In Conversation with Alnev

Alnev’s EP, Vincent, is a cathartic release of heartache, told through imaginative lyrics and dark pop production that put the hardships of life in perspective.

Havurah Music Director Leah Dunn sits down with singer-songwriter Ari Rabin, professionally known as Alnev, to discuss his latest release, music, and Jewish community. 

Leah Dunn: I’m here with Ari. We are at Patis Bakery in Crown Heights. Do you live in Crown Heights now?

Alnev: Yeah. I’ve lived here for three and a half years. I moved here during Covid. I was in a school in Pennsylvania called Wilkes-Barre. It was an alternative boarding school for kids who don’t fit into mainstream orthodoxy. I went when I was 15, but it got shut down during covid and I got sent home to Florida which is where my family is from. Three months into living back home I realized it wasn’t a good place for me to be. I booked my flight to New York two days later. I packed up all my stuff, moved to New York, slept on my friend’s couch, got an apartment, and I’ve been there for over three years now.

LD: Your parents let you move in the middle of Covid?

A: It wasn’t really their choice. I just did it. 

LD: How did they feel about it?

A: I don’t know. I’m not really close with them. I was 18, so I could do it.

LD: Was the boarding school your choice?

A: Yeah. I didn’t really know what I was getting into at the time. I just knew it would have both English and Hebrew studies, and the way I grew up, we didn’t have secular studies. I had a friend who had gone to Wilkes-Barre so I thought I would check it out, and it changed my life. 

LD: Wow. And what was the community like where you grew up in Florida?

A: I grew up in Coral Springs. Don’t go there, there’s nothing there. It's just this suburban part of Florida, that's 20 minutes from Boca Raton, an hour above Miami, and it’s not near the water. It’s for a lot of people that are trying to raise families. It’s cheaper and the Jewish community has really grown there. It’s a very mainstream Chabad community.

LD: Did you grow up Chabad?

A: Yes I did. My parents were shluchim. My dad runs a girls high school.

LD: Did you host a lot of meals as a family growing up?

A: Growing up, we did, and then it slowed down as we got older. We don’t have to unpack all the trauma. 

LD: Fair enough. So when you went to the boarding school, what was it like for you to explore a different avenue of Judaism?

A: It was mind blowing. I grew up in a very black and white mentality. It was, “do what you have to do. Don’t ask questions.” Not everyone is like that in Chabad, but at least the way that I experienced it, there was such a lack of genuineness. I remember one of my Rabbis at Wilke-Barre talking about having a “relationship with G-d,” and I thought, “I can have a relationship?” The whole paradigm shifted for me. 

Photo by Juda Katz

LD: So where does music fall into all of this? Were you always musical growing up, or did you get into it later?

A: I always wrote things. I wrote lots of short stories and essays in elementary and middle school, also poetry as well. I didn’t think of myself as a songwriter or a singer at the time, but I also imagined myself being famous somehow. For some reason being famous was interesting to me. So music came in when I was around 13 or 14. We had a horrible keyboard from the 90’s, but that was where I started learning. I would just use youtube and figure things out with my ear. The first thing I learned was Für Elise. The way music kind of came to fruition though was at Wilkes-Barre.

It was such a freeing space because I was given the ability to actually do what I wanted. There was a lot of freetime and openings for creative energy, and a lot of creative people as well. So I started writing and writing, and eventually started releasing music.

LD: Yeah, you’ve been releasing for a while right?

A: Since 2019.

LD: Always under the stagename Alnev, or was it something else in the early years?

A: It was always under Alnev. My instagram used to be AriMusic. It started as a poetry account actually, and then I started posting voice memos of songs I wrote. 

LD: Where does the name come from?

A: So it’s actually Hungarian for “Pseudonym.” So my pseudonym is pseudonym.

I actually found it on the internet. For some reason, between the ages of 14-17, I was trying to figure out a stage name for myself, even though I hadn't done anything yet. When I was a kid, I was thinking about fame. I just imagined myself through that lens, and was like, “well what would the stage name be?” I basically had a list of 100 names that I had come up with. Then, at Wilkes, I played a show for the whole school. I had asked the principal if I could use the main room, the tickets were $1, and all the money went to food that I had bought. I even made brownies. So when I was making the posters for the show I knew I had to decide on a name. I knew that I didn’t want to be Ari, since I knew this was going to be my debut. I narrowed it down to 4 names and ran it by all my friends. Most people settled on Alnev. There’s something about it that felt very special to me, and the other 3 names will never be revealed. 

LD: It’s incredible that you had such a vision of yourself as an artist from your very first show. That’s a pretty rare thing to be so forward thinking so early on. What was the reaction like to your debut show?

A: Well, first of all, I was not that good at the time. I didn’t even know how to use the sustain pedal on the keyboard. It was a dark time. I was pretty far from where I am now. My writing was still really good, but it grew over time. But what was so great about that show was there were moments when I remember thinking to myself, “this is the coolest feeling ever.” People were singing along. Some of the kids at school had heard me sing before, and the songs were catchy. One song I sang was “Give Love.” It got a crazy reaction from the crowd. Everyone got up, clapping, dancing, and I thought, “I want to do this forever.” And because of that show, my friend, Mizzi Israel, saw that song and offered to produce it. It was one of the first times someone really believed in me like that. 

Photo by Esther Van Halem

LD: What has your journey with music production been like since then?

A: In the last two years I’ve started to learn production and get better at it. In the last 6 months, I’ve developed it way more. I lean more toward singing, writing, and performing, but it’s good to learn how to be self-sufficient as an artist. This upcoming project, Vincent, was produced by my friends Shlomo Wolf and Yosef David. They’re both incredibly talented people. We were actually all at school in Wilkes together. They were in the older division and I was in the younger division. Shlomo was producing for Yosef at the time, and then offered to produce something for me. In 2019 we reconnected, and he invited me to come to New York, which is when we produced my song “Cool Kids,” and we’ve been working together ever since. Any decision I make, I get his advice. So this project, Vincent is Yosef and Shlomo, and then I produced the intro track. 

LD: So getting more into the songs on the Vincent EP, they have a familiar pop-production with darker vocal performances which makes for a really interesting juxtaposition. Many of the lyrical themes in the EP are pretty dark as well, although you seem like such a bubbly person, so how much of the writing is based on real life?

“Nearly every thing I write about is based on real experiences. It’s my way of shedding a light on some of the pain I’ve been through.”

I’ve found it’s easier to write from a place of struggle and pain. I think there are songs that do have more of a conceptual focus.

LD: Yeah, like the song “Van Gogh.” The lyrics have you stepping into this new character and world you’ve built. 

A: Yeah “Van Gogh” is a focus on the concept of Van Gogh, the artist and his story, and also my own life, and connects our lives. Van Gogh went through many hardships, struggling his whole life, and only after he died he became famous. So what I’m saying in the song is, “Could I be your Van Gogh?” To me that means something along the lines of, “Could I just be famous before I die? Let me get there before I’m dead.” I’ve got the struggle part of life down, I’d like to get some of the joy now. So that’s “Van Gogh” which is more conceptual, and then there are songs like “R.I.P.” which are sort of in their own world.

It’s about a vampire falling in love with a human. I was much more focused on the story while I was writing it. It’s like a toxic relationship, when you want something but you know it’s bad for you. But even in my writing I like my songs to both exist and make sense on their own, but also in the context of a broader work like a full EP, or Album. 

LD: Are there any artists you look up to that you think build cohesive long-form projects really well?

A: I don’t know if people will like me for saying this, but I think Taylor Swift does this very, very well. I’m a Swiftie, but a mediocre Swiftie. Also, Panic At the Disco! is a huge influence of mine. Each album has its own universe both sonically and visually. 

LD: What was your relationship to music like growing up?

A: I mainly listened to Jewish music. All my parents played was Jewish music. My sister and I had to sneak non-Jewish music and download it on her iPod. We would share a pair of wired headphones and listen to music on long car rides. It was Avril Lavinge, One Direction, Shinedown, and Rascal Flatts. It was very eclectic but it worked.

LD: What are your top 3 Jewish songs?

A: “Misery” by Moshav, “Kadshaynu” by Zusha, and “Lo Roeh Oti - Live at Teder” by Eviatar Banai.

Photo by Nechemiah Blokh

LD: Where do you see yourself now in the Jewish community, both as a person and as an artist?

A: I feel very connected to Chabad. Like the Rebbe, I feel very connected to him. I grew up with the Rebbe being a figure for me, and that feeling never went away. I’m incredibly connected with Chabad values, and the Rebbe was a great leader and person. I’ve shifted within the community, I think. I’m more open now, and figuring out where I stand.

But I love my community, and I want to make it a better place. I think the one thing that’s lacking is vulnerability, but this is everywhere in the world right now. So making art that is genuinely about my life, and being vulnerable about my feelings, had an effect on the community.

Chabad kids have reached out to me and said things like, “I started making music because of you,” or even, “Your song saved me,” and that’s a very powerful feeling. It makes it all worth it. 

As an artist, I’m pushing the boundaries a little bit in terms of what I’m creating. Not just in the Chabad community, but also in the world.

“There’s no huge artist right now who wears a kippah. Eventually I want to be that religious celebrity that people can look up to.”

Follow Alnev here.