Matisyahu
Matisyahu
Matthew Paul Miller, known by his Hebrew and stage name Matisyahu, is a Jewish American reggae vocalist, beatboxer, and alternative rock musician...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionMusician
Date of Birth30 June 1979
CountryUnited States of America
elevate hear life opportunity reading seen strange turn work
When I first started reading about the kabbalists, I would hear about them being seen in strange places. It would turn out that they were doing some kind of spiritual work to elevate the sparks. In my life and career, I've had the opportunity to find myself where I could make some spiritual moves, to do some work that is spiritually important.
certain changed inside interested life music shows tap unable
When I went to see certain shows when I was a kid, they changed my life. They made me tap into that place inside myself that I was unable to get to, so music is that tool, that bridge, and that's the kind of music I'm interested in making.
became lifestyle men might nightclubs opened religious worry
When I became religious, it was full-force for me. And, through the lifestyle of being out on the road with non-Jewish musicians, in non-Jewish nightclubs and going all over the world - getting out of the shtetl - opened me up to having experiences that other religious men might not have to think or worry about.
allow both creatively freedom gotten intuition life trust
I would say that as I've gotten older, I trust my intuition more; I allow myself more freedom both musically, creatively and my own life existentially.
life
Judaism is my life. Everything I do is through the lens of Torah.
certain coming crown eating enjoyed family home kids knows life morning order prayers spending time walk
I enjoyed coming home to Crown Heights. There was a certain order to life there. You know, Shabbos, spending time with your family, eating and being in 'shul.' Prayers at nighttime, prayers in the morning. Everyone knows everybody; you walk your kids everywhere.
best guess knew learned life people shield
I always knew I was different and that people had opinions about me. I guess I learned as best as I can to shield out a lot and live my life from within.
knots life needs obsessed stressful
There are so many rules in Judaism, and if you get into them and you get obsessed and you have the kind of life that I have, it can make you a very unhappy person. It can make everything complicated and more stressful than it needs to be, so I kind of loosened the knots a little bit.
beauty-of-life
The beauty of life is not knowing.
form inspiring keeping stand wearing whatever
When I started wearing a yarmulke, I wanted to stand out or take the form of whatever was inspiring me. But now I think there's something to not working it, to keeping it on the inside, and it just being kind of like a secret.
came david lyrics material music musicians producers took worked written wrote
With 'Light,' I collaborated with a lot of different producers and musicians I respected, and we all wrote and worked on material which I then took to an old-school producer, David Kahne, and we put it all together. The lyrics came first - they were written before the music.
bought closed explored
I started out in the Chabad movement, and I started pretty closed up, with the idea of there being that 'this is it.' I bought into that fully. I really explored in depth the Chabad ideology.
home jackson kid local lots michael musicals parking performing phish played plays putting shops shows
I started at home as a kid putting on shows and lip-syncing Michael Jackson for the grown-ups. Then, in musicals and plays in school. At 17, I was performing in coffee shops and in parking lots at Phish shows. At 18, I had a band that played local shows in the Northwest.
bob hear powerful
There's something really powerful when I, for example, hear Bob Marley's 'Exodus' - we know where we're going. We know where we're from.