The Metal Asylum Talks To…. Neolia

Can you tell us about the origin of the band name, the history of the band, and a little bit about the various members?

The name Neolia originated from the psychological term Neolelia. The term Neolelia is equivalent to the term echolalia, which is a mental disorder in which an individual invents words that don’t exist, but that same person is certain that everyone around him understands him completely. We feel that we have created some sort of a unique language of our own and felt an instant connection to the word but at the same time tried to come up with a more easy-to-digest version for it.

My name is Tomer Mash, and I am the founder and bass player for Neolia. Neolia’s vision started off as a story idea I came up with, and slowly started to evolve. It led me to feel like it is something I could get inspired by, and not too long after I started writing the music for Neolia. There were 3 pretty detailed tracks and some lyrics, but no vocals. After touring Europe with a punk-rock band, I reconnected with my old friend Ron Minis and we started jamming and trying out musical ideas. After testing some vocalists and also losing one to a sudden heart failure, we found our vocalist Ben Reiss and other talented musicians, and not long after we went into the studio and started a long recording and production process.

At the end of 2014, we had our first show in Tel Aviv and made sure to perform as frequently as possible. We played shows and festivals in Israel, including acoustic ones. In 2018 we had finished mastering our album with Howie Weinberg and started coming up with ideas of how to release it along with connecting different labels. When we realized that things are not going to come out the way we wanted them to, we decided to release it ourselves, and when the era of Covid-19 sort of ended we slowly started releasing some singles to test the waters. In 2023 we finally arrived at this point today that we are releasing the fruit of hard work, which is our debut album. All that was made possible with the current lineup that formed in 2022 and now includes Guy Greenberg on guitar, Inbar Davish as second guitarist, and Yair Ben Shalom on drums. Guy is the ‘amazing guy’ that keeps amazing us with his creativity as a producer, sound engineer, and sensitive and to-the-point guitar player. Inbar Ben

Are you all from the same area? How did you get together as a band?

Tomer: We are based in Israel and spread across different areas, but mostly around the center of Israel, Yair our drummer lives more towards the east about 30 minutes from TLV, while Guy our guitarist lives about 50 minutes, south of TLV. But we all meet in TLV for rehearsals. It’s a bit of a long story so I’ll try and make it short for you. After touring Europe with a punk-rock band, I reconnected with my old friend Ron Minis and we started jamming and trying out musical ideas. After testing some vocalists and also losing one to a sudden heart failure, we found our vocalist Ben Reiss screaming his lounges out during rehearsals with his former band. Guy was a long-time friend of Ben’s and at some point, Ben just suggested Guy and it was a great fit for the band. Inbar was suggested to us by an amazing guitarist and colleague, Ben Azar, and again there was a good vibe going on and we felt that good feeling in our stomachs and finally, Yair came along with a solid recommendation while we were testing other drummers and everyone was just blown away by his amazing energy and after a few shows we felt like a solid unit and ready to move forward.

Who are your favorite artists/bands and how have they influenced your own sound?

Tomer: That is probably one of the hardest questions I’ve ever had to answer. The thing is that ‘Neolia’ is sort of a sum of my entire life. With Metallica, Megadeth, Pantera, and Guns & Roses being my most listened-to bands growing up, I just kept myself open to new music and sort of allowed all of it to come inside. I used to listen for hours and hours to different types of music and I would process it through my own filters. At some point, I started creating my own compositions until I felt I had found my own voice. Jazz and fusion music was engraved in me during high school. Later in life, as I was becoming a working musician I had different opportunities to enter into my musical world and I played in different bands slowly learning Latin, African, Moroccan, Georgian music, and more. All of these had slipped into my creation while writing for Neolia.

Did you always have the ambition to be a musician and in a band or did you originally have other plans?

Tomer: I can say it with a full heart, that music was and still is the thing that excites me the most. It is a direct connection to the people around me. We all started off playing music at a very young age and most of us are working full-time in the music industry. I Remember when I was a kid and used to watch headbangers’ ball and I’d see the profound impact these guys would have on fans, making them smile or feel a certain emotion and through that connection between souls I would get inspired. I just now remembered that I was playing around with the idea of becoming a chef, cause I do like food, and always felt like I could get creative with it, also something that I picked up from my mom, but it did not progress to anything.

What songs or albums are on your current playlist?

Tomer: Right now I’m very open to anything that comes my way so I stay open to any suggestions that come along. I can definitely say that Snot, He Is Legend – Suck Out The Poison, Mastodon, Sepultura – Roots, Hail the Sun, Walkways, Subterranean Masquerade, Protest the Hero and more.

Do you sing in the shower?

Tomer: Haha, Sometimes when I feel like it, but Guy our guitarist sings and screams in the shower all the time. He actually does his vocal warm-ups there.

Do you have any plans for the band for this year and into next year?

Tomer: For now we plan to release some videos that include Play through videos for all instruments including vocals. we’re also preparing. Some lyric videos and an audio-visual YouTube along with some b-side clips. Other than that, our main focus this year will be writing together and preparing for the next album and as a side job we’re gonna prepare the ground for touring and discuss whether we want to tour in the US or Europe or whatever we decide together.

Do you currently have any new songs/albums ready to be released?

Tomer: Not at the moment, and since we were mostly focused on releasing the album we only had time to prepare album-related stuff. We are really looking forward to working on new songs and understanding how we wish our sound to evolve and the subject we wish to write about. But for now, it will remain a mystery.

If you could play at any venue in the world, where would you choose?

Tomer: One of the most interesting venues I got to play at several times was ‘The Cross’ in Prague but I do aspire for more and since I get to choose, it would probably be Eventim Apollo in London. It is definitely up there in the top-level venues and hopefully, we will get there at some point.

Do you have a favorite album? If so, what is it?

Tomer: That’s a tough one. I have many favorite albums that I have dug into over the years, like Pantera’s ‘Far beyond driven’ or ‘Roots’ by Sepultura, ‘Rust in Peace’ by Megadeth, ‘Suck Out the poison’ by He is legend, Rage against the machine – self-titled, ‘LD50’ by Mudvayne, Snot – ‘Get Some’, Deftones – White Pony’ and more.

Do you have any guilty pleasure songs/albums?

Tomer: Again, too many. I have been in love with music since I was a kid and so much music and so many songs made it into my heart so I’m not sure how guilty I feel. I know I’m not alone on this but – ‘Toxic’ by Britney Spears, There’s a Russian singer called Zemphira, and I really like a lot of her music, I like a lot of Bayonce’s stuff, Avril’s – Let Go, George Michael, Sia, and much more. If I would give a f#$% I would say I should be banned from the metal community Haha.

If you were putting together the greatest show on earth, who would be playing?

Tomer: Oh.. another tricky one. Definitely the bands I grew up on like Metallica, Megadeth, Sepultura, Napalm Death, Carcass, Queen, John lee hooker, Steve Vai, Greg Howe, BB King, Elvis, Snot, Incubus, Deftones, Tears for fears, Pantera, Snoop Dogg, Emerson lake and palmer, Frank Zappa, King Crimson, Pink Floyd, Mr. Big, Ugly kid Joe, He is Legend, Hed PE, Mudvayne, Tool, Sikth, Fela Kuti, Bootsy Collins and many more.

Can you remember the first album you bought with your own money? What was it and do you still have it?

Tomer: I think it was ‘Rust in Peace’ by Megadeth. When they still existed I went to a CD store and listened to a bunch of albums and this one was one of my must-haves, and I have it still till this day.

As your fans will be reading this, is there any message you would like to send out to them?

Tomer: You don’t have to follow the rest, be strong and be proud of who you are and what your heart tells you. Be kind to one another. And finally support the music you love and give back whenever you can. Thank you for reading so far.

Finally, let us know all your social media sites so your fans, old and new, can find and follow/like you!

Tomer: Now that the album is out, you’ll be able to dive into the core of our music. Also with the help of true supporters like yourself and others, we get the opportunity to share our story at scale.

To go with that, we try to be consistent online and share stories behind the lyrics and more details about ourselves.