JB: There has been a good response to your recent video “Tour Journals.” Do you enjoy time behind the camera lens?

M: I think it’s just a really cool thing to show people the inner workings of what goes on. Everyone has a certain nostalgia with what it is like to be a musician, [and] to be on the road touring. Then there is a whole other thing where people often really musicians as something other than what they are. I think it is important to show people everything that goes into it- not everything, but all the little stuff that makes life what it is and makes like interesting.

That’s what I’ve tried to capture with the videographers, inviting people on the road. On this tour, I sent out a Tweet one day saying “Who wants to come out? I have an extra bunk on the bus. Come film. Just get footage and let’s put these little things together.” It has been cool.

JB: A recent “Tour Journal,” following the band to Jerusalem, prominently featured you latest single “One Day.” Is there a correlation between the song and conflict in the Middle East?

M: “One Day” is not so much about that. We all are multi-dimensional and have different sides to us. There definitely is the cynical side [which thinks that] there is no hope for this world. And then there is that place in us [which acts as] the hopeful dreamer. I’ve tapped into that place inside me and that’s how I’ve gotten to how I’ve gotten because I’ve always had a dream. I have blind faith that the dream will come true.

I think that everyone has that, and that’s a powerful thing that shouldn’t be overlooked. We can try and inspire that hopeful place within ourselves for just ultimate reality. And a lot of that for me is informed through Judaism. Being that there is a place for that within the context of Judaism.

JB: As a result, your path guides you to share these beliefs in the live setting?

M: Exactly. For a musician on stage, their work is to try to get to a place in the music where it just starts to flow, and where it becomes totally immersed in it. And for the listener, the people there, it also becomes about total immersion into the music. If there can be this creation- or this line is broken down between the performers performing to the audience- where everybody loses themselves in the music, some real powerful inspiration comes from that. Real ideas, real emotions are dug out from there.

And everyone having their own personal experience with the music, it’s just like stepping out onto a mountain. Everyone is going to have their own experience of the wilderness, and how it affects them and how it resonates in them. It’s the same thing, but maybe you can’t get to the mountain. You know what I mean? It’s different, and it’s about creating the atmosphere for people to have that experience, and that’s what I feel my life is going to be about.

That’s what playing with Dub Trio is about, or playing with different musicians. It’s about being out on tour, even off a record cycle, and just throwing yourself into it. Maybe it doesn’t happen. Maybe sometimes it’s the opposite. Maybe it’s forces. There are so many things that could happen but it’s all about, for me, trying to cultivate that sort of mastery, trying to be able to create that experience. The word in Hebrew is “avodah,” it means a Godly service or something you have to work towards. It’s something that I personally have seen in the last few years, or since my career has started, playing with different musicians. And I’ve seen how I’ve been able to go out and develop that, and it keeps going. That’s what it’s all about for me.

JB: Hopefully, the act of “working towards something” is what all people strive to do throughout their lives. For you, it is solely about the music.

M: Yeah. As opposed to having a specific political message or religious message, music is going to feed that purpose. The music is the message.

JB: Tell us about the 4th annual Festival of Light.

M: The Festival consists of 8 shows over Hanukah. We have amazing openers this year- Glitch Mob, Travis McCoy from Gym Class Heroes, John Brown’s Body- all kinds of really cool people. So there will be a lot of good sit-ins. It will be like last year. It’s like our hometown, so a lot of guests and friends of ours that we’ve played with will be showing up.

JB: Has the band made any plans for 2010 yet? Any special events? Will Dub Trio be sticking around?

M: I am still touring with Dub Trio. Separate from that, we are going to do Christmas Eve at the TLA in Philly with an all Philly-based band. It will be [keyboardist] Brian Marsella, Jason Fraticelli, Aaron Dugan, and [drummer] Mark Guiliana. So it’s kind of a totally different vibe, a totally different thing, and a more experimental jazz-rock type of thing. And it’s going to have free Chinese food at the set break- you know how it works with Jews on Christmas Eve.

The rest of the year will be with the Dub Trio. [We will be touring] Australia, Hawaii, South America, and Europe. Then back through America over the summer to do another run with either us headlining or a co-bill. And in the fall we will probably go back in the studio and start working on a new record. Probably, making the record with the Dub Trio.

JB: The relationship sounds very symbiotic.

M: Yeah. It’s really cool. They are really happy playing. Both ways, it’s a really good match.

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