Tamar Aphek

HOW A FORMER CONCERT PIANIST WAS LURED INTO ROCK — AND GUITARDOM — BY THE SIREN CALL OF DISTORTION

- Jon Wiederhorn

HAVING TRAINED AS a concert pianist in Tel Aviv, Israel, from an early age, Tamar Aphek wasn’t exposed to rock music until she was 18. Then, when she put her career on hold to begin mandatory service in the army, she experienced an epiphany. While visiting a hip, local bar, she heard Radiohead for the first time. Impressed by the band’s experimental, multifaceted style, Aphek began a quest to learn more about the music she had previously avoided and was enthralled by the raw guitar sounds of Sonic Youth, the Jesus Lizard and the Stooges.

“The first thing that captivated me about rock was all the kinds of distorted sounds you can get on a guitar,” Aphek says from her home in Haifa. “It was this big revelation. The distortion of Fugazi, Nirvana and Pantera, for example, are all completely different, and they all add their own elements to the music.”