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
gifted material purchase sam turned whatever
As a kid, I was really into performing. I would do choruses, I would do musicals, whatever it was. And then, as a teenager, I got into an acting class at SUNY Purchase for gifted kids, and that really turned me on to material beyond musicals, Sam Shepard, and Christopher Durang plays.
almost hours immediate later music six studio track
With music, you're working with a producer, and you walk out of the studio six hours later with a track that's almost completely finished. There's an almost immediate payoff.
experience head physical
When I'm onstage, I'm not thinking about ideas. I'm not in my head at all. It's a more physical experience.
covering everywhere lens lose meditating music saturate sort totally
When I'm meditating on an idea, I try to let the idea completely saturate me to the point where I feel like I'm covering myself in it or totally immersing myself in it, so that everywhere I'm looking, everywhere I'm going, it's through the lens of that idea. And that's sort of what I do with the music - I try to lose myself in it.
bang based created explosion god happened sparks talks
Literally, there is a lot of talk about sparks in the Kabbalah. It talks about when God created the world initially, there was an explosion that happened like a Big Bang but based on vessels and light.
attention came cousins hearing liking man married music paying raised reggae remember summer traveled
My mother's sister married a man from Barbados, and my cousins were raised in Barbados. So we traveled down there, they came up every summer for camp, and I started paying attention to their music. And that was the first place I ever remember hearing reggae and liking it.
music people
My music is really about people connecting with their identities, even if they aren't Jewish.
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.
became course evident excitement faith found happened musical newly took
When I first started, everything happened at once. I became religious, my musical career took off, I got married, I had kids, and all that happened within the course of a year. I had an excitement about this newly found faith, and so I was writing about that in a very evident kind of way.
music
I kind of think that music in general is a sacred thing, and that's what music has kind of always been for me.
believe mold orthodox truth
I still believe there is a lot of truth in Orthodox Judaism, but not the whole truth. Each person has his truth that he has to discover. You don't necessarily have to mold yourself to another idea of who you are.
album bruce christmas holiday jewish jews kenneth kenny legend music produced time
The No. 1 best-selling Christmas album of all time is from Kenneth Bruce Gorelick, the Jewish smooth-jazz legend Kenny G. American Jews have always produced a lot of holiday music, just not Hanukkah music.
accept certain divine fall felt good goodness higher intuition level lots move needed order somehow submit trusting truth ultimate
At a certain point, I felt the need to submit to a higher level of religiosity... to move away from my intuition and to accept an ultimate truth. I felt that in order to become a good person, I needed rules - lots of them - or else I would somehow fall apart. I am reclaiming myself. Trusting my goodness and my divine mission.
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.