When you hear that Tomer Yosef of Balkan Beat Box produced their debut album, you know straightaway there is a good chance that A-WA will be the next big thing from Israel. The three sisters intersperse music from their Yemeni roots with modern beats to create an infectious mix of Arab folk songs and hip hop, reggae, and electro.
Tair, Liron, and Tagel Haim grew up in a little village called Shaharut in the Arava valley in southern Israel, but their roots lie a good bit further south, in Yemen. “Our grandparents immigrated from Yemen to Israel,” we were told by the singer Tair Haim, the eldest sister. “That migration brought a lot of beautiful traditions to
Israel: dance, music, and colourful ceremonies. With us, it is the women who sing, in the special Arabic dialect of the Yemeni Jews,” added Tair, who is the spokesperson for the band, which, as well as the three singing sisters, includes four musicians on bass/violin, drum/loops, keyboard, and electric guitar.
They absorbed the roots she talks about with their mother’s milk. “We grew up in a musical family: we have been singing and performing our whole lives; we wanted to give our roots a modern revamp,” explains Haim. They launched A-WA four years ago, with the goal of reaching as many people as possible, all over the world. “We started uploading simple little films on YouTube, songs in Hebrew and English, with Yemeni influences. And some Yemeni folk songs too.”
Those folk songs attracted the attention of Tomer Yosef, Balkan Beat Box’s singer, who also comes from a Yemeni family. “We talked to him and he was immediately enchanted by the Yemeni songs. They needed, he said, to be made a bit sharper, a bit fresher. He agreed to our request to produce the album and added some heavy Balkan Beat Box-style beats and a wonderful groove to our music. It’s fantastic to work with an artist we admire so much. He is like a big brother, our mentor.” Via her webcam, a delighted Tair Haim shows us the sleeve of the promo EP. She can’t wait to see the new album released, but that won’t be for another few months.
So isn’t mucking about with the tradition in that way a bit like sacrilege? “No, they are secular folk songs, created and sung by women – and handed down from woman to woman via an oral tradition,” explains Haim. “Each woman is allowed to add her own personal touch. That way, the tradition is kept alive and keeps finding its place in each new era. It was only in the 1960s, when the Yemenis arrived in Israel, that Shlomo Moga [an Israeli singer-songwriter, BT] started to record those songs. They are so beautiful, timeless, simple, and honest that they still move me today. We started to mix those foundations with the music of our own generation: hip hop, reggae, and electronica. So we have taken something from our family roots and given it a modern, fresh twist. It is both old and very much alive. It is traditional, but thanks to the electronic beat young people can identify with it too.”