Israeli Indie band lights the way for Tel-Aviv’s music underground
This is not a review. This is telling it like it is, a college musician writing about other musicians, in college.
The universal language of music is spoken all over the world. Genre-to-genre, musicians find each other, even if they do not share the same native tongue. Getting away from the U.S., our aperture narrows on Israeli indie rocker Elad Eyni, otherwise known by his stage name in his band, L-ad and the Stereo-Tips.
After stumbling upon his 2014 solo single “Freud” and thinking it was a Easternized take on Edward Sharpe, I took the opportunity to reach out to Eyni to pick his brain on the goods and bads of the Tel-Aviv music scene and how he manages the conflict of studying music composition and sound engineering at the BPM College while working on his next album
L-ad’s Stereo-Tips are a colorful mosaic drawing influences from Queen, MGMT and Muse, made up of long-time friend and bassist Eylon Rosenberger, guitarists Sagi Reedman and Or Vengle, drummer Ariel Lior and keyboardist Hen Duek.
This blooming collaboration with L-ad all began with an impromptu debut at a local club in April last year.
“I created [The Stereo-Tips] for live performances,” said Eyni. “After a while we decided to take it a bit forward and just became a formal band. “
The band shares this red thread that ties us college musicians together, and all the difficulties associated with living that double life. Rosenberger says it was hard at first but improved over time.
“You need to find time for yourself and for the band, time that you don't have,” he said. “It's not easy to combine the exams and the rehearsals but it is possible. When something is very important to you, you can do anything.”
The music scene in Tel-Aviv could use some more support for local musicians, according to the band.
“It doesn't matter if you’re a college student or not, as long as you bring something fresh to the stage. This motivation is a powerful advantage.”
L-ad’s last release was Memories From The Kingdom Garden in February, but the band is working on new material that aims to be released this summer.