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CLICK HERE TO READ MATISYAHU’S VERIFIED EXPLANATIONS

Up until the end of 2011, Matisyahu was known equally for his strict adherence to Hasidic Judaism— and the facial hair that symbolized it— as he was his rock-infused reggae music. However, last December, he tweeted a photo of his clean-shaven face accompanied with a revealing lyrical couplet from his 2009 track “Thunder”: “At the break of day, I look for you at sunrise/When the tide comes in, I lose my disguise.“ His fans were immediately vexed about his faith — was their formerly bushy-bearded king finally without a crown?

But rest assured, Matisyahu hasn’t given up his faith so much as redefine it. On “Sunshine”, the first single released from his upcoming album Spark Seeker, he displays a rekindling of his deep devotion to everlasting peace and joy: “It’s raining in your mind, so push those clouds aside / Forever by my side, you’re my golden sunshine,” he sings. Matisyahu made a career focusing in on the precious intangibles, so it’s only fitting that this interview functions as a magnifying glass held to his spirit, revealing up-close-and-personal insights on his art, philosophy, controversies, and future.

Stereo IQ: You’ve named your new album Spark Seeker. What’s the significance of that title?

Matisyahu: The spark seeker is an idea that’s found in Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism, and then was later developed by the Hasidim in the 17/1800s in Eastern Europe in the Ukraine. But the idea that there are sparks — there was an initial creation that was unable to remain intact and it sort of exploded, and the shards from that world made up sort of the earth and the body of this world. There were sparks of godliness from that world that were embedded into the makeup of this world. So, it’s through the physical world with the right kind of intention and all that, behind that the release of these sparks is able to happen. And then the revelation of godliness in this world will happen.

So that’s the biblical idea, but then there’s also sort of a universal approach to it as well. More of a personal idea of collecting moments in your life and elevating you, offering them up like a song or a prayer.

SIQ: Your music has always been catalyzed by your Jewish identity, but do you feel that your songs are relatable to people of all religious backgrounds?

Matisyahu: Well I think for a fact that they are. Probably 90 percent of my crowd has nothing to do with religion or Judaism or anything like that.

SIQ: Your acting debut comes later this summer in the Jewish-themed horror movie The Possession. You play a rabbi-exorcist. How are you preparing yourself for this role?

Matisyahu: In order to get the role, the director had me hold his assistant down to the ground and have her fight me. I was told to scream and chant Hebrew over her while I was holding her down because there’s a scene in the movie where I’m exercising a demon out of this girl. So he wanted to see if I would bring the intensity, and I was able to. That was cool.

SIQ: Many of your songs portray you as one searching for inner peace. What does inner peace mean to you?

Matisyahu: Inner peace I guess is when you don’t need anything except for the moment that you are in, and you are fully accepting the moment and empathize with the humans that you need and the world that you live in.

SIQ: If you could give any piece of advice on how to achieve inner peace and personal freedom, what would it be?

Matisyahu: Well two things that I started doing this past year that I found to be extremely helpful. For one, I tried silence for some time, which was interesting. You can learn a lot about yourself through silence.

Also, check out macrobiotics. If you eat very plain food that’s extremely nutritious, and you chew it and eat it in the right way, I find it to be very meditative. To be able to bring a person to that kind of slowing down – slowing down the time, getting into that higher state.

SIQ: You caused quite a stir when you posted a picture of your clean-shaven face in December last year. And more recently, you received responses when you dyed your hair blond and appeared in a photo with Wiz Khalifa without a kippah on. Some fans and religious leaders assume that your new look means that your devotion to Judaism is dwindling. What is your response to them?

Matisyahu: It’s just the way it is. It’s kind of the way the world works: you see something, and then you make an assumption, you know? And my whole career I’ve been proving people wrong about assumptions. When I first appeared on Jimmy Kimmel and people saw me for the first time and there’s this Chabad Hasidic guy, kid, whatever – and then I started making my music and people said “whoa.”

When I was a teenager and I was rapping on 3rd Avenue in Mount Vernon in front of an audience that was pretty rough and tough audience, people were like, “Whoa, who’s that white kid?” That’s just a part of who I am and that’s not gonna change now.

So now people are just gonna see a picture and they think one thing, but then you go listen to the record, and there’s a song on the record called “Bal Shem Tov”, about the vision that he had when he met the messiah in heaven, and that’s the basis of the whole Hasidic ideology. Or you have Rabbi Solomon Schechter being quoted in Yiddish; I used that as a sample on a song. So I think the idea there is that things have depth to them and things aren’t always so black and white, you know what I mean? There’s always another dimension to the picture. People who are missing out on that are missing out on an important part of life.