AND HERE’S MODI
AND HERE’S MODI is an inside look at the man behind the microphone. Hosted by comedian, Modi (@modi_live), AHM features a raw and unfiltered side of the comedian rarely seen on stage. He always finds the funny as he navigates the worlds of comedy, trending topics, his personal life and spirituality. AHM is co-hosted by Periel Aschenbrand (@perielaschenbrand) and Leo Veiga (@leo_veiga_).
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Mendy Twerski
Episode 126: Modi and Periel are joined by Hassidic singer Mendy Twerski who is on a mission to 'make Yiddish music great again'.
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Welcome to. And here's Mody. And we're back in the studio. And here's Mody. Hi everybody, hope you're having. We're like in the height of holidays right now. This episode's airing in the height of your yontifs. That's like the motif of the holidays. Perry, I have no idea what I'm talking about, but we have a guest in the house today, mendy Torski. Mendy Mendy, who we mentioned on the Ricky Rose episode, and he gave a shout out. He did not give a shout out, he contacted us and in the nicest, let me tell you how he contacted us. It's like thanks for the shout out. He said thanks for the shout out. Let me know what song you listen to so I can let the guys who helped produce it know. Oh, that's so sweet. He's already understanding. So this how old are you?
Speaker 2:I'm 21 canine ahara.
Speaker 1:He's 21 and already understands how important is your team. Am I right?
Speaker 2:yeah, listen, they're the ones that brought me to the place that I am so like. Appreciation is one of the most important things for me, always, always been.
Speaker 1:Okay, so now I don't even know you. I don't know your story, I don't know where you're from, I just know I love your music and that's enough to get you on the podcast and so be voinsti. Where do you live?
Speaker 2:So I grew up in Brooklyn. Where I'm from the Hasidic community in Borough Park.
Speaker 1:Borough Park Like any other Hasidic community. That's the Cholent. So that means you could be anything. You could be Satme, you could be.
Speaker 2:In Hasidic anything?
Speaker 1:yes, Anything, but what kind of Hasidic are you?
Speaker 2:So I am Baba 45. Like, my family is Baba 45. You know the 45 and 48. So my family is 45. Periel has absolutely no idea what is happening right now. So basically there's a Hasidic, there's like, let's say, a Rebbe passes away and then this kid has to take over the Hasidic right. So if he has two kids and both kids want to be Rebbe, then this kind of gets like a fight, because each of them opens up their own Besmadrish.
Speaker 3:At their own.
Speaker 2:What their own synagogue, their own, like Hasidus right.
Speaker 1:This is my heaven guest. Thank God, you stayed for this. Leo knew he's not staying for this.
Speaker 2:No, this is fun though.
Speaker 1:You know, she knows, in the Hasidic world the Hasidim are by the city they came from In Europe. So you know, there's Lababash, there's Satmar, there's Karistir, karistir. I know and when the kids, when the, when the rabbi passes away, the kids take over and, if they have, I didn't know that, that the kids take over.
Speaker 3:But what so there's, there are enough kids that usually one of them is going to want to be a rabbi so usually the rabbi says before he passes away I want this kid to be the rabbi.
Speaker 2:Everyone has a different story every time it goes differently. But in this specific case the rabbi didn't have any sons, he only had daughters.
Speaker 1:So he had some laws, by the way, brother. Okay, by the way same thing.
Speaker 3:They should let a woman be the rabbi.
Speaker 1:Same thing, same thing, by the Karesti Rebbe. He had three daughters and one of them, the oldest one, married, who then became the Karesti Rebbe and the grandmother. And the grandmother, the daughter, knew she had the power. This is Dina's grandmother, this is Dina's grandmother, my friend Dina's grandmother, and people used to fly to see her and she was the Rebbitin and that's so. But anyway, so you are from, you're a Bab of Chosid, bab of.
Speaker 2:Chosid 45.
Speaker 1:Bab of 45. Wait wait.
Speaker 3:So what's 45?
Speaker 2:Why is it a number? What happened was that, basically, the rabbi didn't have any sons, he only had son-in-laws, and he also had a brother which, for some reason, people said that the rabbi wasn't a rabbi for long enough to be called a rabbi. So that means that his brother should become a rabbi, because it means it's like his father just passed away. You know what I mean he's like.
Speaker 3:Next, to my okay.
Speaker 2:So basically some people went with the brother and some people went with the son-in-law. So my family went with the son-in-law, so my family was a son-in-law, okay, and then basically what happened was a couple of years later they got into a fight about branding, like who can call themselves Bobbitt? So they really there was. It was a serious fight. They made it than Toyota. You know what it entitled is now the Jewish version of court of course basically, you come like the room, there's like three based in sitting based in based on you know, yeah.
Speaker 1:Leo's gonna hate this when he has to translate this by Dean. Yeah, she knows, she's. She's she yet to explain, to feed it to her a different way?
Speaker 2:Okay, so go ahead. And so, basically, they got into a fight and then, for some reason, the other one, meaning the one from the brother, won. Now the one from the brother.
Speaker 2:The brother took over the shul on 48th street in bar park the big one yeah, and then the son-in-law had to make a new synagogue because he didn't have a shul right, so he opened up one on 45 corner 15. This is amazing. So that's why they called this one on 48 and this one 45. That's what happened. Amazing, wow. It was a whole fight. They had to put on 45 into the symbol of the of the hasidus right so it has a symbol yeah, they put in all of the papers and stuff. So they put like babav.
Speaker 2:It says babav and big and they put like in the crown and tiny they put in the crown.
Speaker 3:It's like yeah that is amazing okay so then you grew there.
Speaker 1:How many brothers and sisters you have oh, we're 11 siblings, okay, 11 siblings. And you, this voice, you have, this music you have. When did you discover it?
Speaker 2:so I I basically I always had a passion for music. I always loved to sing and play stuff. When I was young, like I always tried to play keyboard and stuff, like just to figure it out. But when I was nine years old I started writing music, like actually writing new songs, and I started showing it to all of my friends and but in yiddish in yiddish always yiddish, but you shouldn't see my songs that I wrote then, like the yiddish was very like low quality.
Speaker 2:You know I was like rhyming words. It's like you know, like meet, indeed, is like a simple rhyme right it's like okay, fine, you rhymed, you found the word that rhymes with another one, you made a line, but then you can find like deeper, and like more talented and more nicer lyrics to put in right of course so if you're just gonna put like a simple song, people are not gonna feel that interested and that connected to listen to the song. But if you put nicer lyrics, it's like wow.
Speaker 1:So yeah, you know and your father and mother. What your? What do they do?
Speaker 2:so they're both accountants oh yeah nothing to do with music. But my great-grandfather did like write. You know the song Hashiach et hamecha.
Speaker 1:Hashiach et hamecha. So, by the way, I use that tune for when my shul is Ashkenazi and we do Ashkenazi Kedusha, so I go, so I do that. It's great, great. He wrote that. That's an amazing.
Speaker 2:And then Chabad picked it up. So you know my great-grandfather's like. You probably know him, dr Tversky. He wrote a bunch of books. Of course, of course my great-grandfather.
Speaker 1:That was my next question. Like is this the family of Tversky? Yeah, this is a huge. He was a huge rabbi and also singing. There was one rab that's his brother that's his brother, he's still alive.
Speaker 2:The rapper from.
Speaker 1:Milwaukee, that's right. Yeah, he has. Oh, if I should have pulled it up, he has one with this big orchestra. He sings with what's the name of that song?
Speaker 2:Cardavion. Maybe he has a bunch of songs, so many, so many but he's in my.
Speaker 3:I have him as well so everyone was supportive when you were like I'm going to be a musician.
Speaker 2:So not really that's kind of the thing.
Speaker 4:So in the beginning.
Speaker 2:You have to understand that in the Hasidic world there is a lot of stuff that we do different than other communities within the Jewish communities.
Speaker 1:Oh, really, we know.
Speaker 2:We're very extreme to a certain way, but the reason why we're extreme is because, like, let's say, we don't want people to get to this point, so we put the, the bar, the, the barricade. We put it a little bit before, like, just they don't pass that point in order, they don't get close to that point at all that's a very interesting way to describe that.
Speaker 1:I've never heard it oh it also could bite you in the tuchus, because once you break that point, then there's no, you can just go nuts.
Speaker 3:Well, like God forbid, you should become a musician.
Speaker 2:So that's the thing. A musician is not really a problem. Oh, okay, the thing is that musicians get exposed to social media and the other different platforms. I'm the oldest in my family. My father just all he wanted was for me to grow up in the box and to not know about social media and not know about all of those stuff outside. So when my father first saw that I started making music, he got a little bit afraid. I didn't understand it at the time. At the time I was like I was embarrassed. I was like what? My music is not good enough. But then later on I got older and I understood it. It's just he was really afraid. For me he was like man, you're going to become a musician, you're going to go out there, open up a social media account. Who knows what you're going to get exposed to on social media. And I was a young kid, I was nine years old.
Speaker 1:I wouldn't let my nine-year-old Of course not Even a non-religious you don't leave a nine-year-old on social media is how I got to you. I don't know what. I was on Spotify, I was listening to some singer and I hit the radio of that singer and your voice came on. Oh my God. And I will tell you. I stopped and go. What is this? What is this? And your voice is great, the music is great, the tone is great. It's like another level of Now is there a world, there's a new world now of this music. It's hard to explain to you.
Speaker 1:So there was Shlomo Kalbach, melech HaMelech, the King of Kings, who brought life into Jewish music. And then from him came amazing singers, ari Klein, who I always keep mentioning also. Did you ever hear of Ari Klein before your time? But uh, he was a. He also a chusid, but a chazen, but also did pop music-y, a type of of of of of Karl Bach.
Speaker 1:And then you have big kings, mordechai, ben David and Avon Fried, which were all lyrics within the Bible, and Talmud and Tehillim, the Psalms, and they take little, little paragraphs or a little, a few words from some piece of Torah and they would make a song of it and it's like unbelievable stuff. And they'd add a little Yiddish to it and it would be Hebrew. And then all of a sudden I hit him, I hit Mendytorsky, and I'm like, wait, what it's in Yiddish and it's an adorable Yiddish. It's an adorable, easy-to-understand Yiddish. And it's Yenglish Yiddish, where they mix it in and the music is amazing and it's a beat and if you take the words out you would think it's just a regular vibey Like. If you would put chill pool music, you'd get that. But this is obviously in Yiddish. And so what's your inspiration for songwriting?
Speaker 2:so, honestly, I remember the first time I wrote a song what was your first song? So my first song that I wrote yeah I've never released and I never will release okay like I. Basically, I remember I listened to a song by there's a different jewish singer. His name is mati elowitz. He also does like yiddish gram and you know who he is. I know exactly who he is so mati writes songs, and if the song is like a harziger song, yeah you're, you are gonna cry cry that's it right, you're gonna cry and if the song?
Speaker 2:is like a happy song. You're about to start dancing. It's like he is. He is so good. He brings out emotion in the songs to another level you understand.
Speaker 1:This is what I'm on the treadmill with it's insane just so you understand, just so we have a context for why I'm getting this music in my ear. So I know exactly who he is and he's unbelievable, um so okay, so what?
Speaker 2:so basically I listened to his. He had released an album when I was nine years old. He released an album called uh. I think it was his first album okay, and I listened to the whole entire album. There's one track on the album that he talks about Basically. He goes through all of the issues problems and hard times.
Speaker 1:that I said Sarot because I wanted to no Zivai, zivai, zivai.
Speaker 3:I can do Hebrew.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay so basically he went through everything. He went through the Spanish Inquisition, second World War and everything that happened to Jews and it was such a heartache song. It got everyone crying right and I decided like I found a couple of things about like the jewish history that he didn't mention in the song. I decided what if there was like a part two to the song?
Speaker 2:so basically I first I took his tune and I wrote like total different lyrics on it. Now, of course, the lyrics aren't like. I would be embarrassed like if I wrote lyrics like that today, but it was my first song, so I just wrote it and I sat down with a pen and paper and I wrote it down and I was like, wow, it sounds so nice and everything. I sang it to my. You know I was like learning with somebody chavrisa, yeah so I was like learning with somebody.
Speaker 1:He's learning torah with the person.
Speaker 2:In yeshiva he learned torah with yes, your partner kind of yeah so I was like learning with him and I showed it to him and he was like, oh my god, mindy, you know that I play keyboard. You should come to my house and we'll do like we'll jam together. Wow, I was like, yes, sure, let's do it. I went to his house, we connected this mic into the back of the Yama and I like sang into the mic and we did a recording and I remember he gave it to me. I had it on my, on my sense a clip, and I listened to it over and over and over again.
Speaker 1:I was like so excited wow, and that was your first song.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay, but your first song that became a hit is probably good morgan so martin is the first one that blew up fully mainstream yeah I have a few that went like viral before okay a song about loneliness that went viral, like also a hard to get a song which one is that?
Speaker 1:uh, manvelt, don't leave me alone, right? Manvelt, manvelt, don't Leave Me Alone, right?
Speaker 4:Yeah, la M'ich Nesht Alai.
Speaker 1:La M'ich Nesht Alai, la M'ich Nesht Alai.
Speaker 4:It's such a great song La M'ich Nesht Alai. Yeah, it's nice yeah.
Speaker 1:A very, very nice song and with these inspiration, it's hard to say 21 years old. I mean, what's inspiring you Like you haven't?
Speaker 3:had crazy. Yeah, what do you listen to? Like now you're out in the world, right, Like you've left, don't assume. Well, I mean he's here.
Speaker 1:He's here, but he's here speaking to the number one Jewish comedian. It's not like he's out in I don't know what's.
Speaker 2:Speaking to some Russian comedian.
Speaker 3:God forbid a Russian comedian.
Speaker 1:No, he's in an environment that's conducive to his community. But where are you getting? What do you listen to? That's not Jewish.
Speaker 2:So, first of all, israeli music, which is Jewish but it's not Hasidic. So that's okay, I mean. So the thing is that Jews are not supposed to listen to. The reason why we don't listen to Goyish music is because of not because of the music. It's because of the stuff that they say in the song. So it's not that we don't listen to Goyish music, it's more like that people don't want to introduce their children to Goethe's music because they don't want their children to learn everything that they're talking about in the songs.
Speaker 2:You know there's people that are making normal songs, but there's also a bunch of rappers that are talking stuff that we don't want our kids to listen to. So that's the whole. I think. In my opinion, that's the reason why we shouldn't listen to Goethe's music.
Speaker 1:So I personally I have a lot of artists that jewish community. I listen to benson boone. I try not to listen to like ladies singing because of like the kolisha, yeah and everything you're not supposed to listen to women singing?
Speaker 2:because it's it, it's an erotic, it's an erotic type of a thing it's. It's. Don't just let it go, let it go. Let it go. I can explain it. Go ahead why? Let me ask the question.
Speaker 3:Okay, why is a woman erotic singing but a man is not erotic singing?
Speaker 2:So I actually had the same exact question and I just asked it from somebody. This Shabbos. I was by an event and it was like a lady singing whatever and they made like only the ladies could go in and I was like thinking it was like somebody I know and I really wanted her to hear us singing. So I was like can you guys let me in? They're like no. I was like you know what. Let me ask you a question why is it that we can't listen to women singing, but women could listen to men singing? So the answer I got I mean it's pretty. I don't know if it's a fact or not. You guys can fight over it. He said that the attraction that women, that men, get from women, is on the looks like it's almost 100 out of the looks and the attraction that women get from men is not so much on the looks but it's also personality.
Speaker 3:It's also a lot of different stuff so why can't you listen to a woman?
Speaker 2:if you can't, I mean, if I'm gonna follow this train of logic, fine, let's, that's so I guess listening to women is kind of like oh, let me see this woman, or let me fine what's that's. So I guess listening to women is kind of la, let me see this woman, or let me see you, I what's her?
Speaker 4:name. Let me go check it up and then whatever I mean, you know you should go to deep into this, but okay, but why are we there?
Speaker 1:we were talking about it because of listening to gosh music into a I. I think you as a musician can listen to Goyish music just to hear inspiration of different harmonies, motifs, not so much the words, but like the way they present it and the performance, the performance of it.
Speaker 2:I agree, it's a lot to learn from the Goyish music world. A lot to learn.
Speaker 3:And from the women, and from lot of learn. And from the women, and from the women and from the women also yeah, and you what you?
Speaker 1:You have a crew that helps you produce these songs and the videos are great. I appreciate it. The videos are great and you're easy to look at and it's. You know, usually these guys are like, not that I mind, I love they're in full Hasidic cigar and they all have that talus that goes over their heads and they're singing and the music is great, but just like okay, but all of a sudden you have a young guy singing with other young guys behind him and he's proud, he's pious and some of the videos you have a coat on. So your manager's walking in, so we're not going to futz around with this. Come on in the manager. We were talking about how important it is to have his staff and give a shakayach to all. You. Give him the guitar.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much, and so, okay, wait, hulk, nothing matters, there's a guitar in the house. Now, now, this is. There's a guitar in the house.
Speaker 2:Imagine the guitar is like a camera. You know, it's just another camera. It's just another camera.
Speaker 1:Okay, imagine the guitars like a camera.
Speaker 2:You know it's just another camera, okay, so this first song that I'm gonna request is obviously good Morgan, and tell her a little bit about the song so get Morgan was but either either although first of all you gotta understand, get Morgan is not my typical song, like I have never released any song that's even similar to get modern, just because get Martin is a very I would call a Jewish kind of mainstream. Because it's it's easy words, it goes over and over the same words. So nice, it's mainstream. You know, everybody could listen to it.
Speaker 1:It's a good song, it's such an important thing that what's amazing about Jewish music is we repeat over and over so you can learn it so quickly by goyim, but those christmas songs have so many words in it. Yeah, therefore, you wouldn't go. I didn't know, you didn't go, when the jewish is just like and we're done like that, and then we also have Non-mainstream songs. Yeah, you know, but Good Morning is so Ziz. Okay, here's Good Morning Is basically what it means.
Speaker 2:So the point of the song Is basically the first chorus Is basically I'm like saying Every scenario and it's opposite. So it's basically you woke up in the morning, good morning. You woke up late, it'll be better tomorrow. You're drinking your coffee, so good morning. But if you don't got coffee, it'll be better tomorrow. And like I'm going through everything, one of the points is, like you know, in like an Israel, you have to warm up the shower half an hour before going out, you know you have like five out of six days a week that you don't have hot water over there.
Speaker 2:So it's like I made like this thing like if you have a hot shower, good morning.
Speaker 1:If you don't got hot water, it'll be better tomorrow so you're gonna say I'm on the treadmill listening to this. I'm like who is this kid? I'm dying from this song. It's the best song I've ever heard. I go what is this he's like? Got all this in there. It's such a go ahead. Hit us with this, thank you.
Speaker 4:Agit margen, margen, margen margen, jiden, jiden, lamer zan, zufrieden Bist aufgestanen in de frie. Agit margen margen, in oib bist aufgestanen spät Gait san besser, margen, a aise kave chul of tri. Agit margen margen In oib. Kan melich nishme zey A hot coffee, cool on three. Tomorrow will be better tomorrow In the morning. No milk, no milk anymore. Tomorrow will be better tomorrow. The pie is crumbled. Tomorrow will be better tomorrow In the morning. A plant doesn't grow. Tomorrow will be better tomorrow. A hot shower started. Tomorrow is coming In the cold water, fresh. It's getting better. Tomorrow is coming the shepherd's brother. It's getting better. Tomorrow is coming. It's getting better. Tomorrow is coming In the old house. The old house, the best morning is forgotten, amazing, thank you.
Speaker 1:If you're pasting, if you're pasting the right way. If your paints aren't coming out, don't worry about tomorrow.
Speaker 2:I have it like most of the days of the week. I used to like make it nice every day no, but you still have paint. You still have worry about tomorrow. I have it like most of the days of the week. I used to like make it nice every day no, but you still have. You still have pace. I still have it.
Speaker 1:But when I try to make it like in the front, like that, it's so hard it's really hard, oh no when I do my character as a chusel, I just have the what's it called, just going down straight, straight down straight.
Speaker 3:I'm not going to try and forgot they're supposed to be. Let's have the conversation.
Speaker 1:Really.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Are they supposed to be like curled?
Speaker 2:No, no. So what they're supposed to be is just a spot on the head that's longer than all of the other hair on the head.
Speaker 3:Okay, and why?
Speaker 2:The reason why is because, like back in two, three hundred years ago, the priests used to do like their haircut used to be they used to keep the hair on their head, they just used to have like one line around. So, like in the Torah it says it means basically don't go around, okay. So, basically, what it means is that you have to keep those two spots on your head, okay, in order to not look like the priest or something like that.
Speaker 1:It's probably like Also, you can't mar the three corners of the face.
Speaker 2:That's with the beard.
Speaker 1:That's not cutting the beard Also in the Okay Okay.
Speaker 3:So it's just supposed to be like to signify that you're Jewish, yeah.
Speaker 2:Okay, so every Jew, like no matter what is supposed to like officially have over here, here that's either longer than all the hair on the head or at least, like I think it's bigger than a one and a half or a two or a one, whatever.
Speaker 3:there's like a bunch of so how come some are like super like crazy long.
Speaker 2:So this is tradition, so, like the Hasidic people have the tradition to grow it out all the way and everybody has different.
Speaker 1:Like you'll go on Bar Park, you'll walk on the street have straight hair going down. You see ones that have it more like this. What other song we have, a song you just released yeah yeah like that one that's so good. Wait, wait, talk about it for us talk about it and over End of our. End of our. End of our, yes, end of our.
Speaker 2:Basically, the song is called Ein Dover Weimait and actually what happened with that song? It's an interesting story. I released it together with Avramosh. You saw the other guy on the track.
Speaker 1:I saw the other guy on the poster, yeah.
Speaker 4:So basically what happened was that I came to the studio just one random day to record lyrics for like a different song and I'm like coming in and I hear this guy like singing and over to my mind and over to my mind and I was like that sounds so catchy, so good.
Speaker 2:So I just walk into the studio. He was finishing off a session and I'm like man, the song sounds so good, can I hear it? So he turns it off for me. He had like a song, but it wasn't a full song, it was like a beginning and a middle and I was like hold on, like the song needs another part. So he was like you want to come on? I was like okay, so I just sat down and like I wrote lyrics on the spot. I just went to the mic and I sang it in and literally, literally the way that I sang it in it is on the track till today and it's like I was like whoa, like I didn't even know that I can do this. You know what? What I mean? Like it really sounded good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so tell her what the song is.
Speaker 2:So the song is basically about there's nothing standing in the way of your will.
Speaker 1:If you have a will, you'll get there.
Speaker 3:Oh, that's great.
Speaker 1:I love that there's nothing between you and what you can accomplish, and whatever your desire, your intention is, there's nothing standing there.
Speaker 2:You ready? Yeah, yeah, Ein Dovar oimait ein Dovar oimait.
Speaker 1:Ein Dovar oimait oimait befnai hurutsoin. Ein Dovar oimait. Ein Dovar oimait. Ein Dovar oimait oimait befnai hurutsoin.
Speaker 4:Willst du saastet, willst du saastet, willst du saastet, willst du saastet, willst du saastet, willst du saastet will. One day I will be a woman. One day I will be a woman, a woman with a red hair. You want it, you hate it, you know it. The lamp is red, it makes it green. Dad, mom, daughters, only the will is enough and they come to you. Oh, you hold on to it. You hate the cool In the head, a picture, a child, aness, and I have a picture of you, a picture of you as a mule. Those who can't say that can feel it. They think of you as a noble mule, but they want to know that they are right, that they write a resume, not to talk, not to fight. They become stronger while you shine, that they only believe in you and only want to be like that. Okay, and it goes again. Amazing, amazing, amazing. I'm the one who won't mind.
Speaker 1:Who won't mind if my heart hurts. Amazing, amazing, amazing, wait, wait. I'm not, so Hold on. I'm trying to get to the rest of my songs. I always forget.
Speaker 3:While you're doing that. That was amazing. So now you're like out in the world. Has there been like anything that's been like really shocking, or do you feel like it's like kind of like a smooth transition?
Speaker 2:so, honestly, I I had a stage like in between, meaning like right afterwards, like when I, when I kind of, let's say, left the box of the system, you know like being a close-minded and everything but you didn't leave you still. You live with your family still. So, yeah, so today I am living with my family and I'm back and I'm doing only jewish music and stuff, but back in the day, okay back in the day back in the day, I mean years old.
Speaker 1:Back in the day when I was 16. When we came from america the the back in the day, he's 23 years old.
Speaker 2:21 but it does, you're right, it does like it doesn't make sense.
Speaker 1:No, no, but listen everything. For a 21 year old, three weeks seemed to me like four years. Yeah, yeah, go ahead. So back in the day four or five years ago.
Speaker 2:Back in the day, so four or five years ago I got kicked out of like a couple of yeshivas in a row, and then afterwards I was like in the last yeshiva which, by the way most people at one point do yeah, it's like, it's not like it's not this.
Speaker 1:It's not like the end of the world. I was also. They asked me to this is enough, you can go to public school, it's okay. They were all yeah. So it's not like the kicked out of yeshiva okay.
Speaker 2:Okay. So it's not that big of a deal. But if you get like kicked out of a bunch of yeshivas in a row and again and again and again and again, then it comes to a certain point. And also the yeshiva they tell you that you're in yeshiva for God. Like, you're not in yeshiva to mature or to learn or for your own growth, you're in yeshiva because of God. So it's very hard to work for somebody else the whole entire day.
Speaker 2:Being a yeshiva for God is very hard versus being a yeshiva. If they would have told me in the beginning, man, you're going to be in yeshiva and you're going to learn and you're going to be a Talmud Chocham one day, then maybe I would have like behaved and I would have stayed, because I would have felt like I'm doing it for myself. But if they're lying to me and they're telling me, man, you're doing yeshiva for this and for, I didn't feel comfortable. So it came to a certain point that I was like, okay, I'm fed up and that's it. I'm not going to try to go into another yeshiva, I'm out, good for you yeah, and then I stayed.
Speaker 2:I was on the street and then at that point I had so much hate on me so I was like trying to do everything the opposite of the jewish coming. So at that point I was like this I released like a, a couple of songs that some of them I removed from youtube later. Whatever it was like just I was trying to be like a journey.
Speaker 1:What's the name?
Speaker 2:journey.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's part of the journey, that's the part of the journey, and then later on, I just matured he matured and he and he said this this being jewish is amazing, and there's amazing lessons in being jewish, and I'm speaking for you you speak better than me. And you said let's hit, let's hit it nicely. And he wrote these amazing songs. And what's your favorite? Yontif Neginer song from Rosh Hashanah.
Speaker 4:Rosh Hashanah, yom Kippur, whatever you know this one Toh bo boi v'yohim ar kalaše, nesho mu v'yapo, nesho mu, nesho mu v'yapo. Want to do the second chorus? Of course no. No, yasen eloika, eloika ha'yisrua, of course no. Wow, great piece.
Speaker 1:It's a song by who wrote that. I don't even know. Is that Karloff? Possibly but I think it's like even older. The holiday prayers have a nusach. There's a proper way to. But then there's songs, that the songs that came in, that we put the words into them and it's amazing. What do you mean?
Speaker 3:What do you mean?
Speaker 1:What do I mean? All?
Speaker 2:kinds of tunes. There's a lot of tunes that they used to sing back in the day, and then we took it and we put it on the davening Like, let's say, songs.
Speaker 1:So I was. That's an actual motif of the song, but then you can put it into a song and it just brings it alive, and it brings the synagogue alive and people are singing along and it's an amazing, amazing, amazing film.
Speaker 2:It's a good vibe. It's a really good vibe. I love Rosh Hashanah. It's like my favorite yontif to be in a show.
Speaker 1:It's my favorite yontif.
Speaker 2:You know that sound like before, the Hamelech is like Ah. Ah Ah, ah. Ah, it's like ah, I can literally faint just from listening to that. So good.
Speaker 3:I can literally faint just from listening to that so good, it's so good.
Speaker 1:That's your favorite holiday. I mean it's?
Speaker 3:not my favorite holiday, but it's my favorite holiday to be in synagogue like to listen to the davening. That's interesting. Favorite holiday is.
Speaker 2:Purim, of course.
Speaker 3:Of course.
Speaker 1:No, but for davening, for singing, it's the high holidays. It's like here we do the whole year, we do to the similar motifs, these minors and majors that we sing in, and then we go into this brand new, like out of nowhere, a whole new other soundtrack that we go into for just two days. Unbelievable, unbelievable, it's unbelievable, it's unbelievable. What other songs.
Speaker 3:It's unbelievable how much you know about this. This is almost my. I know it's like what other songs are over it's unbelievable how much you know about this.
Speaker 1:This is almost my. It's all I talk about. I know it's like your favorite thing.
Speaker 3:This is the only reason we do this podcast. We've done like 150 episodes. It's just so that we can have a few episodes that Modi gets to listen to Yiddish music.
Speaker 1:I put Bernie Roganitsky on. He's like the guy who's like the go-to. Now info for cantorial singing In the Jewish world?
Speaker 2:What In the Jewish world?
Speaker 1:In the Jewish world. Yeah, I've been Americanizing it and I'm just sitting here talking about all the Chazanim I love. Do you listen to Chazanish music?
Speaker 2:A little bit. There's like maybe three Chazanis songs that I know which one.
Speaker 4:Raza de Shabbos. I love the Wow, the scales on that. It's insane.
Speaker 1:By the way, I take that I put it everywhere, I put it everywhere, I put it everywhere. It's so nice when I do Put that in there too. It's very, very. That's a very. That's okay. What other Chazanisha songs do you like?
Speaker 2:I'm thinking like there's the only Chazanisha songs that I like are like the old ones. Oh, you know that other one, shulam, did it on his album. You know, shulam.
Speaker 1:Lover? Yes, of course.
Speaker 4:So he has like the song it's basically, I don't remember the beginning, but it's like In the beginning it's like it's like you can hear the baskal singing.
Speaker 1:In the actual song. You know what I mean yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 2:And the third one. The third one, I'm trying to remember you don't have to If you sound.
Speaker 1:Cantorial singing Is a different type of Different kind of music. If you ever get a chance listen to an opera. Yeah, it's basically. These pieces were written almost like operas, right, you know? And it's a story they're telling. It's so amazing, it's so, so amazing. All right, another one of your songs that you're like beyond proud of you want to hear.
Speaker 2:Yeah, of course it's the one that you sang before, but like I need her to hear the second chorus, she might go and sing give her.
Speaker 2:Give her a little explanation what's happening, all right so this is one of the songs that I wrote, like actually in that first uh time, like right when I was trying to go like the opposite of everybody and I one of the songs that I released, by the way, it's not this one, I'm just saying like one of the songs that I released, I spoke about like judging other people and like I, literally, I I like addressed all of the problems or issues we have in the community, like, literally, I was going through one by one. I was trying to like tell everybody this is what you're doing, do the opposite. I was like so one of the songs that I did, which is this one, is basically a song about loneliness and I'm basically all I'm doing is basically explaining the value of having another person with you in your life. So the first half of the song, I'm basically putting it in scenario and I'm like I'm saying like imagine it's a winter night and there's like snow falling and you're walking just by yourself and you have nobody next to you, and I and you're walking just by yourself and you have nobody next to you, and I'm basically explaining how sad the person is and why he's sad.
Speaker 2:And then the second half of the song. It's basically talking like appealing to the people and saying, hey, you see your friend seeing sitting over there by himself. Do me a favor and go talk to him, like you know he might need it, okay. So it's like it starts off with like a winter night, whatever. I'm basically putting the situation. And then afterwards it's the second chorus where the guy's basically crying and he's saying like my life feels so quiet and everything. So that part the tune that I wrote for that part is one of the only tunes that I wrote that. I listened to it afterwards and I'm like how did I write a tune like that?
Speaker 1:it's like you didn't abish to gave it to you, I know, but it's like it's it's mad. I gave that to you any joke I have that's worth. Anything is from God and Leo gives a punchline.
Speaker 3:I thought it was Leo.
Speaker 1:Leo pops a punchline in there too. Leo gives you the joke it's an Ebor.
Speaker 2:It's an Ebor it's an Ebor, it means like it goes through.
Speaker 1:There was an opening in your neshama and God put this oh, there you go.
Speaker 2:A message go a message like a basket a little exactly fell down. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So this is how it goes.
Speaker 4:I'm going to start with the second chorus. It's basically like okay, my life, my life feels, my life, my life feels I play out. I feel like someone who can touch me. I'm exposed to everything, my own world, my own language. It's not interesting for me. Me, in the sun, In the same place, you stand there looking, you know the thing. I see you looking. I pray. Come talk to me, Don't leave me alone. Don't leave me alone.
Speaker 1:So the song officially goes much higher it's Bob Dylan-y, it's beautiful.
Speaker 3:It's Bob Dylan-y. It's beautiful.
Speaker 1:It's totally Bob Dylan-y. Do you know who Bob Dylan is? Oh my God, no, I know, I know, I know. No, no, no, no, no, I know, I know.
Speaker 3:You're in charge.
Speaker 1:He has to listen to Bob.
Speaker 3:Dylan.
Speaker 2:Who is that?
Speaker 3:He's like one of the most famous Jewish. Bob Zimmerman was his real name Robert Zimmerman. He's still alive. He's probably in his 80s now One of the most famous.
Speaker 1:When did you ever meet such a pure soul? It's amazing, but no, no, it's a crime against your gift and talent that somebody is not giving you bob dylan.
Speaker 2:Bob dylan, you're. You're writing that down you're writing that down.
Speaker 1:It's the best. It's the best he's like the most famous musician on the planet really have you know, I'm telling you we recently we we got a house for the weekend house up in connecticut and out of my parents house I took this old stereo, this he doesn't know what a stereo is the thing is momish.
Speaker 1:Four years ago the big DVD like CD the big DVD, the vinyl and all this old music that we had from like I don't know, when we used to collect the albums and sit there on the floor and listen to it. You couldn't walk around with it yeah, yeah and this music you have to hear All Jewish.
Speaker 3:It's all like Jewish music that he had.
Speaker 1:So then, yeah, it's all back in there.
Speaker 3:Why does?
Speaker 1:nobody know about it. There's this unbelievable music that you have to listen to, and also non-Jewish music. You have to listen to singers that really moved people, even though they're not Jewish. You can take from them you can not steal from them, but like inspiration from them Inspiration, true.
Speaker 2:So I don't know if you've seen, but I did like started like about a year and a half ago. I started like doing Yiddish covers on English songs, on like non-Jewish songs. I think I did see that I did like a bunch of them, a bunch of them, and I still have like a bunch of them backed up. I just got to film videos for everyone.
Speaker 1:That's fun. That sounds really fun. It is. They're doing Gaga songs, but with Yiddish words.
Speaker 2:Gaga songs. I usually do you know that song, please, so I did that. On Moshiach Wow, it actually blew up on Instagram. We got like 200.
Speaker 1:Do you want to hit a few chords of that?
Speaker 2:That's great.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah it's very good, I heard it, let's see.
Speaker 4:Please stay.
Speaker 2:Okay, so we got it.
Speaker 4:Please, please, hey, ich sog dir, ich darf jetzt dan hilf Shit Schon De helft erfind. Ganz klar, je zroh Shit, hold on, I already know it. Yeah, wow, it's basically like whatever.
Speaker 1:He does that.
Speaker 2:yeah, I don't remember it by heart, heart. But I did like a bunch of different songs. You know the song I can buy myself flowers. Yes, I did that one too. Whatever, I did a bunch of them what about old old school Yiddish songs?
Speaker 1:my Yiddish mama.
Speaker 2:I love those songs, yeah, like they're in my playlist, yeah, but I feel like it's kind of like it's clashing with my brand when I sing those songs, because you can make your brand, you can make it your brand, my brand is talking yiddish from today. You don't speak yiddish, so you wouldn't understand. Like really get the concept.
Speaker 1:He probably try me, it's no people who say that yiddish is a dying language, or are the dumbest people that there is?
Speaker 2:not only Yiddish is all-.
Speaker 1:Yiddish not only that it's not your grandmother's Yiddish. It's Yiddish that's been like Americanized kind of a little bit, so it's so good yeah.
Speaker 3:It's so good. Wait, what is the Yiddish of today?
Speaker 1:Instead of bring me, bring mich, bring mich des. Bring mich it became wasser.
Speaker 2:It's like Water, water is Wasser.
Speaker 3:Look, I got it.
Speaker 2:Let's say, in Germany they would have said that means can you bring me a cup of water? But today they would say Because cup, which is a word like in English, but it became a part of the language.
Speaker 1:Can you call me?
Speaker 3:It's so great, I just want both of you to know that when I walked into the studio half an hour early with leo to make sure that everything was set up, I looked around and took everything off the shelves and said that this is very unga patch oh see there you go, don't tell me but almost next time wait what is it?
Speaker 2:it's wrong oh, ungepatched means like like. When you slap Like somebody, you're like Patsch.
Speaker 3:It's like a patsch, but isn't like a bunch of like Hazerei, oh again.
Speaker 1:Oizgepatscht. Oizgepatscht Is also means, like Someone's dressed Overdone.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's oizgepatscht. Or you could say Somebody is cepatscht, that that guy is like.
Speaker 1:Messed up A, a mess, though. A mess Like he's been through it. He hit every branch on the way down.
Speaker 3:Basically, it's a patch. Yeah, boom boom, boom, boom boom. That is one of the funniest words.
Speaker 1:Best words, all the words are great. Everything is Yiddish-y, it's so amazing and it's great, and so your brand. Now we're discussing your brand. How are we on time?
Speaker 3:we're good, we have, uh, I would say, about 10 more minutes um uh okay so your brand now.
Speaker 1:So what is this brand?
Speaker 2:so my brand. So in the beginning of my music I didn't really have a brand, I was just going with the flow. But then I started working with uh nachman, right over there.
Speaker 1:Hi His manager's here, and we began the episode by me giving him a shkoyach to the fact that he thanks the people that work with him. When he gave the shout-out, he said I got to let the people know that you love their music, and so he gave you the shout-out. But okay, so the brand now.
Speaker 2:So he came to me at a certain point and he was like what are you trying to do? Like I knew that he worked with somebody else, that I know he works with a couple of different artists also. So I was like he met me in the studio, we were just like sitting, and he's like what do you do? Why are you doing it? And I was singing in Yiddish. No, he does not understand Yiddish.
Speaker 1:He's like you, Like he no he doesn't know what I'm seeing like about no what's your background quickly he recognized talent of course, this is yeah, no, okay, so, okay. So the brand? So I'm guessing, that that's what happened.
Speaker 2:I guess he heard one of the songs and he was like inspired and he told me okay, listen. So it started off with one song and we released the first song and then we started working together and then, at a certain point, I was doing work but I wasn't being consistent, meaning I would post, let's say, three reels this week and then the next two months I would go clean and then you can't you know. So that's also not good for the algorithm and you can't grow like that so he came to me, told me listen, man, consistency.
Speaker 2:He gave me a list of questions. He said you gotta, you gotta decide what's your artist, what are you trying to bring to people? Okay, and this is a question that has to be answered. You can't just say what are you trying to bring to people? I don't know music. No, what are you trying to give them that they don't have yet? Just like in marketing, you need a persona and go through everything. So that's what you have to do.
Speaker 2:So we sat down in the car I still remember it like today and I was like so thirsty. I was like man, can we get over with this? I don't have time, like I just want to make some more music. He was like no, we have to do this and we have to do this and we have to do that. And finally, but and like we have like answers on all the questions, and I left the car and I didn't feel like it was making a big difference. But then, slowly, I started seeing how I, for myself, started going into the character that I created for myself, because being an artist is all about being a character. You have to be like there's there is Mendy Tversky and there is another singer. Why should I listen to Mendy Tversky over that other singer? Right now everybody has nice music, so you have to give them something. And also it has to be fun for people to listen to you. They want to feel like, oh, let me listen to that Tvers guy, like they have to have kind of a fond memory about you.
Speaker 2:So there's so many stuff that you have to do for people, and Nachman helped me get there, and one of the things is which is something that I decided, but he helped me get to the decision is that I'm trying to keep my Yiddish extremely, extremely like from today. Like even. Israelis that listen to my songs. They're sometimes like why are you putting in so many American words and stuff? I'm like this is how we speak Yiddish. I'm sorry, this is how we do it. I think it sounds cool like that.
Speaker 1:It sounds very cool. It sounds very, very, very, very, very cool and it's an amazing brand and it's proud. It's like I'm a chassid I might not be wearing the full levush, the full outfit, but I am a chassid, I'm proud. I got my payas, I'm singing my music, I have my connection to Hashem, to God, and it's an amazing brand. I think it's great.
Speaker 3:I mean, is it like considered that, like, are people allowed to listen to you who aren't traditionally allowed to listen to, like, not music? Like I think it's great because it seems very modern to me and I think that the year is 2024, and you're probably inspiring a lot of kids who maybe want to be Jewish and want to be Hasidic but aren't, like you know, straight ahead In the box. As we said, you know in the box.
Speaker 2:So about a half a year. Until about a half a year ago, my music was kind of like you just said. It was considered very modern and very like people weren't letting their kids listen to my music. My music was removed from like a couple of the Jewish music apps like just like there's Spotify right, there you go on Spotify you'll search music.
Speaker 2:Let's say, you listen to a Jewish singer, but then it'll put in the queue, it'll put you in some non-jewish music, right. So basically what they did is they created Jewish music apps that have only Jewish music on it mostly music.
Speaker 1:Which ones? So mostly music is a website.
Speaker 4:It's a website they have 24-6.
Speaker 2:They have Zing, they have a whole bunch of apps 24-6.
Speaker 3:Yeah 24-6.
Speaker 2:It's also like it's so Jewish, like 24-6.
Speaker 3:Whoever came up with that is very, very clever so basically my music was like not there.
Speaker 2:They didn't want to put it on at a certain point. It's insane.
Speaker 4:I mean honestly, I don't blame them, no come on no, no, no, I really do not blame them.
Speaker 3:Okay, you don't have to blame them.
Speaker 2:I can blame them, I know. But let me explain to you what they were thinking they had like, let's say what? Who are they? Who are their clients, right? So their clients are mostly fathers from brooklyn, lakewood, muncie, all of the people from the hasidic community that want that their kids should listen to yiddish music, right? So those are the. This is the clientele of 24-6. Now those people over here. They do not want their kids to get inspired by somebody that is not 100 of the vision that they want their kids to be so until a certain point, I was not being the person that they should let their kids see.
Speaker 2:I mean, if their kids would be following me on instagram, they would be doing a lot of stupid stuff.
Speaker 1:This, by the way, happened to many other Jewish singers who then came, and then people realized that this is Moshiach energy.
Speaker 3:Right, that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:I would think this is exactly who you want your kids to be following you don't understand exactly, but yes, he's giving a little Moshiach energy, a little spark, a little hope you don't have to be locked into your.
Speaker 2:Then everything changed by Gitmaring, the second I released Gitmaring, besides of everything, like my whole career changed after Gitmaring. Everything took a big, big, big turn, like after I released Gitmaring, after like three or four months of not releasing nothing, no posting, no, nothing, and then it just blew up. I remember like it was we released it on Thursday, I think, and then Sunday. We're like going into YouTube. I'm like the videos like at 30,000 views, which is a lot for the procedure community and everybody is still talking about it. And I'm like going into Spotify for artists and I see like 70 something people listening right now and it's like already 20,000 streams. It didn't make sense, mm-hmm. And I'm like I can see the, the analytics, like everything is real, everything is coming and what is going on.
Speaker 2:And then it just blew up great feeling, huh yeah, and that's great feeling that you're touching you're in people's lives you're in people it's an amazing amazing feeling and um, and that's it.
Speaker 1:What is the future here for you? Currently, this short term. Where are you performing?
Speaker 2:so my future pretty much is I'm trying to get a little bit more into the get modern kind of style music okay meaning that I'm trying to make only that kind of like. I want to make the music easy for people to sing okay so I'm like trying to do more like simpler, like lyrics, like lyrics wise okay more simple on the songs. People should be able to sing it. I'm working on a couple of like short rap snippets. I don't know if you've seen like my rap. I do like Yiddish rap.
Speaker 4:It sounds cool.
Speaker 3:I have yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it's basically like you'll see it on Instagram.
Speaker 1:It's like just rap you know readily Do you perform live? Do you perform live?
Speaker 2:So yes, I do, and we actually just had, like this Shabbos now Upstate New York, nachal Neveah Festival.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:It was gigantic. We had Barry Weber over there.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow.
Speaker 2:We had you know this guy from Crown Heights, mendel Music. Yes, he did In a Minute. Ich will nehmen ein Sentimental.
Speaker 3:Yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:That's hilarious. We had a bunch of good guys.
Speaker 2:You know who else we had. You know, yachiel Jacobs. This guy.
Speaker 3:Genna. John Instagram the one who does like Sebastian Maniscalco. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah he was awesome.
Speaker 2:He was there also, whatever it was like a lot of big people nice and I went there straight from the flight. It was exhausting but it was fun a flight from where. I came back from Israel on Thursday yeah, what'd you do in Israel? I was in Israel for the whole entire year oh for for yeshiva no, but like I was there, oh, just there. Okay, and recording okay, like learning.
Speaker 1:And recording.
Speaker 2:And recording, and recording in the studios in Israel.
Speaker 1:Studios in Israel Are the studios amazing? What's the vibe in these studios? Because they film like them filming in the studios, and you can tell it's a vibe.
Speaker 2:So some studios in Israel are much better. They say that in the Hasidic world. They say that the best producers are in Israel.
Speaker 1:Okay, producers are in israel. Okay, I can agree with that, like okay, you can see, the best producers are in israel. Amazing america produce different quality. Amazing israel is moshiach, energy, mamish. It's is and isn't. There is and there isn't. Um, we uh, um. On october 7th, which is the off next, not this monday. Next monday, my synagogue is having a? Uh, we're doing an event to commemorate the, the, the anniversary of what happened. I'm inviting you to come, bring your guitar and come. Ellie levin's coming, and so it's going to be uh, you're invited to come and sing a few of your songs and give the, the people, some physics and some people, some, some amazing, amazing on October 7th.
Speaker 2:I'll send it to you guys yeah, it'll be great.
Speaker 1:We're going to post it. I don't know if we're going to do it live. We're getting there. It's becoming really nice.
Speaker 3:I'm working on selling it out.
Speaker 1:It's not for sale, it's free people are invited, and it's a crowd that should know you. It's a crowd that should hear you.
Speaker 3:It's a crowd that should hear you, they're going to love you, love you and adore you I love people that love me.
Speaker 1:Work begets work. I'll tell you one thing, listen to me, mr Manager Work begets work. You work, and that brings more work. So I'm inviting you to come there and we'll figure all the details out with you too. And thank you to our sponsors. Wow, our sponsors of the past two sessions are amazing. I mean a and h provisions, glott kosher meats that are on the next level. Uh no, the hot dogs you never had like a hot dog like this yeah, yeah, uh, kosherdogsnet I forgot to do the first order your first order, use promo code modi and you get 30 of the entire order.
Speaker 1:And uh, thank you, seth, and happy new year, seth wait, I just want to say for a and h.
Speaker 3:Um, his a and h hat traveled all over america this summer on my husband's head my father's in the golf course every day with it.
Speaker 1:And then we have Weitz and Luxembourg, the law firm that not only does well, they do good. Super philanthropic. Arthur Luxembourg is super fan of the podcast. And Randy, his wife, who actually listens to it and reports to him what's happening here. And Mendy, I cannot thank you enough for coming on the podcast. I wish you had slacha rabba. I wish you'd touch all the nashamas, or jewish nashamas. Let them know how sweet and zeus yiddish music is you really sing. You know, they say because they were a russian piece, and if you ever hear that expression when you sing.
Speaker 1:He sings like there's a raisin in his mouth because it comes out so so sweet and um continued amazing success with you and your manager, perriel thank you thank you.
Speaker 1:I am on tour or we have shows. Everything's on modilifecom. We are in, uh, we are in zurich, um, we are in the palladium in london. We are in hartford, buffalo, austin, houston, um many, many more cities. La. Tickets are on sale now. Uh, we sold out two shows in south florida. We added another one. Be the friend that brings the friends to the comedy show, bring laughter to people's lives. That is Moshiach Energy. And again, everything's available on modilifecom. Thank you all very, very much. Happy, healthy, amazing New Year with Moshiach Energy.