The Jew Spot

Getting together seven years ago for just one show, the band Blue Fringe felt such success in one night that they’ve kept the momentum going. With a first album selling more than 15,000 copies (thanks in part to the hilarious song "Flipping Out"), Blue Fringe is now two albums heavier with a huge fanbase in New York City and an audience around the world.



And just like the one blue fringe found on tzitzits, Blue Fringe also stands out against the rest as being one of the first Jewish rock bands to go against the norm. Leaving behind their oh, so comical days, the band has taken on a more mature approach in their past two albums reflecting their own growth as musicians and songwriters. We got to speak with Dov (lead singer) and Avi (guitar) to show us a little more about the guys behind the music.

It appears that the style of your music is trying to push the limit of what “typical”Jewish music style is. Is that a conscious effort?

Relative to traditional Jewish music, it is definitely pushing boundaries. Several years ago we’d be more inclined to say we’re really doing something totally incredibly original. Now there is a whole movement of people making Jewish music, so to speak, that is not in anyway traditional.

In terms of it being a conscious effort on our part, it’s less of a concerted effort and more a natural outgrowth. We grew up with the styles we listen to and it’s become our musical vocabulary.

Has there been any resistance from the community to the your music?

We were banned in a few places. There was one all-girl high school who wanted us to come play, but they wouldn’t let us because we’re not ‘Jewish’ enough. I always find that comical.

I think it’s an interesting question how people define Jewish music. I think a lot of times people are thrown off by the style. Maybe it’s too rock. Or sometimes that it’s in English. Or that people think we’re singing about girls. We have a song "City of Gold" which people asked if it’s about a girlfriend when really it’s about the City of Gold Jerusalem.

But for the most part we’ve been accepted. It’s great to hear from fans who say that they don’t really listen to Jewish music, but they listen to us.

Your band has said, “We're just trying to make music about things that matter to us in the musical styles that matter to us." What are those things that matter to you?

The most convincing type of Jewish music is the type that is almost Jewish by coincidence. When you think of other songwriters out there in the secular world, they approach their songwriting without a particular agenda.

That strikes a cord in us about being real and not contrived. The best type of Jewish music is that which is not approached with an agenda; that people are not saying, ‘you know we’re Jewish we gotta do the Jewish thing’. If our job as Jews is to keep godliness and spirituality on the forefronts of our minds at all time, it shouldn’t be relegated to Jewish instances or Jewish topics. It’s in the everyday. The mundane things. The emotions you encounter. And looking at it through a Jewish scope.

We talk about the same things – love, hope, happiness, frustrations – those types of emotions that everyone writes about. But if we can do it, and do it through a Jewish lens, that’s the stuff that matters to us. That is what is going to make this music real, and not contrived and preachy.

I see that you’ve performed in various venues – from South Africa to Israel to BB Kings. What has the response been throughout? Have you found some audiences more opened or excited, or others harder to reach or connect to?

There’s an added excitement when we’re in other countries. I know when we played in South Africa, we played in Johannesburg, they had really hyped it up saying ‘Jewish Rock Band from New York’ and it was completely sold out. The whole show from start to finish was electric. We love playing here in NY, but we’ve also played here so often it definitely gets hard to capture that same intensity.

Has there been a show that has been your all-time favorite?

The truth is each show has such a different dynamic. When we play a small club, there is this intimacy you don’t find when you’re playing a huge show. But at the same time, I specifically remember one show that stands out when we played in Israel, the Bet Shemesh Festival, probably the largest audience we ever performed for with about 10,000 people there. I just remember feeling really nervous and really excited, and that whole show was really exciting and eclectic. And even though it wasn’t intimate, we still feel like we connected with the audience.

The titles of your albums all sound to come from a spiritual place - My Awakening, 70 Faces, The Whole World Lit Up. Is there an album, song or even lyric you yourself can’t get out of your head or feel most connected with?

You’re asking us to choose between our children here.

Avi: I personally like the second album best [70 Faces]. That was the perfect moment for us. We were really coming into our own. We were getting better at our instruments at that point and were bringing everything to the table creatively. That album really embodied where we were at the time, and what we were trying to do and try to do as we move forward.

Dov: On that album, the last song "Hineni" on the 70 Faces album, we all love that song. It’s the way the song came about. We had pretty much finished recording the whole album and we’re staying at Danny, the drummer’s house, when we studied the text. We sat down together and talked about the experience and how we relate to it. We wrote the song there, went into the studio and recorded it live. That song really stands out to me and the way we connected to the words of the story.


Avi: And to add to that, we don’t always draw on older texts. We obviously write completely original songs. But one of the amazing things we’ve been able to do a couple times is, and I think is really key to the power of music, is to take something, and by adding music to it and nothing else, just by adding a certain musical inflection to it, could reinterpret it. A song like "Hineni," the whole overall musical vibe we’ve given to that song, really made that song contemporary.

Music itself can really be an interpretive tool. The arrangements and chords just open up a whole new meaning that wouldn’t necessarily occur to you if you were hearing it in the synagogue. Anytime we can take a text, and interpret it through music, I am very, very proud of that.

How do you decide which original text to interpret through song?

It’s really whatever inspires us. We don’t sit there and flip through the pages. It’s what speaks to us at certain points in our lives.

Dov: The song "Modim", I remember sitting in shul Shabbat afternoon and my dad pointed out to me how it’s so beautiful that we’re thanking G-d for the very fact that we’re able to give thanks, because even that is challenging at times. That spoke to me and we thought about it altogether and wrote the song.

So I have to ask – Why Jewish?

We are not closed off from the idea of being mainstream, but we are not necessarily trying to do that because we are trying to stay true to who we are and our philosophy. We wouldn’t want to make our music less Jewish. It’s not necessarily about being as successful as we can be.

We know who we are and who our audience is. And we just want to continue that.

Where will Blue Fringe be performing next?

Canada! And at the UN rally protesting Ahmadinejad returning.

Thanks Blue Fringe for an amazing interview. I hope everyone reading will check out their music on MySpace and live if possible! And please do rock Ahmadinejad out of here!

If you have any other questions for the guys at Blue Fringe, feel free to leave comments or email us at FindMyJewSpot@gmail.com. Ciao.