Israeli-Palestinian Boy Band as1one On Bringing People Together Through Music

Got me on my knees now I'm praying You won't be a stranger when I see you again

Joining us in the Young Hollywood lounge, as one. The history making pop group, welcome to the Young Hollywood lounge.

Thank you so much.

You guys have taken over the entire couch and there's actually one guy missing.

Yeah. We love Neve, Neve. We're alone Neve. Where is he? What's going on? He's sick. Oh. Yeah. He's a little cold, it's the weather changing, you know.

So is he back in the house that you guys all share together?

Yeah. We share two apartments. The two apartments are like this.

You guys are so unique. Talk about your journey of how you came together because it's super powerful and, and of the moment.

We are the world's first Israeli and Palestinian boy band. Uh so, and, and to make matters that much more interesting, we came here on October 6th, which is the day before the war. It's all going to be in a docu-series Paramount Plus. We're really, really excited for that to kind of come out and show our story and like what we actually stand for.

Your story is quite unbelievable. Now take me through the audition process. Thousands of guys. How does that even happen?

Each one of us really have a different process cuz some of us sent videos, some of us had like in person auditions in front of them from thousands to 100 then from 100 a big 20, they're going into the boot camp, they test recordings and dancing and dynamics and it's just everything in this I think more than five days. It wasn't five days. It was more. I think it was like a week. It felt like forever, honestly. Cuz it's like I can't imagine. Cuz it's like day it's like day to night just work, work, work, work, work. You wake up at like 6:00 AM, warm up, stretch, do all of this until you go to bed. It was insane. They share a room together. Yeah, like and Neve, Neve that is not here. Love you, Neve. Neve. So are you there? We like we became best friends. Sadik and Neve was like we're very close at boot camp. It just felt very natural for we kind of felt the band already. If it makes any sense. And that wasn't even the goal though to make it Israeli, Palestinian and, and be record-breaking and history-breaking and the first of its kind to kind of thing. We hoped we hoped it would be a very passive element and now we kind of took upon ourselves uh this mission to show the world um that it can be different and we can coexist and you know, music is something that can unite people and it's one language that everyone speaks and no matter who you are, where you come from we would love you to come to an as one concert and listen to our songs and, you know, we're just putting everything aside and hope.

So you mentioned music and concerts, you have a single coming out.

So Stranger by as one, uh out now on all platforms, uh you know, stream it. It's something we really, really put our heart and soul into. It's one of the songs that like is really, really near and dear to us because like it tells a little bit more about like our story, what we're going through. We left home, we left like the region that we come from a very, very happy place. Very like full of life and you know, enjoy. It was very much alive. We're like worried for our families, we're worried for our friends. We lose we've like lost people and it's really it's really difficult. So the song is really, you know, has a double meaning about like if we go back home to a place that's not what we used to be. It's not what we remember it to be. Will we be like strangers in our own home? Will we be will we be accepted with open arms like, you know, like we hope. Sadik like never left his family for more than one week. How are you doing now? He's struggling. It's not easy. So it's like it's like in you know, one hand it's like incredible because like we're living our dream, like in the other hand it's not that we just left our country, we left our country in like the worst situation that can possibly be so you're very worried all the time, you know, you're calling your family and you're checking up about your friends every day. What's on the news? Yeah, you're always like scrolling on the news but you know, we all we are so happy to be here in LA, fulfilling our dream, doing what we're doing because, you know, it's like it's everything we ever wanted. We all felt that this is the place that we want to be because, you know, some of us can be hands on, but me and Sadik we can't. I mean, we can't really we can't really we're grieving on the people that are in Gaza and and what's happening to them and to the people that are Palestinians that we feel are the same as us. But what we went what we came here to do as as as one, all of us together, is to show how music is a common thing that brings people together. And we, as humans, when we find these common um interests, these common beautiful, peaceful things we become humans and we can feel empathy towards each other. And this is so important for us to show that in the end the music that brought us together brought our differences to become the same.

You guys are all adorable. Can't even tell. Fashionable. So how has it been assimilating into Los Angeles Hollywood life? It seems like you haven't missed a beat.

I think like now like when we look like at our photos back home, so it's like completely like different world. Completely different style.

What's been like the biggest misstep like coming to Hollywood?

I had a beard when I came here.

Are you shopping in LA? Have you found a spot yet?

Yeah, we love the second hand. Like the thrift store. Why are you guys? But no, but the same time let's say that we have Marjan. Oh yeah. Marjan is amazing. She's our stylist. Okay. She brings very good clothes that fit exactly each of our uh each of our fashion, each of our style. And this is just Yeah. She's like kind of coalescing our styles to, you know, to give us each individuality but to make it like match. By the way, most of our outfits are like from the girl's section. Never from the men's section.

Wait, really?

Always the women clothes are the best. Pants. The especially the pants. We're like always like aim to the girl section.

Wow. What a good fashion tip for men.

Yeah. If you don't want to look like a square and you want to look like you actually have a waist.

So let's talk about the living situation. Who is the messiest?

It's Neve.

Really? Well, I hate to kick him while he's down. I mean, he's not even here to defend himself.

It is what it is.

Okay, who's the cleanest? Who's the neat freak?

Asil. Asil's my All right, thank you.

You guys know the drill. Who's the best cook?

That's also a toss up. Both of them too. Like we've tried his food and it's so good and his food is just so It's like both of them.

So who's the fixer upper? Who's the handyman?

Asil. That's me too, actually. Yeah. You have a lot of jobs. Oh yeah. He's so good. It's okay. It's a miracle.

So who's the group therapist? Who's the go-to guy?

Neve. Neve is very, very spiritual. Kind of, you know, has his chakras unlocked.

So music. What are we going to sing? Something Acapella? You want to do a warm up?

I mean, we, Neve, you know, six members isn't here and we can't, you know, He's important. He's important. It wouldn't be the whole effect.

Okay. Well, maybe how do you guys warm up? Maybe one or two you can show me how you warm up. Like

We do a bunch of weird stuff that we like do.

I love weird stuff.

And you work on the lips like It's like

I love weird stuff. Keep going, keep going.

We have It's like a bunch of like like and in the shower, you know, with the steam and everything. We have ways. You don't I don't is it strong enough this thing? To stand on it? No. We like go and do like a push up thing and we like we do like a push up. This is so funny. This is so funny. No, but we are doing that because like that like you you need to like it's warm up the body, it's warm up the little like it's very The muscles. For me, I don't really warm up my voice, but I do warm up my mouth cuz it's rap and you have to pronounce them right. So I know. You know, these things. And a lot of stupid things. But we're gonna look so funny.

I need to hear one note. Like together.

Okay. I I Okay, 3, 2, 1. Everything around us is changing. But we'll you be a stranger when I see you again? That's enough for now. That's enough for now. For now. Just cuz we don't have Neve yet. That's enough for now.