INTERVIEW with Israeli music producer OR GOLAN

Or Golan suffers from stuttering and a hereditary disease, known as FMF (familial Mediterranean fever). It is an inherited inflammatory disease characterized by recurrent bouts of fever and serous membrane inflammation, which causes pain and inhibits him from standing for long periods or playing sport. But this has stopped Or Golan from getting on with his life or following his passion called music. After graduating from ORT Motzkin, Or Golan enlisted in the Air Force and served as a guided weapons technician, while he discovered the music bug at the age of 18. Simultaneously with the process of discovering the music, Golan also managed to write four books. Inspired by his love for electronic music, he initially found success with his “THE WIK WIK SONG” which quickly garnered more than 150,000 views on YouTube, and then suddenly everything crashed, when YouTube closed the channel and deleted the video. Once again Or Golan’s perseverance came to the fore, and he got to work on launching his single “I AM GREEDY”, which eventually got played on radio stations globally. The song contributed to the over 198,000 copies of his songs which have been sold worldwide in over 63 countries.

1. Tell us a little bit about where you come from and your inspiration to do music?
   

Or Golan: I have lived in Israel all my life. I have no other country to live in, that’s what I’ve known all my life. There is a very familiar song in our country that says “I have no other country even if my land is burning, only one word in Hebrew is burning in my veins in my soul, in a sore body, in a hungry heart, here it is my home”. At 18 I knew I had a vocation in this world, like it was like a lightning strike. I started writing a book that turned into four books. Only at the end did the music come to me. Everyone has a vocation, everyone has something that pushes them forward. So I’m Or Golan and I’m a musician.

2. When and how did you get started producing music seriously?
   

Or Golan: At 22 I think, almost sure 🙂 I had the feeling that it was now or never like I was a messenger from heaven to do what I wanted, when I wanted. I started making music. I’ve never studied musical notes or been in music classes like that, it’s bullshit. It’s like I found it, this special spark. I made four albums a month because I knew that if I composed just one song I would forget so fast, then four albums would give me some great starting point to run from 0 to 100 fast. Good marketing trick, no?

3. Who were your first and strongest musical influences?
   

Or Golan:  Britney Spears was and will remain the one who saved me from dark spots that I will never return to. She is a tremendous performer, talented at insane levels and not properly valued. She was born a meteoric star, not like me despite all the accomplishments I have made in life.

4. Which are the key elements you always try and put into your music productions?
   

Or Golan: My melodies always come to me from God, he gives me the melody in its entirety and I’m just supposed to write it on a computer and just put it out into the world. I have released close to 200 songs in this world in less than a year, I have sold more than 198,000 copies of the songs in 63 countries, I have done radio and television interviews, I have performed in Times Square, I have given my truth to everyone. I was written about in magazines, played in countries and regions I never dreamed would be played in like in Arab countries. I wish everyone would make my career.

5. What do you think separates you from the crowd of producers emerging right now?
   

Or Golan:  Ooh, there are lots and I will not say because I know that if I say something I know my career will go down the drain like the second it got up. If I had won the Eurovision maybe this kicker would have been revealed

6. Why do you think you are not yet famous in your home country of Israel?
   

Or Golan:  I’ll tell you something and this thing is so powerful. In the State of Israel, people like to crown a king and then throw him to dogs that will eat him alive. Take for example the most prominent star in the country, her name is Noa Kirel. You must have seen her perform at the Miss Universe ceremony last week. This woman did in the State of Israel what every artist would dream of doing, overnight she was discovered at the age of 14 and today is worth an estimated NIS 20 million, which is close to $ 8 million. I have been trying for years for the mainstream in Israel to just squint in my direction but nothing, as if this door will always be closed to me. Let’s go back for a second to Noa Kirel, when the State of Israel will no longer want her like any artist who was here huge in dimensions like hers she will completely forget and only in ten years if not more she will turn to some reputable newspaper and say in a cover story For what she did when she became famous. But stars are changing and this thing will continue in the State of Israel for a long time to come, remember what I said

7. What is your process when composing a new song? Where do start, and what usually comes into your head first – the melody or the beat? And how do you then develop that idea into a song?
   

Or Golan: I always thank God for giving me this talent that I just do not know how to write the exact notes on the computer to create my songs. God has given me a huge gift that I do not yet know where it will take me alive, and I have not yet reached the end of the race.

8. Do you ever collaborate with other producers and artists, or do you prefer working alone?

Or Golan : I’ve never collaborated with other artists in the world, maybe my star has not shone on this issue, but I believe everything is for the better and I know I also have no reason to hope for a collaboration because I do not decide on a hysterical hit coming out. For example when I am Greedy went on the world air straight I knew it would be a hit, I did not think at all about collaborations then. I will also say something else, if an artist who has been on the B list wants to connect with an artist who is on the A list, the public will not always accept it. Look what happened to Janet Jackson with Justin Timberlake

9. Do you only create and work in a studio environment, or do you also find time to perform live?
   

Or Golan: I never performed live, I did not sell tickets, I did not do merchandise. There has not yet come a suitable opportunity to take me there. I also do not believe I will get there.

10. Can you tell us something about your latest music release and what the highlights are?

Or Golan:  Let’s keep it confidential for now, because if I’m telling you why I made the last mini album and it’s definitely the final one I’ll make alive, a Pandora’s box will open and I do not want it to open.

11. Do you have a personal favorite track in your catalog that has a specific backstory and/or message and meaning very special to you?

Or Golan: It’s always going to be ‘I Am Greedy’, he’s the kicker who’s given me huge fame to this day. He also subconsciously released my other songs, I said he was a historical hit in my life, no?

12. Where do you do most of your recording, production and mastering work? And do you outsource any or all of these processes, or do you do it all by yourself?
    

Or Golan: In this case oblivion is allowed in the world because oblivion wins over everyone. There are a lot of secrets in my life that I do not know about, it’s like a kind of deal between the devil and my destiny a lot of unclear things, a lot of questions will remain open until the last day of my life. I am a very spiritual person and yet I say that there are things that we humans will never know

13. Could you tell us something about your current production setup, and what’s your favorite piece of hardware/software in the studio right now?
    

Or Golan: I have no songs I am composing at the moment, a lot of things crashed for me in January 2021 when bad people interfered with my success in the world. Another dark spot for the collection.

14. I know you suffer from physical disabilities, but what has been the most difficult event you’ve had to endure in your career so far, and how did you overcome that event?

Or Golan:  My disease, FMF is a disease that affects me in many areas of my daily life. It brought me to a lot of hospital preoccupations and severe loneliness. The stuttering I have also brought me to this day to some of some difficult situations

15. On the contrary, what would you consider a successful, proud or significant point in your career so far?

Or Golan: If you ask my parents, who did not support me until the moment of the disaster that happened to me in my career, I have not yet reached this point but I always say that Times Square was and will remain a highlight in my life .  I cannot describe to you the feeling the day I received this message.

16. How strict are you with genres and sub-genres? Do you only concentrate on specific styles of electronic music?
    

Or Golan: I have close to 200 songs in my career and some of them in various styles like theatrical, pop, ballads, romantic, trance and more. But electronic music is the most successful of all styles. There is something in the arrangement of the notes there that can indicate good musical thought.

17. What do you find most rewarding about what you do? And do you have a specific vision or goal set in your mind that you would like to achieve in the near future?
    

Or Golan:  Now I speak to you not as an artist, not as a musician, but as Or Golan, the little man from Israel, who stutters in almost every sentence he says. I never imagined that I would succeed in this world. I could not believe that my first album Superstar Baby that I composed for my life would just sell over ten thousand copies worldwide. I never believed that radio stations in the world would play my songs. And even if I thought I would succeed it would only be in Eastern Europe, so success in 63 countries is something indescribable

18. What’s your favorite motto, phrase or piece of advice, you try to live or inspire yourself by?
    

Or Golan: Everyone has potential but you choose your destiny and what your life will look like when you die and reach God in heaven.

19. Why do you think they put a special spotlight on you, there are thousands like you that can found overflowing the music market?
    

Or Golan: I’m special, I do not deserve to succeed in this world?

20. Finally, if this is your vocation, what can you say to anyone reading this right now?

Or Golan: My name is Or Golan, and I am who I am, no one will change me and no one will tell me that I have no existence in this world

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