Who

PROTOMYTHOS is the musical project of Israeli-born, London-based musician Tom Treivish.

After writing and recording in his home studio for several years, he decided to record a concept album that centers on a subject close to heart – animal rights. In 2011, he began to consolidate the songs into In Human Sight – a rock concept album that comprises of 10 original songs that stray away from the mainstream while remaining accessible and engaging. The album was released in 2013 and received positive reviews. Twenty percent of the album sales are donated to animal rights organizations.

In 2015, Tom began working on the next album, Heavy Crowns, which was recorded mainly in London and marks a different musical direction, incorporating more metal elements.

Heavy Crowns

Heavy Crowns was mixed by Grammy-winning mix engineer Michael Brauer (Coldplay, Bon Jovi, Dream Theater, John Mayer, Bob Dylan, Rolling Stones) and mastered by Maor Appelbaum (Faith No More, Yes, Halford, Sepultura). The album was released in January 2019.

In Human Sight

In Human Sight, available for digital download and physical purchase, is a rock concept album that deals with the human perception of the lives of animals and is meant to serve as a voice for the voiceless.

Containing 10 songs that differ in style, In Human Sight uniformly portrays various angles of a world view point that is often overlooked.

Protomythos are donated 20% of all album sales directly to animal rights organizations.

Some Q & A

How did Protomythos begin?

“The idea behind Protomythos and this album is something that has been a long time in the making. I had been recording a lot of material in my home studio (enough for several albums actually) since about 2002. Before and during that time I was part of a band that didn’t last long and I decided to do things my way and record my own music.”

How did the album come together?

“I contacted producer Noam Akrabi in 2011 to help me produce my debut album. We decided on including 10 songs on the album, so I went through all of the material I had and chose the songs, or song parts, that I thought would fit in together to create an album where the songs related to one another. At the beginning the songs were not created to serve a specific concept, but when I realized that I didn’t just want to write songs about the same subjects that everyone else is writing, I wanted my songs and the album to have meaning, it became clear to me what the album’s concept would be.”

How was In Human Sight recorded?

“Basically, Protomythos is almost a one-man band. I recorded all of the music for  the album’s demos myself, and then also the actual tracks used on the album (at Noam’s professional studio), except bass and drums. On In Human Sight the drums were recorded by session musicians: drummer Ethan Raz and bass player Adi Har Zvi, who did a fantastic job. The drums tracks for all of the songs were recorded in just one day and so were the bass parts, except for the title track, where we used the bass part that I recorded for the demo version.

Noam Akrabi, with his great set of ears and musical talent, was instrumental in taking all of the elements and make them work well together and sound great in the mix. We worked on the album for almost 2 years.”

What is the album’s concept?

“I’ve been a vegetarian since the age of 16 and became a vegan in 2011. In my opinion there’s no subject more pressing or important as animal rights. I wanted to send a message through the music and the lyrics and in that way make my contribution to this worthy cause. But sending a message would not be enough, because action has to come along with words and ideas, so I decided to donate 20% of the album’s profits to animal rights organizations – those that actually act for the liberation of animals.”

The obvious question – why animals?

“Sometimes people ask me why I didn’t decide to donate money to “better” causes, that benefit people instead of animals. My answer is that all causes are good, but this specific cause is different. It’s different because all other causes are viewed by most people as wrong doing that needs to be fixed, prevented or helped. People fundamentally know that situations like hunger in developing countries, war in Syria and other countries and horrible diseases are things that should not be; things we should prevent or stop. This is not the case when it comes to animal rights; people don’t believe that there’s anything wrong with using, abusing, enslaving and killing other living beings. In addition, the holocaust animals have suffered and are suffering by humans is the largest and most brutal genocide in history – both in numbers and the level of cruelty.”

What do you hope the album will achieve?

“I hope that this album manages to convey at least some of the emotions animals must feel, without being able to express it themselves. I hope that it will allow people, those who don’t shut their eyes to the harsh truth when it stares back at them, to understand that reality is broken and we have to fix it.”