Exclusive Interview with Singer/Songwriter Meital

Meital Dohan Interview>Meital has worked out a way to balance singing, acting, and writing while climbing the charts with hit singles. The electronic dance music artist hit the top 10 on Billboard’s Club Chart with her new single “Give Us Back Love” which has also been getting a lot of love on YouTube and Vimeo. “Give Us Back Love” has over 1.8 million views and shows no signs of slowing down.

Meital’s currently busy working on her next single and working on a new TV series that’s in development. She couldn’t say much about the series during our exclusive interview but did reveal an interesting tidbit. “It’s going to be very funny, and you might see my pet tiger in the show,” said Meital.

Exclusive Interview with Meital

How do you know when a song is right for you?

“I have to like it, of course. I have to feel like it’s within the vein of what’s going on right now, what’s hot, and then I make it mine. Usually, I co-create the songs from scratch so I kind of choose the subject of the song altogether.”

Does a song ever go in a direction you didn’t anticipate when you first started working on it?

“Yeah, many times. Like when we created the ‘Yummy Boyz’ song, that was just kind of a joke. [Laughing] We put it together and it became a silly song and then people, for some reason, thought it was cool.”

Does it surprise you sometimes what it is that audiences like?

“I really try to think about something that I can identify with as well. Like, I’m trying to put myself in the place of the audience. I think that people in general, even if some things in pop culture are less quality, some are more quality and all that, I think the audience surprises us and shows us that they support quality and interesting projects. That’s always good to know.”

Do you get something different out of performing live as opposed to being in the studio or filming a music video?

“I think that live performances are all about what you give to the audience. It’s all about the back-and-forth with the audience, so it’s definitely a different experience. When you shoot or work in front of a camera, it’s more that I want to make sure I put out everything I want to put out and I relay all the messages I wanted. But it’s a very different dynamic.

I feel like usually – I’m saying usually but there are always different situations – but usually the easiest thing is to actually do the work, if it’s within a music video or within a performance. Just doing the actual work of performing, that’s the easiest part. The harder part is outside of the performance, to live and to function. Doing paperwork, that sort of thing.”

Meital Interview

Do you feel that making music is more of a collaborative process than acting?

“Well, music is definitely very collaborative. I always co-write the lyrics and the melody with the people I’m working with. As an actress, it really depends on what type of director you’re working with. Some directors are very much…it’s always a collaborative process because you kind of bring in your ideas to the character and your journey with the characters, but some directors like to play their own vision.”

How does the process of co-writing a song work?

“Sometimes I just have ideas coming out of the blue, so then I will record them. They will have tons of recordings with all kinds of soundbites and ideas that I will have. Sometimes I will get a beat, and I’ll come up with a melody or a song to the beat. Sometimes I collaborate with a person who already has something ready. Usually, I collaborate in the early stages or just towards the end by the time I’m finishing the track.

Even if I don’t relate in the beginning, I usually add or change things around so I can relate to it. Otherwise I don’t go forward. I don’t want to be part of something I don’t relate to.”

Who are your musical influences?

“You know, I grew up on soul singers like Nina Simone and Dinah Washington. I like old music. I really like Fleetwood Mac. Later I liked Poison and Beth Gibbons’ album – her solo album. Then I also love Jay-Z and Kanye West. It’s really like different types of music.”

Acting, writing, singing, performing, how do you manage to balance everything?

[Laughing] “I don’t know. I just concentrate on one thing at a time. Every project that I have I’m just focusing on it and give it the effort and focus on what I want to talk about within the project.”