Vents MagaZine Music and Entertainment Magazine
Related Articles
Hi R O N I, welcome to VENTS! How have you been?
Hey there VENTS!
I’ve been good, keeping busy with the multiple releases of singles and music videos, I’ve set a very ambitious goal for myself and I intend to follow through with it.
I’ve been editing all of the videos myself and that’s what’s taking the majority of my time these days.
Can you talk to us more about your latest single “Senses”?
Senses is the 2nd single from my new EP ‘Crown’ and is the 3rd part of the ‘Crown’ visual album series on youtube.
The song was created of an improvisation session with Malakai (BK producer & DJ) and later developed and produced by FortyForty for R O N I’s debut EP ‘Crown‘.
Also contributed to the production, keyboard parts and harmonization is Nir Yatzkan (Tel Aviv).
The song taps into the deepest, most primal desires and urges that occur within sensuality and sexuality, that are specifically felt when one physically and emotionally interacts with another human for the first time.
Letting go of inhibitions, releasing impulses and finding courage to go deeper into yourself through sensations felt with another; this is what Senses is all about.
Did any event in particular inspire you to write this song?
I’d say that it was inspired by a time of new-found single life. Which is ironic as I’m going through a similar feeling now and can relate to this song and the others on the record even more.
Meeting someone new, feeling those heart butterflies and your sensuality awakens, the initial feeling of touch and falling in love; those were the main inspirations.
How was the filming process and experience behind the video?
The video for this song came to me in a vision late at night and wouldn’t let me sleep for hours. I wanted to really let the viewer feel the essence of what this song is about. In the narrative of the visual album, ‘Senses’ is supposed to be a dream that I dreamed after I fell asleep on the subway platform (after ‘Stop Motion’ , part 2, is done).
I wanted sexy and sensual closeups on bodies, dark atmosphere, teasing with showing, yet not showing too much, of the bodies and myself. I wanted different colors and different effects to be present in this video as it’s supposed to be abstract and unfamiliar, like dreams can be.
It’s the kind of dream you wake up from confused and turned on.
Filming the video was a lot of fun. My friend and fellow producer/director Jordan Fuller, truly stepped up with some really cool pieces of gear and ideas: rotating turntable for the models, projecting the footage of the bodies onto me while I performed, playing around with flashlights while I performed. Super cool and simple ideas that ended up looking really good in my opinion. We worked with the master DP Keith Ferreira from Steadishot, who can rock filming with giant camera while he’s on a segway.
My friends and colleagues were super kind and generous to dance and move to the music while we filmed them. They had no idea that the end result would be so abstract and closed up so it was a nice surprise for them to see fragments of their bodies in the video and not their entire mostly naked body on display.
It was definitely a challenge to explain this vision to models/friends whom we’ve spoken to about participating in this video, but I love the end result and we truly worked with the best people.
The single comes off your new album Crown – what’s the story behind the title?
The title Crown relates to several aspects. There is something about the crown chakra that always had me super fascinated by. It’s the one that’s most vague and spoken of least in my experience. Because it’s not attached to an actual area of our body, it’s more etheric and auric, which I find so interesting, because out of all of the chakras, the crown chakra is the only one I’ve been able to see and it’s the one I relate to the strongest.
I also believe that ways of communicating and relating to people can be attached to chakras. I feel that in every communication and relating to others and ourselves, we operate from one of more chakras. I can definitely say that when it comes to singing and making art, I myself, and many others I know have related to their art and audience from the 3rd chakra (Solar Plexus, gut, stomach), the heart chakra and the throat chakra as well (Truth speakers, super communicators) and many I know (many that you know as well) operate from the 2nd chakra (navel/sex organs).
But not many are communicating art from the 3rd eye chakra (maybe spiritual, new age, world musicians) and even less do it from the crown chakra.
I feel that there’s something really valuable in communicating, creating and delivering from that place. Something that is beyond the physical realm, beyond the human bodily experience – but instead more uniting of all humans for their humanity. One of my biggest goals in life is to be a vessel and a helper of peace. I was born and raised in Jerusalem, and I want my music and art to assist bringing peace and unification to that area and others that need it.
Only education and art can bring true peace ,not the one on papers signed by politicians.
I feel that by relating to the crown chakra, I can try and reach more people in more ways that are universal and that focus on our commonality , not our differences. Through our human experiences and beyond them.
What role does NYC play in your music?
NYC shaped me as an artist just as Jerusalem did, if not more.
I moved here where I was 20, and didn’t know anyone. When you allow NYC to show you herself, your life can truly change and blossom. It also works in the same intensity when you’re lonely and closed off – this city can be the loneliest place in the world. It’s all about staying open and embracing the shifts and encounters.
This place is the most mind opening/shifting/bending I’ve ever lived in, and I want to believe, there’s no place in the entire world that has this power.
I’m learning so much here, all the time. People, personalities, opinions, sexual orientation, gender affiliations, art – that I’ve never seen prior to coming here, all melts into this insanely beautiful pot here, and I’m so happy I get the privilege to be exposed to it and let it teach me something new every day.
I love NYC so much, Covid days have only reinforced this feeling. To be surrounded by people who are respectful and understanding and to be able to enjoy this city in a more chilled way, has been wonderful.
How does your Jewish background and upbringing influence your writing?
I was born and raised in Jerusalem. I learned a lot about the history of my people and I am constantly trying to teach myself about the history of my Palestinian cousins. We are all related and all share similar goals in life and growing up in the thick of the conflict didn’t help me in the process of knowing and understanding what the government called ‘the other side’. I am very grateful for my upbringing and appreciative of where I come from, it added a lot to my life. However, It’s really important to grow and learn more and other perspectives. I believe that the decade I’ve been living in NY has helped me immensely with that.
Where did you find the inspiration for the songs and lyrics?
Mostly these days, I like improvising songs in sessions. I just let my gut and stream of consciousness speak my truth as I hear a beat or a pattern of chords. I voice memo it if I’m not in a recording session, and I then go back to it and add some lyrics/ remove some, polish the song. But I like to keep the core that came out of this super intuitive and free improvisation.
Obviously even improvisation sessions are always affected by what is happening in my life and my head during that time.
What else is happening next in R O N I’s world?
The last music video for part 4 is coming out Friday the 4th, for the song Higher Ground. After that the EP drops in stores (Spotify, Apple music etc) on September 9th; very exciting.
I have a couple of social distance performances in September and October, but I honestly look forward to the post editing stages of my near future. Editing video is a huge passion of mine, but I’ve been working days and nights to get all 4 videos out and my eyes and brain need a vacation :).
