Matisyahu
Matisyahu
Matthew Paul Miller, known by his Hebrew and stage name Matisyahu, is a Jewish American reggae vocalist, beatboxer, and alternative rock musician...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionMusician
Date of Birth30 June 1979
CountryUnited States of America
along dressing jackson love michael music singing time
I always had a love of music, from the time I was a little kid, dressing up and singing along with Michael Jackson songs.
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I'm vulnerable reading people's comments on Facebook.
family good typical
I don't partake, really, of any of the typical rock-star-lifestyle things you could think of. I try to be responsible when I'm out on the road. I take it pretty seriously, what I'm doing, as something that's good for the world, and my family, and everyone.
certainly customs
I don't really know if I would consider myself anything in particular. I would say I'm inspired in a Hasidic way, but I certainly don't keep all the customs and rules I once did.
music
I kind of think that music in general is a sacred thing, and that's what music has kind of always been for me.
becoming feed fully ideas integrated jewish normal
The Jewish world is becoming fully integrated with the ideas of the normal world. They feed off each other.
bring career decision fighting involved man music pop quite time together whether
There was a time when I was fighting with the decision as to whether or not a Hasidic man could go out and have a music career in the world and be involved in pop culture. For me, I was able to bring those two things together for quite some time.
home jackson kid local lots michael musicals parking performing phish played plays putting shops shows
I started at home as a kid putting on shows and lip-syncing Michael Jackson for the grown-ups. Then, in musicals and plays in school. At 17, I was performing in coffee shops and in parking lots at Phish shows. At 18, I had a band that played local shows in the Northwest.
people prove caught-up
People get so caught up in needing to know and having to prove themselves to be right, and I'm blown away by this.
people unbelievable
It's unbelievable to me how sure people can be of themselves.
bought closed explored
I started out in the Chabad movement, and I started pretty closed up, with the idea of there being that 'this is it.' I bought into that fully. I really explored in depth the Chabad ideology.
people missing
There are a lot of people who get me. There are a lot of people who don't. I wouldn't say there is one thing that everyone is missing. But there are a good amount[b] of people who don't necessarily understand the recent changes I have made.
actual chosen cut dressed ideas interact morning opposite people rules side
In Judaism, there are a lot of rules - everything from which fingernail you cut first to which side you sleep on in bed, to the way you get dressed in the morning, to actual ideas, like ideas about being chosen people or ideas about female/male and how to interact with people from the opposite sex.
gifted material purchase sam turned whatever
As a kid, I was really into performing. I would do choruses, I would do musicals, whatever it was. And then, as a teenager, I got into an acting class at SUNY Purchase for gifted kids, and that really turned me on to material beyond musicals, Sam Shepard, and Christopher Durang plays.