Artist Profile: Tendres

Tendres, an indie artist based in Haifa, Israel, expresses himself through meticulously arranged and strung-out lo-fi tracks, yet his two projects on streaming, “Tcatnoc Eye” and “Eye Contact”, do not even begin to tell the whole story.

His interest in music began as a high schooler; seeing Green Day and the Red Hot Chili Peppers on MTV spurred him to begin digging into the popular music cataloging site RateYourMusic.

“The moment I remember clearly is being in high school and listening to Radiohead and Animal Collective. Those are the two bands that really got me into experimental stuff or just taking my listening more seriously… Being chronically online as well, just like looking up the weirdest shit [and going down] rabbit holes.”

Over time, he picked up guitar and began writing his own music. Much of this process, he says, involved essentially infinite “trial and error”, trying out different recording techniques in his bedroom and spending days or weeks developing a single track. 

He recorded much of it at night, while his mother was asleep in the next room, resulting in an entrancing hushed effect pervading many of his tracks. “Eye Contact”, with a runtime of 23 minutes, represents his first attempts at recording, featuring a number of beautifully entrenched harmonies and suppressed lyrical sequences.

Since that project, which was released in 2020, he’s spent years perfecting his craft, and has increased his output. While his second project, “Tcatnoc Eye”, is mostly a placeholder, utilizing primarily older tracks, there is a new project in the works to be released sometime this Spring. Over time, he has grown both more skilled in his recording techniques and more cognizant of the process he needs to undergo to achieve his desired sound.

“I feel like I've become super aware,  maybe too aware, of what it is that I'm trying to say, how it is that I'm trying to play, because I'm all alone… But, because it’s become more immediate for me, I try to make it harder on myself like I used to, So, [now] I write more complex stuff, rather than the two three chord type of progressions.”

However, his most impressive accomplishments have not come necessarily in his individual creative output. As he grew into his own as an artist, he helped found Shukri, a venue, collaborative space, and music label that gives local artists in Haifa a space to create and grow themselves.

They host DIY shows on a regular basis, and they released several albums on cassette in the past year. He says that, since his musical journey began in complete isolation, it is refreshing to see other artists have a space to collaborate and grow in community.

“That's something that I never had growing up. When I was chronically online, I had nothing,  no avenue for that. So, that's kind of like what I'm trying to do with this place. And I feel like the past two years, [we’ve been heading in] an upward trajectory with how positive things are going in terms of the scene.”

Additionally, Tendres himself has grown exponentially as an artist as a result of the Shukri community, learning to work with other musicians and learn from them. 

As he continues to work on his next project, his sparse output should be seen as a reflection of what he was capable of individually, something that has now been refracted through the community he has helped to create.