school which was “a very nice experience and [the community] was like a family, and I loved it.”

For Emmanuel, “everything started by listening to music.” He loved to listen to The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Radiohead. Recalling a story from when he was 11 years old, Emmanuel and his older brother went with his parents into Marseille and “passed through a music store, and [his brother] decided to buy a guitar, and taught himself.” He loved listening to his brother play and became interested in playing himself. “My brother taught me all the cords and then everything came after that.”

Between the ages of 14 and 15, Emmanuel decided to write music of his own. He drew his inspiration from many of his childhood favorites, especially Radiohead. Heand his brother both play together and “draw inspiration from Oasis, and it’s really cool.”

Continuing to play in high school, Emmanuel decided that he would enter a music festival at 16. His decision to enter the festival was a big deal in Marseille because “it wasn’t like New York where you could find a place to play music.” When he told his friends about his decision, “everyone told me, you have a band? Everyone was amazed of me having a band, especially in a Jewish school. Everyone wanted my MySpace link.”

His band, 72 WST (72 West Street), a tribute to the street where John Lennon lived in New York City, consists of him and his brother at guitar and a friend playing the drums. The festival was a