Interview – Zohara

Zohara

Zohara takes time out to answer the 17 Seconds’ questionnaire

Where are you and what’s the weather like?

I’m in Tel-Aviv and it is spring now. The best weather you can imagine, the sun is out and there’s a cool breeze. It seems like everyone is even more desperate to fall in love.

What’s your favourite record in the charts?
Panda Bear Meets The Grim Reaper and Vulnicura of Bjork.

What are your favourite films?

The Grand Budapest Hotel– Wes Anderson , Dogville – Lars von Trier, A woman is a Woman – Godard, North by Northwest– Hitchcock, Chaos– Coline Serreau and many many others..

What are your favourite books?

The Unbearable Lightness of Being– Milan Kondera, Crime and Punishment– Fyodor Dostoyevsky, History: A Novel– Elsa Morante.

What are your favourite TV programmes?

To be honest, my favorite series are Israeli, too bad you can’t watch them 🙂 But of course I’m a fan of Girls and Breaking Bad, MadMen I love Skin as well.. but I’m trying not to watch too many of them cause it’s addictive and there are not enough hours per day..

What was the first record you bought and where did you buy it from?

The Bends, Radiohead, it was during a trip with friends in south Israel.

What is your least favourite record that you have made, and why?

It’s my first album, so too soon to tell 🙂

Do you believe in God?

No.

Which football team do you support?

I’m really not into football sorry… :/

Do you have any pets?

Yes, I have a brilliant dog named Charlie.

Who would you want to play you in the film of your life?

Audrey Tautou

Vinyl, CD, Download or stream?

Download, but pay for it!

When was the last time you cried?

I cry very often, so apparently it was last night when I read an article my little sister wrote about sexual harassment.

What’s the best cover version you have ever heard?

James Blake- Limit to your love, without thinking twice.

What’s the strangest thing that has ever happened at one of your own gigs?

It wasn’t my own gig though, but when I was serving in the army I was a lead singer in a military band, and in one of the shows in front of tens of soldier, commanders and members of the Israeli parlament, while singing the national anthem, I burst out with laughter. I’m a bit proud of it anyway..

Have you ever been starstruck?

Not really…

What is your culinary speciality?

Unfortunately I’m a very bad cook and a vegan also, so I mostly just put some vegetables in the oven and that’s pretty much the best I can do.

The Royal Family: should they stay or should they go?

They should go!!! How come people still buy this bullshit??

If you weren’t doing this, what would you like to be?

I guess an acupuncturist.

What were you like at school?

Sometimes very friendly and open but then also long periods of withdrawn in myself and confused..

If you could change one law, what would it be?

I think birth control pills should be illegal.

Which decade would you have most liked to have lived in?

In the 20s, when people could really live from their art, and everything was more naive and romantic.

‘Bass and Drum’ is out now via Zohara’s bandcamp

Presenting…Zohara

Zohara

Lo-fi electronic songwriter Zohara, based in Tel Aviv and London, first got in touch a few months ago, and her music, shamefully, got lost in my rather overcrowded inbox. I’d like to rectify that now.

She has recently finished recording an album’s worth of material in her bedroom – despite the fact that this sounds like she’s been working with a wealth of musicians and producers in high-class studios.

This track and video ‘Bass and Drum’ are simply stunning. Proof yet again that the phrase ‘pop music’ is being reclaimed from the teeny-boppers and can be applied to outstanding music. This track is one of the best I have heard this year. The track can be bought for $1 (or more) from her bandcamp page

Given events over many years in her home country, the powerful anti-war song ‘Soldier’ shows how she views the conflict, as she sings:

‘You will go and you’ll find you’ve been fooled
Following all of their rules
We’re the same on both sides of the line
How did they turned you so blind?’

Finally, ‘Piano 1976’ is quiet, beautiful and unsettling, in the best possible way. Watch out for that saxophone…