Interview with Yoav: A Strange and charmed man!

• 13th Feb 2008

Last year I reviewed Yoavs ‘Charmed & Strange’ LP, which has grown on me enough to chase the man himself down with a fistful of questions. Lo and behold, he took the time out to answer a few for us here at Glasswerk.

AS: Who is/has been most influential on your sound?
Y: This is always changing. When I started writing it was writers like Paul Simon, Sting and John Lennon. Later I was blown away by the way Bjork uses strange sounds and textures in her music and various DJ’s and beatmakers have influenced the way I play guitar more than other guitarists have.

AS: WHO would you most like to collaborate with?
Y: I’ll give three: Aphex Twin, Bjork and Andre 3000.

AS: What act could you quite happily take out, mid concert, with your sniper rifle?
Y: Very hard to choose one specific artist that irks me to the point of wanting to scream in pain. Black-eyed Peas have produced, to my mind, some of the more annoying singles of recent times. On a more socio-political tip, I’m told that 50 Cent’s music has had an incredibly negative influence on gangster culture in Johannesburg, which is now one of the most dangerous cities on the planet after Bogota and Baghdad. Anyway, 50 Cent is supposed to be impervious to bullets or wears a bulletproof vest, so I would need an RPG launcher, not a sniper rifle!

AS: Where do you sit in the grand scheme of things?
Y: On the outside looking in from a comfortable (but not too comfortable) spot, spliff in mouth, guitar in hand…hopefully smiling!

AS: When is bedtime, more half 9 with a half read book or half 4 with fully red eyes?
Y: Undoubtedly 4:30 with red eyes –I am a nocturnal animal and have been as long as I can recall.

AS: Any choice epitaphs for your headstone, famous last words or something you’d like to be remembered for?
Y: Where I grew up a ‘legend’ connotes a slightly eccentric, slightly hilarious person who gets through it all with a certain unique style; so just the word ‘Legend’ in huge letters.

AS: Where do you enjoy playing live the most?
Y: Montreal has been very good to me –great crowd. I just visited Copenhagen and had an amazing time there as well.

AS: What makes you better than everyone else?
Y: If you have to ask…I suppose my modest and humble nature makes me way better than everyone else.

AS: WHERE do you go when it all gets too much?
Y: Depends on where I am. I have some beautiful deserted beach spots in Cape Town or the Heath in London. Alternatively the right club with the right tunes to jump around to can untwist my brain quite nicely too.

AS: WISH you were doing anything else with your time other than music?
Y: I wish I had more time just for music. There are drummers in Kodo in Japan, tranced out musicians in Morocco, ecstatic singers in Pakistan, psychedelic tribal drums in the Amazon jungle….but it will be a long while before I can think of going to investigate. If I could surf halfway decently, it wouldn’t suck going round the world riding waves, but that’s certainly not going to happen!

AS: Yoav, thanks for your time and all the best for the future.
Click link and read my LP review from last year.

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