EREZ

excerpt from: “The First Lady” - TimeOut Tel Aviv
Thursday, 04.15.2014 | By: Uri Zer Aviv

EREZ’s Feminist Groove Unleashed: An Interview With Soul

With an effortless American approach, inherent Israeli chutzpah, and a passion to change the balance of power between men and women, the musician EREZ is a rising force in the groove scene.

Let’s put it out there from beginning: Yes, her name is Erez (a typical male name in Israel). Guess that’s how it goes when your parents immigrate from the U.S. and want to give their daughter a Hebrew name, but don’t think of Hebrew’s male/female dictation of nouns. And now after clarifying that matter, we can say that Erez (or her stage name EREZ) is Erez Sivan, singer and guitarist, 22 years old, though raised in Tivon radiates the self-confidence of a senior soul-rocker from a tough neighbourhood in New York. Her name started to make waves on the local radar since her excellent performance in the last Indie-Negev Festival. Her electric guitar playing and powerful voice are backed up by a great group of musicians that include the phenomenal drummer Dan Mayo (Tatran), the trumpet player Sefi Zeisling (Funkenstein), and the saxophonist Shlomi Alon (Dag Nahash) - a band that was developed with the help of Ori Winokur, who also produced her debut album. On June 5th she’s expected to launch the album at the Tmuna Theatre, backed by an expanded band of 11 musicians.

With an effortless American approach, inherent Israeli chutzpah, and a passion to change the balance of power between men and women, the musician EREZ is a rising force in the groove scene. “Of course I adore her, who doesn’t?” she responds when I ask how she feels when people compare her to Amy Winehouse time after time. “It’s a huge compliment that’s hard to take in,” she says and adds, “I understand the connection - two White girls, Jewish, who are making soulful music. I see her as a role model, not so much the hard drugs and rough life, but more for the statement that screams ‘love me or not - this is me.’”

What about the “Female Groove” label that has already stuck to you… does it bother you?
“Not really. People categorize the world because it makes it easier for them to think. If it will cause more people to listen to the music - cool. Besides it’s not like they’re making a terrible distortion, I do make groovy music and I am a woman. I just don’t want it to confine me in the future. It’s true the album itself is filled with groove and soul, but it’s not the only thing in it.”

Sivan grew up in a bohemian household where music was always present, or if to use her own words, a house where “we dance in the living room, wildly.” She says that when she was little her parents would play her ‘The Fugees’ in order to calm her down. “And when I would come home from school I would find my mom in the kitchen singing Stevie Wonder.”

When did you start performing?
“My first show of original music was at the age of 12. We had an awful band at school.”

Six years after her ‘awful band,’ Sivan established another band with whom she played original material, some of which found its way to her debut album. “I was in high school and looked for someone to help me navigate the materials, production and arrangement wise, and a friend of mine who was a big fan of Asaf Avidan, suggested I contact Ori Winokur who was his producer. So I just sent him a Facebook message.”
I sang for him in his Florentin apartment all of the songs I saw fit for the album. He listened, photographed and wrote down notes. After I finished playing he said, ‘Ok, I wanna produce your album. What do you say?’ Of course that blew my mind. Understand, I was very young and so not from Tel-Aviv that I was escorted by a family friend just so I wouldn’t roam the streets of Florentin alone.”

In a song from the album Sivan sings of a 31 year old spouse and calls him, as the name of the song, “Mama’s Boy.” During the interview it turns out it wasn’t an older boyfriend of hers, but a boyfriend of her mother’s who was younger than her by two decades: “My mom is a writer and a doctor of literature at the university. One day she came to me with a text she wrote after a hard break up. I said to myself, ‘Wow, scary text,’ but I put music to it anyway.” Her mother wrote the lyrics to two songs in the album and together they wrote another one. “We’re good friends. We have a very special connection that made it possible to create together. It’s not a decision we made, it just happened. We’re an interesting family.”

Is there a specific character that brought you to write the title song of the album - “Proper Lady”?
Yes, Jessica Valenti, who is one the outstanding feminists in the U.S. today. I deal a lot with the issues of women in society, about the pressure we get as women and in the way we’re expected to act. ‘Proper Lady’ is my answer to all those definitions being dictated from above, whose purpose is to determine what makes ‘women fine.’ In this song I specifically deal with sexuality. The chorus is a bit sarcastic: “Comes all the time / No sir she ain’t refined / Her legs aren’t tied by you.” Meaning this is a woman saying ‘I’ll do what I want, sleep with whomever I want - and I don’t care what people will say.’

Sivan mentions the character in the song isn’t her alter ego, but that’s the kind of freedom she wants women to have: “I aspire for each woman to have the option to be that ‘Proper Lady’ if she wants without feeling cheapened. But that’s not so much the situation today. You know if you meet someone and find out that she went out with a lot of guys, somewhere, it’s a generalization of course, but sometimes we think less of her because of it. You want something pure, that will be only yours, and that’s fucked up.” - TimeOut Tel-Aviv

excerpt from: ‘Mirpeset’ Magazine. Lady Groove
May 28, 2015 | By: Itamar Bernstein

I made an appointment with Erez Sivan in a small chic coffee shop by her house in the center of the city. A kind of place that looks like it used to be a barber shop or some other business. Its small size creates intimacy and the original seating like improvised hammocks or the entrance stairs, with the Tel-Avivian dog on duty. When I arrive Erez is already deep in a conversation with Yuval Kaufmann, her drummer in her current band. Just a week ago they performed together in a special and successful concert in the ‘Yearot Menashe’ Festival, and now their next concert is the album launch that will take place next week at the Tmuna Theater.

Erez’s album, produced by Ori Winokur (Asaf Avidan, Angelcy, Amit Erez), came out in the past few week and supposedly is one of the more professional and pampering albums to have came out lately, especially because of its sound and groove. Among others it gathers in it the some of the best groove musicians playing today, like Dan Mayo, Sefi Zisling, Shlomi Alon, Yair Slutzki and other local figures.

And how did it feel for a 20 year old young woman to meet and work with such experienced musicians?
“Honestly. Threatening. But I learned a lot as well.”

And you didn’t hesitate?
“Hesitate? Me and Ori were a team. So were they when they played with us. They talked with both of us. I was a full participant as a dynamic person. I’m very precise with my ideas but also open and allowing.

The work on the album took an intensive year and a half in Ori’s studio, where they mainly tried out sketches and arrangements. After this they made do with very few recording days (thanks to the experienced musicians as well). But like any grandiose production, when the time came to convert the sound to live performance, a solution for a simpler sound had to be found, and musicians, to perform on a regular basis.

This is a major challenge for many artists and yet in the past year it was possible to catch Erez performing quite a bit with a younger group of musicians who she says don't fall short from the
experienced musicians who recorded her album.

"When I built the band after the album, I put them together like puzzle pieces. They didn’t know each other beforehand. I brought one by one through friends or personal acquaintances. I never imagined that they were musicians of such high caliber.”

Her name by the way was given mainly thanks to her parents’ American origins. "The story is this - I like to call our family, authentic Americans. That is not a family of Israelis living in the United States who then returned to Israel. But a daughter of true born and raised Americans. It was important for them to give me a Hebrew name. And you know, in the States there’s no male and female when it comes to plants.”

The messages Erez absorbed as a child are felt very much in her debut album PROPER LADY. Especially those which came from her mother, Miryam Sivan, who also wrote some of the album's lyrics and generally is very involved in Erez's creative process. "The only person who worked with me on raw materials was my mom. She’s the only one I let in because I trust her insanely good English. She is a doctor of English literature and I love it that she’s my text editor. No text moves forward without passing through her. There are two songs whose lyrics she wrote and there's ‘Fears To Die’ which she co-wrote with me."

In the album there’s an emphasis on the female point of view. The title highlights it as well. Does this stem from experience or does it come mainly from your home and childhood?
“There is an emphasis on this point of view. I think there aren’t enough women that deal with this or dare to. This is a subject that matters to me, but one of the reasons I'm so aware is because of my home. I grew up with a high awareness of gender inequality and injustices done to women."

“The songs with an emphasis on women, such as 'Proper Lady,' don't come from a place of you assholes. Not anger driven. It's from a place of self-empowerment that no one else will give me permission, I have it in me and I determine what happens. Which is mostly what I'm dealing with as a woman and in life, regardless of the concepts of feminism that I grew up with.”

Her love affair with music began at a very young age. At the age of 12 she founded her first band, "Fata Morgana." She says it even became something of a local sensation… Some of the album's songs are based in part on material written at very young age, like the song ‘Wild Sweet Place’ whose music she wrote at the age of 13. In general, perhaps because of the impressive presence of her deep voice, you can sometimes forget that behind the songs is actually a super-talented musician who writes (almost) all of her own material and is even a phenomenal guitarist. "The truth is that I was only a guitarist for years. If you had asked me at the age of 16-17 about my voice I would have said bad things about it. I had a hard time with being an alto... I saw myself for years as a guitarist, not at all as a singer. Over time I learnt to accept it." I ask her why it seems that sometimes there is a tendency to ignore the guitarist side when talking about her. "It's easy for people to brand me as a singer. It's something that bothers me a bit, yes. Because I'm a guitarist, the only one on the album actually. In performance as well. I’m a singer and a guitarist. I'm not a singer before a guitarist. I am equally both in my eyes.”

You could say that putting out an album containing 11 songs is a type of commercial risk nowadays, especially in the jolting genre of groove and R&B… However in Erez’s album there’s a sense that goes beyond a collection of songs packaged and sent to the radio. It has a more comprehensive idea, a conceptual line that, alongside the production, dares to experiment and search.

Another place where you can clearly see the investment and thought is in the album art. Unlike the album title, which is also the name of the first song, the cover and booklet actually correspond in my eyes with another song, the one before the last - ‘Just Another Color’.

Didn’t you feel immediately that it’s related to the song?
“No. In retrospect, we realized it. But is really does connect and you know, we decided to take it to that place of the colors. I saw it like this - there's this kind of canvas and I choose these colors to paint who I am. If this was your cover, you would choose to paint it with your colors. And that idea - of who I choose to be, whether I am a woman or a man, whether I like dogs or ride a skateboard... it doesn’t matter. This is the idea of ​​Proper Lady.”

" It’s going to be very exciting In the launch concert (5.6, Tmuna Theatre) because we’ve been playing only five of us for the past year. And now there will be 11 musicians. Brass section, turntables, vibraphone and two backup singers. And from the rehearsals we’ve been having so far I’m pretty blown away. So maybe I'll invite them to some other performances.”
“There is also talk of starting a second album at the beginning of the year and an increase in the scale of things. Concerts halls, festivals and so on.” - Mirpeset Magazine

by David Pearl | 08.01.15
When it’s really stormy outside the best getaway for me is to press the play button and listen to summer tunes coming from a beautiful new song.

EREZ is the front name of Erez Sivan, a new and fresh voice in the local music scene. Born in NYC but raised in Israel the 22 years old musician is releasing her debut single “Blending in the Universe” from her forthcoming album “Proper Lady” (out March 2015) after 4 years of work in progress with the producer Ori Winokur. “Blending in the Universe” is a beautiful blend of Jazzy tunes and Folky flavoured melodies all combined with Erez’s smooth vocals making you wish summer was back soon washing you with its’ glorious sun and warmth, but until that happens you can just press the play button and imagine that summer is already here.

CATCH HER LIVE on the 11th of January at “Radio EPGB” and watch the video for “Blending in the Universe” below. - TELAVIVIAN

EREZ - Proper Lady | 03.05.2016

Produced by Ori Winokur, Erez Sivan’s ‘s debut album sounds like nothing elase in the recent years. Strong but delicate arrangements leave this young singer enough space to let her show her incredible talent, but especially the freedom to take her voice wherevere she feels like at the moment.

As the title of her debut album aptly suggest that, “Proper Lady” is about transition from a girl to a woman. And about leaving behind childhood dreams and memories to take responsibilities of today and tomorrow.

She does look back every now and then, like in “Mama’s Boy” written by her mother, Miryam Sivan. But despite these moments, and despite her young age, Erez is already an independent, self-confident, simply a proper artist.

♪♫ Listen: “Just Another Color” + album stream
Erez on Facebook, Soundcloud, Bandcamp, www. - Beehype - Best Music From Around The World

'AT' Magazine
10 promising young singers - 10 promising singles
Tuesday 07.21.2015 | By: Idan Joseph Yamin

That buzz you hear in your ears is the bursting force of women flooding the Israeli music market. Some of them are just in the beginning, some of them accumulated kilometres, some of them are in pop some in rock, some make beats or middle eastern music. All of them are flaming up the local scene bringing it to a boiling point. 10 promising singers you must get to know. Special project

(EREZ), Erez Sivan, 22

Born in New-York, singer and guitarist. erez Sivan, also known as: EREZ, brings groove to the stage the resinates the legendary Amy Winehouse. A couple of months ago she launched the album “Proper Lady” on which she worked for the past three years with the producer Ori Winokur who produced Asaf Avidan.

Fantasy: “Working with Mark Ronson” - 'AT' Women's Magazine

Haaretz
Women in Command
01.18.2015 | By: Ben Shalev

EREZ’s debut single emphasised her abilities.

On paper there are good reasons to disapprove of young singers who choose the retro route early on, but in the case of Erez Sivan, 22, Reservations tend to soften and dissolve.
Sivan who calls herself EREZ, erected the ear before the last Indie-Negev festival בזכות her good voice and graceful freshness that radiates from her retro-pop-soul songs. In the festival itself, on to a big a stage in front of to small an audience, she didn’t stand out, but her debut single emphasises her qualities as a writer and performer. Nothing that makes your jaw drop. A small and enchanting song. There is an interesting gap between the sunny sereneness of the composition, arrangement and the delivery of the text that takes about feeling of non belonging and the desire to leave everything behind. I wonder what Erez is going to do with these materials she’ll release in her forth coming album. Until then, Yair Slutzkin Trombone solo in this new single is the best trombone solo heard lately in an Israeli song, the fact that’s it’s the only one doesn’t take away a bit from the achievement. - Haaretz Newspaper - Gallery

Andy Was Wrong - Blog
Album Review
05.26.2015 | By: Yuli Vardy

How will you know that hipsters enjoy the music you’re playing? They move their foot according to rhythm. This sentence describes best what I do while listening to ‘Proper Lady’, EREZ’s debut album.

In this album there’s something that yells out it’s a debut album, overall, it took me many listenings to understand what doesn’t work for me in this album. The musical production by Ori Winokur (Asaf Avidan) preserved EREZ unripeness and made ‘Proper Lady’ to a rode which seems straight and pitiless , however whoever drives this rode bumps into a surprising hole or two. There’s nothing bad in these holes, on the contrary, there’s also something refreshing in them but in order to understand this fact you must listen to the album a few times.

Proper Lady, opens surprisingly (truly surprisingly) with the song ‘Proper Lady’ that besides of being an R&B ticking bomb it also outlines the whole musical line of the album. Well, not all of it. EREZ opens the album with a tone that implies it’s worth staying -the beat, brass and soft backing vocals. All of these tell you that this is the one thing to make your evening one of the best evening you've had, even if you're stuck at home again, because of the holidays.

However then arrives the first hole/pit - So Tired, lyrics written by her mom, Miryam Sivan, and brings you back into reality and in reality, no one fulfils promises. So Tired is Proper Lady a moment before the party ends, the only ones left on the dance floor are those who are afraid of what’s going on back home. Those who don’t want to be alone, those who know that once they leave, the street will become big and life despairing and tiring till it hurts.

Maybe that’s the reason the track after it in the album picks up the pace again and makes you feel like no all is over and you got out of the hole and can continue - to the next party. Cliche is the after party all the loners go and come from. it’s the our last hope before we understand we’re the Clich’e. When EREZ says “Boy it’s taking you time to find out cliche” she totally means all of us, including herself. After all she says what is humanity if not the struggle of understanding life is one big clich’e?

And if we’re already dealing with cliches - Mama’s Boy, the sixth song on the album, puts to mucking all of those who grew up with ‘Mama’s Boy’ clich’e. You know, those who did homework on time, went to bed early and in the bigger picture - carrying there’s mama’s on their backs their entire life. One of my favourite things in the song is the combination between the rebeliousness music to something the ear can digest. in other words - this song is adolescence from the mouths of those who really succeed in being adolescent. those who took advantage of the decade to doing stupid stuff, checking boundaries, gave a shit about rules and mainly did everything by the book.

The next group of songs starting from ‘Wild Sweet Place’ through ‘Rundown Man’ and ‘Just Another Color’ finishing with ‘Blending in the Universe’ are the second hole in the rode. Logically speaking after a song like ‘Mama’s Boy’, the grungy-rioty sound will continue or at least fade into softer song like ‘Wild Sweet Place’. But I guess here, logic doesn’t play a part, overall the album sounds like a point of view of a women my age about her life up north, and all to be evident by it.

This thing, makes the non logical to logical and pours some concrete and rocks into these holes. Like life itself which isn’t a full Tel Avivi Bar filled on a Saturday nigh, actually they are the small moments where everything becomes empty at one and without noticing becomes calmer. This group of songs, makes the holes easy to come out into the freeway to a small rode on the way to the kibbutz and small towns. A moment before the party ends, a moment before you go to sleep.

I want to deal a moment with the last song in the album ‘Blending in the Universe’, the most prominent part of this song is:

No I don’t care
I don't mind
Leaving everything behind
No I don't fit in
And I don't mind
Leaving everything behind

Hence for the fact it seals the song and hence for the fact it finalises album, and hence for the fact it marks the end of a period, summarises EREZ’s life a typical teenager and moves her to the next stage. The same stage people usually call - the real life. There, it turns out there’s a lot to leave behind, not only in the macro but also micro. By stating this, it symbolises the freedom of thought of the artist and freedom from restrictions/chains, in other words she reminds all of us what it truly means to be free.

This rode we just took doesn’t lead anywhere besides this evasive freedom. The freedom to leave all behind and go, choose what will do you good and mainly being your own chile, because the only person you’ll have to account to is yourself. This album is a sign that EREZ, albeit her young age, learned this a long time ago, together with the rest of the messages she sending us. Rapping them in a creation filled with groove and a party which refuses to end, now all that’s left to hope is that the album will penetrate in beyond the stomping of the feet and clumsy dance moves on the dance floor. - Andy Was Wrong - Blog

Kol Hacampus | 09.24.2015

'Proper Lady' was nominated for album of the year by the biggest Indie radio station in Israel.

"The young and energetic singer-songwriter Erez Sivan, bring soul music that sounds like it written in a different place and time all together, with a refreshing debut album that moves on the scale of Soul-Funk-Blues and R&B" - Kol Hacampus Radio Station