Today Ze'ev Nehama, who for years was called cynically "the hit machine," can laugh at his critics all the way to the house he's built for himself, somewhere on a moshav he asks we not name. A gigantic Great Dane came out to the street and greeted us happily, wagging its tail. Only after we pass through the gate and the row of trees does the house that the singer-songwriter designed himself come into view, in all its splendor.
The decor resembles the hold of a ship. On the table in the living room is a selection of expensive drinks. On the wall is a framed picture of Jimi Hendrix smoking a huge joint ("This picture reflects an entire generation," comments Nehama ). Many models of ships are scattered throughout the house ("I was in the navy" ), and on the way up to the second floor there is a display of a collection of vintage robots ("I got one as a gift from Kobi Oz and since then the collection has grown, I am not sure how" ). Upstairs is a room that is dedicated to listening to music ("Once a week it's a kick to sit and listen like this to an old record" ). Outside there is a turtle pond. ("They are sleeping now." )
Nehama, born in 1961, is single and lives in this big house by himself; he does, however, often invites friends to parties. The man who is credited with the invention of Mizrahi pop (meaning a genre of music with origins in Muslim countries ) - and with Eyal Golan's first four albums is living, it emerges, like a rock star.
A few minutes after he says he is sort of a hippie type, Nehama adds: "I'm also a capitalist, bro. If you succeed and make money, then fabulous - enjoy yourself." And he is enjoying himself.
Last summer he and his popular band Ethnix issued their album "Ga'aguim" ("Longings" ) and returned to live performances before huge audiences in Caesarea and at the Nokia Center - after five years during which they did not issue any albums.
Is this band - which won tremendous popularity and contributed to the rise of MIzrahi pop in the 1990s - returning to a routine of putting out albums at a steady pace of one per year? Apparently the answer is yes. Today the first single will be released from its new album-in-the-making, due out in about half a year. The new song is called "Ahavat Hinam" (or "Free Love," a play on the Hebrew phrase sinat hinam, for the "baseless hatred" said to have led to the destruction of the Temple ). In it, Nehama appeals to the leader of the people: "Come lift up your head, open your eyes, in front of you are people - a people / Waiting for you to walk the path leading to joy / The joy is sad, receding, when we have anger inside us."
"I wrote that the week of Gilad Shalit's homecoming," reveals Nehama, "But it's not a song about Gilad Shalit. Rather, it's a song of longing for a leader, like Moses, who will lead us to a better place. Look, my political opinions are opposite to Bibi's," he says, referring to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, "but all of a sudden a prime minister comes along and makes a move that made all of us feel so good. The country really did fill up with positive energy then. The whole world suddenly looked at us with admiration, for what we are prepared to sacrifice for one human being. Instead of feeling humiliated for having released so many terrorists, we felt good inside. All of a sudden we realized that mutual responsibility is also good for Israel's image in the outside world."
So why didn't you issue the single that week?
"I have a hard time with 'We Are the World' songs," he replies, referring to the star-studded clip filmed in the 1980s to benefit the starving in Africa, which has since seen many versions. "It's not the modesty thing, believe me. There are places in life where I can be more modest, but if I had released it then, it might have been interpreted as cynical exploitation of the situation. I am incapable of doing things like that - it's not me. Apart from that, the song would have lost its point, which isn't about any specific case."
The lyrics are not directed at specific issues and there isn't any political statement in the song, only a general aspiration for things everyone wants and which are easy to connect to - like joy. Did you want the song to be suitable for everyone and not just for people identified with the social protest?
"Exactly. Look, I will also go to perform in front of the most extreme right wingers and I will not boycott anyone. After all, we performed in Gush Katif (in the Gaza Strip ) half a year before the disengagement, and we told people straight out that we were in favor of the evacuation. They embraced us even though they tried to persuade us to change our mind. I have no problem with that: I believe in total freedom of thought. My basic ideology is like in John Lennon's song 'Imagine' - a world without borders, without religion and all that."
But you are playing both sides. Don't you think that's hypocrisy?
"No. An artist can't be against anyone who has a soul, just as he can't be against any musical style that has soul. In our musical ideology we have always tried to connect things - to connect East and West, contrasting things. Incidentally, we weren't the only ones [to do this in Israeli music]. Benzine, Tislam and Fortisaharoff did it before us. The difference is that we weren't afraid to touch the [Mizrahi] genre. That is to say, to come out expressly and do a duet with Zehava Ben or to produce [works of] a singer like Eyal Golan."
In favor of 'democractatorship'What in your opinion has to be done in the Israel of today?
"It's really beyond me to offer advice, as someone who comes from Holon-South Tel Aviv. But I do know what I would like to do. First of all, I believe in two states for two peoples. I also believe in welfare over security - yes, explicitly also at the budget level. Not long ago I saw a film about a democractatorship (totalitarian democracy ) somewhere in the Far East. That is, the people chose to be ruled over by means of tough laws to which it agrees. Sounds screwed up, but what does it create? Order. Not order like in George Orwell, but order that enables freedom. I wish we could implement that system here, but it wouldn't last a minute here with a mentality like ours.
"I don't live in a constant high. I have my feet on the ground. But it really is possible to believe in the dove with the olive leaf and not the sword. In fact I am a bit of a hippie; my whole musical philosophy is drawn from The Beatles. 'Yellow Submarine' was my first record."
Many artists participated in the big protest this summer. Did you and Ethnix participate too?
"I am not interested in getting filmed [in order to do] public relations for the band. When we perform at hospitals we don't invite the press either. It's not relevant."
Has it been scary to come back to huge performances after five years?
"Sure. There was the feeling that it was a big gamble. Even though we've already appeared in front of large audiences, every time you come out with a new album, you are getting born again and begging again for the audience's love. But you do expect to feel you are still relevant."
Is the band still thirsting for the stage after so many years?
"Of course. We did 82 performances last summer, and in the five years when we didn't issue an album we performed mainly in relatively small places like Zappa in Tel Aviv, the Radio Bar in the north and the Yellow Submarine in Jerusalem. And at sold-out performances. These are performances when people 'buy' you; [the audience consists of workers'] committees from all kinds of organizations, commercial companies and so on. Musicians are ashamed to say this, but this is the majority of the market segment and the performances that ultimately are the most profitable."
Before the album "Longings" came out, you said in an interview that from time to time people would stop you at traffic lights and ask you where Ethnix had disappeared to. Since that album came out, have they stopped asking?
"Absolutely. It's as though we had been here the whole time. They've also started broadcasting more of our albums on the radio. We've come back into awareness: This is a matter of public relations and the right management."
Connecting with IsraelinessOne phenomenon that gathered momentum in the years when Ethnix were out of the spotlight is the large number of television reality shows centering around music, like "A Star is Born," "The Voice" and also "Eyal Golan is Looking for You." Does Nehama watch them?
"If I watch, it's usually to find a singer to work with me. At the time I was very interested in Yuval Danino (who participated in 'A Star is Born' ). I wanted to produce him but in the end it didn't work out."
Would you agree to be a mentor on "The Voice" if it were offered to you?
"No. I was invited to be a judge on the first season of 'A Star is Born.' I refused. It doesn't seem right to me to determine people's fates in public. At auditions I do this; I will give my professional opinion. But to tell a person the truth - that doesn't suit me in front of the whole country. I saw 'The Voice' and very much enjoyed the professional level of the production and also the musical aspect. But I never watch until the end - neither 'A Star is Born' nor 'The Voice.'"
During the past two years some other things happened, which have confused Nehama to some extent: An Israeli project called Doctor Core - featuring prominent "representatives" of the punk and metal scene - issued a full-length album of Ethnix hits in a heavy rock style. In a similar spirit, at the Ozen Bar in Tel Aviv, an evening was held by Tel Aviv indie groups as an homage to Ethnix, only it wasn't clear if the purpose was really to honor Ethnix or to mock them. Or as Nehama says: "I didn't know if this was a real cult thing or a kind of joking form of respect."
Such a query can be understood: These two initiatives began as humorous ventures, but became serious and involved a lot of investment. Sometimes, it seems, humor can reveal a certain truth - like indie groups' love for Ethnix (for example, the series of gay parties arranged by the Arisa production company, which started as a joke but succeeded in bringing Mizrahi performers to an audience that had not previously been exposed to them ).
"A musician like that [i.e., from an indie group], if you tell him, 'Come, it's going to be cool, perform an Ethnix song in your own style' - he will not want to choose an 'obvious' song, but rather will dig around in our discography," says Nehama. "But along the way he is exposed to a lot of our songs he hadn't known before and then he discovers a whole world.
"I didn't want to be another Coldplay, but rather to do something connected to here, even though Coldplay are excellent. At the start of the 1980s I lived in London for two years and saw performances by Queen with Freddy Mercury in a tour of Radio Gaga, and also Simple Minds, Tears for Fears, Gary Numan and Frank Zappa. I tried to form a rock band in London until I realized I was selling ice to Eskimos, so I came back here and connected with my Israeliness."
