People’s Court will ring tonight with the sounds of Matisyahu, a Hasidic Jewish musician who uses a Hebrew language as inspiration for his music. The event begins at 7 p.m.
The eclectic reggae musician continued his musical evolution into his third album “Light,” as he exercised more creative freedom.
“The new record, Light, was made with various producers and writers over a long period of time,” Matisyahu said in an interview with the Times-Delphic. “I used different styles of music with more of a rock feel.”
“While we were producing, my guitarist and I would jam as I beatboxed, and then we layered the sounds over each other.”
Inspiration from a vast majority of sources can be heard in his music as well as inspiration from his extensive religious studies including the story of the seven beggars by Reb Nachman and as Matis explained “ideas found within Judaism in the 1800’s and ideas of existentialism.”
Raised in a Jewish household in White Plains, N.Y., Matis was reared as a Jewish Reconstructionist and attended Hebrew school in his hometown as a teenager. When he started heavily researching his faith, Matis decided to switch from viewing his faith as a evolving citizenship and opted for the movement led by Baal Shem Tov. There he found a more personal experience with God.
In an Oct. 17 interview with Canada’s Calgary Herald, Matis explained what sparked his religious research.
“I was hearing a lot of quotations in Marley’s music that came from the Bible, the Old Testament, the Torah,” he said. “The only time I’d heard these things before was in Hebrew school. In a way, that was sort of pushed upon me; that didn’t relate to my life. But to hear Bob Marley singing these things, it made me think, ‘Where’s this wisdom coming from? Let me investigate it within my own heritage.’”
Putting his research to use on his first album, Live at Stubb’s, in 2005 paid off when his live version of the song, “King Without a Crown,” became a Top 40 hit, and the album received positive reviews. Matisyahu went on to release his sophomore album, “Youth,” which presented more of a rock feel than his live album. His most recent work “Light,” sounds like the melodic love child of Marley and the heavens above, wrapped up in a blanket of back beat drums with a down lining of techno beats.
After playing a show in Des Moines this July, for the second annual 80/35 Music Festival, Matisyahu will return to Dogtown tonight at People’s Court.
IF YOU’RE GOING
Where: People’s Court
When: 7 p.m.
