Oil, Solar Energy and the Sheik's Daughter

fairplanet (fp): Jewish Monkeys. What is that? A band? A movement? A manifestation of ...?

Jossi Reich (JR): A satirical rock-band with undeniable Jewish background. 

fp: Caravan Petrol is a song from Renato Carosone, born in 1920 in Naples. How come you covered this song? Alongside the funny contradictions of life and its moral pitfalls, the political aspect in your lyrics seem to be of concern. Is that a programmatic idea of Jewish Monkeys? How did you come up with the idea of the story to the video?

JR: Since the original song tells us about the driver of the fuel-truck, I came up with the issue of global-warming, which inspired our singer-song-writer Dr. Boiko to write the story about the loser, who is fond of solar-energy, leaves rotten civilization for the desert, where he falls in love to the daughter of the sheik and – to his oil-wealth.

fp: Is the ever lasting temptation of corrupting human being's good intentions the cause for the mess we're living in?

JR: Absolutely. Money should be abolished. Future generations will do it and substitute our greed for money for the greed of love. Absolute surveillance will reign instead, although a hero like Snowdon or his fans would not like this. But those who will look for us will do this out of love and care for our well-being. Utopian thinking is our only chance to survive and prevail on the traumatized animal in us.

fp: Is solar energy a big thing in Israel? What would change if people didn't need any more oil all of a sudden?

JR: It is, like everywhere else. Ask Merkel what would happen without oil, she knows better, she sees the big picture. I am only a narrow-minded Jewish Monkey.

fp: You and your band are based in Tel Aviv. However, you are going back and forth between Germany and Israel. Do you work in both places? Is there a significant difference for you as an artist?

JR: I actually never work, and only fly to Germany, when somebody needs me, which happens less and less. Tel-Aviv inspired me a lot, and the Jewish Monkeys could only be created in this creative environment, BUT such a crazy project could only be founded by me and Ronni Boiko, two crazy Jewish German immigrants. Who would have never done this in Germany, but in Israel, a warring and occupying nation, which would have never produced such a shitty band, without us two peaceful German morons, who would never ever survived World War II, since we never served in the Zionist army, who would be completely unnecessary, if Hamas would be a Mahatma-Ghandi-organization. But let´s drop this. Politics is only for politicians, not for fairplanet-visitors.

fp: Jewish monkeys are going on tour soon. Where will you perform?

JR: Prussia, Bavaria, Hess and in Karlsruhe. In which German state do we find THIS provincial town? I forgot.

fp: Any plans for the time after the tour already?

JR: Going on with being funny and singing stupid songs, but NOT to follow the path of Robin Williams. I am sure, that he regretted it, in the moment he did it. What do you think?

The Jewish Monkeys on MANIA REGRESSIA tour 2014. See tour dates on the poster. 

Their FB page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/JEWISH-MONKEYS/75647383544

Josef Reich is a musician, author and the publisher of fairplanet.org