Michelle Kaplan

Yoav on the Brink of his Big Break

Listening to the music of Yoav, it’s hard to believe that the sounds coming from the acoustic guitar are only coming from an acoustic guitar.

If you only heard Yoav, you’d think drums, a synthesizer if not a few other instruments accompanied his guitar, but nope, he goes solo, just a guy and his guitar.

Using a unique picking style, banging the body of the guitar and singing, humming into the pick ups are just some ways that Yoav creates the kind beat music that DJs mix up in clubs. In fact, at one time in his life, Yoav aspired to be just that.

“There was a point when I wanted to be a DJ but I didn’t have money or equipment. I love electronic music.”

Which is just one contradiction of this artist. He loves electronic music and chose to play an acoustic guitar, coaxing the instrument to mimic the electronic beats. As far as writing goes, that’s also different.

“I write to the beat instead of strumming.”

His unique sound caught the ear of Tori Amos who invited him to be her opening act for her current tour.

“Tory had not found the right support yet…she wanted to take on someone she likes,” Yoav said that someone gave her his CD to listen to in the car.

“She got out the car and said, “This is the one.”"

Before that, Yoav had played around, but not on this scale.

“It’s been amazing… a bit of a blur. The beginning was really tense, totally. I got used the larger crowds quiet quickly. It’s taken on a dream like quality.”

As for touring with Tori…

“She’s amazing all the people she surrounds herself with are really cool… She keeps to herself, we’ve spoken a little bit… she’s quiet eccentric, anyway.

But Yoav has heard from Tori’s people that he’s broken that barrier between being just the opening act that you have to sit through, to one that people have taken notice.

“Because she has such hardcore fans that come every night, the response has been unbelievable… she’s not heard that response for an opening act.”

He also realizes that he’s gaining popularity with the climbing number of hits he has received on his myspace page. To hear a few songs from his CD Charmed & Strange, visit: http://www.myspace.com/yoavmusic

For Yoav, going from playing locally to a full out tour was the next logical step on the path of this career, which has basically chosen him. Musically, the deal was sealed when he was a teen in high school and went to see Crowded House play a concert.

“Somehow I ended up on stage singing with the band.”

After that, a bit of mystique was born as rumors spread that he was a secrete member of the band.

Although his parents pushed the classics he was enamored with bands like OutKast, Bjork and Radio Head. Eventually his music was heard.

“My tunes were heard by executives at Columbia records…it was a lot of hard work and banging my head for sure.”

“Strangely when I was a teen I wrote a lot of romantic songs…teen angst, social commentary on society…the world in the 21st century, the media, what I see happening to people around me.”

And although apartheid was alive and well in his early teens, Yoav kept it real, he did not venture to write about what he didn’t experience.

“During the apartheid, I never thought it was my place… I was 13 when apartheid was disbanded; it was the general notion that something was wrong. I come from a liberal upbringing. I didn’t think it was my place to write about living in poverty in the townships. A lot of white artists write about life in the townships.”

Even still, growing up in Cape Town, South Africa he felt like an outsider.

I’ve always been very different and alienated from the culture in school…sort of watching the world from the outside.”

Although Yoav was born in Israel, he didn’t have much of a Jewish upbringing. He attended a Christian school. All of this was part of that disconnected feeling. However, today he realizes that made him who he is.

“Now I connect with a lot of people, but for years I didn’t….I didn’t fit in …it’s been weird it used to upset me…now I’m grateful.”

His ethereal music touches us because it speaks to the outsider in us all. This paradox of feeling uncomfortable in one’s own skin is a most universal experience. Anyone who can relate to that can understand and appreciate Yoav and his music.

“I’m not really about to define it, left of center, slightly strange pop music… I think it’s unique without being self-indulgent. I still call it pop music, it’s catchy tunes that stick in your head but it comes from the heart… there’s a lot of great music but a lot of it fits into a category, for me a s a listener I live for the moments where I haven’t heard that before and I’d like to think that this has that thing going on, that difference.

After the tour, he’s going home to sit on the beach for a while.

“I’m writing…I have some ideas for the next record. I don’t want the record to be just about acoustic guitar. I have some ideas but nothing concrete yet…. It’s a little bit of everything…When the tour is done I think I’m going spend a lot of time figuring out what I’m going to say next.”

Catch Yoav, opening for Tori Amos at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, West Palm Beach on November 21 at 8 PM. For tickets and more information, call (954) 523-3309 or (561) 966-3309.