Rock stars breaking into hotel pools is nothing new. But the stories you’ll get from Vince Neil, Pete Doherty or Kid Rock will differ enormously from the one Matisyahu tells.
“Whenever I can, I try to wake up at 5:30 when I’m on tour and sneak into the hotel pool as a mikvah,” said Matis yahu, the Hasidic Jewish reggae MC who already has two gold albums underneath his yarmulke. Some Hasidic Jews regularly enter into the mikvah, a ritual bath involving the immersion of the body, for daily purification. And while a chlorinated swimming pool isn’t the ideal mikvah, it works given Matis’ very unusual circumstances.
“That’s how I keep myself amused,” he said.
It’s amusement and ritual for the musician. But then again, nearly everything in his life – including not working (playing shows or practicing music) on Friday nights, the biggest concert night of the week – is ritual, as dictated by the strict Lubavitch Hasidic sect of Judaism to which he belongs.
For example, Matisyahu’s life on the road is unlike that of any other touring artist of his renown. After a concert, he hangs out for 15 or 20 minutes and then he makes an evening service backstage with 10 religious Jews selected from the audience.
Then it’s back to the hotel, where his wife and son are waiting more than half the time. If they are there, his son is up throughout the night, and he and his wife alternate tending to him. And then to the mikvah at 5:30 a.m., prayer at 6, getting ready at 7 and a flight at 9. If he’s on a tour bus, he leaves immediately after the post-show prayer and tries to get to his desired market by 9 so he can find a minion, or prayer group.
“My tour manager has been stretched looking for kosher food in strange places,” said Matisyahu, who plays Sunday in Denver at the City Lights Pavilion and Monday in Snowmass at the Jazz Aspen Snowmass Labor Day Festival. “In general, I just try and lead a healthy lifestyle, even though the touring lifestyle might not always be the most healthy one.
“For me, at least, the whole glorified version of being a rock star quickly dissipated into cramped legs on airplanes and trying to readjust your timing when flying from one side of the country to the other, show after show, a lot of strain on the voice, and trying to stay in a good mood. It’s tough, really tough, but a lot of fun, too.”
Matisyahu – born Matthew Miller in 1979 – and his rise to fame have been one of the most fascinating music stories of the past year. Last summer he graduated from cult-favorite status to college-radio darling – and it wasn’t long before he was getting FM spins and selling out theaters and auditoriums.
In a bizarre twist, it was a live recording of an unreleased song, “King Without a Crown,” that catapulted him to the elite class. His “Live at Stubbs” full-length went gold, and his proper sophomore record, “Youth,” followed a year later with a studio recording of “King Without a Crown” and enough buzz to encircle the globe, from Tel Aviv to Tasmania.
Matis now has free rein on Epic Records, but that hasn’t changed anything regarding his dedication to his faith. On the Shabbat, or Sabbath, he stays with a religious family in the area and becomes a part of the community – something he especially appreciates because his suburban upbringing didn’t make for the most involved community.
“Shabbat is really about being with people in the community, and when I’m on the road, I’m far from the community,” he said. “I’ve never found a community that I found myself fitting into. Although now I live in a community in Brooklyn where the next door neighbor is watching my son, which is great. I get the best of both worlds. I travel and do my own thing, and I also have community around me when I’m home.”
The Shabbat is observed from before sundown on Friday until nightfall on Saturday, and Jewish law prohibits melachah, or work, of any form.
“It’s never been an issue for me, not playing on Friday nights, which is one of the biggest nights in the touring world,” Matis said. “I never asked, ‘Can I?’ ‘Should I?” The career never came first when I started.”
Matisyahu often has talked about briefly putting his music aside and moving his family to Israel. But given the country’s recent struggle and tensions, he’s not sure anymore.
“I really still do want to move there, but who knows when it’s going to be,” he said. “Who knows what’s going to happen. I don’t know. For me right now, the music is my place. That’s what I do. I’m not a soldier. I’m not a Zionist trying to get everyone to move to Israel. I’m just tying to move people together in a way of giving praise to the most high and putting out there a message with meaning behind it, a message of transcendence.”
Pop music critic Ricardo Baca can be reached at 303-954-1394 or rbaca@denverpost.com.
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Matisyahu
The Hasidic Jewish reggae MC plays twice this weekend in Colorado.
DENVER|CityLights Pavilion, in the Pepsi Center’s south parking lot; 7:30 p.m., Sunday, featuring the Polyphonic Spree, Street Drum Corp|$35; through Ticketmaster, 303-830-8497 or ticketmaster.com.
SNOWMASS|Snowmass Village Town Park, Snowmass; 2 p.m., Monday, featuring the Polyphonic Spree, Keller Williams at the Jazz Aspen Snowmass Labor Day Festival. Other acts playing the festival are Don Henley, Kanye West, Los Lonely Boys, LeAnn Rimes and Robert Randolph & the Family Band. Schedules and more information on the festival, which runs today through Monday, available at jazzaspen.org|$45.
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5more
LTJ BUKEM The brilliant, trend-setting DJ is in Denver tonight, and he’ll surely fill Dulcinea’s with some of the finest in jungle and breakbeats.
DELIRIUM Cirque du Soleil closes the local run of its latest music-oriented arena show Friday and Saturday at the Pepsi Center.
BIG BAD VOODOO DADDY They’re a relic from the neo- swing era of the late-’90s, but they still have a following. They play Sunday at Civic Center Park as part of Taste of Colorado.
RAINER MARIA It’s been six records in the last 10 years for these cats, and they’ll bring the music Sunday to the Bluebird.
OTIS GIBBS This songwriter from Indiana knows his way around the kind of melody that sticks in your head. He plays Thursday night at the Walnut Room before playing the South Park Music Festival the following weekend in Fairplay.
-Ricardo Baca
