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 Recently the debut album of Eric Berman was released. Because Eric studied in the school of the Mesika's (Miri Mesika, Keren Peles and Aiya Korem), he was banned to play nothing but mainstream music. At least that is what you learn when you read Eric’s texts.
Eric portrays himself as the bad child of the Peles-Galgalatz family, a kind of mutation of Shlomi Shaban, Casanova and Che Guavara, a guy that doesn't compromise, a womanizer, witty, who likes to tell stories, a person that doesn’t waste to much money on shaving knifes.
But to the interview turns up a different Eric Berman, a bit more shy, doesn’t walk straight up and a guy that didn’t have a steady girlfriend for already 5 years. The stories that Berman tells on stage are all written in advance, stories that have become a must at his concerts, have become a cult. For example he can tell a story about the time he did a voodoo ceremony on stage to the people that give parking fines. “At one performance I got a doll, bread crumbs, candles, spells I downloaded from the internet and with that I did a ceremony. The ceremony wasn’t done to kill those people, but with the aim that their loved ones leave them!”. Song lyrics: The parents usually help, but that will cost you your peace of mind and freedom. It’s not just the fish, there is something here that really stinks; piercing in the tongue, the piano in the living room, the drugs in the closet aren’t giving any clue. Berman tells: “My parents still ask me sometimes, are the drugs still in the closet? And I think that’s the reason that I wrote it in a general tense and not in first tense, so they wouldn’t know that its really about me. My parents didn’t want me to be in the music field. They don’t think its a serious profession, but I have to say its really weird that they called me Eric. My mom says I was called this way, cause they renamed me after Eric Clapton, and my dad says its because of Eric Burdon. Both world famous artists and then they are surprised I’m a musician”. Q: How was your parents reaction towards you becoming a singer ?
A: They didn’t agree with me becoming a singer. I paid it by myself. After the army I thought I will sit a bit at home, study, work and have fun, but a week after sitting home my mom noticed that I’m sitting all day at home and playing music and just wanted to kick me out. Of course I decided to leave home, without even 1 shekel , against everything, just to do on purpose, because I was told there is something I’m not allowed to do. At my first concert they understood that there is something serious here. After 3 years of meeting and every time fighting, they suddenly have changed their thoughts. Actually also I did some manipulation; I was offered a contract by the company Anana, a very bad contract and it was a risk. I told them that if they wont invest in an album for me i will sign this bad contract! Q: And the contract was for 18 years and 50% of the profit?
A: Yes! Really ridiculous, especially if your not successful, although even if you are successful it’s a bad contract. The thing is, that in today’s situation of the music industry you don’t earn much more also if your not with them. Nowadays everyone takes a high percentage of the profit from the sales. I was lucky and after discussing it many times with my parents they understood it would be wise to invest in an album for me. Q: After that you continued in good terms with your parents again?
A: When they agreed to give the money, I wasn’t sure I would accept it, because to take my musical future and hand it over to them is almost like taking Israel and handing it over to Ahmadinejad. I was afraid every time I didn’t come to visit them on a Friday, they would take back their proposition and there wouldn’t be an album. Their terms were that I come and visit them every Friday, I treat my brothers and sisters in a decent way and that sometimes I will pick up the phone and call them Q: Do you phone your family sometimes and do you treat your brothers and sisters nicely?
A: I don’t do any of these things ! Although the bad boy mentality, as we have read about his attitude towards his parents, drugs and songs about lots of sex, its hard to ignore that on cell phone he has the numbers of the Mesika’s on speed dial. Berman has written songs for the singers Miri Mesika and Aiya Korem, so it seems that Berman can’t make up his mind. On one hand he doesn’t want to spoil his relationship with the Mesika’s on the other hand he doesn’t want to be recognized as the bad brother of the Mesika family. Berman wants to be leveled higher than them, in terms of the quality of music he makes. Berman asks: “Who is a better musician than me ? Once it was Shlomo Artzi, but he hasn’t released anything good for over 10 years. Maybe Shalom Chanoch, Eran Tzur, and Aviv Geffen, from whom I learned that you don’t need a decent voice to sing. Currently there isn’t much quality in the music, maybe only from Shlomi Shaban. Q: And that’s it ?
A: It’s not that I think that I’m better than everyone beside Shlomi Shaban. I just think that my songs are working well, because of what’s going on in the music scene. Things are just not good. This generation is a plastic one, the musical composition and production has taken over everything, but I think that now people are looking for something beyond. And I can give them what they are looking for, and its the connection of good texts with the melody. I hope it will create a generation that will understand the importance of the written text, my job is to put the text at the center of things. Q: You wrote the song Words for Aiya Korem, not like you, the Mesika’s have a tendency to use lots of words?
A: I don’t think that Aiya writes something shallow or catchy on purpose, I guess it just comes out this way and she shouldn’t be blamed for it. Q: Then who do you think should be blamed for the dictatorship of the Mesika’s on the radio stations?
A: What the Mesika’s create is their maximum, so people shouldn’t blame them but the radio for playing lots of identical and not interesting stuff. Q: What is your opinion about the place from where all of you came from, The Rimon Art School ?
A: On one hand I met all my friends and musical instrument players in Rimon. On the other hand I don’t know what Rimon is, cause it calls itself a school for contemporary Jazz music, like there are Jazz clubs on every street corner in Israel and the whole scene is blooming.
So this school puts all its weight on Jazz music and if someone does anything else they despise that person. The management of that school just doesn’t think correctly, after all, all the fame and recognition this school got was because of artists that made Pop and Rock music. Q: What about the Mesika’s, do they praise and compliment you?
A: Keren Peles compliments me although I can see that its really hard for her, but I can understand it, when you create music its really scary that someone will be better than you, or in this case that someone is better then you. But I’m like that too, sometimes I’m invited to a concert of an artist that I don’t know and there is a part in me that just wants to go, just to see that it sucks! Q: What do you think of their songs? (Mesika’s)
A: Keren is a bit like Shlomo Artzi, when you hear her songs for the first time you say to yourself; what is all this rubbish? Eventually you get used to it. At the age of 27 Eric Berman is in the twilight zone, somewhere between being anonymous and a famous star. His songs are played on the radio non-stop, but in the streets not many recognize him. Just few weeks ago, Berman had a short job as barman at the restaurant Fronto of Rafi Eder, but he was fired because he was a lousy barman. Berman admits: "I had to open the books every time someone ordered a drink". For now he is living on the expense of his parents, until his album starts to bring in money. At our second meeting, Eric Berman receives the first copy of his album. He is excited and says: "I’m sorry I’m giving my self compliments, but this album is really beautiful. It’s really surprising and rare that I cant find anything I don’t like about it”.
The album is called Eric Berman 1. It’s surprisingly pretentious for a first album, after all, also the great Beatles named an album like that only after 2 members were already dead. "Its a vision of the future that will come true! this is called the first so there will be a second and more. The industry is full with temporary stars, the time has come for someone to understand and say that he isn’t temporary. Actually this name is good, cause there isn’t one name or one line that can explain it" says Berman. The album is diverse and has many music styles on it, like Rock, Jazz, Electronic, Acoustic, and his texts zigzag between embarrassing honesty (suddenly your mumbling that I was the best you had in bed, but that wasn’t so hard all the others did you standing/ like a bouquet of violets, he brings you 300 grams of dry fruit).
Berman tells: “What really bugs me is the time when I’m not recording, cause you record music for few hours then you go home and you have nothing. It’s really hard for me to separate my personal life from my life as an artist, because of that some people say that I’m neglecting my health, but there isnt anything I can do about it. Those are the requirements of the role as an artist, you have to smoke and drink yourself to death. To live an artist life you also have to be sad. When your happy and things are good in your life your angry towards yourself. Angry towards life that it isn’t bringing any dramas so you can write, but I have to say that at some point I do the separation, cause I also want to be happy of course". Q: Do you feel that if you wont make any more music, a part of you will die?
A: No! Q: So why do you need to take out an album at all?
A: I want people to say that its good. I also hope a bit that it will help me more with women. I’m really to picky, so picky that its almost intolerable. Q: You need an album to have it more easy with women? From your album people will think that you already had sex with every woman in Tel-Aviv standing!
A: In the songs I wear all kinds of hats, some of these hats isn’t really me. I do so to tell a story. In the song The Last Sweethearts, that Reshet Gimel has forbidden to play on their station because they claim its to Chauvinistic and also encourages the teenagers to rape woman, I portray myself as a man that likes to have sex with many women, throw them away, do in life whatever I feel like, but its still a portray. Q: So that’s not a side in your personality ?
A: Well actually there are real parts from it in my personality. For example when I mentioned in the song the woman that doesn’t want to remove her clothes while I’m having sex with her, its a real thing. But its not that I have that many one night stands, like I said I’m very picky. Q: Would you like to be the person you portray in that song ?
A: Of course, totally! Lately I’m learning and teaching myself to be more and more of a chauvinist, and I’m learning that from the species that are the real chauvinists in this world: the women.
I have learned from them that they really don’t want a good guy. When your a good person they don’t want you, and those that will say the opposite are just lying and being hypocrite.
For example, I don’t pick up the phone anymore the day after I have been with a girl. Sometimes I still have to fight it, cause there are some nice girls I go with and I want to call them after an hour, but now I’m a romantic man that’s fighting with himself to be disgusting toward women. Q: Who is the lucky girl you mentioned in your song, the girl that everyone screwed standing ?
A: She is a girl from Tivon (town). She use to be my girlfriend, almost my whole album is about her. Before the album came out I sent it to her so she wouldn’t be surprised when she would hear the songs. Yeah everyone screwed her, had sex with her standing. Q: You did that to ask for her permission ?
A: No not at all. I did it so she will understand what’s about to happen. She really didn’t like it and we aren’t talking at all since, but I think that if a person has such strong emotions towards someone else and writes such a song, the person that the song is written about can get hurt. On the other hand the person that the song is written about should also say that its flattering that such a song was written about me. Q: What did she do to deserve such a song ?
A: She didn’t do anything and honestly she didn’t deserve it. When I wrote it I didn’t think how she would react to it. I write when I’m hurting inside, out of distress,. When I wrote the text I was really angry, drunk and hurt, because she had returned to my life, sent me letters. I’m sorry for hurting her with the song but I write these songs for myself, and I when I write I cant take people’s feelings into consideration. Q: So now you can disrespect your parents, don’t give a damn about anything, but in few years you will have kids, and you will have to be thoughtful about other peoples feelings ?!
A: Right now I don’t care about anyone or anything beside myself. And children aren’t coming into any consideration, cause I don’t want kids at all.
Reference:
Yediot Ahronot, On The Way Up, Becareful Rimon
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