Beila, “Paper is White” EP
Source: Beila Ungar, Paper is White (Soundcloud link)
Name: Beila
College/year: GS ‘22 (Junior)
Describe a bit about the new music you just released: The EP consists of 4 classic Yiddish folk songs which I produced in a spacey alternative pop style as well as one nign (yiddish for ‘melody’, traditionally sung with a single syllable of oyoyo or daydayday etc) which I produced in the style of Enya’s Boadicea.
What was your inspiration for creating and releasing this music: I have been around Yiddish and klezmer music for my whole life. Recently I have also been going to a lot of Yiddish and Klezmer workshops. Everyone is always so creative and inspiring at those events and I always feel compelled to create after attending. This year I went to Yiddish New York (on zoom) and made the first song, Oy, Dortn Dortn, for the cabaret that they have and then the rest came after that. I also wanted to bring new musical influences into these songs, many of which were written in the early 20th century and have been interpreted many many times. I took inspiration from Enya, Christine and the Queens, RadioHead and Fran and Flora and other music that I love to listen to. A lot of electronic pop influences that I hadn’t heard mixed with Yiddish music before very much.
Tell us a bit about the recording process: I recorded and produced the whole EP on my own in my apartment in Logic Pro. It was challenging because I live in New York City so my apartment can be quite noisy. I got some help with the mixing/mastering from a friend (also a GS student who is part of the band Lucite Tokki) and then I tried to emulate the way that they did that. I’m pretty new to recording/producing so it was a lot of learning as I went along.
Favorite song from the album/EP: Probably Mayn Rue Platz (My Resting Place). I love the melody and I find the song very emotional, especially when you understand the lyrics which reflect the experiences of an industrial garment worker in the early 20th century.
Social Media: Instagram, @beilas
You can find Paper is White on Soundcloud here.