Summer hit hard last year, and many of us are still grappling with it, trying to figure where we go from here. The first time I heard Ronen Green’s Road of War, I felt that he was singing about everything I had felt during the summer, and in its groove, finding a way to hope…
Now Road of War is coming out as a single, and the launch concert will be at the Ozen Bar, on Monday, February 23, 2015. It’s going to be a special night, with Gitla opening, and guest vocalist Noa Kornberg, as well as Adi Rotem – electric guitar, Shani Shavit – bass and vocals, and Haim Ayalon – percussion.
Ronen Green talks about writing Road of War:
The song was written during the conflict between Israel and Gaza, in the summer of 2014 (Tzuk Eitan operation). It was a hard time for all civilians. It felt like the war was mainly about wearing out the people’s durability, on both sides of the equation, as a war between politicians, with us in the midst of it all. The whole enduring situation was a vertigo of madness – alarms, missiles flying everywhere, air strikes, news around the clock, bodies, destruction…it’s absolute chaos.
‘a war every once in a while is ok’
I remember being struck by how all this was taken by the majority of the population, how it was mostly accepted as something common that one should get used to, and that anti-war opinions were rather out of the norm consensus. That made me very frustrated, and as a father for 2 children, I did not want this to seep down to them and for them to grow up thinking ‘a war every once in a while is ok’, because it is not, generally speaking, without taking any political or religious side. I thought it should be agreed that a ‘war’ in its basic meaning is wrong.
In this feeling of desperation, the words ‘going nowhere on the road of war again’ began to linger in my thoughts, because it felt like another round of the same thing, again and again. The same old brutal ritual of this endless, exhausting, depressing cycle that brings on mainly sorrow and pain to everybody involved.
The song began to build up around that sentence and all the chaos and frustration just poured into it.
When the song met Tamar Eisenman’s musical production, we both agreed that there is also some optimism in it that should be emphasized, because in the long run we basically and simply hope for better and quieter times and a peaceful environment to live and raise our children in.
Ronen Green launched his debut album Puzzle in 2014, and will be releasing a new EP this spring – both musically produced by Tamar Eisenman. During the Tzuk Eitan operation this summer, Ronen’s song Pain and Fear gave me my mantra: “I know there’s something better than just pain and fear.”
Road of War single launch concert – Monday, February 23, 2015 at the Ozen Bar. Tickets are 45/50 NIS, and may be ordered via this link.
Future concerts: March 5th at Hamachsan in Beer Sheva; March 16th special election concert at Tsuzamen in Tel Aviv.
Links: Ronen Green website; bandcamp; facebook; youtube channel
