Hailing from Israel, Garden City Movement have created serious waves with their two EP‘s. The Tel Aviv based trio – consisting of the former beatmakers Yoav Sa‘ar (Joe) and Roi Avital and the music journalist and radio DJ Johnny Sharoni – come from the dreamy experimental side of indie music adding some unique styles to the by this time well-known chillwave-genre. What makes Garden City Movement this special is their ability to weave in traditional instruments as well as Eastern sound elements into their indie-rooted electronica. It‘s an ocean of lush melodies with pitch-shifted vocals and electronic synth- and beatwork combinations. Amazingly, that the band perform their utterly beautiful electronic arrangements on stage with live instruments. To get to see at the Waves Festival in Vienna on October 5th.
Can you tell us a little bit about yourselves? Did all three of you grow up in the city of Tel Aviv?
Joe: I grew up in the suburbs of Jerusalem, it was really boring and quiet so you had the time for learning guitar and to listen to music.
Roy: I also grew up in Jerusalem. There are a lot of great musicians coming out of this city mainly because it’s so quiet and inspiring. but I moved to Tel Aviv in a relatively young age, which also shaped me and my taste as a musician and producer.
Johnny: I grew up in the suburbs of Tel Aviv, a place called Raanana – same as every suburb in the world: nice, quiet and hazy.
How did Garden City Movement start out? And what‘s the story behind the name?
Roy: Joe and I had a band called Lorena B and when we broke up it was clear that we have to keep on working together. So we started making beats and when we wanted to make songs out of them we called Johnny who we already knew and wrote a few sketches together. The first one was ‘Move On’.
Johnny: I was a journalist and in the radio / Djing business alongside all this other projects and being a musician with a band wasn’t something that I thought about but as soon as we started to create together it was pure magic. The name is from the architecture world – it is a method that you can see a lot here. You can also see a lot of Bauhaus but this name was already taken.
How did Tel Aviv and his culture influence you as a person and as a musician? Also, what kind of music did you grow up with?
Johnny: The people and especially our scene is filled with very inspiring people, real music heads. The Tel Avivian vibe is something that is kinda hard to explain – it’s just something that you need to experience by yourself. It is a certain chilled vibe in a very complicated situation.
So, what‘s the music scene in Tel Aviv like? I’ve heard there are pretty cool things going on, especially in the club scene. Would you agree?
Johnny: I’ve taken part in the Tel Aviv nightlife scene since I was a kid and I have seen it grew. On the one hand you have the Block Club which is one of the best clubs in the world according to Giles Peterson with lots of amazing DJ’s and acts landing here every weekend and on the other you have the Teder – pop up radio bar which is this amazing project that happens only in summertime and gather all the music people together…heavy inspiring stuff.
For your live shows you also use live instruments. Was that always clear or did you figure it out while starting playing live?
Joe: It was clear that we’re gonna play it all with live instruments before we even made our first track. My favorite part of being a musician are the live shows and giving the audience the full experience.
The video for „Move On“ was selected for LA Film Festival this year, your logo is carefully designed and I guess there‘ll be some pretty cool visuals at your live shows, too. How important is visual identity in your work?
Johnny: It goes hand in hand, art and visual is something that is very important to us as a band and to me as a person. Lucky for us we are surrounded with great artists and good friends that you can always collab with. When you bring music to people in my opinion you should bring it as a complete package.
www.facebook.com/GardenCityMovement
Interview by Katja Schifferegger
Image: Press
