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מהלהקה שלו. חובה לקרוא. [חלק א] Chatting with Constantine’s Band – An Exclusive Interview By Diana Kaaha I hunted down Constantine’s band, “Pray for the Soul of Betty,” and got a chance to talk with their bass player, Taylor. We spoke from opposite coasts, me on California time and Taylor cutting into a late New York City night. Alone with Taylor over my speakerphone, I began our long-distance chat by asking him, “Who is Betty?” Taylor’s voice came through as if he was sitting in my kitchen. “Betty is a girl we knew, who is unfortunately not with us anymore.” He did not want to say too much about her, but he did add, “We kind of feel like Betty is more of a symbol now for anybody who is struggling to get through everyday…whether it’s depression or abuse or illness or whatever it is…and we hope our music will do anything to help lift their spirit and hopefully get their life traveling in the right direction.” I’m moved by Taylor’s respect for Betty, so I change the subject. “Who put the band together?” Taylor spoke more easily. “The impetus for the band getting together was probably Hamboussi, who’s a drummer. He called both Joao (guitar player) and myself and asked us to come jam with him…right away there was definitely a huge bond between Joao and myself. once the three of us got together…I think we wrote two songs in the album in that first jam session. It was so good we knew we had to do something with it.” He pauses. “We round up auditioning between 100 and 150 singers…everybody came out of the woodwork.” I assume Constantine was part of the audition and ask him if he stood out right away. “He did stand out right away,” Taylor tells me. “He definitely has a certain charismatic factor. He was also a really nice kid, and not pretentious… and he has this huge voice. And he’s so easy to work with. He was the only one we called back the second time.” Then I ask him, “Have you talked to him lately?” “Yes. I talked to him today…I’ve seen him?” My ears perk up. “Have you gone to LA to see him?” I ask. “Oh yeah…and I’ve seen Bo, and a couple of other people.” He does not want to go into details, but he does tell me that Bo’s a super nice guy. I glance at my list of questions and ask Taylor if he will be in the audience if Constantine is in the top three. “I would be there to support him…as far as being on the American Idol cameras…I’ll shy away from that…but I think Hamboussi and Joao will do that.” A lingering question enters my mind. So I ask, “If Constantine wins or he doesn’t win, you guys are still a foursome, right?” “Yes,” Taylor says right away. As I picture these New York rockers, I wonder about the dynamic of this foursome. Taylor fills me in. “Hamboussi is the optimist. Joao is the spiritual one. Connie is spiritual, but he’s the social one…very social. He’s always on the phone. He’s always making plans, and getting people to buy our stuff. And I’m probably the leader…the down to earth one, the rational one.” Referring to my list again, I ask, “What is the Betty Street Team?” “An army of people spreading the word of the band,” Taylor tells me. “It’s like an army of publicists…everybody goes to their little niche and spreads the word.” He tells me that they say such things as “these guys are awesome…they’ve got a CD …and you gotta hear it.” He laughs under his breath as he finishes each sentence. I move on to ask Taylor about their female fans. I wanted to find out if they all have girlfriends – he tells me they don’t – not all of them. I dare to squeeze in an important question, “Does Constantine have a girlfriend?” “No, he doesn’t,” Taylor says, chuckling a bit. Then he adds an interesting tidbit. “Constantine likes older women.” ”How old?“ I ask through the speakerphone. “All ages, I think,” Taylor tells me, laughing again. “You can file that under the things you might not know about Constantine.” This opens a window. “What other things are there that we might not know?” Taylor laughs. “Don’t ever try to feed him fish…I think he might be allergic to shellfish…he’s not into seafood.” Taylor pauses a moment. “He’s loves sports. He loves the Giants. He loves the Yankees. He’s fanatical about both.” After learning about Constantine’s fish phobia and love of sports, I ask Taylor if he watches the show. “In the beginning, honestly, I just watched Constantine’s part…but now…I have all these deals on the table…I have to make sure he doesn’t get kicked off.” This makes him laugh the hardest yet. I picture Taylor watching the show and ask, “Have any of Constantine’s performances surprised you?” “I mostly know what he’s going to do before he does it,“ he tells me. I think about Taylor’s comment and ask him if he gives Constantine advice on songs. “I will say that some of the choices that he ultimately made were not what I recommended,” he says. “But I was fully behind Bohemian Rhapsody.” He laughs again, and he goes on. “One interesting thing…in the aftermath of that song, Brian May, the guitarist from Queen…on his Website…he actually commented very favorably on Constantine’s performance.”