FEATURE: CHARLIE MEGIRA - SMILE NOW, CRY LATER
Photo by Michal Bassad
A musical virtuoso, stylistic genius and cult figure among the few, Charlie Megira is artist who has gone largely unrecognised whilst defying musical genres. Yet life is not always so simple for someone who’s mind wanders in unoccupied infinities. TNO take a look at the internal battles that shaped the music and the relationships around this extraordinary talent.
Having only just stumbled across Gabi Abudraham (aka Charlie Megira) last year, the feeling of being left out from his existence was overwhelming…yet upon more reading I began to understand I am not alone in this confoundment, questions about his life and being are spread across multiple forums and social media platforms, people all asking who’s the man behind the shades? I first came across his music via Numero Group, the latest release “Tomorrow’s Gone” is a retrospective of Gabi’s life, it includes tracks from his solo workings as well as his various groups spanning across 7 albums. He had a natural gift, a virtuoso within his field… backed up by the fact he’d never picked up a guitar before the age of 20. Upon first listen, the idea of a gaunt, Eko wielding, tuxedo wearing boy from rural Israel wouldn’t be the first visualisation to arise, and that’s just the start of it; like the perfect meal-wine pairing he supported this look with wrap around shades and a Jim Jarmusch-style pompadour, one which entered the room soon before Charlie ever did. Amongst the haunting reverb and melancholic lyrics, you’d begin to think that you’ve heard this before. The man who made the unknown feel all too familiar, made the dark feel warm and all with an incredible sense of style and being.
As for his life, there is little to no information dotted around the internet, a few interviews with responses that resemble snippets from cryptic poems, old event artwork and write up’s, nothing to give a sense of the man himself. The deeper information we can find is to be put down to the work of Boaz Goldberg, a close friend, ex-band member and director of the award nominated documentary titled “Tomorrow’s Gone”. Filmed over a two-decade period it follows the internal struggles and changing persona of Gabi to Charlie as he built a career that was on the tittering point of stardom.
Photo by Boaz Goldberg
To understand the cultural background of the music scene within Israel at the time you should look back to 1967. The Six-Day War between the between Israel and the Arab states of Egypt, Syria and Jordan. created a turning point for a change of culture within Israel. Israel shocked the world and even themselves with the victory, with the nation in a jubilant mood cultural changes were initiated. Within a couple of years after the war, the number of art galleries increased by a third, theatres doubled and restaurants, discotheques and night clubs started to appear. Muzika Mizrahit, a genre that combines elements from middle-eastern & Mediterranean countries with European influences as well started to gain traction and respect. In 1965, the Broadcasting Authority Law was passed by Israel’s Government, this in turn created the Israel Broadcasting Authority. With the government having an aspect of control over radio and television this allowed them to shape music tastes and trends of the nation. In the early 70’s independent radio stations started to appear. With the likes of “The Voice of Peace” (an off-shore radio station positioned in the Mediterranean) boasting a listening base of 20 million, they played a crucial part in communicating peaceful existence alongside bringing Western music to the Middle East beyond the grasp of law.
“ONE MUST THINK ABOUT HIS DEATH, IT CAN BE A NICE PICTURE…”
Gabi was an avid record collector, but described as one of the smartest collectors that Boaz knew. His many project changes only possible through his ability to listen and understand music in minute detail. He was entranced within the reverb drowned mid-century music culture of the West. His lifelong fascination with Elvis, The Swinging 60’s and the need to survive Tel Aviv’s indie scene helped shaped his ever-changing manifestation. Boaz tells the story of Gabi’s first band ‘The Shnek’, whilst playing a gig Charlie had come victim to a thrown beer bottle whilst performing, he carried on playing until he later passed out on stage. I reached out to Boaz Goldberg to find out if there were any underlying reasons behind the changes, Boaz says for Charlie it was a spiritualistic move:
“Gabi’s understanding was extraordinary, something you’ll never hear out of nobody else: He contemplated that Elvis wore those mega-flashy suits not to shine - but actually to hide. In Gabi’s eyes, Elvis eliminated his body in order to make his voice monolithic”
He often spoke about how he was trying to create a past that didn’t exist, a past where Mizrahi Jews created “kick-ass Rockabilly bands”. This space allowed Gabi to express himself in any way he chooses…he created the rules, his attempt to materialise his new character “Charlie Megira” was a self-removal process from the confines of reality and the “strangle of his self-being”. When asked in an interview about the definition of Rockabilly, he responded “Dealing with the ordinary in an exotic manner”.
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The tension and space created within the music was reflective of Gabi’s internal being, being the symbolic and subversive personality that he was, he was creating new ideals of the creative process:
“If you look at all the songs and bits and pieces that assembles his legendary 2nd album ‘Rock-N-Roll Fragments”, you’ll notice that some songs are returning later in the album but in a different manner, played backwards or something. He called it ‘the alternate possibility’. It’s sort of a utopian approach, maybe.”
Charlie was never a one-man band, he had numerous instrumentalists to support him through his journey. One of the more prominent being Michal Kahan (aka The Hefker Girl). Michal had been a part of the Israeli garage rock scene, writing two solo EPs before being introduced to Charlie. Originally playing guitar on the first few albums before moving to drums for their Joy Division-meets-The Cure project “Charlie Megira & the Hefker Girl”.
“I never really felt as a band member as I was part of creating the music with him…our songs, so I felt very natural to me. Gabi didn’t push for rehearsals at all. Don’t get me wrong - he liked to play a lot - but not to rehearse with the band, he wasn’t a collective guy. He was more of a solo spirit and he didn’t always have much patience for processes that took a lot of time. For me it was very important to do lots of rehearsals, I wanted the band to sound good…to be confident and strong. Gabi didn’t believe in practicing a lot...he liked spontaneity, but he understood the importance of practicing the more I insisted. So there were times we practiced more, but if you ask me - not enough. I remember a lot of times we went on stage and didn’t sound very good, some of the players were hesitant because we didn’t practice enough, that was a source of an ongoing argument between me and Gabi, he was more obsessed about the details of the aesthetic of the sound and the general ambience - in that sense he was very precise, but he was less interested in the general function of the band as a whole”.
Michal described Charlie as a gentle soul with idealistic views. A personality combination that created constant disappointment when reality fell short of expectations…
“The years we were together we were happy and he was pretty normal and balanced then. He painted a lot too, he was a good painter we were busy with things we loved to do, played a lot of gigs, recorded, worked, we lived in a beautiful apartment that was our studio too - it was a very creative & fertile period. Sure, he had his bad moments like we all do, but things went good for 8 years. I think he couldn’t admit to himself that he had problems, so his ego - his personality took over, in such a way that he lost touch with himself”.
Photo by Jono Bernstein
“DON’T MAKE FRIENDS WITH THE ELEPHANT KEEPER IF YOU HAVE NO PLACE TO ENTERTAIN AN ELEPHANT”
Charlie had numerous project changes throughout his career. A not so unfamiliar narrative within the music industry, but with Charlie’s sound changing from Rockabilly to post-punk to new wave coming full circle for his final project “The Bet She’an Valley Hillbillies”, Boaz puts it down to an esoteric need that helped save him from whatever was trying to fixate him…that need to escape. Gabi was very driven intellectually on spiritual subjects, reading into the likes of Krishnamurti, Gurdjieff, Ouspensky and Carlos Castaneda alongside a fascination for The New Testament. He was not a “Christian wannabe’ but the idea of ‘being born again was fascinating…
“When Charlie went back to Rockabilly in 2013, he did it as an alternate possibility. It managed to be really different: It wasn’t nostalgic, but rather with tension and sometimes with a strange splendour of danger”
Towards the end of his career he managed to secure the interest of world renowned artists. He was invited to co-tour with Julian Casablancas (Lead singer of The Strokes) with the idea of releasing Charlie’s music on his label Cult Records, yet the process taking too long and eventually never materialising. With Charlie’s music all previously being self-released, he was used to making the rules and with the idea of securing a life changing record deal slowly slipping away, so was Charlie’s confidence. Max Richter was yet another to see the freedom and beauty within Charlie’s work, inviting him to work collaboratively and with intentions of securing a record deal for Charlie in London. However, with the music industry being the volatile machine that it can be, again Charlie’s music not seeing the recognition it deserved.
At the age of 44, Charlie died on November 5th, 2016, he was found with his guitar plugged into the amp, submersed in effects. The “last performance of Charlie Megira”. With a case such as Gabi vs Charlie, you can take away what you wish from his performances, lyrics and style. We can speculate and attempt to piece up the information we have in order to better our understanding. Yet, at the end of it, do we dissolve the enigma that is Charlie Megira?
Photo by Courtney Chavanell