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Interview
by SashaS
17-6-2005
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| Betzefer: weapons of metal destruction |
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Under the metal star
Betzefer: Metalling outta Holy Land
It is a day after Betzefer’s arrived to the United Kingdom for the first time and already under their strings&skins is their debut London show in support of Chimaira. The Tel Aviv quartet released their debut album ‘Down Low’ only about ten days ago and have interrupted their Soulfly dates in Germany for a three day break they invested in these UK shows in London, Oxford and Colchester.
‘Down Low’ is rocking as heavy as if chiselled out of granite that displays its influences with charm and gusto. Songs range from furiously entitled ‘F**kin’ Rock’N’Roll’, ‘Running Against’, but by the time you get to ‘Black Inside’ - with its dynamics and expansive sonic surge - the band’s arrived in its own sonic land.
Avital Tamir is the singer with answers on behalf of the band: Matan Cohen (guitar), Rotem Inbar (bass) and Roey Berman (drums). Betzefer is a slang translation of the Hebrew term Beit Hasefer, meaning - school.
“Last night was insane, brilliant, our first time in the UK. It was much better than we ever dreamt it could be. We’ve not had much international experience apart from playing once with Fear Factory in Holland, few years ago when we also did a few smaller shows on our own around the country. We are really looking forward to playing Europe more.”
It’s been a long time coming?
“Yeah, seven years. We started the band at school and released two singles and two EPs so far. They were self-financed and involved a lot of work to get money for. We did get the chance to be independent.”
“There are very few places to play and there are two major cities only, so a band can play two or three times a month, at the most. But, when we were 16 or 17 we managed to play a lot of shows because we were prepared to play any venue; we put a message on our website that if someone had an empty house and a crate of beer - we’d come and play! And, we did about 60 shows in a year. Now, we are very established in Israel and it is time to move on the international scene.”
Listening to the album one can’t miss noticing your liking Black Sabbath, very much.
“Yeah, when Roey and I were growing up we were always playing Sabbath covers. They are the best. All our [album] songs are newly written and none is really old; the oldest was written only about a year before the recording. The plan is that we keep songwriting to as near as possible to the recording of next album, almost to do it in a studio. We want to keep it as fresh as possible.”
How difficult is it to be a Metal musician in Israel nowadays? Have you been causing social commotion with your looks, sounds and antics?
“The main thing you have to understand is that music has always been the uppermost on our list. But, first of all, Tel Aviv is much cooler place than the rest of the country, it is just like any other metropolis. Israel is mainly a conservative country and we have had to give up a lot of things, such as education, careers, relationships, for the band. This is what we’ve always wanted to do. And it wasn’t frustrating because we had like tunnel-vision and always knew it would happen. We had faith and believed in what we were doing.”
Noble feelings and beliefs but it doesn’t pay the bills; how were you supporting yourselves?
“We’ve all had day jobs and I’m a cook; no, I‘m not a chef, I haven’t had the time to learn. Hopefully we wouldn’t need to go back to our day jobs when we get back. Well, maybe just for a short while…”
Is media paying much attention to the local music scene?
“No, not really; it is interesting that we are getting known but they never send music or rock critics to our shows. There really isn’t music press there and we are not really in the mass public’s eye. We don’t get much response from the mainstream, only support from metal fans. It is all by word-of-mouth; there are two online magazines but that’s nothing really.”
“We hope the scene grows and culture does as well… Luckily we haven’t been accused of Satanism, evil and being anti-religion.”
It is all ‘Sex and Drugs and Rock’n’Roll’; what about the middle bit?
“What, like drug culture? Well, I have to say it is the same as in Europe or America; I don’t want to go into too many details but in general - it’s quite a scene!”
Has the world become a homogenized place, then?
SashaS
17-6-2005
Betzefer’s album ‘Down Low’ is available now via Roadrunner
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