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My great grandparents lost their lives due to the oppression in Germany so I feel like there are historical reminders that effect me immediately. I have fortunately my family on my mother's side from my grandparents down. A lot of that has been tragic and there have been so many people in South Africa that have (under the Apartheid system) died or lived through some very unjust things. I think that there have been a lot of tragedies that have affected me in 9/11 along with the history that my family has gone through in South Africa.
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Have you been able to enforce that sort of practice since then or was it just like any other real death whereby people accept it, they mourn and they move on? MVRemix: From "Red, White and Blues" (a song on "Even Closer") and the 9/11 theme - everyone when a tragedy occurs has a little death epiphany whereby they say they're "Going to live life to its fullest" and all the rest of it because of a particular tragedy. It's more of a cultural kind of thing and just about my family history that I identify with. There are certain practices and traditions that I grew up with, but I wasn't raised very religiously. Now I know you're the same, I'm wondering if you consider yourself as Jewish, or, you just recognize that your mother is and you follow a separate belief. MVRemix: Now, my mother is Jewish and under the religion I'm classed as being Jewish also, although I don't follow the religion. What's personal to me and turned into something creative can effect them. It's fulfilling for me to create music and watch it turn into a song then get to perform it and see how people respond.
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MVRemix: What motivates you to actually make music? A lot of artists I listened to until this time Miriam Mackeba, Hugh Masekela, Stevie Wonder, Bob Marley, Nina Simone, Roberta Flack, Prince, Bjork, Portishead, D'Angelo etc.