While some of their audience might confuse their infectious beats and gypsy melodies for cultural appropriation, BBB are the real deal and their connections to their musical influences are deeply ingrained. “They say that people that love in hard places are happier, I don’t know but maybe,” he says with a laugh. “When this surrounds you, it’s like it increases life. You see how fragile everything is. But really, nothing makes sense about it. Nothing makes sense to what it sounds like when I tell you about my day.”
BBB are all back in Tel Aviv now, having left America a while ago. With Muskat, a drummer with a punk background, and fellow founding member Ori Kaplan from more classically trained beginnings, the pair bonded early in Brooklyn as teenagers, finding their feet in a foreign city while still haunted by the reality of the life they’d left behind. Their music is deceptively joyful and full of explosive energy masking the stories they tell. Despite an ever-growing fanbase, the now trio (with the permanent addition of Tomer Yousef) often appealed to a dedicated but somewhat niche crowd. Things changed in 2013 when BBB reached a massive mainstream crowd via Mac Miller’s sampling of Bulgarian Chicks on his Diplo-produced track, Goosebumpz, and Jason Derulo sampling Hermetico on his massive hit, Talk Dirty. “The main thing that always influences the music is how we were raised and where,” says Muskat. “The three of us were brought up here but then ran out for obvious reasons, so we’ve had this detour in our lives. I spent 15 years in New York and then I realised home is home and so came back. 80 per cent of the lyrics are talking about this weird life we were brought into the conflicts and the politics – these things are in the DNA of us as people. We could write a love song if we wanted to, once in a while, but how and where we grew up is always penetrating the lyrics. We don’t think about things genre-wise, we don’t care about these things.”
The collision of culture also permeates their music on a melodic level. “We don’t have a filter, so whatever music is surrounding us is more than welcome to come in,” he says. “Walking down a street in Tel Aviv, you’ll hear folk music in one street and M.I.A. in another pumping out some speakers and that is what we’re surrounded by. Death is always there as well so that is always finding its way into our music as well – not too be too heavy.”
Since returning to Tel Aviv Muskat has been working hard at developing local artists. He’s taken on the role of mentor, opened up a studio – Vibromonk East – where he’s producing artists, both local and from around the world, and acting as an ambassador for Israeli talent. It would be ignorant to assume the group would simply want to stay in America forever, but of course to an outsider, Israel seems quite scary at times. “Each member would tell a different story as to why they came back home, but for me, New York was like a university with all of its art and music and of course much less conflict,” he says. “After a while though, our families are here and it’s really sunny and the food is great and you think, ‘Fuck it, I’m going to commit to dealing with where I’m from somehow.’ It’s not an easy task. Even after six years, I still love this place and I hate it. When you run as far as you can from a place that bugs you, it’s still in you. It’s in your blood, it’s in your accent, it’s in the food and the weather you like, so you find peace with it. Balkan Beat Box started when we were free from the war zone in New York, and while we could’ve done love songs, we chose to use it to deal with where we were from. Now we are back here. It felt very natural to be here and do what we wanted to out of here.”
The band are prolific tourers and constantly working on side projects, but Muskat says they have some new music coming together as well. “As a band, we’re constantly touring and constantly recording as well,” he says. “Israel is a great playground for experimenting with our music, which has been great. We do have three people who constantly have other side projects, so we are very busy, but that is what holds us together. This is our main baby and whatever else we work on always effects what we do here; we bring those influences into this space.”
BY KRISSI WEISS
