Yael Naim on the Apple Ad That Kick-Started Her Career as the 'Israeli Feist'

There's a good chance a lot of people wouldn't have heard Israeli singer-songwriter Yael Naim's music had her song 'New Soul' not been used by Apple in an advertising campaign for its Macbook Air a few years ago. Because of it, however, Naim says she has been able to pursue the dream she's had since a young age (not to mention rack up plenty of comparisons to the original Apple ad songstress Feist).

"It doesn't happen a lot, and I'm happy that I'm Israeli and to be where I am," Naim tells Spinner. "It's true that as a child when I looked at the few Israeli artists who did manage to go out and travel it was also like a dream."

"As a child, my friends and I felt like there was us and then the world," she continues. "It's not like in Europe where you can travel easily and release an album anytime."

Now based in France where she lives and works alongside producer and collaborator David Donatien, Naim has been able to live out her dream of making music and traveling, yet she's still close to her home country and aware of the difficulties surrounding its music scene.

"I still go to Israel a lot because my family is there," she says. "There's a lot of great talent, but it's a really tiny country. People cannot travel to countries close by so much. It has a mix between oriental and pop music in Hebrew."

Her latest album is called 'She Was a Boy,' and unlike her previous self-titled record released in 2008 which featured 'New Soul,' all of the lyrics for this one are in English as opposed to French and Hebrew.

"I just write what I feel and sometimes it comes out in Hebrew or English," she explains. "Most of the time it's in English, but when I wrote that [first] album it was during a particular period when I missed home a lot and I think writing in Hebrew allows me to connect myself back."

But before all this, Naim reveals she and Donatien were sitting in her apartment in Paris with a batch of songs in Hebrew they figured nobody would hear until Steve Jobs and the "World's Thinnest Notebook" came calling.

Watch Yael Naim's Video for 'New Soul'
"We started with ballads in Hebrew and we knew there was not much chance of them getting released because it's not commercial or something," she says. "Six months after the Apple ad arrived we thought maybe it would be a window for people all over the world to hear the work we did in the little apartment for the past two years and all these ballads in Hebrew."

Now with a new album, tour dates in places she's never been before -- not to mention, her own shiny new Macbook Air -- the singer says she's glad to have had her song used by the computer giant, but would have followed her passion for music regardless.

"If it didn't happen I guess we would just keep making more albums, but I'm really happy it did. Without the ad, we imagine that we'd just become producers of other artist and I would compose for other artists. I'm always writing so the basic plan is to continue enjoying making music."