Lorin, there's always seemed to be a sort of a gap between klezmer and the rest of the world music spectrum, any idea why?
Lorin Sklamberg (vocals, accordion, guitar, piano): "Well, Yiddish music has always been something that was done within the Jewish community; it was never intended to be stage music or to be performed in concerts. In the history of klezmer, concert performances are a very recent occurrence; it really only started with the klezmer revival at the end of the nineteen seventies and the beginning of the nineteen eighties. With Klezmatics, we do play at world music festivals once in a while - here in Belgium I remember Sfinks - but I know klezmer as a genre isn't as well represented on these kind of events as other genres are. Apart from us, there still aren't that many klezmer bands around that do tours. The Jewish community is also a lot smaller than the communities producing these other types of music in the world music genre."
The last decade we've seen a huge rise in popularity of what we now call Balkan music. There are a lot of links both musically and historically between klezmer and gipsy music.
Lorin Sklamberg: "As a matter of fact, there's a project called The Other Europeans which focuses exactly on the joint heritage of both klezmer and gipsy music. Historically, Jewish musicians often invited gipsy musicians to play in their bands and vice versa. I've noticed that the two genres often get mixed up in people's minds too, so musically there's definitely a connection as well."
Historically, the klezmer tradition goes back many centuries, but what would you say are the direct origins of the music Klezmatics play?
Lorin Sklamberg: "This kind of music evolved when a lot of Jewish musicians fled the pogroms and the holocaust in Europe and settled in the United States. What most people think of as being klezmer music is in fact a Jewish-American hybrid form of the genre with the clarinet as the quintessential klezmer lead instrument. Originally the violin used to play the most important role, though. Klezmatics started out playing the American style klezmer, but the last few years we've started implementing elements from original klezmer in our music as well; we've started using the cimbalom or hammer dulcimer, an instrument that was never really embraced in American klezmer."
A lot of Klezmatics songs are in Yiddish, is that a language you're fluent in?
Lorin Sklamberg: "I started studying the language when I got involved in Klezmatics, because I quickly realized I would need to have some grasp of the language. I'm not fluent in it though, I guess I would say I have a working knowledge of the language which allows me to do what I do but not a lot more really. (laughs)"
The Klezmatics band name was a spin on the name of a punk band called The Plasmatics.
Lorin Sklamberg: "Yeah, The Plasmatics were a notorious New York punk band fronted by a blond woman called Wendy Williams who was very extraverted, would often do crazy things on stage - smashing a television with a sledge hammer for example - and except for some electrical tape over her nipples was virtually naked a lot of the time. With the Klezmatics name we wanted to exert a similar energy and also make a statement that we weren't apologetic about the way we played klezmer or the messages we put into the music. As a band I think we've grown into the name over the years."
Would you say that, lyrically speaking, there's also a rebellious side to The Klezmatics; some of the topics that surface in your songs can hardly be called traditional?
Lorin Sklamberg: "Well, that being said, there is a secular tradition in Yiddish songwriting that has always expressed itself quite politically. A lot of songs speak about human rights and the struggle of working class people and to that we've added some elements that are more contemporary, like gay and lesbian rights for example or the legalization of marihuana ('Mizmor Shir Lehanef (Reefer Song)')."
Klezmatics is based in New York City, but your first album ('Shvaygn = Toyt', Piranha, 1989, red.) was both recorded and released in Berlin.
Lorin Sklamberg: "The first major concert performance we did outside the United States was in Berlin and it coincided more or less with the big boom in world music in the middle of the nineteen eighties. Through the suggestion of Ben Mandelson of 3 Mustaphas 3 we ended up at this festival in Berlin and it just so happened that the people behind the festival were also in the process of establishing their own world music label called Piranha. All in all it was a nice set of coincidences that led us to start our recording career in Berlin. Some people might even call it ironic that we've played more in Berlin than anywhere else in the world. (laughs)"
Strangely enough, the album that you're most famous for and eventually also won you a Grammy, the Woody Guthrie tribute album 'Wonder Wheel', is perhaps the least klezmer colored of all the Klezmatics releases.
Lorin Sklamberg: "It's not as if that album didn't make sense; over the course of our career we've done all sorts of collaborations and when we were given these lyrics by Woody's daughter Nora, everyone in the band was super enthusiastic. Even though it's not a klezmer record per se, it is an album that reflects our personalities and the different musical tastes in the band."
Your most recent effort to date is 'Live At Town Hall', a live double album featuring a lot of special guests that you've worked with in the past. The album also marked the 25th anniversary of the band, so a logical question to follow a release like that is: "What's next for Klezmatics?"
Lorin Sklamberg: "Well I don't know... (laughs) We periodically ask ourselves that question and most of the time something comes up. There's no overriding plan really, but there are always some ideas brewing in the background."
After 25 years of playing with the same band, how do you guys keep things fresh and inspiring for yourselves?
Lorin Sklamberg: "Part of the way we try to keep things fresh is that when we're on stage we never play a song the same way. Some of our songs really lend themselves to being recreated again and again, the arrangements just being a skeleton we can build on. That way we not only keep things fresh for ourselves but also for the people that come to our concerts."
Interview dedicated in loving memory to Haitian percussionist Frisner Augustin and Yiddish vocalist Adrienne Cooper.