Emiliana Torrini - interview #6

Emiliana will perform two festival gigs this Summer, and has started working on her new album, but we wanted to know a bit more about what was to come in 2012, and also share with her some of our readers's questions. We received tuns of messages and picked eleven questions to include in the interview along ours, and this is the amazing result, a sincere and fantastic discussion with Emiliana. Enjoy reading!

Interview

Hi Emiliana, thanks for taking some time to answer a few questions, how are you?

Great.

This interview is a bit special because in addition of my questions, you have also agreed to answer of some questions from fans. I propose to start with mine and after fans questions. Ok?

Yes I am up for it

After a long break, you recently performed in Switzerland. How did you feel? To go back on stage?

It was fine. We played an accoustic set in a beautiful mountain hotel surrounded by utter beauty. Fires burning, a lovely atmosphere. For me it was not about coming back, it was more of a selfish gig. I needed the fresh air, the quiet, and to sleep until late morning. To sing in a mountain was a good offer and I always wanted to try cheese fondue... Just like in Asterix and Obelix. That was amazing.

This summer, you will perform at two festivals (Pohoda Festival and Cactus Festival), have you planned other dates this year?

No not really. This came up and I thought it would be nice to meet the band and play a set before we forget how to play at all. We went to play Pohoda festival a few years ago. When we were there tragedy struck, and festival was cancelled. We have wanted to play there since. The last time they offered I couldn't come for I was 7 months pregnant. So finally, we are going.

I might be playing at Aarhus at the beginning of September with the Giant Sands which is exciting. I love hanging out with those guys. So I grab any opportunity to be around them. Other then that, I am not playing any more gigs as am trying to get on with writing the record which is going super slowly.

You played a new song during your last concerts, a song called "Elísabet". Could you tell us more about this song?

This is a song I wrote to my aunty Elísabet. We have been very close all my life. She is an extra special lady... there are always bells chiming around her in the distance.

I know you started working on new songs. Are we able to talk now about a new album? For this year?

I keep writing songs and then not liking them. It is confusing me I am finding this one a big challenge... and then I remember that that is how it is with every record I make. I keep being side tracked.

I think the last year, morphing into a mum has been most incredibly life changing and also a very overwhelming time. I haven't processed it all yet. I do feel that leaving it out of the record would be wrong. I have a feeling I need to just step away from it for a little bit and just go and have some fun. Just dance dance dance.

Two years ago, I asked you if your pregnancy influenced your work in a different way, your music creativity. You answered by saying you were surprised by the songs you wrote, how far from being the songs you expected to write while being pregnant. Today, do you feel any change, especially since the birth of your son? Do you think your new album will be influenced by all this?

Like I said I think it will take some time to process it all. I am being very impatient. I want to write my son the best love song ever and yet all that I feel for him has no words that are good enough (laughs). Some of the songs have been quite dark. I have some darkness to finish.

Will Dan Carey be part of this new adventure?

Dan always will be. We are family. We still get excited like little kids when we do music and still have a brilliant friendship.

Well, thank you very much Emiliana. So now fans questions!

Fans Questions

Hi Emiliana and thank you for your lovely music, it moves me everytime. I would like to know more of your co-operation with Paul Oakenfold (bunka/hold your hand). How did that happened? (Laura - Finland, Helsinki)

Urm I don't remember how that happened. Sorry. I think I was in Los Angeles at the time. I was working on my first record over there or writing it, and he needed a singer/writer, so I was thrown in there.

Emiliana, could we expect a song in Icelandic version on your next album? (Alisson C. - Brazil, Betim)

Maybe. It would be nice. I will give it a good thought. I don't know how those lyrics will turn out as I am thinking in English now.

If four elves get lost on their way to the berry patch and stopped to ask you for directions, what song would you sing them? We miss you!!! (Rob T.)

I would play them "Thunderstruck" with AC/DC, guitar solo and all. That would get them un-lost.

You have done three solo albums, what are you most happy about when you think back on the respective album? (Björn E. - Stockholm)

I just bought all my records just two weeks ago as I did not have them. I have really enjoyed listening to them all. I guess I would record "Fisherman's Woman" again as I find it a bit flat. I got too comfy with my duvet on that one (laughs).

Listening to them has awakened so many memories as all of them are made in very specific periods of my life. It is a great diary. Sometimes you forget your achievements. It was a good reminder.

Also, fans have been amazingly patient with me and my slow recording habits and extremely bad or nonexistent internet habits. This musical freedom would never ever be possible without that kind of strong support. It is humbling. Thank you.

Hi Emi, my question is: What country, except Iceland, is so interesting for you (culture, nature, people...), that you would like to spend the rest of your life in? (dANo)

I am really happy here in England. I live in a city with so much culture. Great festivals. University vibe which gives it a loud heartbeat. I can walk everywhere. The sea is close. There is a huge alternative culture here, all sorts of food and all sorts of people. It is very creative. Having a child here is jibbycola! (icelandic expression, could be translated by "fantastic"), so many fun things to do and very close to nature.

I know all my neighbours and have a great friendships with some of them. I am close to Iceland so I go there a lot without the hassle of too much traveling.

I am right where I want to be.

I see nature in everything you do, is Nature a source of inspiration for your work? (Rafael Canabal – USA, Chicago)

If I am not in touch with nature I become detached. That for me is unhealthy. It is very interesting to live in a country with sooo many people.

I woke up one morning and just had to have time out from the hum of the city and get my feet in the ground. To "plug in". We went to the country side and no matter where we went there was a great big noise from big roads that weave around everything here. It drove me so crazy that i did not stop hunting for silence until I was on top of Cadaer Idris mountain in wales there I sighed and thought "finally".
Then these fighter planes started passing us and flying over us everyday. It was spooky. I really realized then how messed up it is not to have this important time with nature. It charges me full to just be in it, to be in silence. I am very lucky to have been raised in Iceland and that I get to go there to spend time in that magic. It is inspirational definitely.

Emiliana, in which way did the opera school influence your music/voice or career? Was it a great help? And why did you go to opera school? Did you ever want to become an opera singer? (Sarah Tholl - Germany)

I sang in a choir from 7 until 15 years of age. The opera school in Reykjavík decided to have auditions for the first time for 15 year olds. I was a shy kid. The thought of auditioning made me sick. My mum knew I wanted to go as I had been listening to opera since an early age. She drove me there and kind of dragged me in there. I got in. I had an amazing teacher called Þuríður Pálsdóttir. Jórunn Viðars was my piano player. She is a songwriting legend in Iceland. So I was mega lucky to be taught by such fun and inspirational women.

I also think that opera in some way tied me to my Italian roots and I craved that. In terms of technique it is incredible for singing. I also learned so much technique from my choir teacher þórunn. She has such music passion and is a singing geek.

What would you have been if you hadn't become a musician? (blackbird and Summerbreeze)

It has completely shaped me from such early age that I have no idea. Music has saved me from myself more then once. All I know is that you wouldn't be able to hire me for any job. I would be useless. I have done nothing but music and working in theater.

I could work in a caviar factory again. I was good at gutting fish and was tender with the caviar (laughs). I also worked in a snowboard shop and was a terrible sales person and so was fired.

That is about it. I would like to think that I would have just gotten that camper van and traveled the world and could speak at least 12 languages.

How do you create your music? How is the creative process? Do you have the music and the lyrics in mind beforehand? (Daniel - Colombia, Bogotá)

When I work with Dan we have all mics and instruments ready for recording. We sit down (after a big breakfast that takes 2 hours, food is important) with an instrument, we hit record and start. Then we improvise. Lyrics come sometimes at the same time and sometimes I have to use creative hearing, dissecting the mumbling and then I build the lyric from that.

While I am doing that Dan is playing on the track and we have production ideas throughout. So often the demo lands on the record. Sometimes it takes no time at all and sometimes longer then forever. With strangers it can be a very different affair. I usually have to get comfortable with people before throwing myself in there. I am a creature of habit.

I have a little family that I am happy writing with. Hopefully it will expand. I am getting braver. I would love to learn more about songwriting though. I would like to learn to craft a song from scratch like the guys that I was thrown into a studio with when I first arrived to England, the likes of Chris Difford. A craftsman of songs. At the time it was beyond me I was completely overwhelmed. That was more sitting down and deciding what you want to write about and almost mindfully going from chord to chord. I found it intense and now I would love to be able to do that.

What is your favorite artist/band ever? (Carole – France, Paris)

The ones that have come with me since I was ten are Leonard Cohen, Nick Cave, Melanie, Dinah Washington, Tom Waits and Memphis Minnie. They all write lyrics that take me to a place where my senses are alight.

Nick Cave's "mercy seat" had a huge effect on me when I first heard it. It took me on a ride. You see it all unfold before you, not like in a dream. It is almost solid. I bit all my finger nails when listening to it.
Leonard cohen's suzanne the lyric "she feeds you tea and oranges all the way from china", I still have the image of that song in my head. I thought it was very exotic. I could taste the tea and smell the oranges warm in the sun. I wanted to be Suzanne. She is sensual, made of colours, was free and rivers talked for her.

Also David Sylvian "I surrender". A beautiful boyfriend of mine gave that song to me. I make a big deal listening to that song, light a fire, get some red, put a lipstick on, lie down and go on a trip.

You are a wonderful ambassador of your country. In few months, like every year, Eurovision will start. Have you been interested in one and represent Iceland? (Indiandrummer)

I have been asked to take part a few times. I watch it and it is good fun but I am not interested to take part. I would probably forget the lyrics and that is not on.

By PhilouMinety on april 16th, 2012.
A big thank you to Emiliana and the fans for your questions.
© Photo Alan Doyle.