 An interview with the popular Daniel Salomon, telling about his youth, his relationship with ex-girlfriend Dana Adini and work relationship with Aviv Geffen.
Q: If you were registered and had to fill in a profile at J-Date how would you describe yourself?
A: "Okay, I would write it this way: a man seeking for a woman (I admire women, because you'll are smarter and prettier than us, actually I would define my self as lesbian), a secular (of course), smokes (a lot), Ashkenazi (unfortunately), left winged (I love to bug taxi drivers and tell them that soon Baylin will be the prime-minister), sometimes likes to drink booze (even alone sometimes at home, but not before concerts)".
Q: What about drugs?
A: "Really not, there was a period I did, but it ended. Drugs stops your emotional and professional development, but I'm not going to preach anyone about it".
Q: Height?
A: "Write 174 cm (5"8.5), but the last time I checked my height I was in the 10th grade".
Q: You must have become taller since no? Anyway it's common to lie on the internet.
A: "I never lie, not in real life and not on the internet".
Q: Desired kind of woman?
A: "If you have a dark side and you like Fellini’ s movies as much as you like Die Hard 4. Also you might find yourself fighting with me about who's turn it is to use and play on the computer, and if you don't have any problems with the way you look and with your femininity, contact me through the reporters of the paper".
Q: Do you know women that don't have a problem with the way they look?
A: "You'll be surprised to know that there are many woman that don't have a problem with the way they look also if they are not perfect, I really find that sexy. Sometimes I see women that are fat and walk outside with a shirt that reveals their stomach. I really find it nice and exciting, that they are willing to accept themselves the way they are. Generally bimbos have some charm that really attracts me and turns me on, something about them that's direct without any restraints".
Q: And how would you describe yourself in the add?
A: "As a spontaneous and sensitive man of course".
Last week Daniel Salomon (34), registered for the first time to a gym. With his upcoming concert tour that will accompany his new album "Haifa 87", Daniel wont be sitting at the piano anymore but stand in front of the audience, and he isn’t exactly the model that you find on the cover of a magazine.
Daniel: “I had to work in order to accept myself, now that I'm not behind the piano anymore people notice me. Even days after performing at a concert, I still ask myself why did I do this or that and why did I say one thing or another. On the other hand I don't "play" the game of celebrity, I come from music. In my neighbourhood there is a lot of paparazzi, and when I moved here, they were stalking me a lot, but eventually they understood that I am a very boring person, at the most I go to a café and back”.
Q: Wouldn’t you like to be the idol of teenage girls?
A: "Yes, sometimes I feel jealous of things I'm not, for example all those funk bands that can play hard or play boys, but I'm not like them".
When Salomon is being asked about his success, he says that Israel is a small place and that no one here becomes a multi millionaire, does lot's of plastic surgeries and builds a theme park. And although you wont find in his apartment the chimp bubbles eating a bag of bamba, there is something fishy about his neat apartment in northern Tel-Aviv.
The theme song from his new album "Haifa 87" is a song about growing up bitter sweet in Haifa and the album is about love, love and a bit more love. Cynics might twist their noses, but Salomon protests against it and says: “I have to deal with love, the contrary is true, there isn’t enough of it in the world, I love kitsch and create pop music and I'm not ashamed of it, critics say that I aim at the main stream music? That’s great! I think that many of the critics have a lack of ability to deal with feelings, and that manifests itself by them wanting to kick those that deal with feelings. I have my cynical side and cynical humour, but till now it has littered my writing, cynicism is a defence and when I write I don’t feel like defending but opening myself up.
Daniel Salomon's story sounds like a cliché, the rejected fat kid from Haifa comes to the big city, studies a year in Rimon, the school of arts, makes a bold phone call to Aviv Geffen who makes him his keyboardist, tries to hook up with one of the record labels and eventually makes it thanks to a stubborn producer (Lilian Shutz), takes out an album that conquers the radio station of Galgalatz and another album that goes gold, and on the way wins a beautiful girl.
But Salomon didn’t change himself much, didn't try to become thinner, didn’t hire a stylist, didn’t appear at all kinds of brand celebrations and introductions, and didn’t participate in Festigals (children song contests), even when he participated in the Cellcom commercial he didn’t kiss Daniela Wirtzer in it. When talking about the pretty woman, its also a complicated and delicate subject as Dana Adini his ex girlfriend owes her popularity to him, as she participated in the charming video "Many Roads" and everyone wondered who is the pretty woman with Daniel in the clip.
Daniel: “She was my girlfriend until two years ago, her recognition from the media came during our time together, and her success came later on, she participated in the TV show "Our Song" and later becoming a singer. For me she was always Dana Adini, when I heard her singing I told her that I am going to fall in love with her madly. She is a very complicated person emotionally, she has a dark side and many things within her aren’t solved yet, and being with her took out lots of energy from me, after all we were two people making music and living together.
Q: Dana Adini is a beautiful woman?
A: "Very beautiful, gorgeous".
Q: You had a problem with her being so pretty?
A: "Inside of me there is a small kid from Haifa from 87, that isn't full with confidence that's surprised like "What? She really wants me?", I think I have a tendency to make people not accept me for what I am. I didn't think that I am worthy or that I am good looking. Recently a guy hit on me on the street and it has nothing to do with homosexuality from my side but it made me think the same way, wow, he thinks I'm hot, then you tell yourself no he is wrong".
Q: So you didn’t believe you're with Dana?
A: "I didn't, and as evidence you can see that its over, this relationship didn’t have the correct balance, I always felt that sometimes I am giving to much".
Q: It's hard for you to see how successful she is today?
A: "Totally the opposite, I am happy she is doing well, and hope she will have more success, I think she is a huge talent. But I will tell you what's really difficult, what's difficult is that when you break up with someone you love and there is a song that connects you'll together, and Dana's voice will always be part of the song "Many Roads", it's difficult to come to the award ceremony of channel 24 and to sing it with her, after she tells you before you'll sing that she has another boyfriend, someone you know, it's really hard, it turns around your heart several times. It's good this song is a song about breaking up, a song you don’t have to smile in".
Salomon was born into a culture loving family, to parents from Russia and Poland.
Daniel: “My folks loved me but didn’t show emotions. My dad was an architect and my mom was a house wife that took me a lot to plays and shows, and that made me a very serious person on one hand and on the other hand broadened my knowledge. I use to listen to Pink Floyd when I was already 4 years old thanks to my older brother, who is 12 years older than me and the guitar player and one of the producers of the band "Beit HaBubot". My sister, who's 7 years older than me is my twin soul, she is a teacher. Because of the difference in the ages between the children in the family we grew up in a way as single kids, 2nd generation to the holocaust. I started to learn to play the piano when I was 5 years old. In Haifa back in 1987 in high school I use to wander out a lot, like I don't have a house, I use to smoke a lot”.
This is also what Salomon writes in the songs of his new album.
Daniel: “My growing up period was really homeless, I didn’t have anyone to create music with, go to concerts with, on the other hand I am glad I grew up in a mountain lonely area like Haifa than a shallow and competitive place like Tel-Aviv”.
When we went to visit Salomon at the rehearsals for his upcoming show, we discovered that he is very strict, doesn't like to chit chat and laugh to much with the band players, sometimes he likes to get drunk, and also eat very well, beside that to play violent games on his computer, but the thing he likes the most is to sit and write songs.
Daniel: “Yes I like to write songs a lot, that’s the way it is when your hobby is also your profession”.
Recently he has written the theme songs for the movies, "Someone Too Run With" and "Secrets", and also worked a bit with Shlomo Artzi on his latest album "Sane".
Daniel: “I have learned a lot from Aviv Geffen, Owen Wilson, Mika Karni and Rockfor, and suddenly I got an invitation to come and work with Shlomo Artzi, I was excited as its very interesting but not simple. It's unpredictable that a person with so much experience like Shlomo also has a fragile and insecure side, its kind of a contrast between inner strength and fragility, between total confidence on the stage and none in the studio.
Q: People say that Shlomo can also be quite a dictator?
A: "Because I came from working with a great artist like Aviv to Shlomo I came without any ego, and of course when you are in a studio with a person for a long time you see also the down sides and the bad sides of that person. Sometimes when we were in the studio, out of boredom, there is a need to tease and Shlomo is really good at it, for example he told me, you know I listened to your album, there are two, three fine songs, the rest just sounds the same. If I had to much ego, I would have become insulted and left, but I knew he was teasing me, so I also told him that he has the same problem, but in his case, his albums fully and completely sound the same".
Talking about endings and break up’s, Salomon broke up during these last two years not only from Dana Adini but also from Aviv Geffen. Daniel use to be the keyboard player of Aviv for years, Aviv was the one that gave him the opportunity to sing at his concerts.
Daniel: “The break up from Aviv was as hard as the break up from Dana. Aviv was a person I have seen more than any other person in my life, but I decided that now I'm alone. Now it's Daniel Solomon against the entire world and I don’t have any safety net for it. I understood that I deserve much more, I understood that I too have my wills and wishes, now it's my turn. Till recently I use to give up so much and be there for the other person I was with, and I found out that not once that the other side took bad advantage of it. After all we have a person that’s doing so much for us, is willing to give up so much for us, so we should use him and squeeze him like a mop”.
Q: A mop?
A: "My experience in relationships is to give all of me to the other side. When someone enters my life that person can easily become the main character in my life, therefore I decided that I can't keep on with that and I prefer to keep my energy for myself".
Q: Is it weird for you to see Aviv Geffen as a father (his wife gave birth)?
A: "It's weird but also very exciting, and I think he is a charming father. It only made me feel a bit sad, you see people around you growing up, people around you starting families, and you have to make the music and put your career before everything it’s a bit like when I was 6-7 years old, I understood then that if I keep on playing the piano I will have to give up lots of TV, in a music career you have to give up a lot".
So it seems that like in the duet with Dana Adini, Salomon is keeping an approach of "Its safest from a distance". Daniel prefers to sit at home alone and play the piano.
Daniel: “In the last two years I gave up the idea of being in a serious relationship, for the music, yes its kind of being a hermit, but I feel that currently there is no place for anyone in my life. As I am famous now it has become even more hard, as you cant always know what the person in front of you wants from you, but I'm not afraid of being lonely, or maybe its my defence from life. Today I choose carefully the people I let into my life, because there is a side in me that can fall in love easily and quickly, and usually if something starts in a high wave it also breaks up quickly.
Part of my growing up is to say to myself, okay I love to be with and around beautiful women, they can excite me easily, but now I have to watch out and realize which ones from them are good for me and which aren't. But I am usually attracted to women that aren’t good for me”.
Q: For example?
A: "I am attracted to a combination of very beautiful women that have a dark and a bit of a depressed side. Helena Bonham Carter in "Fight Club", you just want her to take a knife and murder you, "Stab me, I will accept it with love you probably had a bad day". I also noticed that I draw to myself many obsessive and crazy women, and I'm talking about really hardcore women. Maybe because I pay so much attention to them, that I can see the darkness and try to light it up with a flashlight".
Q: Dark sided women are so 80's aren’t you over that ?
A: "There are things that I guess I will never be over from".
Do you want to know more on Daniel Salomon? Read his full biography here !
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Im a musicain from LA who stumbled across DS music and he is by all means a genious!