It’s time for another Featured Artist! At Songcast, we’re always looking for new ways to help promote YOUR music. Check out this week’s Spotlight interview with Avi Rabinovich:

What’s your first musical memory?
I remember me singing with my brother, at my mother’s work party. It was really amazing. We were cute little kids and people loved us and our performance very much!

What artist inspires you?
It’s very difficult for me to choose only one person. I recently found this great bass player – Marcus Miller, with his incredible skills and soulful music!

What’s your latest track or album?
This is one of my latest tracks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwhLytpfjMw That song in Hebrew. (Mostly I sing in Russian and Hebrew.) It’s called (I can translate it as) – “One on one”. The song is about war, war that every person is fighting with himself every day, every little step in his life. To choose the good and eliminate the evil…

What song or album do you HATE?
There is no such thing for me. There are songs or styles of music that “does not speak for me”. But even in these styles, I find wonderful musician and performers. If you don’t accept something, not speaking about don’t love or don’t like, just don’t accept, that means you don’t accept something about yourself. Just think a little about it.

What’s a song or album everyone should be listening to right now?
There is no one truth for all, there is no right music for all. I listen now to Renaissance, a brand new album of Marcus Miller. This is a great album for me and I learn so much from it although I’m generally rock player. Listen to yourself primarily – everyone knows what good for him!

What profession would you choose if you couldn’t choose music?
I already have – I am an alternative medicine Aesculapius.

Tell us more about your local scene.
My local scene – it’s the greatest city, “the heart of the planet,” as some call it – Jerusalem. It has become more and more “the city of three religions” with their restrictions and boundaries. It is not easy to live and sing here, but on the other hand there is the extraordinary atmosphere of spirituality and always something going on here!

As a performer, what would be your ‘perfect’ live experience?
I had a concert on the beach, on a huge stage, near the airport. It was a wonderful evening, and at some point, in the middle of the song, an airplane flew over us! It was right to the point! We had the impression that the whole world plays and sings with us! Indescribable experience! Of course I want another one!

What aspect drew you to the particular genre of music that you now perform/write?
Rock music for me has always been a place of truth. Only the truth. Even if it is painful or uncomfortable. Eventually, I realized that this is only my personal opinion and that, in any style of music you can be true (or anything you want) to the extent to what you want.  Moreover – for me rock music is like a protest, revolt. This is uncompromising willingness not to tolerate injustice in a certain reality.

Share one personal event in your life that greatly influenced a song/album that you have created during your musical career.
I want to tell you about how an influence on me is my own attempt to commit suicide. It was almost a successful attempt. As a result I was unconscious for three days in intensive care and I got a new chance to live. I realized how selfish I was and how I had lost any hope. I have hope again now. I found faith even though I did not see any white light or something like that. I’m somehow just realized that there is a Creator of this world. I am a different person after that, I became more open to the world. My songs have to be in a variety of styles, I was also start writing instrumental music.

A big thanks to Avi Rabinovich for speaking with us this week! Be sure to check out Avi on Facebook and YouTube.  If you’d like to be featured in an upcoming interview, shoot us an email with your name and SongCast user ID and we’ll get in touch.