Take 2 With Yaakov Shwekey

[Music] welcome back to mr take two where we bring you the friends you've made in the pages of the magazine come to life in these conversations when today's guest yakuzaki i don't think anybody needs an introduction i think that there's no jew even the ones who live under iraq are not familiar with the faith the voice and the message of yaakov shraki i also think he has the distinction of being not only a mashbach cover feature once i think twice the yakov shiraki his wife janine together have appeared in our pages and it's just a pleasure to welcome to the studio pleasure it's an honor oh thank you israel rugby's role best to be sitting with you um i want to commend you first it looked like you lost weight unlike the rest of the claw you saw over covered still on the exercise still on the program playing basketball playing basketball unknown to many leaders yakuza fancies themselves the best basketball player in class one of the best things i haven't seen him play yet he talks a big talk i'm not sure if his game is as good as he says it is maybe one day we'll get to find that okay put out a new album this week put out a new album live park we did a concert i knew so many people who have not witnessed concerts in the last i don't know how many months wanted to see a concert so we put this out on video we did this in live park which was a tremendous well tell me what life park is a place live park is a place it's you know casaria used to be the thing casario was the place to be and they um they wanted to do a twin casario which is an original nazion it's newer obviously kasari has the history um but life park is a brand new outdoor place that a lot of the you know singers have concert happened before covert obviously yes concert happened before cover but it was such a hit concert it was so unbelievable new new arrangements new music a song by ruby's role besser which if you want to get to about the three boys that were kidnapped there were so many different elements in that concert so talk a little bit about the messages you sent through your song but i want to start with something a little more and really my my main goal would be to make you as uncomfortable as possible um i love that people maybe more in israel but jewish music performers became a thing you're a superstar right you're a mega star and as i got to know you over the years you're essentially a shy person you're not a person who's comfortable automatically with just that public the publicity on you and it's something you have to struggle with if i'm right about you i'm not a psychologist you're most comfortable when you're home with your wife and your kids um what does that mean to be a star what does it mean to you personally and how did you evolve into understanding that it comes with the territory so to speak oh i knew robbie schwell-besser would ask these type of questions because only he can do that it was hard for me at the beginning i was the first years of marriage and the first year is getting into music being immature a little bit and not realizing uh what comes with it um sitting there eating in a restaurant with my wife and people really coming in on you with video cameras no matter where you are um and i got they got a little bit you know hard to take and at the same time at the same time you talk about evolved um i got a little mature over the years and when you hear the stories and really you hear the impact the music has had on people and how they want to share that with you and that most of them are doing it from a place that hey i may not see this guy again i want to just let him know what his music does and you take it at the beginning like hey what's going on but then at the end of the day you get mature and you realize you grow and you realize hey i may never see this person again so work on your patients and work on your character and understand that first of all it comes with the territory if you want to be out there in the world you think it comes with the territory it comes with it but but also i learned until now i learned that i must i have the obligation to have the patience because if that's what i took on that's the gift hashem gave me right i have to do that i don't want to overdo it because people know i know you um people come to me all the time could you get your content in the video but it's a boy someone's not feeling well a kid who needs research and and you always do it with a smile within an hour now i'm sure that's not easy like i said you've got stuff to do it took work it took some years of understanding and you've responded there's no question it's a part of my crisis it's a part of the responsibility and uh a lot of times because you think about taking money for it there's a website where people take money so somebody many people have called me about that i said no we'll give you money and we'll give i told my friend the other day i was speaking to rabbi farq who do you know maharusha oldham and we had this hour conversation about this and at the end of the day i told him i got to leave one one idea within me to be really to do with la shem shamai and not take money even if it's going to charity even if i wasn't going to take it for myself leave one thing in your being to to give to claudia all yes a lot of times i'm going to be delayed in responding not on the minute but i'm going to try to do whatever i can because that comes with the torch you know it comes with the the obligation and it's uh something that i didn't want to touch oh now somebody needs physique so you're going to charge money for that now somebody needs a birthday this that i felt that it was too even if it's going somewhere else i felt that something i want to keep between me and the people to uh to try to laugh your kids laughing do you do you think it's funny that that somebody on their 60th birthday needs a video from 30 seconds of yakuza saying happy birthday and that's what's going to do it's interesting first of all the connection you form with people with listeners obviously is really enough that they see you as a as a messenger of something that's big higher it's amazing to me the stories that i have just from sending a 10 second or a 30 second or one minute video how it changed i had now the yesterday somebody came over to me my bubby she and i and i dove in every young woman and she always makes the joke that you don't hold the candle to schweck whatever the whole cra and i did a 10 second joke and she came back with a whole email with a letter of how much this has done for me and and this person said so it is amazing i see the impact of just a you once told me probably 10 years ago somebody else was dealing they said to you you know yaakov you have you think so well in barakah you've already captured the attention of the masses you have to say more you can't just think you have to say more more stories than you said at that time um if i remember correctly something along the lines of my music speaks to me this is what i do my message comes out through my songs through the words of the songs the lyrics the sukkam the heart that you're conveying when you sing and and that's not me that's not i'm not that person i'm not here to make long speeches i'm here to sing and i think that through singing i could create that three-dimensional experience do you think you've been successful on that well it's funny the last uh the last few years i get sometimes i'm performing and i get on the prompter stop talking so much continue to sing we don't have much time that's great so i've been talking the guys who are managing the the the theater or wherever we are there's a certain time frame where the security comes in and takes over but i like to explain sometimes especially when i'm in a in a crowd that i feel can understand what vehicle what i can be anything can mean what a story i think if you give a story behind the song even if it's a minute or two minutes an explanation of what the words mean and how it impacted you or something behind the song how the song was created i think it takes the song to another level you mentioned this song with the three boys the you know the the three boys that we lost that's that fateful summer night after two weeks of davening that's a challenge because you want to uplift people with your songs but you also want to be happy you don't want to learn feeling sad you don't want to leave them feeling dejected how do you make a song about a tragedy and still leave people it's interesting with this really it's all interesting the i asked you to write a song and i asked you to write lyrics i had a meeting with mrs frankel the mother of the this uh the boy yeah naftali i had a meeting with her in a restaurant and i had the lyrics inside my pocket and i had a lunch and during lunch i said mrs frankel we talked about writing a song but i just want your take on how the song should be if you had to write the lyrics yourself i looked at her what would you say you know that she told me almost verbatim what you wrote and what we came up with the idea of how everybody was together everybody was in unity i said miss franco it's great that you said that because i have the lyrics right here and i took out the lyrics and she was so emotional because it's exactly what she wanted to say her message to claudia's role was you didn't really know my son it's very hard for you to feel the pain of a mother to feel my pain of losing my son but the one thing i want you to know is how together you were how unified college real was for somebody that didn't even know and that's exactly what we were what was the middle part we are one so one [Music] them let's learn the song so we can sing this [Music] do you believe [Music] we were so one clinging to the shared rope that's exactly what she wanted to say and it was amazing i have a question i'm talking about this is going to make you uncomfortable you called me this summer you were invited to see you got a fundraiser for president you could make me uncomfortable you had a fundraiser for president trump and you needed lyrics and obviously respect the sitting president it's got to be right we did what we did and there was somewhat of a controversy after which i knew it was coming i imagine it affected you more than it affected me because you need to you appeal you're you belong to clients while attending today and not every single jew loves trump outside of williamsburg and borough park um do you regret that we wrote that very very passionate and supportive song about president trump do you think was a mistake easter all i never regret if i believe something is right my friend david hillel who's here he's an amazing human being david hillary he's a brother of mine so he he knows me and he'll tell you he'll be a witness that if i decide something is right to do let it come let it come by the way it wasn't that much negative at all it was mostly as far as i heard people came over to me from the woodwork saying how thank you for having the guts to say what we want to say that you have no idea but if i believe this this president has done more than any other president for us forget about politics once you entrench yourself in politics you'll get flack from whatever but just to make this point if a president does something for us freeing our friend shalom our friend i could say our family friend we consider him family now just the fact that he freed him by the way you mentioned it we'll get up and we'll stand up when he walks into the room the song came out and you had this idea you called me just to write something that's right it was because of you it wasn't because because of you i just helped you with the writing but mrs ravaged and told us then that their little son he was still in prison there wasn't a lot of hope i went to sleep every night her little son ozil listening to any mom and venison that was the sign that carried him unbelievable so how nice for you to get to make a song you know after the release of that he told me shalom i said an unbelievable thing avort he says i lived with that message my whole time i because i asked him how did you do it we came in david came and i came in with all the group and this guy was happier than all of us in the darkest place possible i asked him in one sentence how did you do it he said i lived with that message i said what message he says your song an imma sim but not only [Music] i know in my heart that this is what hashem wants me to be i'm not going to be locked up inside i'm going to be a free man mentally and i'm going to he but he really lived it yeah that's for sure i said i sang it he really walked you said good then you went home to the deal exactly play basketball well we went home by the way we were very sad don't forget i made a different song for him kaylee katie lomas of tony i took the words then i called pinny lipschitz so by the way he gets a lot of credit he's amazing penny and penny told me yakov i love the song and everything because i did kelly kelly tony was a sad sentiment because it was sad that he wasn't with his family his special child can't be with the father we were very very sad in the car and i called up my friend yitzi wall and i said kaylee kde lomas of tony the next day we had a song i called penny he said yaakov you can't do the song i said really why it's not who shalom is he's a happy son it's not that's not his he doesn't live i said i felt that way he doesn't feel that way and that's what mommy said back to trump so you back to charlotte so so you did the song and you have no you didn't kidding me i would do it again tomorrow i'll do another song i said you want to do another one you know he lost right but he lost he won i don't want to say he lo he doesn't want to say he lost let me tell you something it's amazing that this covert here everybody was wrong everybody with the elections with the virus hashem showed us hey i'm in charge but i would do it again the gratitude that he came to deal by the way that's when we did the song that curacao we have for him as a president what he did whether he won or lost so you got to have gratitude okay great so you stand by that we'll do another one tomorrow write another one we'll do another one i i don't know that i'll better do it again yeah right you don't have that you took a lot of black you know come on man you got to have confidence yeah i'll think about it i'll take it under advisement and i'll pick it up you mentioned cover just now yeah you guys are in an industry that a lot it's predicated a big part of your that come from concerts and casanas and events and stuff as all of a sudden faucet shots right from really from one day to the next you probably had a full schedule and within a span of two weeks suddenly yeah no no no no no no no no a lot of times yeah what was that like for you was there those first few weeks was their panic and and how did you adapt to it gotta you know like you said before i loved being home with my family i was grateful it was hard for my people because they lived day-to-day with music and this that and it was it was you know people yeah so so i was sad for them i was at the same time i didn't realize i didn't realize how covet would impact my priorities and my it really you can't say that you want such a thing because people suffered there's no question people are suffering now at the same time it rebooted my whole i don't know the whole computer to learn more to have more time to with the family to have i thought it was a tremendous change in my life it was a i loved that you're allowed to say that it was a very nice time for a lot of people yeah i just don't want to say that because so many people are suffering that's it's sad to say you know that's you can't say that when so many people are are in pain and i gotta tell you after all the amount of phone calls from around the world from those covert concerts that i did in my little student my wife says juan de jago this virus is is here and everybody's home i don't care if you don't have your staging your lighting and your whole uh you know mishpacha production but understand that you have an obligation to do a concert even from your little studio and i did it from home and so many people i think the numbers are well i don't think that there was anything since or before they had that kind the numbers were talking about i don't know the numbers somewhere between 500 000 people logged in yeah they they say something like that some say more something it doesn't make any sense right we had a hundred thousand people at the same shots we're talking about 500 the first one yeah i think you were the first one who did that and like you said it wasn't you i think your kid came on the stage maybe it was my kid a little girl my kids my son-in-law right you know but um you did a song then so i know the feedback i got oh that's right that uh you know when we switched to words then to to to fit the situation 500 000 people the first one i don't remember everyone was still stuck it was 12 o'clock i remember i had to wake up my girl 12 o'clock in my house people waking up i'm lucky my boys are up you know and uh and and and everybody was logged into they needed it like you're saying so about the amount does that mean suddenly you're not doing the concerts you're doing you're not doing the costumes you use i'm still buying coffee everything is good hashem really no question hashem sent different things we did virtual things i did uh other but that's impressive that that you and really a lot of the industry adapted they figured out that we're not going to be able to do x so we're going to do why right there's nobody like claudia's earl we adapt hashem said let's not again there are people that are suffering including rabbi grossman who called me from his people in israel who are starving don't have food there are people that were in we did a whole thing for rabbit grossman we did uh i forget i did a bunch of things we did other virtual shows but there are people suffering so we can't put that aside at the end of the day though we adapted cloudy soil adapted we did things from studio we did things from tonight i'm doing something for uh for ura who's a great care of organization so yeah we adapted you know you can't say that thank you make a decision you stand by things now i know that's up you're close to your obey i'm not only on deal but this is an important thing in your life a number of years ago i don't know if you were straight up bands but you were definitely taken on by some senior abina figures in israel or you know maybe it was concerts and more specifically you were unabashedly supportive of the high element israel that was something that was very close to you i think your high limb on stage you definitely made songs in support of hailem and others were advising you know you should make a statement you do this and you were again you were like this is how i roll this is where i think this is where i stand you look back at that again and you're proud you regret it i'm strongly extremely proud i want to do it again to be honest with you again if i believe i'll never forget i was in a hotel room in paris and i had a concert and they were shooting rockets at israel i'll never forget this thinking in my mind and i'm watching the news trying to get to what's going on in israel every single news channel bashing our soldiers i said if we're not going to stand up for our people who will who will i could do it through music i called up my manager and different things at different people at the time and i said we're going to do the best concert ever i don't care who says what we have to have our cursor toy and we have to say thank you i'm not getting involved in politics i'll never forget there was a there was a a uh an interviewer from the very very left paper what's the the famous paper in israel yeah it's one of those and she's asking me questions trying to understand you're a firm person how are you doing something for our soldiers i said the fact that you asked that question is the biggest problem that's the problem i can't do something for my own people because there's politics i said she says what would you do if if i told you that you should put your own son in the army she's trying to lock me in i said you know what i would do the first thing i would do is call my spiritual leader and ask him if it's right that's what i would do has nothing to do with politics beautiful i said you have to have gratitude for your people they're they're you're able to do they're dedicating their lives for you they're dedicated that you say misha berra [Music] is there are people that have certain i am respect that at the same time first of all i was very very close i was very close and one thing i understood from many many soldiers uh organizations that i sang for in israel they told me his forties and in his thirties every time we called him to come he took a helicopter many times they told me they witnessed it any time he wanted him to say anything for the soldiers he came and he stopped everything in his schedule and he went there because he loves his people and that's why by the way there was a close to a million people in this funeral because he loved kali swell he didn't care what anybody said about you know now i'm not saying there is no there is no way from your advantage correct for music and you're safe because you live if you lived in israel you couldn't do that as easily because everything would be loaded and everything would be reflected i would do what i want to do and i would do what i felt to do what i believed obviously i would ask there's no question i ask opinions but at the end of the day if you don't have a belief that you don't have a passion to do especially through music music is music is given as a gift as a loan from hashem the only thing i'm regretful i would regret is after mayor of estrella hashem tells me did you do enough with the gift i gave you did you do enough for claudia's role with the gift i gave you that's the only thing i would regret and if i get up there and he says you know what i'm happy you did it for this and i there's no question in my mind the more question you do through music and the more out there you are with different special children soldiers anybody who you can bring back and bring closer this is what i want to do your music itself is very interesting because on you're very proud of the fact that you brought the jewish sound forward that means you've evolved and you've been able to reach teenagers who others at the same time it was your all these uh those were the days that that brought back a lot of what you're seeing which is nostalgia music which is super popular which is really a paradox on one hand you're the one who's been bringing out an evolving sound and a changing sound and a reflective uh song a music sound of changing times and you've been i know that you've spent a lot of money and energy and hard resources on your albums to really shoot for that side you're not you're not you're a perfectionist and at the same time you're grabbing on to the oldies which is it which one is you oh you got to do both you got to do both because i realized the idea came i was walking back from shul my son and i was talking about kalba or somebody from from yesteryear and he's like who and i'm like do you know do you know uh you know joe amar do you know abe rottenberg vegas do you know and he's looking at me like i felt no i don't i know the the new stuff that's coming it bothered me tremendously i sat by the table and i realized shabbos i got to do something to bring back the music of yesteryear and also to show the youth that we had great songs there were great songs that would they would never know and volume one blew up we did not only that i gave i wanted to give covet to the people who i did where we brought us to where we are so i gave them the name the heading and av romberg actually thanked me in the back i remember behind the stage and asked concert says wow okay a lot of the young people are going to go out and buy it now and and understand my music and it's true it's exactly what happened now i hear everybody's is bringing back which is great it ushered in like i said nostalgia right you know like they say old is the new news that's great so i'll never forget years ago sorry to interrupt you because i thought just came when i started doing the israeli music when i did the album called libiba mizrah people looked at me like especially my my staff at the time and like you're going to do a totally israeli album now how do you think it's going to sell i said sell nutsell i want to this is what i'm this is what i want to do this is what we and now everybody's doing israeli songs and everybody's so you got to really have something that triggers what's next what's next what's the thing that you're not telling us so everybody's asking for a new album it's already i couldn't believe that's going to be almost three years since the song ish you know and musical came out and everybody wants a new album and i'm working with a lot of different people on this album and i want to do something really fresh something that you know maybe they don't expect and good good ideas are coming out i showed you an idea a few hours ago um good ideas are coming out and um i look forward maybe june time i have a brand new album now that's exciting you mentioned your son walking home with him would you let your son do what you do would i let him if you encourage him if he was passionate about it to do it for the right reasons he sings a little bit he does i've seen him he's great with your son he sings great he does beautiful but i tell you it comes like i told you before it comes with work it really comes my rebbe told me i've been seeing shaffer i still learned with the muscle and he does the schmooze of you have a gift you have to use this gift for claudia sorel at the same time you got to work on on character and do because we were talking musser so it takes work if you're doing it for the right reasons and you're passionate about it and you can bring something also different to the table not to try to be somebody else you got to be yourself do something different and and do it for the right reasons yeah it's gonna i would tell them it takes work it's not so easy to be always in the public uh you know and having a rabbit and having a rabbit yeah spiritually grounded you still go to the to the coyote every day in the early years still go to the coil i still go to the coil um i go to a different coil now i was the right partner of a diamonds coil for many years now i'm in a smaller coil of my uncle shield park avenue shul but i still am and i'm grateful for it because having the time to learn in the morning and and if you're alone in the car what are you listening to oh everybody asked me that question i'm listening to new ideas that are working out usually it's an arrangement or it's a comment on the mix or it's usually it's like that sometimes i would tap into those are the days you know uh because i love just to bring back the memories whenever i listen to those songs i also remember you told me i'm getting old you made me a little uncomfortable but i remember that was just yesterday i was 18 years old you know going through these songs so so it just brings back memories music has a way of just bringing you back the only thing that could turn back the clock is music nothing else could turn out you got to go forward but at the same time music can bring you back so many people commented around the world about this stuff are there more those were the days that you'd like to get to different artists or performers or genres that you didn't get through yet it's a good question you covered a lot that's a good question i covered a lot there are more to cover i think maybe i'm going to do one medley at a time it was a big project it's hard to to especially the double album took forever to do uh but maybe one medley at a time i'm thinking of different ideas you know after this new album comes out maybe after that just spring back yeah maybe a medallion you find that the covet and everything that spawned changed people musically that means you played me an idea a couple of hours ago which was very i think people are more maybe aware of hashem are more in touch with that no longer and does that affect you musically no doubt it when you write a song you have to have a certain feeling within you to write about a certain message concept when you're thinking only spiritual and you're learning and you have more time and you're not traveling as much you are you want to write a song about thank you hashem uh about you know that you're not sick or you hurt somebody is sick you want to write a song about somebody who's suffering i don't know there's just different spiritual elements that are coming to me a lot easier now because of this uh because of what happened have you done live performances in the last 10 months like outside of small gaps live stuff more private things because they weren't going to do you're not going to do public things is that hard for you to have adapted yourself to sitting with 30 people instead it's definitely different it's definitely different i like intimate probably even better than huge anyway but it's definitely different not to have the energy of you know tonight when we do this this uh virtual thing you got to just think of the people in their home right you're not feeding off the energy of the people you're just you know looking at a screen so that's that's a little bit you got to adapt but uh you got to use your mental uh you know pictures forgive me for getting a little more personal yakov but having been around a little bit your production is seeing you do things i don't know if other singers have their wives as involved in what they do as robertson janine schwacki is in everything you were talking sound checks on stage making sure everything is okay what's it like to have your wife really a partner with you in everything you do it's amazing how now she walks into an event and she knows what to look for in terms of sound she goes right to the engineer and tells him hey he likes a little more this and a lot so at the beginning it was a training period she is formidable but i got to tell you this no question and she got to where she got is because she also believes in her heart that her cause is to give the special children in the world a better place to be and just give them an a plus life and that's what the special children's center is about it's a part of my life we're there all the time and we're part of the growth it's 20 years it's it's a huge organization helping over 400 families but i can be the song i can be i am alive those were all songs that were really deep in my heart that uh it's an amazing thing is any conversation we've ever had she's always in the background thinking how she could make the center a better place any project any idea is but you sometimes feel like let me do my thing and the sentence i'll help you with this and talk about you add a check no because why does everything no because first of all i believe that also after 120 if i can hold on to their coattails a little bit i think i'm going to be more towards the front because there's solace in her and her partner mrs bender and the whole staff there is solo shem shaman to change kids and families lives the letters we received the amount of comments and just seeing the overwhelming transformation of families that are suffering with special children families that have moved from around the world to be in lakewood because she's there just shows you and people from around the world also asking us to make centers here and making there because they see yeah they see the success because i told them if you can find a crazy girl like janine or mrs bender to give up their life for it without getting anything back to give up their life for it then you have a successful organization that's what they're all about they're they'll do she won't sleep the overlap between the center and the music is very strong yeah it's not two separate identities anymore music and special children you know the holy neshamas you sing for them a song they light up you know no matter what challenge they're facing they have some sort of music their holy neshama is related to music so it's all one it's all one [Music] everything i need is inside of me excited about the new album excited about more those with the days and it's a pleasure to sit with you well you're going to be a part of this uh somehow so don't uh don't run away back to my world jacob thank you so much for being here my pleasure such a pleasure clients best singer best basketball player wow great brother thank you it's a pleasure thank you very much for having me [Music] you