He is an artist in every part of his body, actor, musician, producer, singer and composer and he was born on September 3, 1961.
(Photo: Kfir Ziv)
= Yermi was born in Chicago, USA as Jeremy David Kaplan, the third of four brothers. On July 4, 1969, when he was 8 years old, Yermi immigrated to Israel with his family.
= His father, Irving Kaplan, was a television director which led Yermi to play several roles in tv series and movies.
= He appeared in the poetry segment In Our Post Office, which was broadcast in the seventies in many rebroadcasts on educational television, as part of the series "Neighbors" for learning English for the 5th grade. In "The Adventures of Scooterman", in the role of Oswald, the nephew of Dr. Upbaked (in the episode "The Accidental Astronaut"). He also participated in the western "Phantom Kid" in 1975, and played the role of Ephraim Levy in the Israeli film "Operation Jonathan" by Menachem Golan in 1977.
= In 1978, while studying at the Tel Aviv Alliance High School, Yermi together with another guy named Rami Kleinstein who studied a grade below him, founded the band "Eclipse". The two also included Yermi's brother, Aharon and Dori Amarilio.
The band won first place in a talent competition in youth city, recorded several songs and even appeared on the popular show "Ad Pop".
= Yermi was indeed a drummer in the band, but over time he became a gifted multi-instrumentalist and learned to play a wide variety of instruments with great talent.
= During his military service, when he plays in several bands, including "Eclipse" Yermi receives an offer to replace Sami Abzerdel, the drummer of the band "Tislam" who was considering leaving. Yermi liked the idea but in the end Sami decided to stay in the band.
= After his military service Yermi began to study law at Tel Aviv University but the interest did not last and after a short time he abandoned his studies in favor of traveling abroad. Yermi was looking to travel and discover new places but also to discover himself, to find his independent musical path.
= In 1986, after returning from abroad, Yermi became involved with his friend from school, Klinstein, and participated in Klinstein's debut album "On the Day of the Bomb" which was released that year. He recorded background vocals on the album and participated in the writing of the song "Where I Stand". That year he also wrote English versions of Rita's songs, for an album she recorded in the Netherlands.
= On Kleinstein's recommendation, Yermi was signed by Roni Brown to the "Helicon" record company which he managed. Yermi worked on new songs and even recorded two of them "Looking for" and "Caps it" which were supposed to be part of his debut album, but the album was not completed or issued. These songs were performed for the first time at the concerts of the "Doppler Phenomenon" band with whom Yermi played at that time.
= At that time Yermi was in a relationship with the singer Dana Berger. Their separation served as an inspiration for their friend Hami Rodner, who wrote about them the song "Nafalt Hazak". When the song was released on the radio it caused a media storm, but eventually became a hit.
= Yermi went to find his musical path again and this time he went to the USA for several months. Apparently even then it still didn't happen because when he returned to Israel in 1989 he started playing in a number of different bands. Yermi played guitar in the band "Eifu Hayeled", he played drums in the "Taarovet Escot" band and was a vocalist in the "Explosion Survivors" band.
= None of the bands really broke out at that time, until 1991 saw the release of the debut album of "Taarovet Escot" which was a great success for which Yrami left the other bands.
= The band was founded by Assaf Amdursky and Amir "Django" Rossiano, who were childhood friends, at the end of 1989. Amdursky added Yermi, after Hami Rodner met the two at the "Desert" pub, where the three worked together for a short period.
= The debut performance of "Taarovet Escot" took place in December 1989. At the beginning of its journey, the guitarist Yuval Lieblich was also a member of the band. In October 1991, the band released their debut album on the "Had Artzi" record company. Almost all the songs on the album were written and composed jointly by Amdorski and Django, except for the song "I'm not ready to leave here" which was written and composed by Yermi. The arrangements and musical production were performed jointly by the three members of the band. The band's biggest hit from the album was "My Intimate Room", which gained great popularity on the radio and in the Israeli rock scene in those years, which was also the band's only hit.
= In 1992, Yermi participated in the recording of the debut album of the band "Doppler Phenomenon", he performed the role of drums and participated in writing the song "Kotefet".
= In the same year, he participated in a rock opera called "Sexodos", written and directed by the vocalist of "Doppler Phenomenon", Baruch Friedland, an opera performed at the Arad Festival, in a musical production by Gilad Atzmon, together with the band "Taarovet Escot".
= In April 1993, during the work on the second album of "Taarovet Escot" Yermi left the band, as a result the band broke up and each of its three members went on their own solo career.
= This time it seems that the timing was right and in 1994 Yermi founded the "Flower Band". The band signs with the record company "NMC" and releases its debut album "Yermi Kaplan and the Flowers" which is actually Yermi's first solo album. All the songs on the album were written and composed by Yermi, with most of them talking about pain and also a little hard to digest musically.
= The album doesn't really take off until the band goes on tour during which Yermi bursts into consciousness. His strength and great talent is revealed as a charismatic vocalist and an engrossing performer, his presence on stage is frenzied, as he never stops being in constant motion. Among the successful songs of the album were "Modedet", "Lama Lo Hegat" and "Masheho Hayav Lehishtanot".
= Still in the same year, he records a new cover for the song "Gali" by Ehud Manor and Kobi Oshrat, in honor of a Hanukkah Special held at the IDF's Gala. The cover was included as a bonus in a later edition of the album "Yermi Kaplan and the Flowers".
= His second album "Good Morning" was released in 1995 and this time Yermi was without the Flower Band. Also in this album, all the songs were written by him, including "Hadafok Haze" and "Sooner or Later".
= In 1996, he wrote, composed and recorded the song "Already Now" which was the opening song of the series "Inverted" which became a hit and was a great success. The song was included as a bonus on the "Good Morning" album, in a later release.
= In 1999 his third album "For Worse and Better" was released. Most of the songs on the album deal with family and relationship issues, of which the songs "Kola Vebra", "Opportunity" and "For Bad and Good" were successful. Similar to his previous album, Yermi wrote the lyrics and melodies and produced the music for this album as well.
= In 2003, his fourth album, "The Lost Time", was released, which received good reviews. The album was produced by him and by Eyal Katsav and included a number of hits, including "Rishon Shabbat", "Start from Zero" and "I will change".
= In May 2004 the band "Taarovet Escot" reunited for several performances, in November 2007 they reunited again for a one-off show, and again in September 2011, in honor of Yeremi's 50th birthday.
= In 2006 Yermi participated in an episode of the series "The Champion" as an ophthalmologist. In 2007 he played in the children's series "Rosh Gadol" and the drama series "Maybe this time", and in 2010 he played in the series "Pilots' Wives".
= In 2010, his fifth album "Desire" was released, from the album several singles were released that were successful such as: "Everybody can", "How right you are" and "You will have more".
= In 2015 he released the album "Patish", which combines rock and electronic music, together with Spencer Russo, Matan Spencer and Uri Russo, a pair of young producers. The album was financed by the audience through the Headstart campaign.
= In 2019 he produced a cabaret show called "Yermi Kaplan performs Elton John", in which of course he performs Elton John's greatest hits while in between he combines historical details about Elton's career. The show is performed to this day.
= In 2020, just before the outbreak of the COVID virus, he released a new single called "In the end I'm left with nothing" and immediately after that he released another single called "I'll bring you back in time".
= In May 2023, Yermi announced a break from performances due to an unexpected surgery on the neck vertebrae, which put the function of his limbs in danger. He underwent a complex procedure designed to preserve the function of his organs, and in July of that year he shared a photo of himself from the hospital bed and expressed his gratitude for the messages, concern and care he received.
He Shared: "So now that I've come to terms with my situation, I'm taking action. I'm doing it with a very heavy feeling and after much deliberation. The reality phase - I'm forced to stop and postpone all performances from the date set for the surgery until a complete recovery (about three months). The 'Yermi does Yermi' tour which has not yet started and has already sold hundreds of tickets, will have to wait."
= Yermi collaborated and was involved in writing, arranging and producing many songs with many artists including the Haifa Symphony Orchestra, Lior Farhi, Hami Rodner, Dana Berger, Eliran Avitar Levy and many others.
= As of today, Yermi performs as a guest and is on tour with the "Yermi Kaplan Performs Elton John" cabaret and 'Yermi does Yermi'.
Listen to Yermi's compilation album: Spotify, Apple Music
Follow us on Facebook or Subscribe to our website
"Face/Off" - Israel's Rock Blog & Podcast
Comments