Speaking to COLlive Editor Yehuda Ceitlin, he explains why he used auto-tune and his composing for MBD.

When Baruch Sholom Blesofsky auditioned for the COLlive ‘A Jewish Star‘ Jewish singing competition with a quirky rendition of the song ‘Im Atem Meshamerim,’ it was not his first foray into the music field.

Born to a Lubavitch family in Crown Heights which boasts 4 generations of musical talent and love for Chazzanus, Baruch Sholom has played guitar and sang on various occasions.

But it was through the competition that he quickly gained an avid fan base that rooted for him even after the 3 judges lowered the critical hatchet on his daring style. A star was indeed born.

In a conversation with Yehuda Ceitlin, Editor of COLlive.com, Blesofsky tells how recent tragedies in the community led to him composing his new song “Tell It To Them.”

• How’s life?
It’s cool, Baruch Hashem.

• Then why such a sad song?
I was not crying about my life.

• Not even about ‘A Jewish Star‘?
I’m glad I did it. It gave me an insight into what people like, I got to hear criticism and feel the market.

• Any mention of you on COLlive.com draws comments. Is it the same in real life?
Yes. Baruch Hashem I have a lot of people approach me with opinions on how to sing and play. It’s all good…

• Did any of that influence your new song?
What inspired this song was the idea that we are always told about Emuna in Hashem, but how can we not feel hurt when we see someone crying, going through pain and suffering? It’s hard not to react and just say ‘it’s all fine.’

• Are you referring to a specific tragedy?
The song started when I heard about a boy who was run over by a bus in Boro Park, and I recorded the final version after reading about the special life of Nosson Deitsch. It really hurt me that they will not have a future and I was thinking to myself what their mothers are going through.

• The clip features photos from the Holocaust and Mumbai.
I don’t want to sound too morbid, but all pain has a similarity to it. Whether it makes the headlines or not.

• How did you go about recording it?
2 weeks after Lag BaOmer I called a wonderful friend of mine, Sholom Lieberman, and we sat down and did the song from 1am until 7am. It was an awesome experience. I felt like I got a lot off my chest.

• For a bochur in his early 20’s you carry a heavy burden…
A lot of people are mistaken about my age. But you’re forgetting that most people feel like this – I just have a way to express it in music.

• Why did you use Auto-Tune (an audio processor used to correct off-key vocals)?
The Jewish music industry is very stubborn in seeing music. Everyone is a singer, but few are musicians. I used auto-tune because I felt it suited the style of the song.

• So are you a singer or a musician?
I might be a Shliach one day.

• But would you rather be backstage than on the stage itself?
I am into getting my song presented well. So either I sing or I have someone that would sing it the way I liked.

• I hear you have something going on with Mordechai Ben David.
That is true. I started writing music for them a few months ago.

• Who is “them”?
The Werdygers. I sent a song to Yeedle and he showed it to his father and since then they took interest in my compositions.

• So are the Werdygers singers or musicians?
Musicians. No doubt. MBD and Yeedle are more than singers, they are artists. MBD not only has a great voice, he also gives a lot in his song. There’s a story. You can tell what he is going through when he sings. Shlomo Carlebach was the same in his own way.

• Are you working with them on other things too?
Yes. All I can say is that I am privileged to be working with them.

• How about your own album?
I’m not doing my own per se. Our family is working on a Blesofsky brothers album.

• What’s in store?
My brothers and I will be contributing songs to this album. We won’t be singing as a group. Each will bring his own songs. But there will be a ‘Blesofsky sound’ to it. We’re going for very cool sounds.

• Auto-tune?
Not at all. It’s going to be a very conservative sound. I might even be doing Chazzanus. We’ll have more details for you when the time comes.

(reposted from: JMR – source: collive)

When I ask myself "Who am I"?
I’m a little Sphardi, a little Ashkenazi
A little Israeli, a tiny drop of galuti (exile),
maybe I’m religious, maybe secular
But to myself,
I am a Jew and that’ special.
Not better than another, not worse,
Simply a Jew.

Sometimes a soldier, sometimes a student,
I have a lot of past and I see the future.
Sometimes a Mitnaged, and sometimes a Chasid,
Maybe materialistic, maybe spiritual, but always, always
I am a Jew and that is special.
Not worse, not better, a bit different,
Simply a Jew

Suddenly I came back from a afar, so we can be here together.
I will be secure, I’ll return to laugh,
live comfortably without fear.
I am a Jew and that is special.
Not worse, not better, a bit different,
Just a Jew.

Nothing will break me my brother,
My soul is a part of Eternal Light Above.
To repair the world – that’s my motto,
I was born this way. I am a Jew.

Basically, Jews, just like other religions,
have festivals, Shabbatot, customs and Mitzvot.
Even though everyone says that He is right
In the end we are all Jews before the Heavenly Throne.

I am very afraid of baseless hatred,
Love my land and love my nation.
I was here and there all over the world,
I have two opinions on what to ask and a third opinion,
Because I am a Jew and that is unique.
Not worse, not better, a bit different,

Simply a Jew

כששואל את עצמי "מי אני" ?
אני קצת ספרדי, קצת אשכנזי,
קצת ישראלי, טיפ טיפה גלותי,
אני אולי דתי ואולי חילוני אבל ביני לביני,
אני יהודי וזה ייחודי.
לא טוב יותר מהאחר לא רע יותר
פשוט יהודי.
לפעמים חייל, לפעמים תלמיד,
יש לי המון עבר וגם רואה עתיד.
לפעמים מתנגד, ולפעמים חסיד,
אולי גשמי, אולי רוחני, אבל תמיד תמיד
אני יהודי וזה ייחודי.
לא רע יותר, לא טוב יותר, טיפה אחר,
פשוט יהודי.
פתאום חזרתי מרחוק, שנוכל להיות כאן ביחד.
שיהיה לי בטוח, שאחזור לצחוק, שאוכל לחיות בנחת ללא פחד.
כי אני יהודי, וזה ייחודי.
לא טוב יותר מהאחר, לא רע יותר
פשוט יהודי.
שום דבר לא יצליח לשבור אותי אחי,
הנשמה שלי היא חלק מאור עליון נצחי.
לתקן את העולם – זוהי מהותי,
נולדתי ככה אני יהודי.
פשוט יהודי כמו בשאר הדתות
יש לי חגים, שבתות, מנהגים ומצוות.
למרות שכל אחד בטוח בצדקתו
בסוף כולנו יהודים, לפני כסא כבודו.

אני מאוד פוחד משנאת חינם,
אוהב את ארצי ואוהב את העם.
הייתי פה ושם ובכל העולם,
יש לי שתי דעות על מה שתשאל וגם דעה שלישית,
כי אני יהודי, וזה ייחודי.
לא רע יותר, לא טוב יותר, טיפה אחר,
פשוט יהודי.

(originally seen here)

Two Different Morals

OLD VERSION

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away..

Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.
The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself!

MODERN VERSION
The ant works hard in the withering heat and the rain all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.
Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while he is cold and starving.
CBS, NBC , PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grass-hopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.
America is stunned by the sharp contrast.
How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?
Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper and everybody cries when they sing, ‘It’s Not Easy Being Green.’
ACORN stages a demonstration in front of the ant’s house where the news stations film the group singing, "We shall overcome " . Then Rev. Jeremiah Wright has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshoppers  sake.
President Obama condemns the ant and blames President Bush, President Reagan, Christopher Columbus, and the Pope for the grasshopper’s plight.
Nancy Pelosi & Harry Reid exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share..
Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer.
The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Government Green Czar and given to the grasshopper.
The story ends as we see the grasshopper and his free-loading friends finishing up the last bits of the ant’s food while the government house he is in, which, as you recall, just happens to be the ant’s old house, crumbles around them because the grasshopper doesn’t maintain it.
The ant has disappeared in the snow, never to be seen again.
The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident, and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the ramshackle, once prosperous and once peaceful, neighborhood.
The entire Nation collapses bringing the rest of the free world with it.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Be careful how you vote in 2010.

At the next stop, a young man got on and sat next to him.

The scholar looked at the young man and he thought: This fellow doesn’t
look like a peasant, so if he is no peasant he probably comes from this
district.  If he comes from this district, then he must be Jewish because this is,
after all, a Jewish district.

But on the other hand, since he is a Jew, where could he be going? I’m
the only Jew in our district who has permission to travel to Moscow .

Ahh, wait! Just outside Moscow there is a little village called Samvet,
and Jews don’t need special permission to go to Samvet.  But why would
he travel to Samvet?  He is surely going to visit one of the Jewish families there.

But how many Jewish families are there in Samvet?  Aha, only two – the
Bernsteins and the Steinbergs.  But since the Bernstein’s are a terrible family,
so such a nice looking fellow like him, he must be visiting the Steinbergs.

But why is he going to the Steinbergs in Samvet?  The Steinbergs have
only daughters, two of them, so maybe he’s their son-in-law.

But if he is, then which daughter did he marry?

They say that Sarah Steinberg married a nice lawyer from Budapest , and
Esther married a businessman from Zhitomer, so it must be Sarah’s
husband.  Which means that his name is Alexander Cohen, if I’m not mistaken.

But if he came from Budapest , with all the anti-Semitism they have
there, he must have changed his name.  What’s the Hungarian equivalent
of Cohen?  It is Kovacs.

But since they allowed him to change his name, he must have special
status to change it.  What could it be?  Must be a doctorate from the
University. Nothing less would do.

At this point, therefore, the scholar of Talmud turns to the young man
and says, "Excuse me. Do you mind if I open the window, Dr.  Kovacs?"

"Not all," answered the startled co-passenger. "But how is it that you
know my name?"

"Ahhh," replied the Talmudist, "It was obvious."

As he considered what to do, he thought to himself,  ‘You’d better give the quarter back. It would be wrong to keep it.’ Then he thought, ‘Oh, forget it, it’s only a quarter. Who would worry about this little amount? Anyway, the bus company gets too much fare; they will never miss it. Accept it as a ‘gift from God’ and keep quiet.’
When his stop came, he paused momentarily at the door, and then he handed the quarter to the driver and said, ‘Here, you gave me too much change.’
The driver, with a smile, replied, ‘Aren’t you the new rabbi  in town?’

‘Yes’ he replied.
‘Well, I have been thinking a lot lately about going somewhere to worship. I just wanted to see what you would do if I gave you too much change. I’ll see you in Shul on Shabbos.’
When the rabbi stepped off of the bus, he literally grabbed the nearest light pole, held on, and said, ‘Oh Rebono Shel Olem, I almost sold a yid for a quarter.’

2000 pounds of Chinese soup: Won ton

1 millionth of a mouthwash: 1 microscope

Time between slipping on a peel and smacking the pavement: 1 bananosecond

Weight an evangelist carries with God: 1 billigram

Time it takes to sail 220 yards at 1 nautical mile per hour: Knot-furlong

365.25 days of drinking low-calorie beer because it’s less filling:  1 lite year

16.5 feet in the Twilight Zone: 1 Rod Serling

Half of a large intestine: 1 semicolon

1000 aches: 1 kilohurtz

Basic unit of laryngitis: 1 hoarsepower

453.6 graham crackers: 1 pound cake

1 million microphones: 1 megaphone

1 million bicycles: 2 megacycles

2000 mockingbirds: two kilo mockingbirds (work on it . . . )

10 cards: 1 decacards

1 kilogram of falling figs: 1 Fig Newton

1000 cubic centimeters of wet socks: 1 literhosen

1 millionth of a fish: 1 microfiche

1 trillion pins: 1 terrapin

10 rations: 1 decoration

100 rations: 1 C-ration

2 monograms: 1 diagram

8 nickels: 2 paradigms

3 statute miles of intravenous surgical tubing at Yale University Hospital: 1 I.V. League

100 Senators: Not 1 decision