We recently connected with Breindy And Matt Klawansky and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Breindy and Matt thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you share an important lesson you learned in a prior job that’s helped you in your career afterwards?

One of the things I’ve learned is to get the people who are good at certain things to work with you on something that you either don’t have capacity to do or don’t know how to do. It’s always worth it in the end.
When I want something done, I need to know that the person who I’m using/hiring is brilliant at what they do, and I don’t need to understand any of it – I just need to trust that they know what they’re doing.
It’s like you respect someone in a completely different field to you, not in spite of the fact that you don’t know anything about it, but because of it. The more you don’t know about a certain field, the more you need to fully trust that person or company. It’s always more beneficial to use someone else’s capacities so that you can focus fully on your job and what you’re good at and what you need to be doing.
For example, there’s nothing worse than worrying about sound before a show, and not feeling like the sound crew is capable and knows exactly how to manage an event, especially if some complications arise.
I’ve learned that from some bad experiences.
I often find, in general, when I try cut corners and spend less, I land up losing out in the end and then spending more because I’ve wasted time.
Relationships are everything.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m a composer and singer and part of the duo with my husband, Breindy and Matt.
We make music to biblical texts of King David and like to cross genres and make experimental music that transcends cultures and worldviews.
Matt produces all the music as well as plays his electric and acoustic sounds that shapes the sound and feel.
I compose the songs on my guitar and then Matt really brings out the depth of them through his production.
I love focusing on interesting harmonies and am proud of the 2 recent singles we submitted to the Grammy’s this year.
I’m touched that our collaboration with Mbuzeni, Al Tuster was nominated for best African song at the World Entertainment Awards.
I’ve been truly excited about the networking and relationships I’ve made so far through becoming a Grammy member and I’m excited to continue making music and doing more interesting collaborations.
I think an important aspect of our music is that we’re not distancing ourselves from our roots and heritage. We’re engaging with the original beauty of the texts and as an observant Jewish woman I try keep the music in a sacred space and only perform for women. Yet at the same time, I’m seeing more and more that our music has found a place outside of the community which it was born from and my goals now keep on expanding and progressing.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

I’ve always been drawn to Franz Kafka’s writing.
Not only his short stories but I found his diaries in my grandmother’s flat once and I was immediately quite obsessed with it. It felt like a hidden treasure and a way to really dig into his life and way he thought about things.
There were two specific lines that spoke to me so much that I wrote a poem based on the first one.

Franz Kafka 1922

”Fear means unhappiness; but it does not follow from this that courage means happiness; not courage which possibly aims at more than our strength can achieve; not courage, then but fearlessness with its calm, open eye and stoical resolution.”

He continues with words I’ve always related to and affects how I work and my views on being productive, versus spending days reading, writing poetry or listening to music.

”Don’t force yourself to do anything, yet don’t feel unhappy that you force yourself, or that if you were to do anything, you would have to force yourself. And if you don’t force yourself, don’t hanker after the possibilities of being forced.”

For me, the idea of success or ambition does not allign with a heroic type of courage as Kafka puts it, “as courage aims at more than our strength can achieve” but rather fearlessness and stoical resolution. For me these words hold true. I was probably the most unheroic teenager at school, camp etc. I never got certificates or awards or anything like that, but my ambition kind of started when I focused very specifically on composing. I think it’s way more important to put all your efforts into one thing you’re good at than trying to please everyone and dispersing your energies into different places or projects where you can’t put in the same amount of effort as it’s spread out. I use this philosophy in my work as well.
I try do as little things as possible and try do them very well.
I run my own music classes and work part time but when I’m teaching, in that half an hour, all my energy is focused on the kids. I try give them a full, undiluted half an hour of fun, music, interesting ideas and a feeling that they belong.
When I compose I am fully invested. I’ll sit on the couch with my guitar late at night and work on many harmonies. If I shop, I’ll buy something I really love even if it means I have to save for months or years for it, and I’d rather buy something that I actually love and will enjoy it every day, than spending less money on something that doesn’t mean much to me.

I don’t mind if making an album will take me over 5 years. I just care that it’s mine and that I feel proud of it.
And yet, he writes, “don’t feel unhappy that you force yourself or that if you were to do anything you would have to be forced.”
For me Kafka is trying to say that even though it sounds wonderful to pretend that we initially have an innate longing to be productive, sometimes, even if it’s something we’re completely passionate about, we still have to force ourselves – and that’s ok and shouldn’t depress us.

For me Kafka is talking about the constant dichotomy of being creative from inspiration – of not forcing anything unless it feels so right and real, which is an ideal that we wish we could always be relying on, versus having to force ourselves to have the same productivity even without the inspiration.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I recently wrote a post about my very special grandmother’s (Elly Braun) words to me when I left Jerusalem heading back to South Africa.
She said to me, in her broken Vienesse accent.”Everything will straighten out, Everything will straighten out.”
I was entering the taxi to the airport, listening to Signs of Life, from Pink Floyd’s “A Momentary Lapse of Reason.”
Her words with the magnificent piece of music playing suddenly created a new and fresh life ahead of me. I didn’t know what I was doing with my life – I was in my early 20’s, hadn’t finished my degree, going back to South Africa without any real plan, and not being ambitious about much. Most girls my age in my community had already gotten married, had kids, etc. But her encouragement gave me resilience to keep moving forward.
I kept repeating her words over and over again while listening to the track, and they helped make me feel lighter, stronger and less hard on myself.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.breindyandmatt.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/breindyandmatt/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/breindyandmatt
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@breindyandmatt
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3qfQ8KHn47fYIwHP3CnTDw

Image Credits

Paul Shiakallis