IKAR Chazan Hillel Tigay Drops Secular Album ‘Palms Station’
3 years
IKAR‘s Chazan Hillel Tigay has been busy branching out into secular music and has just released the video for his song “I don’t know the way to your heart,” from his new album, “Palms Station.” But if you think he’s abandoned his Jewish musical roots, you’d be wrong. Here’s what he told SoCal Jewish News:
“ ‘Palms Station’ is me coming full circle. I started out doing alternative pop music [and] transitioned to Jewish rap in the band “MOT.” Then I did two Judeo albums, which were spiritual music/as influenced by pop music.
“Finally, I am doing pop music as influenced by a spirituality project. I feel like I am at the high point of my creative powers because I have been able to stand in front of a congregation and figure out ways to use music as an instrument, which helped people feel connected to a power greater than themselves, and to their community. While this music isn’t specifically Jewish prayer music, hopefully some of it will give people a similar reaction and make them strive to be better and more whole.
“ ‘I don’t know the way to your heart’ (along with ‘I can’t find you’), are both songs about searching, couched as love songs. They are [also about] the search for the Divine. There is nothing more Jewish to me than being a searcher. We are a people who both wrestle with God and search for God.”