dublab Radio presents Interviews with Progressive Music Makers & Communities: Tel Aviv – The MENA Region. Our guests come from across the music world, including artists, DJs, journalists, radio hosts, label owners, and more. This series spotlights their compelling work. All interviews were conducted in 2019.

Taking cues from Iran’s fiery and defiant female musical icons like Googoosh and Ramesh, Liraz’s debut album ‘Naz’ reimagines their fighting spirit from the ‘70s. She sings in Farsi and the influences from those Persian forebears, where traditional Persian instruments were framed in a pop sensibility, are ever-present in an album dominated lyrically by the role of women in society and musically by the bounce of hip-hop and electronica with help from from Israeli producer Rejoicer.

Raised in Tel Aviv in Israel, her parents are from Iran yet political circumstances have meant that she’s never been able to visit. The imposed distance has stoked up an immense curiosity about its culture which underscores everything she does as an artist. She has a successful career as an actor in both Israel and Hollywood acting with the likes of Philip Seymour-Hoffman (A Late Quartet) and Naomi Watts (Fair Game), and has spent the past decade whilst on film set location, picking up Iranian music; a self-taught schooling that’s laid the foundations for her records.

Liraz was interviewed by Chris Kissel.

You can listen to the tracks from Liraz’s playlist below:
Sade
Johnny Cash
Altin Gun
Googoosh
Marjan Farsad
Ibeyi
Joni Mitchell
Peter Gabriel
Time of the Gypsies
Dudu Tass

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We’d like to thank our guests and contributors. This series was produced by dublab Radio and Matteah Baim. Interviews were conducted by Alejandro Cohen and Chris Kissel. The dublab sound logo was created by Suzanne Ciani. Alejandro Cohen made our theme music. Editing was done by Matteah Baim. Lauren Denitzio was our graphic designer. This series was made possible by a grant from Asylum Arts.