Hi Roy, thanks for being with us today at Planet Singer! Your career is incredible, and we can’t wait to know more about your artistic journey. Let’s start from the very beginning. When did you discover your passion for music? 

Hey, Glad to be here. I started playing piano and guitar when I was 6, but I wasn’t really serious until I turned 14. I was lucky enough to be accepted to this arts high school in Israel, that’s considered really good. My time there was a real push in terms of striving to be better at music. It was really inspiring to see so many musicians that are better than me. That really made me take the step into being serious about pursuing music as a career.  

Your career sees countless collaborations with some of the most illustrious names in the Jazz Community. How enriching is it to share a song and the stage with other incredible artists?

That’s the best part of it. There is nothing more fulfilling than making music with people who inspire you. Regardless of it being really joyful, it also teaches a lot on a personal level. Everyone has their own agenda and ideas, and there is always something to learn from others, especially from those who challenge and inspire you.

Jazz music is fluid, intuitive, and extremely adaptable, does this make it easier for you when you collaborate with such big names? How do you manage to keep your identity as a creative artist, while supporting their project? 

Well, when you are in the making, it really doesn’t matter how big (or not) the artist that you work with is. However, those who become famous, become famous for a reason (for the most part, at least). Making music with people who really have a deep understating and good intuition for the art makes it really easy, to answer your question. The reason for that is that it doesn’t require so much effort from my end to make the music sound like something as the responsibility can be shared. Most of the artists that I work with invite me to work with them because they are interested in what I, as an individual, have to offer to their projects. Therefore, I can just be who I am when working with such artists. 

Among your collaborations, we can highlight also the incredible Darren Barrett. How did this collaboration come to life? 

Darren and I met in Boston, still when I was a student at Berklee. At the beginning, he was calling me to sub in his ensembles, but pretty soon we started recording a bunch together. We started doing also some live streams together, playing duo. After a year or something of playing, he asked me to record on his upcoming record ‘EVI Sessions’.