An Ever-changing Musician

Emily Hauser interviews Rami Kleinstein

At a coffee house in north Tel Aviv, Rami Keinstein continues his conversation without pause as one of his hits begins playing on the cafe's stereo. Moments after the conversation ends and we say good-bye, another Kleinstein song is heard coming out of a wedding hall nearby.

His music is so much a part of Israeli culture, it seems as if he might be part of the very air we breathe! But there is almost nothing about Kleinstein that would make you think, "Ah, here's a rock star."

Kleinstein is a friendly, 34-year-old with a broad grin that crinkles the corners of his eyes and a shaved head that looks better on him than it would on most people. He thinks hard about the questions he's asked, searching for just the right answers.

Born in the US to Israeli expatriots, Kleinstein was nine-years-old when his family returned to Tel Aviv. When he was a teenager, his parents went through a painful divorce. His father moved back to the US. Eventually, his mother did too. They both remarried, Mom got divorced again - not exactly a fairy-tale life.

It almost seems that the teenaged Kleinstein rebelled by becoming extremely stable: Kleinstein met his famous wife, the singer Rita, when he was 16 and she was 17, and they've been together ever since.

Similarly, Kleinstein is married to the music business, and always has been. From playing piano in the army to being Rita's manager, to songwriting, recording, and producing, he has done virtually everything there is to do in the industry.

He says he can't imagine doing anything else. "I love my work, and every aspect of what I do," he says.

At the same time, though, Kleinstein is constantly evolving. He often starts one exercise program, and then abandons it in favor of something new. He spent years trying to hide his balding head by tying scarves around it - only to shave all the hair off. Likewise his early recordings tried very hard to be real rock-n-roll; today, you might say he's Israel's answer to Phil Collins. Even this musical direction, he says, is not necessarily where he'll stay for the rest of his life.

"I feel I'm an ever-changing person," Kleinstein says, as he sips a cup of hot water with mint leaves. "But what is change? When you change something you and you feel true with it, it's not a change - it's an aspect of something you have within."

While he may say he loves every part of his job, Kleinstein seems to like performing live the best.

"It's like fantasy land in a way. There's this strength, this adrenaline, this power, and this sense that you're doing something important.

"People in the audience are out there doing things they wouldn't normally do. Even I'm probably doing things I wouldn't normally do. And that's the party, that's what's special. It's therapy, it's a high.

Bringing people together and helping them forget, even for a moment, sorrow, tension, rage, and bringing in some good old positive stuff - I think that's important. No - I know that's important."
 

From the Student Post,

September - October 1997

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