Faith, hope and rock hip-hop

Matisyahu wears his Jewish beliefs proudly when he performs.

When Matisyahu was 14, he left his home in the United States and headed to Israel - chiefly to get out of going to school.

All he had was his bags, a bongo drum and a sense of youthful rebellion.

"I wanted to go to Israel for a couple of reasons and one of them was because I wasn't enjoying school," he says cheekily.

But he returned from his four-month stint committed to Judaism.

"Subconsciously I think I really wanted to explore my Jewish identity even though at the time it wasn't a deep, core part of myself."

The modest and softly spoken 27-year-old singer and musician, who changed his name from Matthew Miller when he was 19, plays one show in Auckland on July 27 at the Studio on K Rd. He's here to promote his second studio album, Youth.

He was brought up in a Jewish family but once he got to Israel, and especially after visiting Jerusalem, he was exposed to a different level of Judaism.

"For me, growing up, it was more of a cultural thing. We knew it was a part of us, but we didn't necessarily feel it in a relevant way. You know you're Jewish, you know there's certain holidays that you keep and certain customs that you have, but none of it is ever really that important.

"When I went to Israel, for the first time I saw Jews whose Judaism was very very relevant to their life and I saw the history of the Jewish people.

"I think being there, and seeing that, brought out that element that was already in my soul. Then all of a sudden I'd hear something about the Holocaust, or Jews who were killed for being Jewish, and that would strike a deeper place within me."

The music came a little later in his teens when he started rapping at open mic competitions.

Now, Matisyahu's sound is a blend of reggae, hip-hop and quite often, swirling psychedelic rock, with conscious and uplifting lyrics.

Adding to his intrigue is the fact he wears full Jewish regalia on stage and he takes his faith so seriously that he stopped stage diving at gigs because the only woman he is allowed to touch is his wife.

If all this sounds a little like a gimmick, think again. Matisyahu is not a novelty act.

"First and foremost I think people connect to the music. The soul of the music can make a person dance, or meditate, or it can bring out certain emotions in a person. So I think what people connect to is the sound of the music which is the music, the lyrics, the soul and the vibe."

And he is adamant he does not preach or push his beliefs.

"Preaching is when the person feels they are the owner of a certain truth, like one person has it, the other person doesn't, and they are going to give it to them. Whereas sharing is when you put your experiences out there and you allow people to connect to them or not connect to them ... so, I try and stick with the sharing idea, rather than the preaching.

"All you can do as an artist and a musician is put yourself out there and then let happen what's going to happen," he concludes.

Since the release of his first album, Shake Off the Dust ... Arise, in 2004, which contained the stunning single, King Without A Crown, his profile has been huge and he found it a little hard to handle.

"I've never done this before," he says. "You walk into a room and the focus is on you and the people want to be near you and talk to you.

"You don't know if it's because people think you're more than you actually are, or that people are actually inspired by the music and want to connect with the creator of the music. It can be overwhelming."

Compared to Shake Off the Dust ... Arise, Youth is more of a band effort as well as being stylistically more diverse.

"I wanted the opportunity to create music that was a mixture of all the different sorts of music that have influenced me," he says.

He explains how the album's title track is about rebellion, something he associates strongly with his youth.

He borrowed the line "The youth will eject the hollow spirit of falseness, like the body ejects poison" from a sermon his Rabbi gave and uses it as the core part of the song.

"He [the Rabbi] believes that when the youth rebel they are coming from a place of intuition and they react in a knee-jerk way. So Youth is about taking that raw emotion and focusing it in order to change the world."

We have a revolution on our hands, people, but it's up to you whether you want to join in.

LOWDOWN

Who: Matisyahu
What: Jewish singer, beat boxer and rapper on a reggae, hip-hop and rock'n'roll tip
New album: Youth, out now
Past albums: Shake Off the Dust ... Arise (2004); Live At Stubbs (2006)
Playing: Thursday, July 27, The Studio, K'Rd.