Naftali Kalfa-South Africa TV interview

[Music] everybody has passions in life everyone has things that they're they're drawn to and uh for me other than business and supporting my family the thing that sort of touches my Nama that touches my soul is music so it's something that I'm naturally drawn to and then um sometimes you wake up in the morning and you actually pursue your dreams and you pursue your passions and that's how that's how this musical production was [Music] born the Natali calfa project was actually the second album I put out the first album I put out about 5 years years ago with the penta Brothers you see ABI Penta an album called yon which was more of a rock and roll Jewish music and um you know after I put out that album I sort of took a breather from making music for a while and then I started again and I started composing songs and recording songs and at first I thought I would just record a few songs just for the fun of it then I said okay maybe I'll get the 10 songs and put out on an album but then there kept on being one more song that had to be added to the project and one more song and if we already have these 14 songs let's just add the 15th and the 16th and we ended up with a 28th uh 28 song Double album A lot of them were my friends before I started making this project you know you know people like Schmo cats and uh got Elbas they you know these were people that were friends of mine before I started making this project so it was a natural it was a natural uh fit for me to call them into the studio once I had songs compose there were other singers where I would compose a song and then I sort of heard their voice in that song where I felt you know that they can connect to that song and you know it would fit like a glove so to speak so we'd call them in and a lot of friendships were developed in that studio in a in a uh suers Sonic studios in Jerusalem there were a lot of friendship that were developed over there a lot of great times a lot of great memories and you know everyone sort of has their own as we say in Hebrew everyone has their own um methodology of how they go about making music whether it's you know you know the the musicians themselves or the the singers just watching the way they work in the studio seeing what their process is and learning from their process is something you know that I was able to take something from everyone and to learn something from everyone what's happening World Shan po we on the set my latest video called Bridges very powerful record you talking my life and just the obstacles and challenges that we all face co-written by my homeboy my partner Nali we made this record you know when I met Nali and we was both going through our respective difficulties and uh you know usually that's when you know who your friends are and you get to see the truth of of Life shine he has an interesting story and um you know he's someone he's someone that you know being in the studio with him watching him watching his method of making music was also eye opening I'd never seen something like that before in terms of just poetic genius someone sitting there being able to write lines it's you know I he he he can write poetry quicker than I could uh you know read books of poetry so I mean that was really you know that was really something to see and you know out of that came a came a friendship out of that came you know a few musical tracks that um you know that are very that inspire me that talk to me that speak to me this whole world the whole wide world is just a narrow bridge this whole world the whole wide world is just a narrow bridge the main stage we got to face is in the world above the main stage we got to face is in the world to come and the main thing is to have no fear and the main thing is have no fear at all one of them actually was something that I compos for my wife uh song called Bridges it's actually a video that was directed by a very talented um Israeli film director elad aot really good guy anyways it was a it was a very unique video production a of animation and stuff like that that was a song that I I composed I was sitting with my wife one night I had my guitar in my hands and she was expressing you know we were in Israel at the time and she was expressing you know reservations not about us being in Israel me and her but in terms of you know did we put our kids into a an area that's not safe um so I happened to have my guitar in my end of the time and I started just struming to which means you know this whole world is is is a is just a narrow bridge and the main thing is to not is to have no fear at all now obviously when we say have no fear at all we're not talking about sh or fear of God because we should have sh we should have fear of God we're talking about realizing that God is the one that controls the world and runs the world and we shouldn't have fear of the things around us you know to to sort of accept the Yoke of of Hashem every morning which is what we're supposed to do when we say Shama we say we're supposed to accept the fact that you know Hashem runs the world and you know the message of the song bridges for me at least was you know there is one Hashem he runs the entire world we have we have to do our part to follow what we understand he wants us to be doing but that ultimately is not going to decide the outcome he's going to decide the outcome I'm not I'm not afraid I'm not afid I'm not afraid I'm not afraid I'm not afraid I'm not afraid I'm not afraid I'm not afraid I'm not afraid I'm not afraid I'm not afraid I'm not afraid I'm not afid [Music] the inspiration for his album The naftali Kaa project is mostly rooted in Jewish Psalms and prayers naali believes that when he sings or composes his connection to Hashem God becomes greater moving and touching him in ways that make him realize the importance of the role God plays in his music and everyday life [Music] all the songs have messages or have you know our meant inspire a certain emotion so you know the perm song I just put up for example that you know that's meant to just be a happy upbeat song and every word there is important it does have a very strong message you know talk specifically about miracles everyday Miracles that happened you know both the grand miracles that have happened to CL from from The Exodus from Egypt you know you know through the Greeks the Romans kanaka PM so there's the the big Nim the big Miracles that we all know about but there's also the day-to-day Miracles that you know we take for granted sometimes you know the fact that the ground grows you know grows vegetables and fruit the fact that we're able to breathe the fact that we wake up in the morning when we say when we say every morning how many people sort of really and I speak for myself as well it's a struggle to actually internalize and realize that you know thank you Hashem for actually returning my soul to me you know so that was the Deep message of the PM song but it was still just a fun upbeat still just a fun fun upbeat song I thank you for [Music] thees one of my favorite tracks on on the entire album is a song called with schomo cats and that's sort of a very mes just really Soulful really touches my Nish it's about erel and the beauty of the land and our yearning and desire you know for erel [Music] so there's a there's a whole mixture of different types of songs from you know ton to Bridges you know again ton is more of a people would refer to as a KES type song and bridg is a rock and roll song with you know a rap in the middle and stuff like that so you have that you have spartic music you have some Spanish music you have you have a whole range of music and for me you know a lot of people ask me you know why why why are so many of the songs with other with other singers and stuff like that there are tracks on there where it's just me alone but for me part of what what drives me to make music and create music and record music is the human connection is sort of the is being able to share that same feeling that same emotion that same inspiration with somebody else and when I when I record something with another with a fellow artist it sort of brings that brings that connection you know full circle for me [Music] the musical message is is is is the is the fact that music has the ability not to change the world I don't think any song is going to change the entire world but music has the ability to change a person for for a period of time you can hear a song and be inspired to do good you can be inspired you know if if I hear songs that really touch my soul that really touch my Nish it might inspire me to go do something special that I wouldn't have done otherwise you know if someone's having a really bad day sometimes they can just put up a really nice upbeat song and get get get strength from it so I think music has the ability to to move people and and touch them and really get get the places get to places where no amount of words can do you know sometimes you could sit with someone for 10 hours and speak to them and if you know whereas if you just sat with them and put your arm around them and sang with them for 3 minutes that 3 minutes of singing and you know sort of entering entering that person's heart and entering that entering that N is a lot more powerful than you know 10 hours worth of words so music has a special a special ability I mean and we'll see one day God willing the BET should be rebuilt soon you know the way the way the way we serve in the bet midash is with SH is with singing so I mean singing is very powerful so that's sort of the the musical message for me the overall message is is one of one of where you could sort of have so many different diverse people I mean the people on this album are anywhere from mrai singers to what would be called cish singers to rappers to to to what people call you know kak type of music and it's it's it's a whole mixture and it's sort of that's this is on an album this is sort of a you know on a on a micro level you know if we had that type of on a wider scale I think we'd be a lot better off and again you know the the was destroyed because of and because of lack of and lack of unity we need more we need more Unity we need to find we need to focus more on the common ground of where we have common ground as opposed to where we defer you know sadly a lot of times it takes tragedies when tragedies happen then all of a sudden love is free free hugs for the world because a tragedy happened why does it have to why do we have to get to to to tragic moments to have the let's have the now let's start let's start without the tragedies there's enough suffering in K you know let's put let's sort of I don't want to sound like a hippie from the 60s but let's sort of put our arms around each other hold hands and sing you know let's have that let's have the and I think that will definitely speed up bringing mashia and having that mdash where we could have the the singing as our form of she [Music]