Bright Ideas

As he wraps up his third album of original lyrics and melodies, MOTTY ILOWITZ has again refused to choose a title track for his newest release. “Picking out one song makes it into a focal point, which gives the message to listeners that the other songs are just sidelights,” he says. Instead, as with his previous albums Machshavos and 5778, he looked for a title that would represent the album as a whole. His latest release is aptly called RAYOINES (raayonos – ideas), as its songs are full of thoughtful observations and original concepts.

“Each song is an idea of its own, and some of them took me years to develop and write,” says Ilowitz, a vocalist who composes his own melodies and writes the Yiddish lyrics as well. “For the song ‘Yiddishe Taavos,’ for example, about the difference between non-Jewish desires and a Yid’s particular taavos  — think calling out yaaleh v’yavo in shul, throwing candy at a chassan after everyone has stopped singing, using a broom to stoke the sereifas chometz fire, or checking out a stranger’s name on his tallis bag — I looked around and observed all sorts of benign things people can’t hold themselves back from. I didn’t want to sing about things that are pure bad middos, or not appropriate for our community. Some of our taavos are pretty innocent, and we can poke fun at them in a gentle way.”

The next step was to compose a tune, then lyrics, then perfect the rhyme and rhythm. But that wasn’t the end. “Once the song was ready, we realized it was too long, and I had to cut some of the lines I’d already spent days perfecting.”

Some of Ilowitz’s songs are based on ideas he’s garnered from others, while others are entirely original. “I enjoy the process of observing, thinking, and writing, then composing and singing,” he says. “People somehow think that the songs just get pulled out of my sleeve. It’s actually a huge investment of time. I’m my own ‘kli rishon’ and ‘kli sheini,’