They opened for The Mars Volta in Amsterdam and played alongside Dub Trio in Israel. Meet Tiny Fingers, an Israeli band comprising Oren Ben David, Boaz Bentur, Tal Cohen and Nimrod Bar, who are now on their second tour of India. Before their performance at Bacardi NH7 Weekender Express in Calcutta in association with t2, on November 3, lead guitarist Oren Ben David took a few questions from t2. The band performs today at Meghalaya for the Bacardi NH7 Weekender.

You had performed in Pune, Bombay, Delhi and Varanasi in 2015. And now you’ll be playing in Calcutta...

It feels amazing and it’s wonderful to be here again. I really like India. It was great touring India last time and I’m super excited to be back. Maybe we will go to Rajasthan, travel around, do our music and chill. And with the last tour people got to know our music more. When we come to India we feel far from home, but at the same time it’s like being home. It’s funny!

Your Instagram has pictures with Indian instruments like the sitar. Are you guys drawn to Indian cultures and traditions?

Yes! We are quite into most cultures and traditions, but the Indian ones are something special. I’m learning and discovering more about them. We love Indian classical music.

Why have you called yourselves Tiny Fingers?

(Laughs) We didn’t plan it. Even at our fifth show we didn’t have a name. So at one show a friend of ours walked up on stage and said we must represent ourselves as Tiny Fingers. And it was such a good show that people remembered that name and so we became the Tiny Fingers.

We just met each other and started playing and jamming. We started experimenting, playing at live shows. After a few years we recorded our first album (Massive Fingers Space-Trip) and it did well in Israel for which we got more shows. And then our other albums followed and we never stopped playing and recording, so here we are.

The music you play is a mix of rock with psychedelic and electronica...

This is a hard question because we don’t know how to describe our music. People may say it is psychedelic but for us it is something that we make naturally. So it is a mixture of many things. Mainly it is the experiences of our lives that has taken the shape of music. We don’t describe it in genres, and each of our albums are different from each other. So it is always changing. It’s not dedicated to one genre, it is a lot of things in one.

Lyrics are not the main aspect of your music. It concentrates more on samples and beats. So is there a feeling, message or emotion that you’re letting out with each song? Or do you just let the listeners come up with their own?

Yes, our music is quite autobiographical where it describes us as people. For me every song is a feeling, a story in my life. So I feel that moment inside the music. Sometimes when the tune is going well, I am reminded of a situation which is of the same vibe of the song and I know the people in the crowd are feeling it too. It is personal but at the same time it is universal.

Is there a spiritual aspect to your music?

For sure. We are really spiritual in our music. For me personally, it helps me get to spiritual places in a way I can’t describe. I take all the magic and the spirituality of life and turn it into something you can hear and listen without any problem.

Your last album, The Fall, was released in 2017, backed up by The Fall — Live At The Dead Sea film. What can fans expect next?

Now we are touring but we are working on some new albums in the studio. It is still in the recording process and we don’t know when it will finish. But all of you’ll will find out the second it is released.

Our music is changing all the time. Many times we just jam and suddenly we’ll pick out some part of it that we like and just develop around it. Sometime someone just has an idea and we work for hours on it at the studio

Tiny Fingers

How do the band members come together and produce their music?

Our music is changing all the time. Many times we just jam and suddenly we’ll pick out some part of it that we like and just develop around it. Sometime someone just has an idea and we work for hours on it at the studio. Sometimes we take up ideas from different songs and create our own… there isn’t a single method, we’re quite dynamic.

Who are the Tiny Fingers when they are off stage?

We just do our own thing. But we also hang a lot and travel together. Travelling is a big part of our life, checking out new places, focusing on art, stuff like that!

What would be your go-to place to travel to?

I really want to go to Japan, never been there. And also South America, Argentina... hopefully we can tour there once, especially South America.

Live jam sessions of the band called Unknown Finger are available on YouTube. There are four episodes so far…

We have a lot of recorded jams and stuff which are just lying around. Tons of hours of playing. We really like it because it is a very big part of our band. So we decided to make the series where we release some music. We really want our fans to hear them.

On their playlist

• Artistes who inspire you: From the classic acts I like Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles and Led Zeppelin. Then of course Bob Marley. From hip hop I really like Dr Dre.
  
• Fave music albums you would suggest to t2 readers: Jimi Hendrix’s Band of Gypsys, which is my favourite. Also, The Mars Volta’s De-Loused in the Comatorium is really good.