Who is Nina?
Nina is me. Quite tall (180cm) and almost always with at least 2 long braids or pigtails, sometimes with dark flowers in it.
Likes long skirts or dresses, mostly black ones. Known to be kind of weird, sometimes even geeky and nerdy.
Lives in the east part of Hamburg (which is not the hip and trendy one). Is not too old and not too young.
To what Music did you listen to being a kid and do you still listen to it these days?
As a little child, I listened to music from Limahl, Mike Oldfield, The Beatles, Jeff Wayne's The War of The Worlds and a lot of the music my parents used to listen to, like Fleetwood Mac, Alan Parson, Andreas Vollenweider, Jean-Michelle Jarre and more. I also really liked the music from the 80ies when I was still a little kid.
Later I discovered electronic music, especially experimental, techno and house music from bands like LFO, Orbital and especially Underworld.
After that came the darker bands like NIN or Lycia or Project Pitchfork.
Who were and are rolemodels for you?
It's hard to tell. I can't think of someone right now. They're artists who inspired me like Trent Reznor or Mana from Malice Mizer (the visual style) but there is no real rolemodel.
You started along time ago with Yendri, why did you start Yendri and what was your original intent and goals?
My goal was to create a dark vision of music and art. Like every artist, to express myself and let others take part.
What does Yendri mean today for you, where does is stand for and has the meaning of making music changed for you?
Making music is still as magic as it ever was. And also the vision of Yendri is still alive. Although it's a bit frustrating to see how the music industry, with all the sometimes ass-licking promotion stuff works, even in this small area of "goth/indepentend music". This is quite hard, especially if you're a self-critical and shy person who doesn't think she's a complete superstar, so you have to jump over your own shadow and just be more self-confident or let others do the marketing who don't stand in their own way like myself. It's not easy to write "hey, I make the best music in the whole world, buy it at once!" when you know that this just can't be true in general although there even may be a few fans who actually think that. Well I hope so :) But I still make the music mainly for myself, so there's no reason to stop.
You just released a new album “Dreams of an undead girl”, what can you tell us about the album?
It is a bit more danceable than "Malfunction" and it has a concept. There are fewer songs on it, but they are longer, so again, the disc is almost completely filled up with music.
Before you start working on an album, do you have some kind of idea in mind of how it should sound/be like and if so, did it turn out the way you wanted or did it totally differ?
This time, I actually had an idea of how it should sound and yes, it does sound the way I wanted. This is actually an exception. Usually I don't have such a strict concept.
Do you have to be in a certain mood before you compose music or can you do it anytime?
I can do it anytime maybe. I didn't find out yet what mood is the best for making music. When I get "into the flow", it's a complete new state of mind and the mood there was before doesn't play a role anymore.
Are there special things that inspired you for “dreams of an undead girl” because it seems to have some kind of concept?
Yes, it's the concept of the undead. But not the "traditional" one. I thought about what would happen, if you die and your soul just doesn't leave the body and still has control over it, although it is actually dead. What if it would happen here in reality and not just in a horror movie. There would be a lot of questions for the one who experiences it and maybe the government and scientists chasing you.
Are you a spiritual person and in what way?
Yes. I believe that a spiritual world exists and that there is a lot more going on in our world that we know of, like yet unknown kinds of energy and beings.
Yendri is more than just music, you are a great graphic artist / painter as well, when working on graphics, do the same things inspire you as when you are working on music?
In most cases yes. Although it's sometimes hard to tell what really inspires me after all, because there are so many influences. I often think that most of what I do would fit quite well in my sometimes weird, fantastic and dark dreams (those at night, when I sleep, of course!)
Do you listen to music while painting, we know you don’t listen to music a lot but a lot of painters need music when painting?
Only when there's incidentially some music playing. Sometimes it's just the TV running in the background or I really like to listen to all kinds of "spoken words", like interesting documentaries, interviews, and so on.
How does the ultimate Nina day look like?
Surprisingly, the sun is shining, but in a very shallow angle, almost dawn. The temperature is ideally about 23° and some soft wind.
I go outside and discover some interesting industrial ruin which I can explore and take many photos of. Then it's getting slightly darker and I go home again,
reviewing and editing those photos. After that, I start the music machine and work on new sounds and lyrics until it's really late.
I will go to bed then and maybe watch a new episode of Family Guy before falling asleep.
Sometimes, instead of taking photos of ruins, I'd play around with 3D programs or photoshop and a graphic tablet. And somtimes, instead of
making music, I would be programming flash applications or trying out new software.
As you can see, I really love what I'm doing and in many cases I actually do it for a living (not the music, but programming and graphic works).
What does “Gothic” mean to you?
For me, the base of it all is the love for everything dark and mysterious. I think most of it already begins in the childhood when you discover that sometimes,
you can understand the "bad guys" in films more than the "good guys" or are very interested and fascinated by rather unpopular animals and things most people
don't like or find disgusting (spiders, snails, leeches, ...). This feeling of being "not like the others" is also a big part of it. It also forces you to think more deeply
about many things and be creative, because as an outsider, you have to handle things differently to get along. Another part of it is the love for some kind of
aesthetics which, in my case, is some dark-flowery, art-deco style. I really love dark flowery patterns, even when they're not SO dark I love them. I also like
everything industrial, but rather to look at. I really like long romantic dresses with much lace and velvet. Many people wouldn't guess that I actually prefer
electronic music because of my clothing, but for me personally it totally fits together.
If you could realise a dream, what would it be (tailoring clothes maybe)?
Yes, that also. It's just a matter of time that I don't have. As well as creating videos for the music. I could do that when there still were vacancies or when I still
went to school, but those times are over.
Is there a possibility that Yendri will ever do a show?
I won't say never. So there is an extreme small possibility.
What’s next for Yendri?
For Nina, the next thing to do is to eat some breakfast. For yendri, the next tracks are already in the pipeline and I already have a working title for the project, it's
called "Inner warfares" and some of it tracks are already online, like "Negotiations", "This tristesse" or "Throw yourself out of the window". The undead theme
will be gone for now, it will be a bit more personal again. I also want to make much more photo artwork next time. Much of it is already there.
And I really, really would wish to have more time and less pressure to get the final product done in the final phase. And maybe I'll take even more control over
the final product as there is much room for improvement.
Any last words for the reader?
Thank you very much for your interest in Yendri, it's highly appreciated :)
www.myspace.com/yendri
www.yendri.de