Tamar Haviv Bio by Dan Kimpel -

"Terrific Debut"
Paul McCartney

Tamar Haviv

The artistry of Tamar Haviv reveals itself through layers of emotional colors. Iridescent, transparent; her music is like a rich tapestry woven with a sonic loom. "There will always be a thousand ways to put a thousand things," she explains, "and I will also have a trillion chances to do so."

Musical metaphors... folk, ska, slam poetry, blues, jazz, pop ... are stylistic signposts to this singular sound, but Tamar's songs are the destination. The words and music, distilled through her hypnotic vocals, effortlessly segue within milliseconds; she is simultaneously a blues belter and a high art diva; an edgy rocker and a neo-beat poet. She explains, "I have felt surprised by different voices I have heard come out of my mouth.... sometimes its scary, and I only want to accept the bolder and urgent ones-- but now I like trying them all on."

Originally from New Jersey, Tamar's childhood travels with her pilot father and family served to distance from her childhood peers. "Airplanes feel like a home to me, and generally I love movement," she testifies. "I feel really safe in the sky." She felt more vulnerable in school. "I have never felt much affinity to the people I grew up around," she proclaims.

But this alienation allowed Tamar to explore the unbordered dimensions of her fertile imagination. "It brought me well into my daydreams I suppose," she muses, "I always wrote songs when I was young. I didn't play an instrument or anything, but I would walk around writing songs. I sang one of the first songs I wrote at the 6th grade talent show. I still don't know where all those songs came from, but the emotions swelling through me needed to get out somehow and that was how they found their way."

Her older sister's collection of CD's -- including the works of Tori Amos and Suzanne Vega -- struck a resonant, emotional chord. Seeing the Indigo Girls live was a stunning revelation. "It was like prayer; like relief. I knew I needed to go there," she recalls. After high school, Tamar traveled to Israel, moved through the Middle East and Greece, busking in the streets focusing her songwriting skills, living her poetry.

Following a return to states, Tamar resumed abbreviated college studies and recorded her first demo. She moved to Boulder, Colorado and lived, briefly, the life of a troubadour. Still, Tamar's search lead her back to the skies, and to Europe. She lived at the Findhorn Foundation, a spiritual and educational community in Northern Scotland, where she studied and worked the garden. Then, she was accepted at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts in the U.K., a school founded by Sir Paul McCartney, where she performed, recorded and advanced her songwriting to the next level. Still, it wasn't so much the external forces she was absorbing as her own recognition of her inner creative powers. "Music just lives its own life," says Tamar, " it just breathes with its own breath and can get through anything. It's beautiful. It's blind."

Whether reading poetry in an alleyway in some sun drenched medina, rocking out with her band in a British pub, or playing the NYC SInger/Songwriter circuit, she remains totally connected to her art and her audience. Her newest EP; Girls away from girls, serves to further introduce Tamar Haviv to the world. Her in-progress Full length CD features Jerry Marotta (Paul McCartney, Peter Gabriel, Indigo Girls) , Sara Lee (The B-52's, Ani Difranco) and many other known talents.

"I wish I was a song and I could just be a part of everyone's daily experience," she confesses, "Like I could come off of the radio and listen to people breathing. Like I could be with them so we're not just so alone. I just want to know people and love them. That's what I do."


Dan Kimpel
Music Connection Magazine