of music tinting even the harshest elements with gold?
We are not trying, but doing Music first of all.
...and last of all.
...and in the middle:)
Let the magic form itself, then. The violin is a big part of the old world feel and the beauty of your music. Are there any other instruments you would like to fuse with your current line-up?
Hard to tell at this point, it possible that we will mix in some additional instruments, as we did on AlefBase’s 11 track (Bay Mir Bistu Sheyn) and 3 track (Der Rebe Elimelekh).
So far we treat this as a post production thing, which usually takes place at much further step of making an album.
That makes sense, given your method for composing and developing songs. I was thinking after writing the last question that some cellos and double basses would work so well woven through the guitar wall, and boost the violen really well.
We will think about it:)
Given your eastern heritage have you considered 'metal-plating' traditional, non-Yiddish songs from your countries of birth
Not really.
Sudir album is somehow displays that.
Do you plan to tour outside Israel, if so, which countries show the most promising fan-bases so far?
We're working hard on local booking for now.
We'd like to make some long tour, since we have fans in many countries in the world. Recently we've got a bunch of gig proposals in some Europe countries and USA. Also in Russia and former USSR countries (Which is not a miracle, all of our band members were born in former Union).
By now we're doing all of booking and promotion by ourselves, but still looking for some booking agency to help us.
Photo by Yevgeny RawWould you like to make an album in a new language, such as English or Hebrew?
Yes,I think, Hebrew is really interesting to make a metal record with.
Which nations are you each from, originally, and what brought you to Israel?
Anatholy:
I was born in Kiev (Ukraine) and lived there. Also lived in Nizhnevartovsk (Russia - Siberia) about 6-7 years.
My parents brought me to when I was 16.
Mark:
I was born at Russian border with China (Khabarovsk, Russian Far East district) and in the age of 17 moved to Israel. Well, I'm not that big sionist. I just was young and wanted some adventures.
Vadim:
Russia - Belgorod . Repatriated with parents at age 15.
Misha:
I was born in Tashkent – Uzbekistan. Repatriated with parents at age 11.
Dimitry was born in Russia, I think, in Sverdlovsk.
Noting the Russian, Yiddish, and then mention of Hebrew, it almost sounds like the band's journey is parallel to your personal journeys, or even the recent history of Russian Jews. Is that a fair observation, or is that reading too much into it?
More or less the impression is correct;
We have absorbed various elements of the different cultures, that somehow were transformed into the essence of Gevolt.
Also, is there an agenda within your music to promote, raise awareness of, or educate regarding Israel?
We are reflecting our ways, our home, and our state of mind through music.
Of course we are inspired and influenced by the environment which we are surrounded by.
Whether it be walking the old city of Jerusalem or hanging around with friends on the embankment of Tel-Aviv.
How do you feel about being compared to Rammstein? This comes about because of the awesome vocals of Anatholy, and the combination of lung-flattening guitar and keyboards, but you each so clearly represent two very divergent focuses.
Being compared to Rammstein is not a crime:)
After all, Rammstein is a great band.
There's nothing to do, we both have a low-pitched vocalist and a wall of guitars.
While Anatholy's voice is different to Lindemann's, they have similar vocal ranges, and both sing with a distinctly operatic touch, so comparison is somewhat inevitable. What really solidifies the similarities between the two men is the exaggerated rolling of Rs. Is this speech mannerism a trait of Yiddish speech, or is it Anatholy's own, as it is with Lindemann?
Well, we do not see much difference, whether it's Sidur with singing in Russian or AlefBase.
So likely it Anatholy’s specification.))
Photo by Ludmila BazarovAnatholy, your singing is a revelation. Which language is your favourite?
I love Russian, Hebrew, Yiddish, English, German, Finnish...
Some of those i know well, some of those not much and some of those absolutely not:)
My native language is Russian ( thats why - Rs), then it was English (in school), after that - Hebrew, and now i'm learning (or think that learning) Yiddish - and I like it too.
Your music is brutal, sensitive, and highly immersive. Do any of you ever wonder how on earth this has come about? That is, does it all seem to be much more than you expect, after you've been jamming, and come to pull everything together for the first time?
It's something that has to do with certain people and their specific relationships within the band, which is probably impossible to calculate.
A symbiosis of personalities, various dynamics and desire for self-expression, if you will.
We worked hard on the “AlefBase” album and ultimately - we're satisfied with the result.
Nowadays I get a little bit excited with the ideas I’m writing down for the new one.
How do you develop your compositions as a group?
We do it by stages.
Most of our compositions has been developed within the rehearsals,
then got polished during the recordings.
Since we record and mix by ourselves, final touches are possible till the final point.
Photo by Yevgeny RawDo you have a dominant personality in the band, or do you operate as a democracy?
Usually the dominance in our band passes from person to person, depending on the matter.
Cool. What about the cliche roles? You know: the clown who cracks wise all the time, the peacemaker, the weird ideas person, the serious person, the motivator, etc. Who's who?
Every one of us in different times become one of those persons:)
Do any of the band members have musical side-projects, aside from Misha and Eva with her job?
Vadim’s side project
Gevolt website
Gevolt's current album download
Gevolt on Facebook
Gevolt on Twitter
Gevolt on YouTube
Gevolt on MySpace
Gevolt on Last.FM
Thank you, Gevolt.
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