To you, my dedicated followers and extended family of all those years, this one is for you.
I don’t tend to write essay-style posts and, honestly, I don’t think I ever wrote a post like this in my life (even not in what was so-called High School). But this decade is coming to an end, and, as part of my upcoming resolutions (which hopefully won’t be a forgotten memory again by February), I decided to start writing my notes, thoughts, and what’s in between on a public blog.
For those of you who don’t really know me, my name is Snir Yamin, I’m an Israeli national that made the U.S my home since 2016, by blood and tears, but we will talk about this later on. My musical journey officially began in 2009. I had these really expensive photoshoots taken of me to make the cover art of my debut album at the time, but for Public Relations purposes as well.
One of the pictures of off the debut album photoshoots. This picture became the cover art of one of the singles.
Somehow I played the card right that year, which landed me my first real gig in Tel Aviv’s most prominent music venue, called The Barby. Think of Blonde Redhead, Regina Spektor, Ziggy Marley, Lil Dicky, Passenger, Jose Gonzales, and such. These are the artists who performed and keep performing at The Barby regularly, so you can imagine my excitement…
It was an MTV-Unplugged style performance. I opened that evening with an entirely acoustic set, in what was a 360-degree stage. It was one-of-a-kind-production, and it was sold-out. It was my first, freaking, real show EVER (excluding the occasional pubs and restaurants in the small town where I grew up). I remember, boy, it’s funny that two days before the concert, I had this Yamaha keys that were like, plastic and for practice-only. But I really wanted to play a real piano on that show (it was only for 1 song, and I couldn’t bring my childish Yamaha keys to the club… Of course). So, I bought a second-hand, $1,000, Roland key that, at that time, weighted more than me. For one. Freaking. Song.
For years later, it was in use when I had my studio at my Mom’s house, so I’m grateful to that impulse buy, after all. I dressed to impress, I’ll give myself that. I wore this army-style jacket my Mom bought me when we visited New York City a year prior. I still love this jacket, I might bring it back!
My 2009 performance at The Barby (mark my words, I will bring this jacket back in style!)
At the end of that show, I met who became to be my first manager. Can you imagine my overwhelm? I just finished my first headlining sold-out show at one of Israel’s most famous venues, AND I just got myself a manager?! WTF is this life?! Also, after finishing the concert, I had my friend take a video of me singing one of my well-known songs at that time.
The video was really compelling because the crowd sang along at some point. I decided to upload it to YouTube (it was really new at that time). I don’t think the video is still up there, so don’t try to look it up, you sneaky little creatures… A day later, I got many Facebook messages from companies and agents, telling me that they were really impressed with the video. Mainly, they said, given the fact that it was my first show, and I was only 19 at the time.
They want to promote me, and I even got a deal with an Israeli Wireless Company, called Cellcom. This song of mine was used in commercials for that Wireless company, and I was blown away.
Well… Yeah, it sounds better than it really was (of course).
It appears that my manager at that time, was in love with me, as I discovered through very up-front confession, and I couldn’t really handle it. After a few shows that were booked, we decided to part-ways. But hey, maybe it wasn’t that bad after all, as she invited me to her wedding a few years later! It all happened really fast, and it was really overwhelming for me. I pumped the breaks shortly after and decided to take some time off of my yet-to-begin, music career.
That was my 2009, the year that kicked it but also kicked my feelings and introduced me to what anxiety is all about. More on that later on. I will try to dedicate every post to each year, and I promise you, if you survived until here, you are up for a treat, and some Hollywood material script called my life.
xx
Love, S.
