Jungle

Tamar Haviv

Tamar Haviv

Tamar is a quirky singer-songwriter who is set to release her debut album You and Me Without Pajamas on July 29th. While the record hasn't officially dropped yet, it has already been praised as a "Terrific debut" by Sir Paul McCartney and "Excellent" by Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls!

With a refreshing range of heartfelt ballads, fun pop tunes and tales of love and longing, the album features various notable musicians such as Jerry Marotta (Paul McCartney, Peter Gabriel, Indigo Girls), Sara Lee (The B-52's, Ani DiFranco) and Kevin Salem (Rachael Yamagata, Mandy Moore). For more information, please visit: http://tamarhaviv.com/.

Greatest soundtrack?

This is too big of a question for me to handle on a Monday afternoon. Seriously, I don't want to have a panic attack right now.

What kind of shampoo do you use?

Herbal nice ones

Do you own flip flops?

Yes

How many places have you lived?

I'm really bad at math but....13 maybe

Ever use RedBox?

Yes

Something crunchy?

The Naked burrito at Blossom - they overcook their rice, shouldn't be crunchy, sad day...but I know they are working on this :)

Have you ever been to a red carpet event?

Yes, well, hmmmm, now I'm second guessing- is their an 'official' person that makes an event 'officially' red carpet? There should be a muppet for this. The red carpet muppet referee. I vote for the muppet.

Can you open your eyes underwater?

Yes

How did you manage to get your music into Paul McCartney's hands?

I'm a massage therapist and during the summers work in a small beach town - We were on line at the same veggie food place and I offered my cd to him. He kindly accepted & was lovely. A couple weeks later I ran into him again at the same place and he sang me back one of my own songs - I was stunned that he had accepted my cd to begin with let alone actually listened to it- and was truly humbled & blown away that he remembered one of my songs and offered me such kind words followed by introducing me to his family!!!!- it was beyond, just BEYOND.

What is the driving message behind your music?

Well, the driving message behind my daily intention is being kind...being open....even if it can break my heart at times, which I assure you it does. I try to believe in the best in people and things even when fear and demons are breathing down my neck ...anything positive you can take from these songs - even if its just resonating with the pain & longing and feeling some comfort in that ...the heaviness of feeling alone can be so huge sometimes but i find that remembering we are not alone in that particular feeling is important. Ahhhhhh, dan bern has this great line in his song Wasteland, 'and in a city of three million two hundred and sixty nine thousand nine hundred eighty four everyone was lonely', it's so heartbreakingly sad and yet beautiful somehow, how together we really all are.

Interview by Kara Johnson