I work as a psychologist at a school for children with emotional disabilities and maintain a private practice in Teaneck, where I live, but music has always been a part of my life; I have been composing, playing and performing music since my teens. I came up with the idea of recording and releasing a full-length album, which I later called my Midlife Music Project, after a conversation in 2022 with my brother-in-law, Matis Shulman.
Matis, a psychiatrist, had told me that he was working on a book that he hoped to publish by age 40 (He did eventually publish it at age 42). Although I was 37 at the time of the conversation, I was intrigued by this idea and started to think about what creative project I could complete by my 40th birthday. My first thought was a music album, composed of songs I had written over the years. I had always aspired to release a full-length music album at some point but never felt like there was enough time. I realized that in order to actualize my vision for the album while working full time, I needed to do the recording and arranging for this album over a long period of time, little by little, and needed to find a local producer willing to record the album in a piecemeal fashion.
That’s where Jonathan Rimberg, known to the Jewish community as a bandleader and co-founder of Nafshenu Orchestra, came in. I had heard that Jonathan had a recording studio in his basement in Teaneck and reached out to him to see if he was interested in working together on this music project. After hearing me play some of my songs, Jonathan signed on to engineer, co-produce and play keyboard on the album. We came up with a schedule in which I would go to Jonathan’s studio two Friday mornings per month to work on the album, and correspond with him via email between sessions as needed.
By giving myself two years to record the songs, a little bit at a time, I put myself on a schedule to release a total of 11 songs by the time I turned 40 in October 2024. As of this article, I have already released five songs and the rest are in various stages of the recording and production process. I have been releasing each one as a single around Rosh Chodesh rather than releasing them all at once, since most people listen to music via streaming rather than buying full albums. I plan to arrange for a concert in November 2024, shortly after my 40th birthday, featuring a live performance of all the songs released over the course of the year. So stay tuned for that!
The songs that comprise this album are all Jewish music but the style spans different genres, from country to pop and more. The melodies to all but one of the songs (Maoz Tzur) are original compositions and the words come from Jewish texts. I sing and play guitar on all the tracks, while Jonathan plays keyboard and various virtual instruments. I arranged the songs and they were engineered and mixed by Jonathan. In order to realize my musical vision for the album, I also utilized a website (based in Israel) called Fiverr to find session musicians all over the world to play various instruments on the songs, including horns, drums, fiddle and saxophone.
The next release of my Midlife Music Project, Noam’s Niggun, will be available on all streaming platforms on Rosh Chodesh Adar II, Sunday, March 10. The song emerged one day when I had just finished davening and was wrapping up my tefillin with my 4-year-old son, Noam. The tune just entered my head. I have a keyboard in the basement so I quickly worked out the basic chords and recorded the song as a voice memo. It’s a fun tune that is very catchy so I encourage you to check it out! I have already debuted it at various musical events and it has been a crowd favorite.
Besides accomplishing a personal life goal, the aim of my Midlife Music Project is to inspire people with a creative side to express their creativity, whatever stage of life they are in and however busy their lives may be. I like the idea of showing people that even amidst a busy life, with a business or career and family, one can still make beautiful music. While some people have midlife crises, others make midlife music.
Follow me and get updates on my new music and concert dates on Instagram @midlifemusician and on Facebook @Midlife Music Project. You can find links to my songs on all the streaming platforms here: https://hyperfollow.com/benjygottesman.
