THE DODIES – Interview from Israel

March 31, 2020March 31, 2020 Tracy Morrow 0 Comments The Dodies

Let’s virtually travel to Southern desert of Israel and make our acquaintance with garage rock duo, “The Dodies”, you won’t be disappointed!

The Dodies are:

Yoni Avittan, lead vocalist and guitarist
Ran Aronson, backing vocals and simultaneously plays bass lines on the keyboard, while playing the ENTIRE drum kit with the other. You must experience it to believe how amazingly ran pulls this off!

Yoni and Ran were nice enough to spend some email time together with me:

Me: “The Dodies” is an awesome band name. How did you decide on that name and what does it mean?

Ran: Yoni’s brother gave him the nickname “Dodie” a day after he was born, Yoni thought it could be a catchy band name. We later discovered that Dodie is a slang term for weed.

Me: You’ve played in the United States and Israel. How are the scenes different and how are they the same?

Ran: Americans seem to relate to the songs more, since our music is in English people mention our lyrics more frequently after our shows, and since our main influences are American rock bands from the 90s we’ve also encountered more adults that tell us our music reminds them of what they listened to when they grew up. Israel is a very small country, too small for a rock band to have a legitimate career, and also because what most people grew up listening to here are Israeli folk bands. The scenes aren’t the same as much as they try to be the same.

Me: What parts of the United States culture do you find the strangest?

Ran: American and Israeli cultures are very different, so experiencing the states for us was very strange. People are more talkative in the states, and also more mannered. Sometimes we felt like we were in some sort of American movie and everyone around us were actors.

Me: It must be tricky playing keys, drums and backing vocals. How do you keep all those activities going at the same time at live shows?

Ran: I never drink before shows, knowing I have no spare brain cells to sacrifice, so that’s one thing. When I just started it felt like I was learning a completely new instrument. To me, playing both instruments at the same time feels nothing like playing only the drums, or only the keys. So practicing it alone a lot has also been crucial for keeping the band’s practice and the shows going.

Me: The Boiling Point video has a lot of Texas imagery. Would you say that Texas had a big impact on you personally and as a band? How so?

Ran: Yoni was born in Texas, and half his family are Texans, so having that southern American side definitely influenced our songs and attitude.

Me: I’ve got to ask, has Yoni had luck, getting lucky with the ladies, since the song came out?

Yoni – the Video hasn’t changed too much of the attention I’ve gotten, maybe a little. But I’ve got a girlfriend so there isn’t much I do with the attention. I’ve heard a few comments about Ran though after the video was released.

Me: What’s up next for The Dodies?

Ran: We’re working on a video for our next single Alien, and we’ve got more videos on the way. This is our main focus since the whole quarantine thing started.

Me: Thanks again for taking the time to answer my questions. I look forward to following along with your band’s new developments and I honestly dig your sound!

Ran: Thanks for taking interest Tracy! We appreciate it.

Stay tuned for the upcoming album review for The Dodies album, “It’s One Hell of a Ride”, I’m psyched to get started on that! In the meantime, here is the latest video “Boiling Point”: