Man Alive - Interview
January 6, 2003 Interview by Lonny Hurley
Hello, Mr.(Lonny) Hurley. This is Jamie, the lead singer/guitarist of Man
Alive. By the way, my answers will be much more understandable if you
know that Jon(Bass) and David(Guitar) are brothers and Joel(drums) and
I are brothers. OK here I really go.
Did you guys serve your time in the Isreali army?
Jon and David both served their full time in the army. Joel and I did
not becuase we aren't full Israeli citizens. We're like the equivilant
of a resident alien in the States. We'll probably do some army service
eventually as our status here is now changing.
Have you spent your entire lives in Isreal?
David was born here and their family moved to Texas when he was a baby.
Later Jon was born in Texas and then they moved back to Israel a few
years later. Joel and I moved here in '83 from Canada. I was 4 and
Joel was 2.
Are your musical influences American or other?
Mostly American/English/Canadian. Pop and Rock here tends to be a bit
dated. I'm sure some of it influenced a part of us, but probably the
part that sucks. Useless ID is an Israeli punk band that influenced us
a lot in the early days.
Do you have the freedom of speach to sing about what you want?
Technically we do have the freedom to say what we want, but there's
always some other jerk out there who doesn't think you should. We used
to get a bit harrassed by some anti-jeshua type religious people. We'd
get our posters torn down or defaced by them. We also just got banned
by one club, but I can't quite figure out why they did it cause it's
mostly a punk/hardcore club, but anyway, they banned all us "believer
bands" (there's 3 or 4 of us these days). But mostly people don't care
or even think it's cool that we're positive and have srong beliefs.
Are you Mesianic Jews or where you raised in the belief that Jesus is the
son of God?
We were all raised with the idea that Yeshua is the
Son of God, but we all came to to terms with it and accepted it in our
own time. Joel and I aren't Jewish, but it doesn't make a difference to
most people here these days.
Where did you record Work in Progress?
We recorded it at Jon and David's house in the Galillee last february.
We were just trying to record a demo, but we later decided to release it.
Did the attack on New York City effect you in any way?
New York is in many ways just as much an Israeli City as it is, say, a
Texan city. Everyone in Israel has friends in new york and most
israelis have visited there. Over 20 Israelis were killed in the
attack. It was pretty much the biggest deal ever as far as I can
remember. It kind of told Israelis that nowhere is safe anymore. I was
pretty much flipping out thinking that world war 3 was about to erupt (i
still can't believe it didn't). Things have been really hard here for
the past 2 years and 9/11 didn't help. A good 500 israelis have been
killed here since then (23 people got killed 2 days ago at a place i go
through every week) and now with things heating up with Iraq-it's all
pretty bad for israel.
What your favorite bands to listen to right now?
Hot Water Music, Watashi Wa, the Used, Face to Face, Strike Anywhere...
the new Too Bad Eugene has been entertaining me a lot lately. Oh, and
the Dixie Chicks (don't tell anyone)
WHAT BANDS WOULD YOU LIKE TO PLAY A SHOW WITH?
Any of the above (especially F2F)
Do your parents like punk rock?
Surprisingly so. Jon and Dave's dad doesn't like anything past 1977,
but our parents listen to our stuff and tolerate anything melodic.
Who do you think the greatest band of all time is?
Joel and I would probably agree on Radiohead. Jon would tell you the
Smashing Pumpkins and Dave would say Megadeth or some other stupid hair
band.
Don't forget to see Man Alive on the HM Stage Thursady July 3rd at
Cornerstone 2003 (that is, if you stumble upon a time machine :?)
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