Israel is drumming up support from Rebel Leah
Jewish Telegraph, December 2017
DRUMMER Leah Shapiro won’t let the BDS brigade stop her visiting Israel.
Denmark-born Leah wasn’t a member of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club when the rock group performed in Israel in 2007.
“I was friends with some of the crew guys and they talked about how amazing it was,” she told me.
“I would love to go. It hasn’t come up yet while I’ve been in the band, but I hope to get there soon. That would be incredible.”
It would also give her a chance to find members of her extended family in Israel.
But Leah also knows that announcing an Israel date would bring the wrath of Roger Waters and the anti-Israel brigade down on the group — as Lorde experienced this week.
Leah questioned the motives of those calling for a cultural boycott of Israel.
She said: “What is Roger Waters hoping to get out of that? I don’t know how it will help the bigger picture of everything that is going on there.”
Leah added that it would be a better idea if someone put on a “concert that’s for everyone. That would be a more interesting concept.
“Just to say boycott something, that doesn’t come with an idea of how to resolve certain things or whatever aspects of the situation he is not happy with. That is a simplistic protest.”
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club are releasing their eighth studio album, Wrong Creatures, in January — the follow-up to 2013’s Specter At The Feast.
Wrong Creatures was meant to be released earlier this year, but Leah said: “It wasn’t quite ready. We thought we’d be further along.
“We pay a lot of attention to detail in all stages of writing and recording. There were some details not quite right, which we knew we could make better.”
Leah added that the new album is moodier than its predecessor and there is a “little more finesse in the playing. We are more focused on dynamics.
“We’ve been performing the new songs on tour and they have gone down well.”
Leah’s musical education started with her dad Sol’s extensive vinyl collection, but it wasn’t until her mid-teens that she took up the drums.
The thought of being a frontwoman or guitarist was her “worst nightmare”.
She said: “I love drums. There is an element of meditation in how I like to play — so much repetition. I have to be so locked in to what my fellow musicians are doing and provide a solid backbone for them and give the music a heartbeat.”
After gaining a BA at New York University, Leah was “panicking”.
She explained: “I was trying to figure out ways to make money from music and not have to have a normal job. I had weird odd jobs like handing out balloons in the park or pouring shots in a bar.
“I was determined to make it work, I had no back-up plan.”
Her first band was The Glass in New York, which led her to Dead Combo and then The Raveonettes.
Leah joined BRMC in 2008 when Nick Jago left. She made her debut on Beat the Devil’s Tattoo in 2010 and then Specter At The Feast.
The gap between the new album and its predecessor was due to Leah suffering from a medical condition which required brain surgery.
In 2014, she was diagnosed with Chiari malformations, a rare disorder that restricts the flow of spinal fluid between the brain and spine.
“I was suffering from neurological issues for a year-and-a-half,” she said. “I randomly had an MRI for a different reason and discovered it.
“Once I got a better understanding, things started making sense. I had been fighting my body every night behind the drum kit.
“It was a relief when diagnosed, but horrifying at same time.”
She also discovered how loved she was in the BRMC community.
Fans set up a crowdfunding page and raised the money to pay for the surgery.
“It was so humbling and incredible,” Leah said. “I don’t know how I could repay all those people who were so supportive. We have an amazing fanbase.”
But recovery after surgery was slow.
“I had dark days,” she said. “ My surgeon put together a ‘get back on drums’ rehabilitation programme that lasted four weeks.
“What made it darker was that it felt like the whole rehabilitation period of six months was non-stop doctor stuff — physical therapy three or four times a week, osteopathy and other check ups.
“That was all I did for quite a while. I started losing track of the bigger picture.
“That’s why the tour of 2015 was so helpful, even though I wasn’t in peak condition . . . but mentally it was a saving grace.”
Leah said bandmates Peter Hayes and Robert Levon were “super supportive”.
“I get a little impatient and they were good at reminding me not to overdo it. After an hour or 90 minutes, I’d get crazy headaches. My tendency would be to power through it, but they were good at stopping me and keeping my spirits up.
“I had a really good surgeon. He was a fan of the band and had an understanding of what is required physically when on tour playing drums.”
Leah says BRMC are a close-knit group.
“It’s a positive experience travelling around like that,” she added. “At first, there were gender issues. Some fans were not thrilled by a female taking over from Nick. But I don’t see that much anymore.
“We were lucky, the three of us, that from the first rehearsal session, we had that kind of telepathic communication. We know where each person is going to go or what they are going to do before they do it.”
She added: “My style is different to Nick’s. I studied a lot of Nick’s playing from YouTube videos. I tried to emulate how he did certain things so the transition wouldn’t feel as drastic for Rob and Pete.
“We just got comfortable playing with each other.
“More or less from the start, I felt this was going to be my family for quite a while.
“I found the two best musicians I could possibly play with. We have a unique musical connection.”
Earlier this year, 22 music fans were killed at Manchester Arena after an Ariana Grande concert, while an Eagles of Death Metal concert at the Bataclan in Paris was attacked by terrorists in 2015 with 89 people killed. And just two months ago, 58 people were killed in Las Vegas by a gunman at the Route 91 Harvest music festival.
Leah, who has played the Bataclan a number of times, told me: “It was completely insane. I got a call when that happened because we have mutual friends and both bands are from Los Angeles.
“I know that venue so well. I tried to imagine all the back exits and backstage layout and how you get that many people out quickly. It’s horrifying.
“Then the Las Vegas thing happened just before we left for Europe, which was really dark and evil, the way that went down.
“I feel like, for me, whether attending or playing a show, that’s where you go to let loose and forget about normal life. You try to be free and live in the bubble of the music. It’s sad that it has penetrated this world.”
Leah added: “When we go on stage, I don’t think about it. I hope that will never happen again at any show.
“I don’t want to go on stage with that in the back of my mind because I want to give everything I have to give to the people who have shown up, despite probably having the same thoughts in the back of their minds.”
On a lighter note, Leah said her surname “is quite common in America, but in Denmark it is not as common. I don’t think people know it’s a normal Jewish last name, just an unusual name.
“There was one other Shapiro in Denmark last time I looked.”
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