After a long US summer tour, I flew to Poland to link with my mother and great aunt to visit the concentration camps. I first performed with Matisyahu in the former Warsaw Ghetto and later travelled to Krakow. After going to Auschwitz-Birkenau, I headed back to my hotel room and wrote over Nate Greenmberg’s beat. Immediately after I called video director Ed Jansen to begin documenting my family trip. Later that year, I came back again for a Synagogue Festival “7 at Night” where over 10,000 people visited the 7 oldest synagogues of Krakow. After a 55 mile bike ride from Auschwitz to Krakow on Ride For the Living,I performed two sets in a 19th century synagogue.
While writing and recording the song on my last trip, I knew that So Many People could portrayed while shooting in a empty synagogue versus one filled with people where they had a concert. In my 2016 album What I do All Day and Pickle, (which also featured Anti-BDS song Dodging Bullets ft. Matisyahu,) I added So Many People as the last song on the album. It was not meant to be on anything, but I feel that on all my pieces of work, there needs to be something serious to remind me about where I come from, and the gratitude I must show.
