Meet Dov Rosenblatt, Duvid Swirsky, and Ami Kozak of Distant Cousins

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dov Rosenblatt, Duvid Swirsky, and Ami Kozak.

Dov, Duvid, and Ami, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
The three of us had been overlapping for years with our other bands in the small niche world of Jewish rock music. We were all fans of each other’s work, and we’d write songs together on the side until a few years ago when we all found ourselves living in LA, minutes away from each other. Now we’ve been writing, recording, and performing together for over five years and true to our name, we’ve become a family.

Our tour schedule is unique since we observe the Sabbath (we unplug from sundown on Friday until the stars come out Saturday night), so we’re a Sunday – Thursday act. We’ve been fortunate to have our music reach lots of fans all over the world thanks to having our songs featured in a bunch of tv shows, films, commercials, and trailers.

We plan to continue to tour in support of our debut LP we just released on Jullian Records, called ‘Next of Kin.’ We’re so excited to see the love it’s been getting from fans listening on Spotify – and even on vinyl!

Has it been a smooth road?
It’s always a challenge being both family men and professional musicians. On top of that, due to our religious beliefs and practices, we’ve had to turn down major touring opportunities which always stings a bit. In the end, we see it as a positive because it forces us to be that much more creative, efficient and focus while allowing us to spend quality time with our families.

Our friend and fellow Sabbath observant artist, Peter Himmelman, once told us, “If ya can’t make it in six days, ya can’t make it in seven.”

As far as the state of the music industry today and the environment that we find ourselves in, it’s a constant test of patience, passion, and will. The dance between self- doubt and complete confidence is what keeps us on our toes.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
As a working band in today’s music industry, we have to do it all ourselves – completely DIY. We each have our own home studios, and we produce all of our own music, from writing and producing, to mixing and mastering. Thanks to modern recording technology, we are able to make music anywhere, from the road or from our living rooms. (We’ve actually been fortunate to have our recording sessions and production techniques featured in Apple’s official Logic Pro Music software training series.)

In addition to releasing albums, we also have worked on composing for tv shows and other custom projects. Recently, we’ve developed a new program we’re excited about called ‘Cousins in the Classroom’ in which we bring our writing and recording process into a classroom setting. Over the course of one hour, we collaborate with the students to write and record an original song from scratch. It’s so refreshing to witness the kids’ pure joy for music and their uninhibited creativity; it brings us right back to our roots.

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
LA is the place where we finally found ourselves all living a few blocks away from each other, after years of overlapping from other cities, so yes, this is the place for us!

We immediately were welcomed by our favorite venue, Hotel Cafe, and we’ve played there regularly over the past few years and have met many musician friends there.

Our city is very spread out, and so we’d recommend finding your community of songwriters and creative people and when things are happening, be sure to show up.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.DistantCousinsOfficial.com
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/distantcousinsofficial/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DistantCousinsOfficial/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/3distantcousins

Image Credit:
Devyn Vaughan, Ehud Lazin, David Schlussel, Danielle Parsons

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