BUBA MYSES: The Story + US Tour

17 Jul, 2012 by yossi

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“These aren’t your grandmother’s “boba myses” (grandma stories).” That was the first reaction from people who heard the new debut album from the FIRST EVER Jewish Rock Puppet Band called “BUBA MYSES”. YES, you heard me right, puppets!!!

This whole concept was the brainstorm of musician/arranger/producer and band leader extraordinaire, Shai Barak, and his partner in crime, Nati Shayish, owner of the elite Israeli choir, “SOUL KEY.” Both of Shai and Nati have played with the best in the business – Avraham Fried, MBD, Dedi, Ohad and more.

When asked how they came up with the name “BUBA MYSES,” Shai responded, “We were looking for a Jewish name for the project, a catchy one that would sound like a Yiddish/Hebrew name. We took the phrase ‘bobe myses,’ which means ‘Grandma Stories’ and we changed the ‘bobe’ (grandma) to a ‘buba,’ which is how you say puppet in Hebrew. Lo and behold you have ‘BUBA MYSES’.”

Shai and Nati first met a few years ago when Nati won first place in a singing competition similar to that of “Jewish Star.” Shai was hired to arrange and produce Nati’s debut album. They hit it off, and so began their musical and personal friendship. Two years later they met once again and released a DVD for children called “Nati & Friends.” That particular project included both puppets and music. The DVD was designed as an educational tool to teach children about Torah and Mitzvos. “Nati & Friends” was a huge success, and they wanted their next project to ALSO include both music and puppets, but this time NOT aimed directly at children.” That’s when the idea of “Buba Myses the Jewish Rock Puppet Band” began. Both Shai and Nati had strong roots in Jewish music and discussed making a great Jewish rock band that would be different, in the sense that the band would be made of fur.

Because they were looking to create a REAL rock band, with great music and good synchronization with their own musical compositions, they had to produce an album for the band. The debut album, “Buba Myses the Jewish Rock Puppet Band,” includes ten tracks, seven of which are medleys of the biggest hits from the last 20 years. Two of the tracks, “Hakol Letova” and “Modeh Ani,” are brand new compositions, which have had amazing results. As a matter of fact, music video for “Hakol Letova” was released just last week, and, in less than five days, had accumulated over 100,000 hits on Youtube.

The actual show with “Buba Myses the Jewish Rock Puppet Band” is so much more than a phenomenal music act. If you watch their promo on Youtube you will see that there is plenty of interaction with the crowd and even some comedy bits.

While Nati and Shai are based in Israel, they have both been traveling all over the world doing their own music. So why should that change for “Buba Myses”? Now, all they were missing was a singer /actor to be able to sing and perform in both Hebrew and English. It was then that the duo came across the spectacular multi-talented singer, Chanan Elias, who made Aliya a few years earlier from Los Angeles.

Shai says, “We know the crowds from our shows really well, and felt that they and Jewish music fans were yearning for a dynamic new music project.
With the album, they tried to cover a wide variety of Jewish music and styles from Carlebach, to Matysyahu and Diaspora, and from songs like “Hevenu Shalom Alechem” to “Salam” and “Yachad.” The only difference is that these guys made it “groovy”, and these songs will never be the same. In a good way of course.
With Shai arranging the songs, adding little secular innuendos to keep it fresh, and Chanan giving each song his own treatment, and allowing the old songs to sound so fresh and cool, this is definitely the album you want to own.

Shai says, “Even before we release the video and songs officially on Youtube, it has already received so many great comments and elicited so many inquiries for us to perform in America, Argentina and Europe. Without doing any advertising it makes us very happy to see how popular they have become in a very short time.”
The two Youtube Videos have exceeded more than 300,000 hits in the past 2 months, even before the upcoming world tour.

NY/NJ shows are scheduled the week of August 5th at various camps.
Checkout “Buba Myses” at www.bubamyses.com
For booking information contact: Symphonia Entertainment. Office: 201-837-9783 Cell: 201-259-2240.