Song Lore: The Songs that Built Ofri
Ofri traces her musical origin story through her grandmother's songs, back-seat Dido devotion, a Joni Mitchell disaster, Fiona Apple, Chaika, and the songs that brought her here.
This week we're introducing a new feature: Song Lore
In this series, musicians trace their origin story through the songs that shaped them: childhood songs, private obsessions, disasters, mentors, first stages, and the music that brought them here.
First up is Ofri, whose path runs from her grandmother singing “Greenfields,” through back-seat Dido devotion, a deeply unfortunate Joni Mitchell reharmonisation, Emily-Rose Sharkova and Chaika, Fiona Apple, and finally into her own songs.
Ofri writes songs that take the storytelling instincts of folk and send them somewhere strange, sharp and theatrical, with a voice that can move from conversational intimacy to full, luminous drama. She's about to go on tour with Parvyn (who opened last week's '5 Things') and my Bespoke Folk co-founder Emily-Rose Sharkova.
What I love about this format is that it gets us past the sanitised copy-and-paste artist bio, the kind that gets reheated across the media world until nobody sounds like a real person anymore.
It also gives us heaps of excellent new music to check out.
Read on + listen below.
Erin
P.S. To make it easy to listen as you read, I recommend using the YouTube playlist we made just for this article.
Consider this a hot listening tip 😉
Song Lore: The Songs That Built Ofri
The Ordinary World: the song from the place Ofri began
"Greenfields" – The Brothers Four
I have dreamy memories of my grandmother singing me to sleep with this song. When I listen to it now, it’s like everything else slows down and I’m just a kid drifting off to sleep again. If you peeled back the layers of my music onion, I think this song would be pretty close to the centre.
The Call to Adventure: the moment music hooked her
"Sand in My Shoes" – Dido
This song was probably the one I listened to most when I was a kid sitting in the back seat on a road trip. My entertainment of choice was being the family iPod Nano.
Dido’s voice is like a sucker-punch of nostalgia, and she can write a bridge like nobody’s business. Even in my contrarian, anti-pop teen years, this song held steadfast as one of my favourites.
Refusal of the Call: Doubt, awkwardness, resistance
"Song to a Seagull" – Joni Mitchell
I absolutely butchered this beautiful song for my Year 12 music exams. Massacred it. I don’t know what possessed me to decide that I should perform my own reharmonisation of this song, but that is exactly what I did. I just listened to a recording of it. It’s bad. It will never see the light of day. The process did teach me a lot about harmony, but at what cost?
Meeting the Mentors: the people who shaped her musical DNA
"I Monti" – Chaika
In my late teens I reconnected with my childhood piano teacher for some singing and piano lessons. It would not be an overstatement to say that this decision set me on the path for my life thus far.
Emily-Rose Sarkova is now my mentor in all things musical (and life-ical), and her Balkan folk–fusion band Chaika had a song so striking to me that it absolutely changed the way I hear music.
Crossing the Threshold: Ofri's first step into the public world
"Not About Love" – Fiona Apple
Emily-Rose is a generous mentor, so when I started wanting to build my gigging experience, she invited me to perform a song at one of her early Emily-Rose and the Wild gigs.
Fiona Apple is my favourite artist ever, so naturally I chose one of her songs to arrange and perform. I learned so much about how to communicate with a band and how to engage with an audience from this experience. I was hooked.
Trials and Transformations: learning the craft and surviving the cringe
"Painting By Numbers" – Ofri
This was the first song I ever wrote, finished, and actually liked.
Ironically, it started off being about writers’ block!
I remember writing this song and avoiding anything that felt too autobiographical for fear of being too cringe. I was experimenting and trying to show off how many cool music tricks I knew by weaving in time signature changes and key changes and tempo changes and all the other cool things all the cool kids do.
I’ve grown a lot as a songwriter since, but I love this song now for how untethered my writing style was then.
The Revelation: the moment she understood what her music was about
"Body" - Ofri
Body was the final blow that broke down the barriers that kept me from taking songwriting seriously. It was also the first song I ever released.
I feel that the lyrics for this one were also a launching pad into the style of lyricism I want to continue to develop. I don’t know if it still feels like the most “me” song I have ever written, but at the time it certainly did.
The Return: where she is now
"Bird Song" – Ofri
This is my favourite song to perform live.
I’ve rearranged it for the tour I’m doing with Emily-Rose & the Wild and Parvyn, with crunchy three-part harmonies and lush string trio — what more could a gal ask for?
This song is a pep-talk to myself, and it reminds me to stay on my own path and not let “shoulds” or “coulds” get in the way of the music I really want to be making.
Want to hear Ofri, Parvyn and Emily-Rose in three-part harmony, with strings doing all the lush, shivery things strings do best? They’re on tour!
Get your tickets here
Tell me...
Who would you love to see do a '5 Things' or 'Song Lore' next?
If you’re reading this in your inbox, click through to the post and leave your answer in the comments.
I’ll be reading, taking notes, and seeing whether I can become your slightly over-invested music recommendation fairy godmother.
Next time, we’re going deeper into the Folk Listener Personality types in 'The Secret Architecture of Your Listening Taste'
We'll explore
- how our listening preferences actually form,
- why some songs click into place and
- how knowing your listener personality can help you find more music that hits the exact spot.
See you next week!
Erin
