When Immanuel College head boy Bertie Green is not studying for his A-levels in history, economics and English, his alter ego is most likely to be practising guitar or rehearsing in the studio.
As songwriter Ben Izak, he is set to release his debut single, Wildest Dreams, on Monday.
It was recorded at one of the country’s top studios, Sarm Music Village in Ladbroke Grove, London, owned by veteran producer Trevor Horn.
His musical journey was partly inspired, he said, by Friday night zemirot around the family’s Shabbat table and campfire songs with youth movement Bnei Akiva.
“My parents had me playing piano and cello when I was around six,” he recalled. “I have an uncle who plays a guitar and he’d play Van Morrison and other songs from the 60s and 70s at family gatherings.
“When I was 11 or 12, my dad bought me a guitar but my fingers were still too small. But when I was 14 on a Bnei Akiva camp, I saw a boy playing guitar and everyone was singing along and I wanted to be able to do that, so I taught myself. I started to play with a group of friends in Hendon – we’d do simchahs and parties.”
One night, when he was 15 and strumming in his Hendon bedroom, a chorus came into his head - “it wasn’t till then I thought I wanted to be a songwriter,” he said. If he has a lyrical touch, it might well be in his genes – his mother Yvonne Green brought out her latest collection of poetry, Honoured, a few weeks ago.
When he had a dozen songs under his belt, he started contacting people in the music business. “Most of the time you get told you’re not good enough,” he said. “But when I got back from Israel tour with Bnei Akiva, I felt this is something I wanted to do and I worked hard.
“My mum took me to go and see Trevor Horn – I used to go to Naima JPS where his kids also went."
The 17-year-old went to the original Sarm studios – before its move last year - where Led Zeppelin recorded Stairway to Heaven and above which Bob Marley once lived in a flat.
“It’s an amazing place, musically hallowed turf,” Bertie said. “You see the platinum records on the walls. I met Trevor’s son Aaron and they asked me to play. Trevor Horn came to listen and stood outside. He gave me some advice that I should find a band to play with.”
At that point, Bertie felt happy enough just to have come away with the advice. But then Aaron Horn – who himself had a number one hit with Sam and the Womp a few years ago – said they’d like him to return.
He spent the next year “honing my craft” at Sarm, while immersing himself in all kinds of music from The Beatles to Sister Rosetta Tharp. “It was a painstaking process,” said Bertie, “When Aaron said ‘now you’re ready, we’re going to make an EP’, it was surreal.”
Wildest Dreams captures the exuberance of youth with its crisp lyrics and catchy chorus.
In the course of recording it, he’s bumped into contemporary artists such as Lily Allen and Rizzle Kicks.
When he was advised to make a video, he turned to a schoolmate, Joshua Rocker, who shot it with a cast of Bertie’s Immanuel and Hasmonean friends. It reflects his “happy-go-lucky, relaxed” musical persona, he said.
But the former boy soprano with the choir at the Lauderdale Road Spanish and Portuguese congregation still maintains a Jewish musical presence; he sometimes takes services at the Ner Israel Synagogue.
His single initially comes out on Soundcloud, ahead of the four-track EP scheduled for wider distribution, including via iTunes, in a month.
“I feel honoured to have been given this opportunity,” he said, “I’ve gone from being just a boy in a bedroom with a guitar to being a boy with two guitars and a record. I’m really excited to put music out there.”
To listen to Wildest Dreams, click here/
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