Reminding People That What We Read In The Newspapers Is Not Reality

"I've played 500 shows all over the world, across many different countries and many different cultures," says Yemen Blues leader Ravid Kahalani. "That's taught me that what we see in the media isn't our true reality. I see people who want to learn from others, whether they're from a Muslim culture, a Christian culture, any kind of religion or culture. I was always talking to people and they were always very positive about recognising our differences."

If that sounds idealistic, Yemen Blues' music is the kind that promotes these thoughts; about cultural exchange and plurality. The 39-year-old is from a Jewish Yemeni family, his parents having emigrated to Israel. He sings mainly in Arabic, but also in Hebrew, French and occasionally English. The lyrics are often ancient Yemeni spirituals, and the music draws from traditional Arabic sounds and modern Arabic guitar music. There's also the influence of jazz, funk, Latin, Afrobeat and West African guitar-pop; making for music that reflects the exchange of musical ideas across man-made borders.

The singer grew up between the coastal city of Bat Yam and the newly settled Orthodox Jewish outpost of Elon Moreh in the West Bank. "When I was five my parents became more religious," Kahalani recounts. "We had a very strong Yemeni cultural presence: singing the songs, saying the prayers." He always felt like "the opposite" of his peers and not just because of his cultural heritage. "I was this outsider who was never feeling comfortable with what everybody else does. I was into wearing really crazy clothes. I didn't care about soccer, or TV, I was always singing songs to myself, and thinking about god and this world. I was always thinking about the greater things I couldn't understand."

As a teenager, Kahalani moved to Tel Aviv hoping to find a career in music. He'd play in East West Ensemble, Yisrael Borochov's long-running outfit, but wanted to find his own musical voice. That came when he discovered West African guitar-pop then North African desert rockers, which he could connect to his own heritage. "This was the point that connected everything for me. It connected my Yemeni roots with the blues and all this music I was finding so inspiring," Kahalani recounts. "I had dedicated my life to [music], but had been looking to find myself in it. This is what was so beautiful about this project: it felt like it was connecting all these different elements of who I was."

So, Kahalani founded Yemen Blues as a way of, musically, "finding soulful points between these different cultures", with the greater goal of "opening hearts and minds". And, as a musical expression of who he is. "[Yemen Blues] lets people know, from the top, where I'm coming from," he offers. "I'm a Jewish Yemeni, I grew up in Israel. But the music lets people feel that they are part of me, that I am part of them. A lot of people understand where I'm coming from. A lot of people understand what I'm talking about. A lot of people relate to this. I'm trying to remind people who they are, where they came from, and what it means to be a human being in this world. One of the greatest things Yemen Blues did for me was to be able to build a bridge between lots of different people, different fans."

Having grown up in the West Bank, and singing in both Hebrew and Arabic, it's natural that Yemen Blues, and Kahalani, are going to be considered political. "But, I don't really know what it means to be 'political'," Kahalani says. "I guess I am political in some way, but I don't really focus on it. I don't read the papers or the news. I'm really, really focused on what I can do best, how I can create things that can unite people, that can remind them that our reality is not what's in the papers. The media has so much power and they actively choose to support destructive things. We need to [remember] that love is the biggest force in the world. [I'm] putting this, and giving this so much attention, in my music, so that this force can keep on growing."