Opium Moon is a super-group of consummate, celebrated musicians/composers from Iran, Israel, Canada, and the U.S., whose love for each other’s passionate, innovative playing and the magic that ensues when they unite, creates what their fans have called “world music from another world.” Their last live show was in Mumbai, India for the TED stage, where they brought 7,000 people to their feet just days before the world shut down due to COVID. It was during that forced reprieve that they conceived and produced this magnum opus which pushes the boundaries of genre, embodying their ethos of freedom and spirituality.
The cinematic richness of Opium Moon’s music is born of all four musicians’ accomplished solo careers, as well as their prodigious composing and playing for film and TV. While the last 18 months halted all touring, the group forged ahead. In addition to co-producing the Opium Moon album, Haydn released her sixth solo album earlier this year for Lakeshore Records, scored the music for two feature documentaries by Oscar-winning and -nominated directors (Strip Down, Rise Up for Netflix and Ruth: Justice Ginsberg in Her Own Words for Starz), as well as composing the music for Netflix’s record-breaking hit Ginny & Georgia.
Bassist Itai Disraeli recorded and produced a new album with his jazz group Maetar, to be released next year. Founder of the music program at Los Angeles’ prestigious Wildwood School, he designed a new online forum to continue teaching his young students during the lockdown. He also contributed additional music to Haydn’s scoring projects and co-produced NIGHT + DAY with her and the band.
What’s your story as a group?
All four of us in Opium Moon have been playing our instruments violin, Santoor (Persian hammered dulcimer), Bass, percussion since we were small children… Lili Haydn’s mother used to joke that she learned to play violin in the womb and it was very irritating!
We’ve all been trained classically in our different traditions from around the world Iran, Israel, Canada and the United States in western and eastern classical music and we came together in Los Angeles, falling in love with each other‘s sounds and are so grateful for the chemistry that we have together! From the very first time we played together it was magic!
What do you want your music to communicate?
We come from Iran, Israel, Canada, and the United States, from Muslim Jewish and Christian backgrounds, but when we play we leave our borders and at the door, making peace through harmony. We encode the music with our intention to be loving, respectful, free, fluid, receptive and generous with each other and we hope people will feel that when they listen! We believe that the way we make music is actually a template for how to make peace in the world…
What Are some sources of inspiration for your storytelling?
Everything is inspiration! Western and eastern classical music – (a favorite inspiring album for Opium Moon is “call of the valley” by Harprasad Chaurasia), The visionary poets from all over the world, the mystical traditions of world, The flutter of birds, thunder, and music for film (Ennio Morricone, Hans Zimmer, Peter Gabriel). There’s a poem by the great Sufi poet Hafiz called “She Responded” translated by Daniel Ladinsky like this:
The birds favorite songs you do not hear. For their most flamboyant music takes place when their wings are stretched above the trees and they are smoking the opium of pure freedom… I once asked a bird “how is it that you fly in this gravity of darkness?“
She responded “Love lifts me!”
Who is an artist that you look up to more than others today?
It’s not so much a question of more or less; it’s a question of depth of feeling
We feel that anyone who creates is making magic, and should be supported. There are so many challenges in this world; just creating in the face of darkness is a revolutionary act. Of course there are some artists whose authenticity and passion speak to us…
We always go for what creates a deep sense of beauty wonder joy and feeling.
Louis Armstrong John Coltrane ,Billie holiday Jimi Hendrix Bob Marley Nikhil Banerji Harriprassad Chaurasia, Isaac Stern, Steve Gadd,
What’s the record or artist that made you realize you wanted to be musicians and play in a band?
It was not a single record it was a life realization that this is who and what we are . We had to fight for it from a young age. Of course there are life changing albums…to name a few: The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Cocteau Twins, Jimi Hendrix, Louis Armstrong, Nikhil Banerji
Tell us about your latest release and how it came about
Music is life and our music reflects our lives. We love the slow hypnotic magic of our first album, but we also love to jam and make people dance, so we put all the lovemaking music on the night album and all the groovy danceable songs on day and called it Opium Moon night and day!
What inspires and influences your sound?
Everything we hear from sounds of animals nature sounds the city to the sounds of every music we’ve ever heard from Hasidic Jewish music to Arabic chants – from prayers of every language to the most raucous sound – we are constantly in search of new sounds and new musical traditions to inspire us.
What’s your favorite tune of yours?
Dhikr Night, Caravan and Dream
Where are some things you really want to accomplish as a band?
To be able to play and share our music all over the world with as many people as possible…to play live shows and touch people’s hearts all over the world; to learn how to play all the instruments that we play on a much higher level; to stay connected spiritually to the Source and our highest selves.
Favorite lyric you ever wrote?
Opium Moon is mostly an instrumental band, but we are all solo artists in our own right… Lili Haydn is the singer/songwriter of the bunch and a favorite lyric is “I am a man. I will be counted. The Lord who brought me here wants me to be free. The Lord who brought me here brought me to my knees. You can kill the dreamer but you can never kill the dream.”
Itai Disraeli writes:
“Pure Freedom
Pure freedom and love
That’s the sky
That I fly
Free”
Was there ever a moment when you felt like giving up?
We’ve never wanted to give up the music or the soul!… the business as a whole is different story….
The great comedian Lotus Weinstock (also Lili’s mother) used to say “the only thing that’s fair is between you and the creation.“ The ups and downs of the music business are very intense, so if you’re not in love with the creative process it can be very discouraging sometimes. For all of us, music is really the only thing that makes our hearts sing. There’s always that hellish rabbit hole available, but we are so grateful for the opportunity to make magic with each other and music every day!
We feel so grateful and blessed to have the gift of music and have the gift of Opium Moon!
What is the best advice you’ve ever gotten?
Be completely present
The way to the party is already the party
To be good at music, you have to be good at life!
Don’t assess your life when you’re tired.
Compassion is the sweetest of the passions – Lotus Weinstock
Where do you think the next game changer will be in the music industry and entertainment scene?
The biggest game changer we would like to see is control of music being taken out of the hands of the merchants and put back into the hands of the fans and the artists. We would like to see art and music valued, prioritized and taught in schools…which would elevate everyone..We’d like to see artists be fairly compensated for their work and live music and music education sweeping the world.
