Project RnL [Interview]
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Music bloggers have Spinal Tap moments too.
While attempting to locate Project RnL for this interview, I spent so much time exploring the 800-capacity O2 Academy Islington that I felt like I was living this scene from This Is Spinal Tap. Eventually, thanks to the shining example of advanced technological wizardry that is Gmail, the plan came together. So began one of the most fun interviews I’ve ever done…
You’re nearing the end of a long European tour. How’re you feeling right now?
Or Lubianiker (Bass): We’re feeling pretty good, because we got this massive opportunity to take our music and perform it live for audiences, and get a lot of really positive feedback about what we’ve been working on back home in Israel, where our audience is very devoted, but not as diverse as you get when you go on the road.
You get to field-test both the band and the music – and to be honest, I feel like there’s always this curve, in tours in general, where it starts off feeling really really lengthy. The first week feels like it lasts forever – and by this point, I guess if we had ten more shows to do we’d be alright with it. We’ve got good energy, high spirits, and we’re feeling very well.
You caught us in a good moment! [Laughs]
Eyal Amir (Keyboards / Vocals): Yeah – you know, it’s ridiculous, because Or’s done a few tours before this one, and he’s the only one of us who’s actually toured with Marty Friedman and all these bigger acts. But for us, it was the first experience of everything.
First time in a tour bus; first time being in all these countries; it’s a unique situation, you know? Just all the travelling – every day you go to a new place, you look for showers, and you meet new people you’ve never met before, so it’s a very mind-blowing experience for me.
Alon Tamir (Guitar): Yeah. It’s safe to say that we as a unit feel kinda charged up. The responses we got were mind-blowing; I had so much fun meeting all those people, and experiencing what they were experiencing, you know? The energy, and the love for the music.
So I think it’s pretty safe to say that we’ll definitely want to do more tours in the future.
Awesome! What’s your earliest musical memory?
Or: There was a time in the ‘90s when everybody got a home stereo with a three-CD tray that could change CDs automatically. And [my family] were one of the first households to have one. My dad went and got Led Zeppelin II, and put it on, and we all sat there listening to music.
I kinda didn’t get it as a kid, because there’s nothing moving, there’s nothing to do; you just sit there and listen. It was kind of a weird experience, but I had a lot of fun because everybody was so excited. So that was the initial spark.
I remember those stereo systems! They were totally revolutionary at the time.
Or: And when you turned it off, the display said “Goodbye,” and I was like…holy crap!
[Project RnL drummer Sharon Petrover enters]
Eyal: It’s a good question. I have a strange story, because I didn’t have a lot of music in the house as a kid. My mom sent me to organ lessons when I was ten, but I never stuck to it, never got it as a kid.
But when I was eleven years old, I considered myself the neighbourhood’s hacker! And by “hacker,” I mean I’d connect with all these bulletin board systems – in the pre-internet days – and I would go and download games. That made me [feel like] a hacker at eleven years old!
So I’d download all these games, and one day I went to this BBS and they had this karaoke game. I was like “okay, karaoke – that’s interesting,” but I had no idea what it was. So I got it, and it had a bunch of MIDI files in it, and just like with karaoke, it would show you the lyrics, and I would just play the stuff on it, and I would try to understand how the melody went from the crappy MIDI file.
But some of the songs really caught my attention. It was all stuff like Queen, and The Beatles, mainly Beatles songs and some ABBA, The Beach Boys. Some of it was crap, but these songs caught my eye even without me having actually listened to those songs. Every song I heard, I’d go to my mom and say “have you heard of this band?” and she’d be like “Yeah – it’s The Beatles, I used to listen to that stuff when I was a kid,” and it sounded cool.
So I went to a record store, and the band with the most songs that I liked from the karaoke game were The Beatles. They had some good songs, so I was like “Okay…I’ve gotta buy a Beatles album,” and one of the songs on the karaoke game was Yesterday. So I bought the album that had Yesterday on it – and it was such an amazing experience, especially as a kid. That started everything for me.
Or: Didn’t the transition from MIDI to the actual recording blow your mind? If you were just used to hearing it as a MIDI file?
Eyal: In some cases I was actually disappointed! Sometimes I would hear the MIDI file and the MIDI was just awesome. There was a MIDI file of Village People songs, and hearing the MIDI I was like “Wow – this is such a cool song,” and then I heard the original and it was like…disco…
Sharon: Then there was Nintendo too. All those 8-bit sounds, and just the Mario theme…
Alon: I was actually more into painting and art as a kid. I didn’t grow up with music in the house at all – except my older sister, she liked what all fourteen-year-old girls liked in the ‘90s. Stuff like The Backstreet Boys, and Take That. And I kind of liked it.
At that time – I’m talking about age ten, maybe – I was painting, and that was my main focus. But I started composing music in my head, things like basslines and chords and rhythms, all in my head, and I just had fun with it. To pinpoint the exact moment that music really struck me, it was watching MTV and seeing Metallica perform with the San Francisco Symphony, playing Nothing Else Matters.
The S&M show? With Michael Kamen?
Alon: Yeah – Nothing Else Matters. I remember it so clearly, and that definitely was the moment. I’d never witnessed anything like it; it was so pure to me, such a heartfelt moment. It’s not as fake as the Backstreet Boys or Take That; it’s a guy with a guitar and it’s really emotional, you can hear it in his voice and everything. The whole arrangement was so big and epic. I was like “Wow, I’ve gotta check these guys out.”
So I asked some friends of mine about Metallica, and I went to this guy’s house and listened to some records and it was mind-blowing. That’s how it started – and from there, I just knew I wanted to play guitar.
Sharon: My father was a drummer when he was younger, and I remember myself when I was three years old, playing on a kit in my grandfather’s basement on the weekends. So that’s when I started, but I started studying drums when I was ten.
My teacher told me to buy some CDs by Chick Corea, and Miles Davis…
Or: When you were ten?
That’s a hell of a way to start off!
Or: That’s not a pond, it’s an ocean. Like, straight in…
Sharon: Yeah, exactly.
So how did Project RnL come to be? What’s your X-Men-style origin story?
Eyal: RnL basically started as a project just between me and Ray, our singer. We started creating all kinds of arrangements and original songs in the studio, and the original plan was not to have a band! I’d just had a band before that, and Alon was actually with me in a previous band, and the idea [with RnL] was not to do a band, [but to] do something else.
We started doing some recordings, and we did those recordings by tracking each instrument individually. We’d write the arrangement, Ray would write the lyrics, I’d write the music, and we’d bring in friends who were really good musicians to play on the tracks. And I had this idea to do something called a videosong. Back then, it was something that was happening on YouTube, and a lot of bands and artists had started to do it, but it seemed like all the bands who were doing it were like indie bands and folk bands…
People using loops, things like that…
Eyal: Yeah! And I was like “…why don’t we do something more my style,” you know? More fusion or prog or whatever. So we started creating those videos, and they became a bit successful, so we started doing more.
At some point I moved to New York, and started working there, and then I came back, and we decided to do a band. So we got [Or, Alon, and Sharon], and here we are – a band!
What’s been your favourite part of the touring experience so far?
Alon: Playing!
Or: [This interview] is an audio recording, so we can say all kinds of stuff. Sitting here naked with you…
Everyone: [Laughter]
Or: …rubbing oil on our skin…
That is so going into the transcription…
Or: …but why did we tie all our shoelaces together? You’re supposed to tell us when to jump, right?
Yeah, yeah…NOW!
Sharon: Let’s remove the underwear from our heads first…
Everyone: [Awkward falling-over noises; laughter]
That’s easily one of the best interview answers I’ve ever had, to any question.
Everyone: [Cheering / clapping for Or]
Eyal: Alon said something interesting: Playing. And [touring] is actually such a unique experience, because we’ve been touring for over a month, and I feel I’ve actually played less on this tour than I ever have before, because you only play when you’re soundchecking or on stage.
We don’t have our instruments when we’re travelling, so every time we’re playing, it’s funny, because we’re away from the instruments during the day, then we meet up onstage and it’s like “Oh! That’s cool – that sounds very good,” you know? And every time I’m actually surprised that the band and our playing sounds good, because I haven’t touched an instrument. I don’t know how well I play until we power up the system and get the amps running.
Or: That’s something I like about touring, because when you go on tour, you sort of cut everything the way it is, and you just test that. And if you don’t prepare well enough beforehand, you’re presenting something that won’t be good. But we [put in] a lot of work back home; we made sure that the point where we cut our life and our music was at the level it should be, and the level we expect it to be.
Do you ever get stage fright or nerves? Has that ever been an issue? And if so, how do you get around it?
Sharon: For me, the excitement grows during the show. If I see that the audience is participating and dancing and having fun, I’m getting the energy from that. And if not, then I’m trying to hit harder, so that they get it!
Alon: I get a bit of excitement, but in a good way – not in the kind of [stressed voice] “Ohhhh, I can’t play!” [way] or something like that. It’s [wondering] “Wow, how is it gonna be tonight? Maybe we can make it better, maybe the crowd will love it even more than the previous crowd,” you know? It’s that kind of excitement.
So it’s actually something to look forward to, every show.
Eyal: I worry quite a bit, mostly about technical stuff. I worry about things breaking down; I always have a fear of the computer failing, and my keyboards breaking, and the mics stopping working…
Sharon: We can arrange that for you! Just for fun…
[Laughter]
The last day of the tour is tomorrow, right?
[Laughter]
Eyal: Yeah, so I’m always worried that something unexpected will happen. But usually that all disappears once we get feedback from the audience. There’s places where you don’t get feedback, like this show for example was amazing, because people were reacting and experiencing, and we were feeding back that energy. So once we get it back, it’s like a car battery. It charges us up, and there’s no fear anymore.
[Ray Livnat, Project RnL’s vocalist, enters]
Ray: I used to get a lot of that, yeah. In the beginning of my singing, not even my career, I started singing in school and stuff. I remember one time, in sixth grade, we were rehearsing for a show for an event called Jerusalem Day. And everything was pre-recorded in a studio, and there was a dress rehearsal at the venue, and my part came, and I just started crying and ran away from the venue! But since then, I’ve become a lot more experienced.
Eyal: That happened to me a million times at that age! When I was the performer I’d just speak, read something, when you’re whatever it is, ten, you know?
Or: It’s like a fight-or-flight mechanism. When you’re a kid you can get to a situation and go “Fuck this!” and run away!
Everyone: [Laughter]
Or: But as an adult, I can’t go onstage here [at the O2 Academy Islington] in front of like seven hundred people and go “Oh no, fuck this,” because there’ll be consequences!
Ray: Yeah. To this day, I don’t want to perform for my family if I’m not prepared in advance. On the spot, I never do anything. I have to be prepared; I have to know what I’m doing.
Eyal: I actually want to add to that, because it’s a really cool element. The more you’re prepared, the less you’re scared because you can always go back to your preparation.
That’s the good thing about [the way we’ve approached] this band, because we rehearsed these tracks so much, and we’ve worked on every little thing. So a lot of these parts, as complicated as they are, it’s kind of like an instinct to us now. So even if we’re not inspired or don’t know what to do, it’s like you’re powering up an automatic mechanism.
Ray: You can just stick to the plan.
Eyal: Yeah, yeah!
Sharon: It can be real hard to improvise as much as we can during the show. Maybe you can’t notice that [from the audience], but we tend to improvise quite a lot. Although [a lot] of it is written down, it makes the show way more exciting. Things are really happening, right now, onstage, even though we really know what’s supposed to happen.
To do [improvisation] right, you have to know what you’re doing in advance. It has to be in your veins.
Alon: You need to know your craft.
Sharon: And the song.
Or: You have to be confident in the spine of the music. Whatever happens, I know what the original line is if I go [outside of it].
Sharon: Then you can do whatever you want. But you have to know where you are in the song at all times.
What’s been the craziest thing that’s happened at one of your shows?
Ray: My weirdest thing was actually during an Ozrics [set], after we were finished. [Weird stuff] happens all the time.
A fan came to the front of the stage, and Brandi [Wynne; Ozric Tentactles’ bassist] was barefoot…
Or: She Frenched [Brandi’s] leg in the most passionate way…not even her leg, it was her feet. They almost had a foot-baby…she started out by gently kissing it, and then went like “What the hell!” and started going all-out!
Eyal: I had a guy come up to me in Belgrade, in Serbia, and while I was performing he was screaming “TURN UP THE GUITARS AND KEYS! TURN UP THE GUITARS AND KEYS!”
And I was like “…go talk to the sound guy,” but he’s like “NO NO NO! YOU GOTTA TURN UP THE GUITARS AND KEYS!” And he was front row, just screaming at me and repeating himself. So at some point, I had a break so I went down to him, like “Hey man, I get that the volume’s low, but you really need to talk to the sound guy,” and he was like “NO NO NO! YOU’RE FABULOUS! BUT THE GUITARS AND KEYS, YOU GOTTA BRING THEM UP!”
In Macedonia, I had a guy come up to me extending his hand, as if he wanted to shake my hand. So I extended my hand toward him, but he started to rub my arm instead. I thought he might have missed my arm, so I pulled it back, extended it again, and it was like, nope! He just kept rubbing – and then his friend starts rubbing me as well.
So you had two guys just rubbing your arms?
Eyal: A guy and a girl, yeah.
Or: They were enjoying the texture. If you know what I mean…
Eyal: So there’s a bunch of weird stuff. But you get funny things happening just because you get to a place, and you don’t know what to expect. The first show we did for this tour was in Ireland, in Dublin, and the venue was the weirdest place.
We get there after a few days of no sleep, just travelling and a flight, and going on a ferry and all that, and we get there and the dressing room is just filled with fleas and whatever you can imagine – the dirtiest place! The stage wasn’t even a stage; it was more like a garage. So we’re like “…how are we gonna do a show here?”
And this was our first show; we didn’t know what to expect. We started pulling up our gear, and we didn’t even know if there was going to be a stage. Eventually there was a stage, and there was a show, and it was all fine; but sometimes you get to those places and you’re just terrified.
If money and good taste weren’t issues, what would your stage show look like?
Alon: I’d have two huge 4×12 Mesa Boogies!
Eyal: We’d have more gear, that’s for sure!
Ray: I’d probably get a high-end microphone…
Alon: I’d be wearing a onesie that glows in the dark…
Eyal: One thing I love is stages that don’t have the traditional look of drums in the middle, the guitars to the sides, and everything. Peter Gabriel did a show a few years ago where the audience was around the stage, which was set up in a circle. So the band was in the middle, and he was walking around and riding his bicycle around the stage.
I would love that setup for a band like this, because there’s so much happening with all the complexities of the playing. It would be cool to give the audience kind of an inner perspective, [so they can see] what’s happening.
Almost like they’re at a rehearsal of yours…
Eyal: Exactly! Yes! When we can do our own tour, and it’s us headlining, and our own demands and everything, I would like to go more to playing inside the audience somehow, and not just in front of the audience. So I would look for ways to do that.
Or: Gear-wise, I’m quite satisfied with what I have here. I consider the amp I have here to be the best bass amp in the world, and I’m very pleased with the gear I play through. We have a unique setup with Eyal programming our sounds, too, through Cubase.
One of our biggest test-drives on this tour was taking the system we perform with, having bass, guitars, keys, and vocals running through Eyal’s computer, and using plugins and a click-track on Cubase. All the sound changes and EQ changes and everything you can imagine just happens automatically at particular points in the song.
That setup saves us a lot of trouble; it creates this hub that Eyal has right behind him during our live shows. Everything goes through there, so we don’t have to press any pedals, we don’t have to worry about most of the technical stuff. And also the sound for our entire show is pre-mixed, and we play through that mix, and it creates a very even experience. More than [it would] if you miked up differently every night, and you get a room like this or like that [acoustically].
So this was a test-drive for that system, and I think we learned a lot along the way, and we understood certain things we need to do to improve on that. But getting back to the original point, I don’t see a lot of ways this can improve by land miles, by huge amounts, because we’re all getting really close to the point where we’re all very satisfied with our sound and our rigs. We all play very high-end instruments, using high-end gear, so we’re not saving up on any aspect.
We don’t have many aspirations, aside from maybe like Alon said, getting two 4×12 Mesa Boogie cabinets to just have a wall of guitar and the band will go deaf, and the room will explode and he’ll just be standing there with a giant fan in front of him, hair extensions…for me as well, if at all possible!
Stage-setup-wise, I’m actually not very picky about that. I enjoy an unusual setup here and there, but whatever it is I try to make it work.
Beyond this tour, what do you have planned for the rest of 2016?
Eyal: The basic plan is to record an official album, which is long overdue. There’s also a bunch of new music that we have to rehearse; we started writing either individually or together a lot the last few months.
You five guys, and no outside musicians?
Eyal: Just us, yes. We’ve started writing; we have all kinds of new ideas about what to do with the setup. We started playing a lot of electronic shows recently, which brought in some new sounds we can use to create – and we have new musical ideas, new songs.
So definitely, after having this experience of just playing out, we want to go back to creating and remember what brought us here, basically. Which was being creative – and I do feel we’re creative onstage, but as Or said, this show represents our work until this moment, and we want to show the new thing now.
Is there anything else you want to talk about?
Alon: The feeling of someone coming to see you live, and I’m sure the other guys will agree too, is just overwhelming. When you see someone really appreciating what you do, what you’ve spent hours perfecting, we’ll be forever grateful for anyone who comes and appreciates that.
Or: It’s also worth mentioning our good friends Ozric Tentacles, who presented us with this really amazing opportunity to get to know them and work with them. [They went] out on a limb, because they took a band from Israel that they didn’t know really well – but they really enjoyed our vibe, and brought us out here to test out what this combination can do. And I think at the end of the day, right now, twenty-something shows later, I can say that all the response have been amazing. This is a really unique blend of both bands, and we’re very fortunate to have met them and played with them.
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