Speaker A
Hello, hello. Welcome back to the Meaningful People podcast. Nachi Gordon here, and I'm joined by my new co-host, Mama Bauman. What's up, everyone? How are you, dude?
Explore Mordechai Shapiro's journey as a Jewish music pop star on Meaningful People podcast with hosts Nachi Gordon and Mama Bauman.
Key Takeaways
- Mordechai Shapiro blends traditional Jewish themes with contemporary pop music.
- His music is deeply influenced by personal experiences and meaningful friendships.
- The 'Friends' music video represents a break from conventional Jewish music norms.
- Producing creative projects often involves overcoming unexpected challenges.
- Balancing career ambitions with family and cultural values is central to Mordechai’s life.
What the video covers
- Introduction of hosts Nachi Gordon and Mama Bauman, setting the tone for the Meaningful People podcast.
- Discussion about Mordechai Shapiro’s background, including his large family and early musical experiences.
- Insight into the creation and concept behind Mordechai’s music video 'Friends' and its significance.
- Exploration of Jewish music traditions and how Mordechai aims to innovate within those boundaries.
- Personal stories about friendship, loss, and dedication that inspired Mordechai’s songwriting.
- Behind-the-scenes challenges faced during the music video production, including logistical issues.
- Mordechai’s reflections on his career, family life, and balancing music with personal values.
- The influence of Jewish culture and spirituality on Mordechai’s music and performances.
- Discussion of Mordechai’s collaborations and connections within the Jewish music industry.
- Closing thoughts on the future of Jewish music and Mordechai’s role in shaping it.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction and Host Welcome
- 04:27Nervousness and Podcast Dynamics
- 08:19Discussion of 'Friends' Music Video
- 12:40Inspiration Behind the Song 'Friends'
- 21:06Music Video Production Challenges
- 25:17Logistical Solutions and Bus Story
- 29:35Mordechai’s Childhood and Family Background
- 33:57Jewish Music Industry and Career Reflections
- 42:07Personal Life and Balancing Career
- 46:30Closing Thoughts and Future Outlook
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
about myself um my wife and i live in north woodmere and we were blessed with six children um and as the co-host as the new co-host of meaningful people it's it's really not about me as much as my work here is
Speaker A
Yes, right, this is happening. So yeah, Nachi asked me to share a little bit about myself. My wife and I live in North Woodmere, and we were blessed with six children.
Speaker A
father's father who was a pioneer in los angeles and his yard site is this week the week that we're recording this is of pesach and i hope that all of the avodah that we do here serves as a tremendous elite nishmasi i
Speaker A
As the co-host, as the new co-host of Meaningful People, it's really not about me as much as my work here is to help our guests, our meaningful people, really unpack their stories, help spread the light of their message.
Speaker A
without further ado you are listening to the meaningful people podcast the podcast featuring our nation's most impactful influential and meaningful people [Music] mordechai shapiro right what's what's up wait are we are we like do you want to literally like
Speaker A
And my namesake, I'm known as Momobaum, and my namesake, my name is Maisha Aaron Bauman, and my namesake is my paternal grandfather, my father's father, who was a pioneer in Los Angeles.
Speaker A
get really nervous you're not you don't look like the nervous type i'm not really nervous also this is super convenient because i live like six minutes away right so i'll be you know home pretty quickly what's your what's your address
Speaker A
And his yahrtzeit is this week, the week that we're recording. This is of Pesach, and I hope that all of the avodah that we do here serves as a tremendous aliyah nishmasi.
Speaker A
amazing well thank you so much for for joining us is really so excited to have you here and we got a lot to talk about so um what do you say what's the talk what do you say we jump right in let's jump
Speaker A
I mean, we're so excited about the future. We definitely have a lot of great episodes coming, and this episode is with Mordechai Shapiro. Had a blast recording this, so happy that we were able to do this, and
Speaker A
what we're going to start with i think yeah we might have milked that entire segment though um i wanted to talk about your video that you made with a bunch of friends just because it looks like the most
Speaker A
without further ado, you are listening to the Meaningful People podcast, the podcast featuring our nation's most impactful, influential, and meaningful people.
Speaker A
your friend okay so a lot to talk about friends first of all the idea of con the concept of friends was jewish music has like certain unwritten rules okay and i i don't want to say i broke them oh
Speaker A
[Music] Mordechai Shapiro, right? What's up? Wait, are we like, do you want to literally like—
Speaker A
to bring to the table that it doesn't just have to be words of tohilum or words from the sukkim or from the from the torah from the sitter and even when we sing english songs maybe we could we could branch out there's other
Speaker A
This is it. We're doing it. Like, here we are.
Speaker A
years ago crime kaznet who was the best guy just the best um he was my best friend since were little kids um long story short he was in the army he did he traveled after the army as many
Speaker A
Yeah. Okay, all right. I'm nervous. Are you?
Speaker A
dedicating a song to him and he was so fun he was he was the life of the party he had the best smile he was jokester so sweet always there to help like literally you know we always think like
Speaker A
I mean, that's like our go-to thing with speakers, singers. Like, do you get nervous? And some people get nervous, some people get really nervous. You're not—you don't look like the nervous type.
Speaker A
wasn't who he was wasn't genuine enough it wasn't him even though he he would appreciate a comfort song but it needed to be for him so i thought of writing a song about friendship something upbeat something you could
Speaker A
I'm not really nervous. Also, this is super convenient because I live like six minutes away, right? So I'll be, you know, home pretty quickly. What's your—what's your address?
Speaker A
he loved to travel he loved to have a good time so i said let's do it let me let me invite some of my friends which was of course another uh semi-awkward situation who makes the cut who makes
Speaker A
My address is, uh, it's in the comments. Yeah.
Speaker A
do friends too i still got to get to that but we'll talk about that another time so i i created this two-day plan shimmy sokal shot the video he's a rock star she was the best um and shimmy had a blast also
Speaker A
First of all, thank you for having me. Thank you for coming. Thank you for being here. You guys don't even know what's in here, and you'll never know.
Speaker A
and then the night before i'm calling him and then the morning of them calling him no answer i realized i was scammed wow you shouldn't have bought it from the prince who emailed you like this so i went to one of these legit websites
Speaker A
Yeah, amazing. Well, thank you so much for joining us. I'm really so excited to have you here, and we got a lot to talk about. So, what do you say? What's the talk? What do you say we jump right in?
Speaker A
and then they don't guarantee anything i hope he's listening lost my deposit anyway the morning of i have like how many guys did i bring six seven eight guys and we don't have uh a way to get anywhere day off day off and you have
Speaker A
Let's jump right in. Ask me a really serious question.
Speaker A
gonna be on the rv like you saw on the on the bus that we eventually got mayor kay called a friend of his woke him up at literally a quarter to six a.m he has a bus a big school bus that we ended up
Speaker A
Yeah, really. Like, Momo, you want to start the serious one? We could start pretty serious. You want to get serious like quick? Whatever you guys want. Let's talk a little bit longer about
Speaker A
and he was like okay what date he was like a reserved right now he's like okay so we went to crown heights picked up the bus we had a blast and skydiving for the first time which was epic epic
Speaker A
what we're going to start with, I think. Yeah, we might have milked that entire segment, though.
Speaker A
has been a friend of yours since your childhood since you were younger let's talk a little about your childhood what was a little more shapiro like you grew up in a family of how many i'm the youngest of seven whoa okay six
Speaker A
I wanted to talk about your video that you made with a bunch of friends just because it looks like the most
Speaker A
she's amazing um she actually had had an opportunity to to take her career or take her take her talents um you know to the next level and she decided to raise a jewish family instead um and my father's been a hazard my
Speaker A
incredible day of, like, all time. So we'd love to hear about the concept, how it was born, and then how it was executed because it just looks so fantastic. It looks like it's fun to be
Speaker A
my older siblings you know moved out of the house my mother said why don't we why don't we try for a miami boy square so me and devi and aaron actually my next brother we all tried out arnold was
Speaker A
your friend.
Speaker A
basically said listen it's both of them or none of them the deal maker so he said okay we'll take him so i joined when i was seven just turning eight and i was in the choir for six years learned
Speaker A
Okay, so a lot to talk about. Friends. First of all, the idea of con—the concept of friends was Jewish music has like certain unwritten rules.
Speaker A
life really i knew it i knew it i knew it 100 it was just a matter of how when you know if i i can't say i knew for sure that it was going to happen obviously i you know i had to see if my voice how
Speaker A
Okay, and I—I don't want to say I broke them, oh,
Speaker A
singing again um yeah so that's that's my childhood i mean there's so much more you're married to my childhood i got married how old are you um i was 20. i was 19 when i was engaged pretty young
Speaker A
because that sounds like you're getting serious derogatory term.
Speaker A
we moved to israel nice i was actually just talking about that uh one of my best friends you to find making all the other summer no way is intense in in the most wonderful way it's such a big topic i'll yeah yeah
Speaker A
Yeah, but in a sense, singing about anything other than—I mean, everything's Hashem, right? So everything you sing about is Hashem, right? Even friends, friendship. And that was—that was what I wanted to
Speaker A
they gotta talk to me in a minute or thank you hashem and upgrade those hats yeah because anyway i was wearing that anyway and we got there and there was dancing and the whole thing um we moved into a small apartment in
Speaker A
bring to the table, that it doesn't just have to be words of Tehillim or words from the Sifrei Kodesh or from the Torah, from the Sifrei, and even when we sing English songs, maybe we could branch out. There's other
Speaker A
um i walked in i was i had like a meltdown because it was really small and my wife was like this is beautiful the size of the size it has it it's beautiful i mean the kitchen no no i mean
Speaker A
beautiful, wonderful messages to sing about that are totally Torah-true and totally involve Hashem, that are important to sing about, that are—
Speaker A
lucky to meet him my brother devi introduced me to him um i dove in by him almost every day we walked him for every shabbos he lived in the old city no he's not he's a different brand no um
Speaker A
So I thought of this idea. It's still—it started from one of my best friends who was nifter a bunch of
Speaker A
uh spoke enough english um and yiddish which was more comfortable for me i'm joking i don't speak english but uh that trajectory though is not the let's get married and honeymoon in israel this was after you had two kids this is
Speaker A
years ago, Kaznet, who was the best guy, just the best.
Speaker A
so financial support financial support um all the other support that they they gave me but uh so when i moved i wasn't i wasn't just learning in colo um i was i had to get a job so i i
Speaker A
He was my best friend since we were little kids.
Speaker A
make financially but it was it was i made twenty five i was kidding i made 25 shekel an hour it's a little bit 25 shekel an hour which is like i don't know six it was like six bucks at the time
Speaker A
Long story short, he was in the army. He did—he traveled after the army, as many
Speaker A
going to go into i i i kind of i don't want to say i moved uh prematurely uh you know no regrets it was all part of the plan but i i would tell somebody now who's trying to make aliyah to have a little bit more
Speaker A
soldiers do.
Speaker A
in a certain sense but but you know for an american to just dive into the israeli culture is not easy so for all you listening that want to make aliyah it's an incredible kalakavod but it's not super simple so have a plan in place
Speaker A
He was in Goa, India, in the ocean, and he was swept away in a riptide. Devastating to me, my kids, my wife, my whole family. I mean, we call him Kaz. So I thought of
Speaker A
moving uh back from israel is um very traumatizing um there's no nephreshman fight back there no there's no never spent every flight back it's very hard because it's it's our homeland and you make that move and then you feel like
Speaker A
dedicating a song to him, and he was so fun. He was the life of the party. He had the best smile. He was a jokester, so sweet, always there to help, like literally, you know, we always think like
Speaker A
6 30 opening up the doors i stayed till five and then i got a bike not a motorcycle i ended up getting one of those later but i had a bike um and i wrote it to harnoff and i was
Speaker A
I'd be there to help. He would drop anything to help anybody. So I thought of dedicating a song to him, and I thought about writing a song about friends. You know, first I was thinking, let me write like a comfort song, but it
Speaker A
not part of the immediate plan i wasn't sure how it was going to fit in as an american living in israel i tried i had my keyboard i had a little sound system i started i made some business cards
Speaker A
wasn't who he was. It wasn't genuine enough. It wasn't him, even though he would appreciate a comfort song, but it needed to be for him. So I thought of writing a song about friendship, something upbeat, something you could
Speaker A
going so after three years my wife said we're going i didn't want to leave because even though financially i wasn't i wasn't there there's nothing like living in arizona spiritually um there's nothing like it so did part of
Speaker A
dance to. So that's where Friends was born. And then just to take it a step further, I thought of making a music video that would kind of give over, you know,
Speaker A
moving back from israel is is it's painful because you're saying hashem this wasn't easy for an american to move israelis like they have a huge appreciation for americans that move they they don't understand like the america america is the
Speaker A
what his life was about.
Speaker A
simple why would you want that you know um and you you make that leap you take that leap of faith and then hashem had other plans so i spoke to um etan katz on this program who made that move
Speaker A
He loved to travel. He loved to have a good time. So I said, let's do it. Let me invite some of my friends, which was, of course, another semi-awkward situation: who makes the cut, who makes
Speaker A
into a time at uh at a local bagel store like a week after he got back i mama felt for him yeah and mama felt for him i still i mean i whatever we don't know we don't know
Speaker A
the cut, you know?
Speaker A
hills is the bomb you know what you know what it is i never heard anybody say that about kew garden hills really people love it i love to garden hills i if i search kugar and hills and yelp i
Speaker A
Yeah, and I still have some friends that, like, when I speak to them, they're like a little salty about it.
Speaker A
style in america nice it's so many israelis really yeah if you're walking down main street you're hearing israel you're hearing israel you're hearing hebrew hebrew everywhere you go yeah there's you know a lot of barber shops and it's
Speaker A
Yeah, a little bit. I mean, I'm like, friends too, coming soon, coming soon.
Speaker A
um was the principal there barbara deutsch and when we decided to move back i had to network a little bit to get a job here so i reached out to her and she offered me the music teacher job
Speaker A
I did want to do Friends 2. I still got to get to that, but we'll talk about that another time. So I created this two-day plan. Shimmy Sokal shot the video. He's a rock star. She was the best.
Speaker A
um which i knew i knew was not 25 is your number it looks like 25 yeah 25 check out to 25 000 a year um and that's where that's where i started um you decided you you you wanted to sing
Speaker A
And Shimmy had a blast also.
Speaker A
whether it meant staying in israel and just doing an occasional or bar mitzvah or you know i didn't know i wanted to necessarily be doing what i'm doing now i kind of wanted that but i didn't know it wasn't in my cards
Speaker A
There was so many—the first time I got scammed, I rented an RV, one of those big camping trucks.
Speaker A
dream big but the level at which you're performing it's it's hard it's audacious to say my plan was to come back from israel and become you know the number one star right of this of this generation it's true it's hard to plan that it's hard to
Speaker A
Yeah, you call an RV, right? And I sent the guy two grand as a deposit,
Speaker A
we planned god laughs and that's it i mean it's mama's ms and i've seen it and learned it rabbis and that's it and when you understand that it doesn't mean we can't plan doesn't mean we can't be responsible plan for the future
Speaker A
and then the night before, I'm calling him, and then the morning of, I'm calling him, no answer. I realized I was scammed.
Speaker A
um she had a little twist on it she says man plans and god plans better yeah of course we have to make plans of course we have to do our restaurants sometimes we learn that hashem has a better plan
Speaker A
Wow. You shouldn't have bought it from the prince who emailed you like this.
Speaker A
not depressed are you depressed not at all not even a little that was not the point all right now so just to give over my story a little bit but i like that framework where you feel as though
Speaker A
So I went to one of these legit websites, really, and the website says in big bold letters, "Don't take your conversation off the website." I didn't see that. He gave me his private email and said, "Let's talk privately." I said, no problem, so we spoke privately,
Speaker A
reflect now like i'm taking a moment and i'm reflecting and when you look back it like kind of all makes sense but when you're in it you're like hashem where are you yeah where are you i don't feel you i don't see you and i'm
Speaker A
and then they don't guarantee anything. I hope he's listening. Lost my deposit anyway.
Speaker A
see you um so i'd love to i'd love to double click on this right here and and ask you to to articulate how do you see that avoid that hashem gave you the big responsibility of doing where you are so popular and you're
Speaker A
The morning of, I have like how many guys did I bring? Six, seven, eight guys, and we don't have a way to get anywhere. Day off, day off, and you have
Speaker A
your current challenge i mean i i wish it was and and i dive in for a mouna and be talking every day um but it it it never gets easy because if we were able to see everything the way god sees
Speaker A
things, and you have day off booked. Everybody's at my house at 5:30 a.m.
Speaker A
just you know i actually just heard from somebody um the other day an old friend that i used to go to the makeup with in kew garden hills a super guy um he told me why does it say
Speaker A
Okay, everybody showed up on time, and we're all like, what are we gonna—are we gonna Uber upstate? I mean, like, because half the scenes we wanted were
Speaker A
possum seems to be stressing something by razon that it's only those that have the razan that hashem is gonna that hashem is gonna give to so you daven and you daven and then sometimes he says even when you
Speaker A
gonna be on the RV, like you saw on the bus that we eventually got.
Speaker A
want it and if you keep davening and hopefully hashem if you proved him that you that this is what you really want whatever it is that you're looking for parnasso or zevag or or with your kids or muna or whatever it is
Speaker A
Mayor Kay called a friend of his, woke him up at literally a quarter to six a.m. He has a bus, a big school bus that we ended up
Speaker A
mean it's a very serious concept uh ruts on the kabbalah we are hashem is the ultimate mashbiya he he brought us into this world he created us and we're makable he gives us life we take right we are the the caleb that take
Speaker A
using in the video. The first illustration of having really good friends.
Speaker A
we are born as children ironically i was just thinking about it today as i was learning as safer and when we're born right we're fresh the sham is put into this world and my rebbe says we're the most selfish beings
Speaker A
Yeah, yeah. So Mayor Kay called him up. The guy's like, "Hello?" He's like, "Mendy," I think his name is Mendy. He's like, "Mendy, are you alive? We need your bus."
Speaker A
mashipiya to be like hashem to connect means connecting our soul to to its place to to hashem right connecting our soul to him in order to do that we have to we have to give and as a baby you can't give
Speaker A
And he was like, "Okay, what date?" He was like, "Reserved right now." He's like, "Okay." So we went to Crown Heights, picked up the bus. We had a blast and skydived for the first time, which was epic, epic.
Speaker A
and our goal in life is to eventually learn how to think of others and put others before ourselves if you have to be is everything all the other 612 mitzvahs are are are built in for they're all built around that mitzvah of
Speaker A
And the song was about friendship and the power of friendship, which is so huge,
Speaker A
monica shapiro but i am so excited right now we really are excited so pumped to tell you i'm trying to pull my mic up about my our new sponsor our new sponsor part of meaningful people which is turo
Speaker A
what Chaim Kazna meant to me, and what I just friendship means in general. So that's the story, because that's Friends.
Speaker A
we're two of the only people that i know that have not gone to turo and i think we might have to now yeah we might start going to turo okay so turo get two spots ready nakey and mom are coming your way
Speaker A
So you mentioned Kaz has been a friend of yours since your childhood, since you were younger. Let's talk a little about your childhood. What was a little more Shapiro like? You grew up in a family of how many?
Speaker A
why that's why i encourage you to head to turo.edu forward slash more to learn more about what your future could look like at turo one of the things you might learn is that 95 of students within six months of
Speaker A
I'm the youngest of seven.
Speaker A
episode and don't end up in the five percent no don't be the five percent ciao which i guess which i don't know if i answered your initial question by the way i think you did about the youth i i
Speaker A
Whoa, okay, six siblings.
Speaker A
generation is so helig and i think it's it's helpful for your fans for the people that enjoy your music to know where the hey legisly comes from because they experience it but it's cool to hear it directly from you
Speaker A
Grew up in Muncie, New York. Dave and Byra, by Moshe David.
Speaker A
about that forever yeah well for like an hour right when i started so my first album um i i i don't know if you remember my first album call of duty um i started preaching we're not gonna sing it now though
Speaker A
And my house is full of song zemiros. You know, I have four brothers, two sisters. Everybody sings. My mother is a trained opera singer.
Speaker A
need a choppa song and i need um comes its song and like a rock song and i just did the model just did the model except for one song one song stepped outside the model and my producer at the time shirley
Speaker A
She's amazing.
Speaker A
called schar mitzvah and they sent it to me and i heard it and i was like i wish i could i wish i would have prepared the demo so that you could hear what it what it sounded like you'll send
Speaker A
She actually had had an opportunity to take her career or take her talents.
Speaker A
like what kind of song is this doesn't fit and it's like a pop song i like it right but i was like i don't think it works it doesn't fit the mold of what all the other guys are doing and he said trust
Speaker A
me this song's a hit it's truly said that it's really nice and i was like all right whatever we have room for another song so i people ask by the way what do producers do that's what they do that's what they do
Speaker A
that's what they do they know when you have a hit yeah so he we centered him for a rate for arrangement um john frater and playmaster studios uh vlad he has a few people there daniel kepler who i've been working with we'll
Speaker A
talk about that soon about more like updated but we sent sharmits in to be arranged and i remember getting it back from me from i'm smiling because i remember sitting on my car when he sent me the intro as you guys heard don't
Speaker A
and i heard it and i was like ah oh my god what what is this this is crazy and i was nervous because it it was it was definitely fresh for jewish music yeah so i was super nervous my producers
Speaker A
were super excited um i went into to do the vocals and then whatever fast forwarding um a few months later the album came out i put out first called their music video before you fast forward yeah without zipping by those first few
Speaker A
months what was that like initial feedback what what did that feel like when you're like holy cow people love this so like i said i was if it was instant like that um i don't know if it was
Speaker A
instant i think people thought it was weird um and like like i kind of built a standard jewish music album that's what everybody expected right like there was just the unwritten rules of jewish music and then there was this song which i ended up
Speaker A
putting number two in the album because i loved it so much people were weirded out you know i mean and then it turned from weirded out to like hey this is kind of catchy um and then it went from kind of catchy to
Speaker A
like being everyone's camp song that summer and then i was doing a concert at camarasha jeremy joseph who runs the camp who's a super guy we did the show and the kids already were like kind of digging the song
Speaker A
and after the show he said we have like a we have a video crew here and i said yeah i see you know who ended up being shimmy sokol he said we have a pretty legit video crew here do you want to
Speaker A
shoot a vid a music video here once you're here and i was like that's how it happened i'm kind of in the market to do a music video for scar mitzvah wow he's like done and i'm like done let's do it
Speaker A
so we planned i came back two weeks later jimmy sokol who was like 17 at the time um and uh we shot it and went viral yeah and like that's that's a dream yeah as a singer to have
Speaker A
a song that goes viral that's like unimaginable um and like i didn't pay for pr it was just like in the first week it had a hundred thousand views and i was like this is this is not normal this is crazy
Speaker A
and skymitcher just became the thing um but even then i had her mitzvah was was mitzvah right and he got more and more and more yeah the dad joke right there huh even then people still thought it was a
Speaker A
gimmick people still thought it was like okay it was cute you know it's catchy you know but was there anything more to morty shapiro you know um as time went on this kharmitzvah pop song i'm not here to pat myself in the back
Speaker A
but but it it it was revolutionary to jewish music that style of music that style it didn't fit in the box of jewish music a rock song a disco a frailer uh kumzet's a wedding song song um it didn't fit
Speaker A
and it still went people just what does that say like about i guess the audience or the market at that time what it taught me is that jewish music doesn't have to fit in a box and that's something that that i've been
Speaker A
kind of living by um in my career especially since scar mitzvah listen i grew up modern orthodox okay so i i grew up with a lot of secular music um a lot i mean whatever a lot i don't have to say the
Speaker A
names but uh all the hits of of the 90s and and the early uh the early 2000s um that was a big part of me yeah i was in i was in miami boys choir and of course we sang
Speaker A
jewish music at home and um it's funny growing up and i feel like people are gonna get mad at me for this i didn't i didn't really listen to mbd or alvin fried when i got into the business who's the
Speaker A
king though i i like i like did something on twitter last week i were like i've heard auburn freed be referred to as the king and i heard i've heard mbd be referred to as the king i think they're both a kink
Speaker A
you're not gonna get away with that answer no but honestly they've both what they've both done for so long is just it's just it's unbelievable the best answer i saw is that mbd is the king but i'm free is
Speaker A
the father he's the father of music of jewish music you don't like that oh i didn't even think about that i think they're both they're both the kings really i think there's room for two kings um i mean hashem is the ultimate but in
Speaker A
our worlds there's not that i'm saying that there should be enough space for me to be that's not what i was getting at but you didn't listen but i'm doing this for like six seven eight years um and alvin free just had a 40-year
Speaker A
celebration right that's like could you imagine doing this 40 years doing anything for 40 years should be celebrated yeah i mean you're a teacher for 40 years to have the patience and and the rutson and the energy and the emotional energy
Speaker A
and and you're just the skill and the ability to keep putting out hits it's it's mamish in your estimation what have they done for 40 years that enabled them to continue doing that and and where do you see that for
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yourself so i think it's the sincerity that they both have uh genuinely wanting to use their gift for good uh to be my spea um to inspire people and you could see it on their faces i mean you just see realness i mean
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avraham freed that that's a duck i i only went to my first album free concert when i was older but the tzedakah box thing doesn't get old so it was amazing it's beautiful you want to say it honestly just for those who don't know
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he has a tzedakah box at every concert um i think it was inspired from the rebbe uh the la bhavachareba and he has a little push gun he puts he puts some money in it i think sometimes he even
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offers the crowd to put some money in and it's just a huge kid of hashem that he has a huge platform and he's and he's just doing all all the good he can with his doing this platform because he sees it as a sleekess right
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he doesn't see it as like i'm a rock star i'm a celebrity and nbt is the same thing it's it's using their coaches for good for for for our spa purposes and that's what what more can you do
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um so where was i getting just to backtrack you're saying you didn't listen to media growing up oh so i i i didn't listen to i i i listened to more of the i don't want to call it
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modern but shall shellus leave to shlock rock um i listened to i was a huge fan of schwecki growing up huge um and then when i was in miami boys choir we did i was like it's a huge swiss york
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called me up and he said there's this new guy schweki and you're going to sing rachel with him and i was like what really yeah so a huge story about that we sang in one of the miami 25
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and they took videos of the show i think it was in 2001 it was schwecki's first album rakhine became huge if you guys remember i did it in concert with him and it was great and then a few years later
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somebody sent me a video of me and shweki on this thing called youtube and i was like what's youtube was youtube not around youtube was not around youtube i mean let's quickly 2004 started maybe hey siri when did youtube
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start youtube 2005. wow 2005. 2005 somebody sent me this video youtube just started and it had a million views oh i was like what are views there's this one guy who had the video like someone's gotta start you yeah and then someone's like google
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at youtube but youtube yes so so this thing went viral um so i had a little bit of a name i still have people i meet some people today that don't know that i'm a singer now wow but
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they knew the video they they're like they lost internet connection [Music] youtube and i'm like yeah i sing now it had a lot of non-jewish also love no like that video i feel like yeah yeah yeah yeah a lot of spanish a lot look at
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the comments russia yeah amazing wow um so i always looked up to schwecki but i had a lot of secular music growing up yeah and that's that that is that has a lot of ins you know influence on on my
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music now not to call it geisha music but something that i wanted to give over in this interview because the youth we were talking about the youth and and there's still a lot of i don't want to say haters but there's
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still a lot of people that that don't listen to my music um they think it's pushing the boundaries they think it's just not jewish music okay so i ask well what is jewish music what is jewish music i don't want to say
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names but there's momo what's jewish music right what is it i think jewish music is a vehicle to bring people closer to hashem that's it that's it i couldn't have said it better myself that is it to get closer to hashem
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so uh what if somebody gets from goyisha rap music they can get closer to hashem so obviously we have to use our secret you know like are you really getting closer hashem if you're really getting close to hashem
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through this jewish song even though it's talking about friends or it's talking about you know even some of the messages that i have that that are that are blatantly about akaresh barco and i call him yeah you know but the beat is it sounds it's
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funky sounds a little too poppy you know it sounds too much so i get i don't i i get it everybody has different styles of music the question a question i have for you on that is for let's say those who are listening who
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are those critics or haters misunderstand misunderstanders let's go on what do you do in your camp right when you're putting on music to sort of check yourself while this is too far i can't this like this is the line like
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what do you have what system do you have in place to make sure you're not getting too far so there's a there's a there's a rookness um detector and then there's like a gosmius detector which is just bouncing off of
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people in my close circle i i worked you know my first producers and then i you know um shirley meyer alvin zamast and then i worked with um donnie yetzie waldner i've worked with donnie gross over the years he was never my producer but we've
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done a bunch of stuff together i just kind of will bounce things off of people that i trust my wife or some of my brothers or some of you know um just to make sure that it's not too much
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but then it's mostly just what's in my heart and what's in my neshama and just because it's a pop song and the beat is really schmack doesn't mean that it's a goesha doesn't mean that it can't inspire hidden i mean
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or even let me think of some of the the songs that are that are a little bit more maybe edgy was a good example right abba even recently yeah where the beats are just they're they're intense and they make you move
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but the messages that i've gotten from people is i mean ain't no novado came out in the middle of of covet yes um and the message for me was just i i was going through my own little depression uh no i mean not
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i wasn't on medication but i i mean covey was hard it was tough it was super hard um in the beginning it was cute it was like oh we could be home and the kids like don't have school and like
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we'll just be home for a few weeks with the kids and spend time with the kids then after like two three weeks we're like okay this was supposed to be over like everyone's gonna see the whole world's gonna quarantine for two weeks and then
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it's over and we're like we can do that that's fun and then it in your industry it was really scary it rocked us yeah rocked us like i heard benny freeman describe it as it's like selecting selecting your calendar and clicking
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control alt delete that was your whole calendar yeah and not only that but it was like returning deposits because like yeah it was it was hard it was really hard um and after a few months of doing that and
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no work i didn't even have inspiration to like write i would go to my piano and i was just like i had nothing right um the only the only the only thing i was able to do my piano i i we
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a lot of us singers got bombarded with like video requests zoom stuff yeah um and zooms so before cameo came out right so i was just sending out i sat for like two hours a day and my family knew like i would i mean i
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didn't even mind it because like everyone knew everyone was home so if my kids made noise it was fine bar mitzvah videos and weddings and everyone was my son his bar mitzvah was canceled and it was hard it was really
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it was really horrible for for everybody it was hard it was really hard um and after a few months of no inspiration i i literally begged hashem to give me something and i just thought of what i'm going
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through in covet and no work and and just my lack of immuno that i was hoping to have more of and then this concept of enormous that it's all him came to me and this the melody and the words
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just came to me and then we built around that the verse and the and the beat and we made a super cool beat because i feel like people needed to wake up um i needed to wake myself up in the
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middle of covet and to remind myself that it's all him um even if we can't feel him or see him um i can tell you that it worked because in our household it was we were in quarantining and we put a projector up on the living
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room wall and we just danced to that song for like on repeat right that's not the right straight about those dancers though what let's set the record straight by those dancers not jewish no chance the main answer was
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some of them happen to be jewish oh but no i have a choreographer who brings a bunch of guys and um yeah i feel like a lot of people don't even know this but it's fine i dressed them up
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right uh in situation keep us because i wanted to have a make sense a jewish feel but jewish you know it's hard to find that many jewish dancers like that yeah naki's offering his services i can audition you yeah yeah right now
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um later okay not right now but uh anyway this was a good example of a song that that still a lot of people from certain communities just had they had an issue with it they said this isn't for our youth this is
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not so it's not jewish enough yeah but somebody told me that that i don't know if it was annabelle of adora call me shamayim she said she lost her father to covet the only thing she listened to was animal vado it was the
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only thing that gave her hezek and for me i was like wow like that's the creek of music and so that's the story of of jewish music and some people that you know don't don't maybe love some of my beats
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yet yet but i i hope that they realize that they don't have to love it it's okay but there's a there's a place for it and there are people that that that i i i hope and pray are
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getting closer to hashem through this music we'll be right back to this episode but first i want to tell you a little bit about bridge credit solutions bridge credit solutions you better remember that name you ever like shopping in the mall you're walking down
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know anyways you're trying to buy a house and they're running your credit and they're like yo your credit's like 582 or like 620. it's an issue you have some negative reporting or credit what is that from maybe it's from that credit card that
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212-660-2991 there is a link in the show notes in the description get in touch with them bridge credit solutions that's all he's going to say for this ad it's bridge credit solutions reach out to them seriously i have
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first-hand experience they do an amazing amazing job and they're the best in the industry so in the industry so check them out and now back to brazil credit solutions back to morty the question i i have um what
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what is something it could be more than one thing that maybe more kai shapiro is just like people misunderstand about you or they can maybe perceive you one way but it's like totally not like so people are not sure if you know how to
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dance right so i actually do like to dance so i would answer just um everything that we just spoke about right is is the you should have asked that like yeah shoot i missed it yeah like sum that up like what what but but that's it
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people think that i'm just this some people i think think that i'm just a gimmicky pop artist that likes to just dance and shake it on stage but my whole foundation everything i'm trying to do is just is
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just be my spear and she'll lift people up through through music does it sound a little different than than alvin fried and mbd and kalbach and and and even i mean yeah it sounds different well it's super different time has changed and
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time has changed um it's different and and i and i knew part of me knew i had to be a little different to to make a difference to stand out although shah mitzvah was not was not even my own choice it was like somebody
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convinced me to take it but but it made me realize that because i did grow up on more of that kind of music than i did the rest of my first album and it made me realize that i can
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i can embrace it i can embrace my youth the way i grew up was the way hashem wanted me to grow up um i went there to stroll and i flipped out okay i got some peas and and and and
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and i wear garthel and and i go to the makeup every day but but but my youth was still a part of i mean it was still a part of it he just dropped that in there no yeah very subtle
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every day it's not cool but listen i go to the mikvah and that's just my place to do espares like i just go there for some quiet and if anybody's i recommend it um even if you don't know all the
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or even if you're not even if you're not hasidish or forget about the mikvah just talk to hashem outside of tefila every day because it's so important it's so important davening the hebrew words obviously i mean yeah it could get stale even i
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personally go through my own relationship with fila sometimes i'm like super into it and then sometimes i'm not as into it unfortunately and you know you have to dive in like a min hamar of like five minutes after
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each other and you're like how am i even yeah right but the avoiders going when you're feeling being there and being present and even if you can't have all the comfort in the world you're still there and you're still
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still pushing but to talk to hashem outside of feel in your own words it's nothing like that they say revolva saw his mother speaking to hashem ever like every day at least 10 times a day outside of davening
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and just like asking hashem for her son to be matsuyak and all that he's going into and he would see that yeah so it's uh so that's what i that's what i do in the mikvah i just kind of
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prepare for my day i just it it's not even always so you know it could be hashem just help me help me have a good interview a meaningful minute doesn't always have to be you know spiritual but it is spiritual because
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you're talking hashem totally you know that's what we teach the kids just talk to hashem even if it starts off asking them to let the yankees win but just to start the relationship know that you could talk to
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him about anything at any time know that and then hopefully it develops into you know more rookney's stick of things but uh but yeah something i don't think maybe existed back in the day that seems to be a thing now is a lot of
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artists such as yourself have become celebrities in the jewish world um what's that like the the responsibility that comes with what that does to your life which i guess becomes not so private anymore like i guess walk us
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through that walk us in the audience through that so the first thing is there's no way to like prep for it you know um especially we were talking about before i came from ancestral with like with really 25 shekels an hour and then and then
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there's no way to prep for being a celebrity right um but i i will just say um that my wife keeps me in check i mean i feel like it's so like cliche i gotta like throw my wife in there and be like
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honey but that's the absolute truth um my wife is very private she i mean not that it's such a big deal that she doesn't like to be on instagram but she's very tanua she's very private she's very into ayan hara she happens to
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be moroccan inspired her very into ayan hara so like me being in the spotlight is a lot for you know for her family i mean they've they've gotten used to it they've come to terms with it but but it was a lot for them
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um funny story actually when i was when i was uh dating my wife so i sat down with my father-in-law when we wanted to get married he's a moroccan guy he's like big and a little scary even though he's not scary at all he's
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super sweet but he's funny and he's got major dad jokes we sat down at the table like i don't know if any of you guys did this but he said how are you going to support my daughter did you guys
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didn't get that i didn't get asked that question because i was already like sort of like working and stuff but you were killing it already we get it i wasn't i wasn't i wasn't killing it but i don't know i you ever
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you did you get asked that question when you were it's i think it's i think it's more common than how are you gonna i think nowadays everyone knows everything about you before they don't ask you they could just they ask the shopkin or they
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ask that's true especially today even more but yeah i got married back in the uh no but uh we sat down and he said what are you gonna do i said i'm gonna be a singer nice can you imagine
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if your son-in-law to be came down and said we got a rock band and we are great that's much less reassuring than you think it is and you were young get out of my house okay like even me today as a singer if i had a
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son-in-law that said he wanted to be a singer i would i would also be hesitant not to if he was a great guy to let him but i i'd also say you know maybe you want to have a backup plan or maybe you
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know even though you don't have any friends in cash advance or something like amazon man go amazon so i told him sorry i told him i was gonna be a singer and he was like and then what he said you could do
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anything like if you're good with your hands you could be a plumber electrician i don't care just get a certificate or a degree in something but a singer and i said i love it i love to sing and
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sing in my whole life and so in the end i ended up getting a degree um because you know he wanted me to and i wanted to respect that for you as a just in case because i didn't again i didn't know for
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sure that singing was going to go and i ended up you were also yeah you were very young i was young and i was whatever so now i'm like uh dad yeah what does he what does he think now like
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about what happened i mean i'm sure he's been very supportive along the way yeah he's he's so he's as a moroccan they're very private so it's like it's it's it's a little bit much for him but he's proud i mean he's super proud
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my both my in-laws my parents i mean yeah my parents are super proud i i don't know if my let's just say my mother would love to hear this i love my mother i love my father but i don't even blame them
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for 18 year old kids who want to be a singer like i said i don't blame them if if my son wanted to do it also it's it's hard how many few i don't want to sound like a bald guy
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but that's not the point here but so few guys make it it's really hard it's really hard you need a lot of satishmai you need rotzon you need passion you need you need the energy you need the songs you
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need you need the money there's a lot that goes into it so my my mother she preferred if i was just the kind of doctor or lawyer or dentist accountant something jewish something secure um you know i mean my father was
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my father never made a great living um he drove from muncie trails in muncie for 30 plus years i'd look up to him tremendously he did whatever he had to do to make a living he was in the garment industry he drove
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a bus and a little bit later he got into the car leasing uh industry but he worked really hard to support his seven kids and he's my my role model for working with that work ethic the work ethic is
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is i got from him when i got to israel and i was working all those hours it was all thanks to him um doing what it takes to to be there for your wife and kids yeah so my mother kind of wanted me to do
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something a little bit more traditional traditional you know something a little bit more safe but you didn't do that i didn't your heart couldn't no no sorry ma like but i mean now my mother is my biggest fan of course she's my biggest fan
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um she comes to she my mother and father whenever there's a wedding that's within 30 40 minutes of muncie they lace up they dress up still they come still still i think i sat right behind them my parents
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are in their 70s concerts for sure they come to but wedding weddings that they're not invited to they crash weddings like berries they come dressed up like they come dressed up my mother put them in a dress are they like fathers are
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they like suits up do they dive into the schmorg also like you know what they do they they do whatever i don't know they're like most wanted like that's awesome you come they listen they take videos they're proud
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um and i'm happy to make them proud that's really nice um yeah but it's but even the lifestyle that you're you know you mentioned about it's so hard to make it where this is being recorded for those i don't know
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who are listening whenever they're listening to this but this is being recorded right after pesach um but what was columbine like you're you're you even see your kids you even see your family it's it's crazy i don't see my
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family um and i know you know some people are like oh poor guy you know he's got to travel the world singing all over making the big bucks but truth be told yantiff um i'm just not when people are off
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we singers are on it must be hard to do that it's difficult it's hard but it's part of what i signed up for and my wife is so supportive she's a rock star um and just to go back to the celebrity
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conversation i mean it's just she keeps me grounded you know but it's still also i'm sure um like you walk in the street you're recognized instantly and there's the selfies and there's the yeah so this was something that i actually had a hard
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time with when it's kind of started getting a bit busier um i spoke to benny friedman who's a good friend of mine um and i told him i was having a hard time because i started feeling like an object and
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again i don't mean to like right make myself sound like a neb because but first of all jewish people are just funny like they they just come up to you put their arm around their shoulder put their arm
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around your shoulder and just like go like this not like hey i'm a big fan i'm so sorry to bother some people do that i shouldn't no some people are mensch looking just don't put you in a headlock for dinner some people
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just headlock picture and leave and that makes me feel a little bit like an object you know i mean it's great i like to know that there are fans that want to take pictures um but i don't know that got a little i
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feel you a little tough but benny was like who's benny's advice benny was just like it's part of the job don't don't think about it too much they they're happy to see you right um you're not an object they're super
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excited to take it to get a picture with you have no idea what you're doing for them um some people just may not have the the greatest manners yeah just don't know how to deal with it when i was with
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benny here after he finished his interview for meaningful people many months ago it was like during kovid we walked downstairs in this building and someone ran up to him in the lobby how are you benny friedman he's like how am
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i benny freeman so my father was honestly my mother i was like whoa what like yeah like he played it really really well yeah ben is great what's the i guess you um you grew up watching listening to album freed mbd
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all these these big stars and now you get to share the stage with them you have a lot of friends in the industry um at the end of the day though there are a lot of there are shows and there are
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weddings and you're ultimately competing for the same jobs so like what's that dynamic like is it competition is it you guys are all rooting for each other uh am i not gonna get a real answer no no honestly
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the real answer for me has always been there's no competition i mean hashem is giving everybody what they need period end of story a totally gash me is like taking hashem out of the picture saying okay so somebody's calling either morty shapiro
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or whoever i'm gonna you know everyone's gonna hack eyes ah the the fifth thing he meant he said if they want me to say it i'm not gonna say it who does he put himself in the conversation yeah you know i'm not even
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gonna do it but so they could have called him they called me or i know they called me and then i know that they ended up using him but that's i mean that's part of the plan that's hashem's he runs the world
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and i've been i've been so blessed to be able to do what i love every day and there's enough to go around for everybody there could be more singers i actually remember a crazy story when i was getting into the business
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um when i moved back from israel before i put out an album um so i don't remember who it was who told me to just like network just call people learn the business so i was like okay so i tried to get as
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many numbers as possible i called up a bunch of singers i'm not going to say names um and truth be told they got to say names i'm always the guy that empowers the guests to not say names um they say name
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they don't say names it's fine we don't do i mean whatever it is better if i don't um even though it would be good but i started calling bands i started calling uh singers and musicians and just kind of networking hey morty
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shapiro here i'm trying to sing honestly uh nobody helped really that's truth nobody helped um and don't think who it was whatever it doesn't matter um nobody helped and and i get it people are busy and people are really busy
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and juggling family life and work and and everything else especially for singers who are traveling and you know not everybody needs to be a mentor and and and one guy in particular mama was like yelling at me um
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he said what are you doing you think we need another singer in this business all you youngsters are taking away work for me i'm trying to make a living and and all you guys just think you can come in and undercut us at cheaper
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prices um and i was so taken aback i was like i did not expect that like right wow and then he gathered himself i remember he was actually driving through a tunnel he lost service uh and then he either
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called me back or he got back his service amy said i'm sorry you know what it's tough it's tough there's a lot of young singers and i'm losing work but i i know there's room for everybody there's you know
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he kind of and that was respect respectable that he he took a moment and he gathered himself and he he said it's all good you know people did not la myself people did not help i made an effort at that moment and i said if if i
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make it i'm gonna help um some people call you now and even that got overwhelming because i i i wrote that in like one of the articles that i did mishpakharami magazine um and i have tons of people
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uh reaching out again not to right pat myself in the back um i did offer and a lot of people a lot of a lot of bahrain they want to sing they want to sing they want aza and guess what i
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talked to them nice how did you talk to them i don't know my number for a while i didn't realize when i was when i put out my first music video i put my number there because i didn't
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have any gigs really that's so funny so i put my number on like koladec or mitzvah like okay 845 my number and i left it there and somebody told me like a year ago like your number is on youtube and i was
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like what and i don't want to change my numbers like my i'm a muncie boy is the 845 number i'm not changing it it's your flag so a lot of people have my number um and people reach out hey i'm a
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buckler so if you're trying to reach him that's a there there you go that's how you but that's why you charge what you charge so that you're not undercutting anyone right yeah exactly so um but but even that got hard yeah
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you know because i have a family and and a life and work and and it's not easy to talk to every guy but i do my best i really do my best to voice note to to just to help out give physique or
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give advice in whatever way i can i want to pull you one subject back to the family that you were talking about and you experienced the challenge in a in a particular way you mentioned yum tybum you're always away
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and that's how the challenges manifest for you i think however the challenge at its core exists for everyone in some capacity in at different times of the day of the year and i think people would benefit from whatever strategies and ideologies you
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use to prioritize family when you can and and like what what what can you offer to the people and how you do great question because the truth is like you said everybody deals with this it's not just singers
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it happens to be singers work a little bit more in jantif but plenty of guys travel the whole week mm-hmm um some people work crazy hours trying to make a living you know um something actually i've been thinking
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about lately like like this idea of rutzone and and and developing eurozone it's connected to ruts on the cobble and wrestling but but it's our rut zone to to to want to do to accomplish to make money to to give back to the world
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even if it's for good like where's the end you know how much like i need more money that's something that i've just been kind of conflicted with lately because you want to keep growing in your career right like i i look up to having freedom
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mbd and schwecki all these guys that have been doing it for so long i wish i could do it for that long but like but when is there like a i'm good i'm i'm just i'm good hashem i'm i'm
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you bless me i'll keep doing this but i'm now i'm gonna devote more to torah or learning or my family or um islam that was just something that i've been thinking about lately but a lot of people not just singers have
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this issue uh i have a two and the only eights i can give not that i'm one to give aza and it's something that i still struggle with is just being present when you're with your family and i i you know you
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you guys know this i mean we all have this issue and for me for a while it was like every phone call i get at seven o'clock when i'm in the middle of like bedtime or homework and bath and dinner with my kids and i'm
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like maybe they need me for a gig now tonight by the way that has happened i actually have gotten a call not that it makes it okay necessarily but i have gotten calls from a singer who needed to
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cancel last minute and i needed to go to a wedding that night it has happened um but it happened once ever that's why you wear a suit when you put your kids this way right exactly i always got to be ready to go i go to
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sleep in the suit sometimes but when you're with your family just it's hard but just put the phone down just be there just put the phone down put the phone down just put it down i know how awesome it is and what happens
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it's funny in his jokes and there's a good this and that and just put the phone down it is it's it's rewarding it's it feels good and it's hard in the beginning but when you when you're when you feel that you're doing
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it for the right reason and you're investing in your kid do it just put the phone down and and be present for your wife for your kids for your family um shabbos is huge shabbos is huge i'm telling you guys
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i'm a singer i grew up with mirrors in my house singing at the shabbos table is not so easy for me all the time i'm singing the whole week i need to rest i dive in for the almond a lot in my
Speaker A
shoe also when i'm eating i just want to chill i it's not always so easy to sings mirrors but i do it i do it every week even if i don't want to because i want my kids to
Speaker A
experience mirrors i want them to to have a shabbos experience and i must do it for them i mamash do it for them um and shabbos i mean again we don't have any sign for phones i hope um but shabbos is the time to just
Speaker A
sing smears with your kids go over the power show play a board game with them sit down on the floor with them i know you're tired i know guys i know you're so tired we all work hard but but before you go and and pass out
Speaker A
on the couch because you have too much to drink have a little bit get into pjs get comfortable and pull out a board game with your kids play cards do something this is what they need before you know
Speaker A
it they're going to be older i'm talking like i'm like i'm a governor like i'm an older guy this is minus saying too and i work really hard at it i get comfortable get out of my suit i get into some some
Speaker A
pajamas and we get in the floor and we play a game and that's that's the key because our kids are the future and before you know it people older than us tell us like it goes by so fast and we have like
Speaker A
sometimes a hard time relating to that but like i don't know my daughter's 12 my next door is 11. and it is happening pretty fast wow like i i my daughter who's now 15 months when she started walking i'm not joking it was a little
Speaker A
sad for me because i'm like oh my god she's walking come on she's so cute why are you walking but it's beautiful i mean she's adorable and and i'm obsessed i'm i love babies um but it happens fast it does and they're
Speaker A
walking and then they're talking and then they go to camp and you're like what you're leaving me for two months and then you're like oh it's kind of a smile i'm joking but you got to invest in the kids you got to
Speaker A
invest in your in your bias men gotta drink a little bit less yeah for real um and uh and that's it you gotta you gotta invest as we wind up this uh this conversation is there is there any music that you're
Speaker A
working on maybe hasn't been released yet that you wanna yeah so new album is coming out like it's a shame oh wow um i actually was trying to get it out for pesach like before pesach even though it's like a strange time
Speaker A
because spira nobody does that but i thought because nobody does it maybe whatever so i'll put it out two three weeks before pesach and then khalamoid people still listen and then afterwards yeah so svera and then people listen
Speaker A
again like what's the big deal right but it just wasn't it wasn't ready so i think hashem thought it would be better if i just waited um man plans hashem plans exactly and i worked so hard to get it out for that
Speaker A
for that nissan well first i tried for purim and then rishikesh nissan then it didn't work out so so lag by emmer it's it's ready i mean it's mastered it's it's going to print this week um you want to give us a taste
Speaker A
so in this album i'll just give you like a like i'll speak it out a little bit ahas just came out it's a different sound for me um you know i i that question that you asked you know something about you that
Speaker A
people may not know yeah so this actually might be an appropriate answer people think that i'm just a pop guy and it's it's not true um what else are you made of i mean i i love a good kumzits i love
Speaker A
i love a good fabric i do i really do love all kind of music but specifically people think that i'm just like i can just do pop um and and in my own to my own at my own fault i kind of skar
Speaker A
mitzvah was my first thing that went so i kind of built on top of that and it got a little bit tough for me to sell a comes at song it did but first of all people put me in a box
Speaker A
he's the pop music guy and then i put myself in my in the box i just did that's that's the the the the strength of of a communal yeah and i i blame myself for it because i mislocked myself in this box
Speaker A
and said this is all i can do and it was working it was getting me gigs and concerts and kids loved it and people loved it and people danced but but there's more music that i love and that i can put out so
Speaker A
so i mean listen i have put out some slower stuff but i was never confident with it i never really pushed it at concerts my concerts are like fast on fast song fast song fast song okay i'll do hyun because it was a
Speaker A
popular hop a song fast fast song fast song and then i'll just like throw in a slow song but i didn't give it the strength and the and the so this album is gonna so this album has a little bit more it definitely has a
Speaker A
pop don't get me wrong it has kashmaka stuff that you can dance to and really good messages um but i wanted to try to push a little bit more akas is like a little bit more singer-songwriter a little bit more
Speaker A
ishiribo-esque if you will uh and i put it first on the album to say here i'm trying for real i love this kind of music also and i hope people enjoy it and and will embrace it um and i have a couple of nice slow
Speaker A
stuff slow songs on the album that i hope people enjoy meets hashem like boomer amazing nice i saw you recently did some work with uh a.b rottenberg what was that like baby rottenberg is such what a guy what a guy i'll tell you
Speaker A
quickly story um so abby rottenberg called me uh you want to do a song for journeys i said yes i didn't even hear the song but i said yes i grew up on journey massive grew up yeah i mean it's not even
Speaker A
question i grew up on journeys i know all the songs when i need a good cry still today turn on journeys teardrop yeah i mean in a one-room apartment yeah it was beautiful i mean when i i'm on
Speaker A
the highway and i just need a good cry mm-hmm just turn on teardrop but i'm sobbing on the highway amy rottenberg has such a way with his words so he called me i said okay i'm in donny gross called me let's do it okay
Speaker A
heard the song i said it's beautiful i love it thank god um i i went to record by donna gross my wife happened to be out of town even though she's never out of town my mother-in-law was supposed to watch my
Speaker A
baby who she's not 15 months at the time she was like a newborn um i called my mother in law and i said hey i gotta run to the studio now it's monday morning she said i'm i then disappointment
Speaker A
and i was like oh man mother-in-law's no i'm joking she's great but i didn't have a choice amy rottenberg lives in toronto he was only in for a day this was the day that we booked for a few weeks in advance
Speaker A
so i showed up to the studio with my baby nice av romberg let's see if i can quickly pull it up a.b rottenberg sat with my baby in his lap for two hours the entire session that is amazing fed her
Speaker A
um he says 80. you know and burped her and i was just here i'm going to pull up the picture so you can see it just so you can appreciate his godless okay a b rotten wow we're gonna post that we're gonna get
Speaker A
that that's awesome yo you'll get it yeah you'll send me one okay amy rottenberg feeding my newborn with his crocs and his voice yeah the crocs he is just it's perfect it's with his headset on this what is this and he's
Speaker A
listening amazing here wow it was amazing it was unbelievable he's such a goddle um and he was coaching me i mean the experience just from a music end the way that he interprets words is like a whole new world right i mean i i try
Speaker A
to do that when i sing to really feel the music but the way that he does it is a whole new level um nothing in your life will ever be more meaningful just the way that he had me place the
Speaker A
words and feel the words and and and and taste the words was just i mean that's something that i did not take for granted i loved every moment of that experience with my baby with donnie gross's super schmuck yeah um
Speaker A
so yeah that was tremendous shapiro definitely a lot more to talk about we're gonna we're gonna stop it right here maybe round two part one yeah i really appreciate you coming in i'm so happy we're able to do this thank you
Speaker A
guys thank you this was great new music coming soon can't wait to hear it can't wait enjoy it hope you enjoyed that episode of the meaningful people podcast momo how was that that was awesome seriously your first episode right how does that feel
Speaker A
it was really really nice i thought it was so cool how morty brought out really the hey legislative behind the trademark his work hey legislative yeah but like i really like how he how he gave people a window into his process
Speaker A
and into really what goes behind his music and i it was a really cool conversation yeah and honestly take him up look at one of his music videos his phone number might be on there and just like spam it you know anyways if you enjoy
Speaker A
our podcast if you enjoy meaningful people hit that subscribe button hit it hard smash it like break your phone screen right come on come on and then we'll maybe advertise for one of those phone fixing screen places but go ahead
Speaker A
and subscribe because why not you'll be notified as soon as new episodes are coming out and if you're watching this on youtube leave a comment subscribe as well there we'd love to see your feedback and of course meaningful
Speaker A
people has more episodes coming your way so stay tuned a big shout out to people who subscribed last week who me totally subscribed eitan berlin michigan udell you subscribed you left a review we appreciate your support and uh
Speaker A
thanks so much ciao
Topics:Mordechai ShapiroJewish musicMeaningful People podcastJewish pop starFriends music videoJewish culturemusic productionJewish traditionspersonal storiesmusic innovation
