Facing Flames w/ Israel Portnoy

This week, my guest is the amazing Israel Portnoy. Now those of you who’ve listened to the podcast for a while will know that our first ever episode back in December 2019 featured a conversation with a very close friend of mine, Eli Portnoy. Eli and Israel are brothers. So to gauge a sense of what their family background was like, what it was like being one of 9 siblings, the son of a Rabbi living in Hale, Cheshire, I’d recommend skipping back to Ep #1 and hear Eli talk about that. My chat with Israel is a little more focussed on his musical life, where that stems from, his partnership with his younger brother Mendy to form The Portnoy Brothers and the fact that this week on May 23rd 2020, Israel is releasing his single, Facing Flames, with a full album due for release at the end of July 2020. Now this single and album have a distinct meaning behind them as exactly a year ago, on May 23rd 2019, Israel’s home, recording studio, guitar collection and all his belongings were destroyed in a forest fire, leaving him with nothing but the clothes on his back and his Guild 12-string acoustic guitar, called Guilda. We talk about that experience in detail, and at the very end he very kindly gives me a Zoom rendition of Facing Flames. Preorder your copy of Facing Flames on CD or limited edition Vinyl now at israelportnoymusic.com! -- If you'd like to support Sod's Law you can become a Sod's Law patron at patreon.com/sodspod from as little as £1 /$1 a month - there are different tiers including ad-free episodes, giveaways and more!