With Ovdan (April 19) days away from being released vocalist Yishai Sweartz of Tomorrow’s Rain was kind enough to take time out of his busy schedule to share with us the emotional themes of the album, what it was like to work with esteemed collaborators, and what powerful message he hopes one takes away from the album.
ATN: Can you tell us more about the significance of the title Ovdan for your upcoming album? How does it tie into the themes and emotions explored in the music?
YS: The whole concept is how to face loss and survive, sadly our personal lives are far from regular and many of the band members and especially me had to face many losses in the last years, death of parents, families broken, addictions, heart attacks, bypass surgery, etc etc, I was as closer to death as possible, the album was written before my heart attack and the lyrics were sadly a kind of a prophecy about what will come, it was writing all over the wall in red letters, but the songs were written and recorded before what happened, we chose to call it Ovdan instead of loss because our native language is Hebrew and when I think about something I first think in Hebrew and than in English, also we liked the sound of it, if you hear the word Ovdan you will remember it for the rest of your life.
ATN: You recently underwent a severe health scare with a heart attack and subsequent open-heart surgery. How has this experience impacted the band’s creative process and the themes explored in Ovdan?
YS: As I said, the album was written before my heart attack and the surgery but the whole feeling was there somehow, I felt that something bad is about to happen, the lyrics were written as some kind of escapism from the situation, but at the same hand they were flittering with the feeling of death and loss, getting back to it now I think I was trying to document my mental and medical situation as I knew things can end fast, luckily I survived but back when we wrote the album and during the recording process I still felt like “it will not happen to me”, even though it was written all over the wall, my blood pressure was super high and my whole feeling was terrible, during the recording I started to feel really bad, over stressed and weak, I collapsed 3 times in one month but I thought it’s just lack of sleep or too much sport, so I ignored the warning signs and thought I am more or less okay, my blood pressure was high and I ignored the doctor’s advice and took the pills “day yes, day no” if you know what I mean, than on march 23 one evening after sexual act I felt horrible pain in my chest, like someone is hammering a nail in my body, it was like this for few hours, than I took a taxi to the hospital and very fast they found out I am having a severe heart attack, they tried to solve it with electric shocks and than with Catheterization but Failed, so the only solution in order to save my life was a Coronary artery bypass surgery, the surgery took 8 hours and I spent a month in intensive care unit, I been through a long deep recovery process, now I am 90% ok, I walk 90 min every day, I drive, I work (less than before but still), I make music, I sing, I record, I will start soon to go on stage as well, step by step, I take pills like a good boy 3 times a day and I will have to take them for the rest of my life, I eat healthy, I don’t drink, no smoking, I changed many things.
ATN: Are there specific songs on the album that directly reflect your experiences and reflections post-surgery?
YS: Only a spoken word part of 1.30 min we added at the end of the album after everything was recorded and mixed, the musical part was recorded before it happened. That spoken word part called “Intensive Care Unit” is a document of my medical situation after the surgery.
ATN: Similar to your debut album Hollow, Ovdan features an impressive lineup of guest musicians, including members from bands like Mayhem, King Diamond, and Sisters of Mercy. What was the collaborative process like, and how did these artists contribute to shaping the album’s sound?
YS: It was not a kind of plan, it came naturally, I am really proud having Michael Denner (Mercyful Fate/King Diamond) and Anja Huwe (Xmal Deutschland) on Ovdan but I am proud having every one of the guests, these 2 I mentioned because Anja’s last musical recording was somewhere around 1990 and the fact that after so many years outside the music world she agreed to sing in our album, a band from Tel Aviv in a different musical genre, it means a lot to me, as for Michael Denner: for me as a metal fan Mercyful Fate and King Diamond are on the same level as Judas Priest almost, I am huge fan of both since I was a kid and the fact that the guitarist from Abigail and Don’t Break The Oath is playing in Ovdan is still a shock for me…same goes for Attila (Mayhem) as we go a long way with them, Euronymous was a pen pal in 90-93.
Having people as Tony Wakeford from Sol Invictus (ex. Death In June) in the album is a huge respect, some of the guests are friends of mine and some I knew during the working process, I think that the collaboration level ready depends on the songs, Micke from Unanimated really wrote a song for us, Ben from The Sisters Of Mercy did a whole guitar work in the second version of “Turn Around”, on some other songs it was more of doing only guest vocals, it changes from song to song in fact.
But I have to tell you that we decided to make the 3rd full length album without any guests at all, here we did something in advance which is to decide to write the next album and record it without any third party musician, it is going to be our most important album, highly personal, and there will be a musical change too as I cannot growl anymore due to medical reasons after my surgery in order to keep the heart beats on sinus and without pattern disturbance, so it going to be a different singing and very personal concept and sound and as I said: no guests.
ATN: Can you elaborate on the evolution of Tomorrow’s Rain’s sound between Hollow and Ovdan? How do you balance pushing boundaries while maintaining the band’s core identity?
YS: I think that the main difference between Ovdan and Hollow is that Ovdan was written within 2 years by the same 5 people and Hollow was written in 15 years by various members who played in the band since we started, not all of the songs of course but 3 of the 7 originals were written by ex band members while they were still in the band, we played the songs live and kept them to the debut, here the time frame was more focused and the result is what you can hear in Ovdan, we did added some new elements, I believe we have to bring something new to the table every time, otherwise it’s getting far from art and closer to entertainment and we are not there to entertain people, we are there to make art. I think we pushed the borders left and right, on one side it’s darker and almost black metal in some parts, on the other side it’s more experimental and getting close to the world of acts as This Mortal Coil for example, so yes, we pushed the boundaries
ATN: You’ve mentioned that you see the band as artists rather than entertainers. How does this philosophy inform your approach to creating music and engaging with your audience?
YS: I don’t write songs in order to get success or fame or sex or popularity, I write songs in order to keep myself sane in this crazy world, I write songs instead of taking antidepressant pills, it’s a different approach to WHY you do this thing. Music saved me not once and helped me through my darkest days, I believe that in many cases its easier and more natural to speak through music than talk, what I am really sad about is the position of the musician in 2024, the musician is treated like a street hooker, band members beg for likes/shares/fans, they will do everything to get more numbers in social media and kiss the fans ass both musically and practically, this is the different between an artist and entertainer, I am not here to entertain people, I am here to save myself from the suffering in this crazy world, that’s why I do music, instead of doing drugs, instead of going crazy or over depressed, and sadly today in 2024 people listen to music while doing 45 things at the same time, and musicians runs after fans like a dog without a bone, my attitude is: if you like my music – great, I will answer you, give you 100% attention etc etc, but I am not going to run after you or low my values in order to get more numbers on social media, its about art, not about how many likes we got on Instagram.
ATN: Given the intense emotional and musical journey of Ovdan, what do you hope listeners will take away from the album?
YS: A reason to live.
ATN: Looking ahead, what are Tomorrow’s Rain‘s plans following the release of Ovdan?
YS: We are already in the writing process of our 3rd album, 5 songs are in pre production level, my inspiration is super high after everything I’ve been through.
SAME 3 QUESTIONS WE ALWAYS ASK
ATN: Artist / band that you feel is the most underrated and why?
YS: I don’t know if “the most” fits here, but I think that Fates Warning, The Swans and Legendary Pink Dots and Sol Invictus needs to be much bigger and deserves to be much bigger, they are fantastic
ATN: Artist / band that you would like to collaborate with and why?
YS: Morrissey, Robert Smith, Nick Cave, I owe them a lot of who I am.
ATN: Artist / band that you would like to tour with and why?YS: Would really like to play with The Mission, New Model Army and on the metal world: Satyricon. I’m in love with how intelligent they are.
