The Sea

25 March 2015, 13:00

(Dotan)

Since I can remember I’ve had trouble sleeping. My mind never seems to stop working and I usually feel most inspired late at night. I always thought I had some form of insomnia. Five years ago, while being on vacation in Israel, I had to spend the night on the beach in a tiny hut. It was probably the first time in my life that I slept like a baby and I felt like a completely different person the next day.

The next night the exact same thing happened and I decided to record the sound of the sea on my phone. From that day on I try to spend as much time as possible close to the sea or shore and I even listen to sea sounds before I go to bed. It’s calming to me. It makes my mind stop for a minute. And for some reason it always gives me a very nostalgic feeling.

My album, 7 Layers, is very much inspired by the sea. Renewal. I like the idea that the beach will clean itself everyday. Old memories fade and new memories are being made. It’s big. It’s dark. And yet it provides comfort and peace. It’s meditative. It’s metaphorical. Calming. Nostalgic. Frightening. The title of the album is a reference to the seven layers of our skin. I think you could compare our skin to the ocean. We believe in the idea that our bodies are solid, that they stay the same, but that’s not the case. Our skin dies. Our cells renew. Just like the sea. The tied. I find the concept of digging and looking what’s underneath it all very fascinating.

Listening to the album I’ve used sounds of the ocean in the mix. I recorded these sounds in places such as Stavanger, Tel Aviv (this is where we shot the cover picture for the album), Devon and Scheveningen. These sounds have a certain rhythm to it and I wrote some of the songs while listening to it. The guys in my band definitely think that I’m weird. Whenever they see me sitting somewhere wearing my headphones and having my eyes closed.. they know what’s going on. In high school I used to be the weird guy sitting in a corner by himself and listening to old records. I guess some things just never change...

Dotan plays London's Borderline on 26 March, and his forthcoming album, 7 Layers, is out on 6 April via Virgin EMI. You can see the video for recent single 'Home' here.