Monotonix: Israeli Rockers Set Sight On America

Monotonix is on its fifth American tour, says singer Ami Shalev in his thick Israeli accent. He can’t say that anything specifically odd has happened on this stretch of dates; it’s not like the last 65-show tour when the three-year-old band met up with the Fucking Champs’ Tim Green in California to record one song that turned into Monotonix’s six-song EP Body Language. On that tour, the trio spent three days traveling from the studio to perform around California and visit musical friend and band idol Ayal Nistor. The band was already 40 stops into the jaunt when it went into the recording studio.

The oddest part of this tour is not really odd at all; it’s just something Shalev noticed while playing post-Katrina New Orleans. “When we’re driving, we’re always looking for the cheapest gas,” he begins. “So we see that this one sign is $1.00 a gallon. We say, ‘All right, we’re going to fill up the car. We’re going to fill up everything: water bottles, tank, everything.’ We drive up to the gas station, and it looked like it hadn’t been open in three years—trash everywhere. It looked like a Mad Max scene.”

When Shalev recounts the details, he often pauses for story effect. But one also gets the sense that he is being careful to not offend anyone. On stage, Shalev does everything he can to excite a crowd. In fact, he’s often caught in photographs midstage dive and drenched in fans’ beers. Off stage, Shalev is reserved and cautious.

You can’t make or do music in Israel without being touched by some other kind of music. That’s the reason why everything doesn’t have its own direction. Right now, people are beginning to understand that you have to do it in your way.

The last thing Monotonix wants to be is known as “that Israeli band.” Aside from their visceral, hedonistic live shows—wherein Monotonix members have been known to leap into crowds, hang from ceiling rafters, moon audiences, and dump full garbage cans over their heads—their nationality is the most talked-about aspect among American fans, but the one they are least likely to bring up in conversation. Responses must be obtained through a circuitous route before ending on the question of whether or not Israel is, indeed, metal Mecca, as it’s often portrayed.

“I don’t think the metal scene is relatively big. It’s just a metal scene,” guitarist Yonatan Gat says.

“But there is a metal scene,” drummer Haggai “Gever” Fershtman adds.

“Compared to the mainstream scene, it’s not so big,” Shalev interjects. “But compared to the indie-rock scene, it’s bigger.”

The trio’s native city, Tel Aviv, is the second largest in Israel. With a population roughly the size of Provo, Utah, a penchant for modern art, and a technology-refurbished economy, it’s considered the country’s cultural capitol. These elements would seem to aid collaborations between musicians both in Tel Aviv and across what is often seen as a difficult-to-cross American pop culture border. But few Tel Aviv, let alone Israeli, bands have achieved the level of Western attention, or perhaps notoriety, that Monotonix has received. The trouble may be most Americans’ limited knowledge and support of non-Western rock bands, but it may also be the lack of supportive infrastructure within Israel for rock bands like Monotonix.

“In Israel, because the scene is so small—nobody can go anywhere—and it’s very secluded, geographically and culturally, people are less supportive of each other,” Gat says. “It’s a more competitive situation. But it’s been getting better. People are becoming more aware of what’s going on in the outside world, how small the scene is, and what needs to be done in order to get good bands out there and get a good scene going.” Though optimistic, when Gat refers to things getting better, he specifies with modifying phrases like “in the past five years.”

A lot has happened in the last five years in the Israeli indie music scene, including Monotonix favorite My Second Surprise (an Ayal Nistor project) receiving MTV video play and making an appearance at 2007’s SXSW and the rise of cross-genre bands like Tel Aviv’s The Genders. Occurrences like this not only seeded the ground for a band like Monotonix, but also for Shalev’s prior project as vocalist for noise-rock trio Mono Addicted Acid Man (with first Monotonix drummer Ran Shimoni, who was known for his pyrotechnical stunts on previous Monotonix tours), Fershtman’s coinciding project as drummer for indie rock trio Ex Lion Tamer (he’s also a trained jazz and African drummer who is often referred to as the “hardest working drummer in Israel”), and Gat’s previous work as bassist for Israeli punk band Punkache and present solo work as an acoustic singer-songwriter. Nevertheless, supportive audiences, venues, and recognition didn’t come until these bands toured outside of Israel, as many Israeli bands attested at the 2006 CMJ showcase.

“The mainstream, the indie — it’s all mixed together,” Shalev says. “It’s not separated. You can’t make or do music in Israel without being touched by some other kind of music. That’s the reason why everything doesn’t have its own direction. Right now, people are beginning to understand that you have to do it in your way.”

“There’s also this thing where, in Israel, if you sing in Hebrew you’re more likely to get attention from the media.” Fershtman adds. “If you sing in English, you’re going to stay unknown, because the media doesn’t support English bands.”

Gat agrees, adding, “If you sing in English, people will frown upon you in a way, and there will be less of a chance that you’ll be played on radio. But we were never interested in getting to Israeli media. Our kind of music will never get there. Israeli radio is kind of soft rock.