In 1999 Itai Faierman took that quintessential "year off to find himself." According to his bio, Itai "slept on friends' couches, hotel lobbies, and late-night Laundromats and busked in subways, on street corners, and in parks." His parents come from South America; he was born in Israel. He did the starving-artist thing in New York City (acting, playing in bands -- the usual route), and his Sam Shepard--esque wanderings took him to the Grand Canyon and finally to San Diego in 2000, where he's been living ever since, writing and recording music."
TRICKIEST MUSICAL PROBLEM PLAYING LIVE?
"Getting my guitar to sound like John Jacob Niles yodeling."
LIST OF INSTRUMENTS/ EQUIPMENT USED?
"I have a Gibson 333 hollow-body guitar, an old beat-up Martin acoustic, and three vintage pedals -- a Boss Digital Delay (for looping), a TC Electronics chorus/flange, and a vintage compression pedal (with the name rubbed off)."
MOST MEMORABLE ENOUNTER WITH FANS?
"I played a show at CBGB's with my band a few years ago, and these five Japanese girls were in the front row singing almost all the words to one of our tunes (we had a CD circulating in Asia). When we finished, I went out to speak to them, and they couldn't understand or speak one word of English. We ended up partying till the wee morning hours."
BRUSH WITH THE FAMOUS?
"I was working at an espresso shop on the upper east side of Manhattan, and Yoko Ono came in with a friend and ordered a latte or something. I brought it over to her and gushed about my love for John Lennon for about five minutes. She was appreciative, took one sip of her drink, and asked me, politely, to leave her alone."
TOP FIVE GREAT FLICKS?
The Graduate, On the Waterfront, Pollock, East of Eden, Lenny.
FIVE FAVORITE LOCAL VENUES?
Spreckels Theatre, the Casbah, Lestat's, SOMA, Scolari's Office.
TOP FIVE CDs?
John Lennon's Imagine, Jeff Buckley's Grace, Bob Dylan's Nashville Skyline, Nick Drake's Fruit Tree, and Led Zeppelin II.
DREAMS ABOUT PLAYING MUSIC?
"I once dreamt I was playing my music at an Orthodox Jewish wedding. I had to sing all my songs in Yiddish. There was a fantastic fiddle player with me who turned out to be the catering manager. He told me we needed to finish serving the wine before we could play more music. I put down my guitar and started pouring red and white wine for the crowd. When I got to the bride and groom, they looked really drunk, and the groom resembled Frank Zappa. He mumbled something about fame and blew me a kiss."
ITAI'S DISCOGRAPHY:
SAFE EP (2001),
IS (2002),
NOW (2003) - recorded by Steve Peavey, Nashville, TN,
THE ENCHANTED EP (2003) - recorded by Jacob Navarro, Anacortes, Wa,
LISTEN TO YOUR RADISH EP - w/ The Enchanted (2004),
MAN NO. 4 - w/ The Enchanted (2004),
THE PEPPERSANDS VOLUME I & II (2005),
ICEAGEMELTDOWN (2006) - recorded & produced by Gregory Page
SPLIT EP w/ Hlynur Gudjonsson (2009) - Gold and Silver Recordings
THE SUNBED TAPES (2009) - beat nun recordings!
Itai! Yes, I'm good, if a little hungover and overcast. Luckily I'm being fortified by the restorative properties of Mud...hope you're busy and whoever it is who pushed you to the floor whilst playing your guitar and photographed you has had his (I presume it was a man) comeuppance robhx
I really really like your music, so soft and soothing. Reminded me a lot of Elliott Smith, William Fitzsimmons, and little bit of Joseph Arthur. I'll be back for more :-)
hey itai, really nice to hear that! i love your songs on the ep with hlynur and i'm looking forward to hearing more of your beautiful songs! take care * susi / haruko
Hey Itai! I hope you are well! I just wanted to let you know that I put a new song up and I was hoping you could come give a listen when you get a min. We should definitely keep in touch on facebook too!
thanks man , you too! It reminds me of elliot smith or iron wine sort of. Although i hate comparing stuff to other stuff , cuz im almost always 100% wrong. and end up offending people. But i mean it as a compliment. haha.
It's been a while. how you been? sorry I couldn't make it out to your show, I was really looking forward to it too. Next time you're around the LA area let me know.
no need to rush with your response! i am glad that my last mail arrived... (someone told me lately that my mail got caught by a spam programm for some reason and so i am not always sure wether my messages are delivered.)
since my move i am doing very, very good. the new surrounding isneven better than suspected and i enjoy making music full time now a lot. i practise a lot for the big tour in july and i found new fans in my neighbours. hehe. finally find the time to write new songs as well. in the last weeks i finished 8 or 9 new songs. and i started recording again for the next record... don't know when everything is done yet but so far i am quite happy with the recordings. in my new flat i have got a tiny little space where there is much natural reverb. i put my recorder there and i think the sound will be very nice. but okay, let's see how it will be after mastering...
i recognized that your friend didn't make it to the berlin show, btw. it was the the with the less audience (i think there were only 8 people around) but nevertheless i enjoyed the evening a lot. a good friend of mine came to see me and we had a great time together.
hope the stress won't hit you too hard, my friend.
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