We had the good fortune of connecting with Yotam Ishay and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Yotam, what professionally most matters to you?

Consistency. Mainly with 2 things:
Practice and development
When you practice and develop in your craft and anything that is relevant to it you are also increasing the value of your “stock”. As a musician, and especially a performing one, each opportunity you might be getting from an acquaintance or someone in your network could lead to other opportunities if you are performing as best as you possibly can. A lot of those excellent performances would be because you were the best version of yourself at that time. Aside from that, when you are authentic with your art, other artists whom you work with will more likely feel like taking part and will care about you and your art. Sometimes they might even give you further motivation!
One of the things that help me to perform in an optimal way is meditation, which I have been practicing for 3 years. Meditation helps me focus when performing and improvising on the piano. Sometimes in a concert, there would be a part where it’s just me playing. That for me is one of the best opportunities to meditate and just be in the moment of creation. Furthermore, it will help me focus later on in the concert. Great music could come out when you’re not even trying and letting the music happen by itself from within you.
Output
As a composer, producer, or any creative artist, it is important to maintain a consistent flow of works and production. As someone who did not commercially release music until 3 years ago, I now understand the meaning of it and how people perceive it when you have an album out. I released one full-band album in 2020 and another one in 2021 which is solo piano. Currently I’m working on another one to be released next fall. My goal is to release an album/EP of around 25-30 minutes of music every year.

Please tell us more about your work. We’d love to hear what sets you apart from others, what you are most proud of or excited about. How did you get to where you are today professionally. Was it easy? If not, how did you overcome the challenges? What are the lessons you’ve learned along the way. What do you want the world to know about you or your brand and story?
In my experience, what sets me apart from others is how my musical influences are varied yet still come to be holistic in the end. My journey with harmony began very early, around the age of six when there was a song that was played in class gave me chills. Since then I have been obsessed with discovering more pleasant & enchanting harmonic colors. I found those in the music of Claude Debussy, Joni Mitchell, Bach, and others. I always get excited when I find something fresh. It is that journey that I’ve been through that has been making my music sound as it does.

As for brand, my music is an extension of who I am as a human being, so it feels strange for me to call it “Brand”. But there is a “Sound” to my music that I project outwards, which has been described as both sophisticated and intimate as if invited to a small gathering with friends. I would also add that my last album “SEED” is the most personal. It feels like a conversation between me and just one more person, where the language spoken is music.
Looking at challenges, there were many. I come from a small town where a music scene doesn’t exist. It is thanks to my mentors at the time that I was able to find a direction to go and a goal to strive for. I also have struggled before with physical issues that prevented me from working on music, but that ended up giving me more motivation. There were two years when I couldn’t really play more than a couple of minutes a day. This was a journey that was not easy to go through.
Right now I feel like I have so much more to do and have released so little of my art yet. Still, it was definitely not easy to get to where I am today. I do believe that when I take care of the music, it takes care of me. The last year has proven to me that success could from places that you might not expect. My last album “SEED” (Released in October 2021) is an example of that. It’s a solo piano album that I recorded in my room where I grew up. All during lockdown. There was one track in the album that I chose to sing on. Up until that moment of recording, I had never really sung with someone else in the room. Surprisingly, that track ended up in Spotify playlists and by now has already gotten close to 100,000 streams.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Griffith observatory for sure because it’s my favorite spot for daydreaming. It’s such a peaceful place to hang in when you have a day off. And in the night – Venice, to go see some concert or some play chess on the beach.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I would like to dedicate this shoutout to my Berklee/Boston fam. I lived in Boston for 5 years. During that time I met fellow students who later became dear friends and colleagues. Some of them are from places in the world that I had never been to or could never visit. These are people who inspire me, help me go through stuff, and constantly push me forward. They became my second family and I owe a lot of what I have achieved to them.

Website: www.yotamishay.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/yotamishaymusic

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yotam-ishay-860365a7/

Youtube: www.youtube.com/c/YotamIshay

Image Credits
Yoel Levy Raanan Gabay Daniel Gan Or

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