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Taken from Toronto Star (Mar 19, 2016)
A-WA’s desert groove goes down a storm at South by Southwest festival
Israeli sisters from 'middle of nowhere' ready to go global
by Ben Rayner
Photo by TAL GIVONY
A-WA is sisters Tair, Liron and Tagel Haim, who play the Mod Club on Sunday as part of the Ashkenaz festival. |
AUSTIN, TEX. — If one harboured any doubts that music is the one truly universal language, they were instantly swept away the moment Israeli trio A-WA took the stage at the South by Southwest festival at midnight Thursday.
Despite being a little tired out after a flight from Los Angeles, sisters Tair, Liron and Tagel Haim — not to be confused with those other Haim sisters — had the room bopping about in a joyously sweaty, hands-in-the-air frenzy rarely seen on the streets of Austin. Jaded music-industry types don’t tend to cut loose and dance, bu for A-WA, who play an irresistibly groovy mix of traditional Yemenite-Arabic folk, reggae, hip hop and just a little prog, they definitely cut loose and danced.
Not a bad entrance to the North American market for this trio from the windblown desert of southern Israel, which was to play two more SXSW gigs on Friday before heading to Toronto to perform at the Mod Club for the Ashkenaz festival on Sunday night. A-WA will also appear at an “interfaith community forum” moderated by Ralph Benmergui and perform “an a capella preview” of the evening’s set at the Noor Cultural Centre at 2 p.m.
A-WA would appear ready to go as global as their music sounds. The infectious single “Habib Galbi” — the centrepiece of an EP of the same name just released in North America — is a viral smash to the tune of 2.5 million YouTube views and has the honour of being the first Arabic-language song ever to hit No. 1 on the Israeli pop charts. With teams now in place in Europe and New York, the band is poised to take the rest of the world by storm
“It’s cool that you said ‘global,’ ” says Tair, the oldest and chattiest of the Haim sisters, over breakfast on Friday morning. “We felt from childhood we wanted to sing for all people, to spread our music and thoughts and bring people together. In the desert, there are no borders and no limits so we would go to the mountains and imagine that we would perform in front of thousands of people somewhere in the world. We were really curious about the world outside because growing up in a small village we used to wonder how it was like to see, like, the U.S.”
The Haims were eyeing music as a profession from a young age. Indeed, says Tagel, their neighbours in the small village of Shaharut — a cluster of about 30 families “in the middle of nowhere,” as Tair puts it, near the Egyptian border — referred to them as “the Jacksons from the desert” because all six siblings in the family (not to mention their architect father) were musicians.
As youngsters, the girls soaked up their parents’ record collection like sponges, devouring Bob Marley, ’60s and ’70s prog rock, Greek and Arabic and Gypsy music in equal measure. What really captured their collective imaginations, however, were the cassettes of old Yemenite folk songs they discovered at their grandparents’ house.
“When we used to visit our grandparents, we used to hear our grandmother talking to her neighbours in Yemenite and it sounded so exotic to us,” says Tair. “And we have such musical ears we used to imitate that, to mimic that, and we’d ask them lots of questions about the language and the songs.”
“Women in Yemen couldn’t write or read and they weren’t allowed to participate in the synagogue ceremonies. The men lived very separately in their cultural life than women,” explains Liron. “So the women were working at home, taking care of the kids, doing the laundry and everything … They created the folklore and the songs were their only outlet for their deepest emotions and they were talking about love and hate and passion and hopes they had. So for us it’s really easy for us to relate to those songs because it’s still relevant in 2016. It’s about being a woman.”
So, yes, A-WA is doing it for the ladies in the house. But don’t worry, boys, you’re invited to the party, too. Dancing is for everybody. And A-WA — who recorded Habib Galbi and their soon-to-be-re-released debut album with help from “international man of groove” Tomer Yosef of Balkan Beat Box — will get your body moving, make no mistake.
“This is what we love about the Yemenite music: the groove, the beautiful melodies, the fact that it doesn’t sound like anything else,” says Tair. “It’s based on rhythm and we wanted our music to be groove-oriented. It has to be something that moves us.”
The ladies of A-WA — which translates as “yes” — are a joyful and harmonious bunch offstage as well as on. They laugh off the suggestion that spending so much time on the road together as sisters might drive them batty or break down into fights.
“We don’t do that! We’re ladies,” laughs Tair.
“It’s actually really fun to work with your sisters,” says Tagel.
“And we’re best friends,” concludes Liron. “Because, you know, growing up in a small place you don’t have any choice.”
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