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Violet Tribe

 

Hi Bianca, how are you doing?

Fine – I’m trying to get my brain prepared for answering the questions in English! :)


In The Violet Tribe you use the nickname Cinnamon Star, why do you (and the other members) use nicknames and how did you get the name Cinnamon Star?

The other members already used their nicknames – or artist’s names, to put it precisely – for their dancing (except Mariam and Arzo, they both use their “real” names). Most bellydancers (no matter if cabaret or tribalstyle dancers) usually choose artist’s names.

For I am more a musician than a dancer, I didn’t had one so far but I thought it would be nice to turn into a “character” for The Violet Tribe – because our live program is actually a “show”, not “only” a “concert”. I wanted something that sounded glamorous and sort of funny at the same time, so one day I woke up and had it: Cinnamon Star! Like the Christmas cookies! :)


You already were active in the music scene for some time under the name VaNi, why start something new with Violet Tribe?

VaNi was my very first Electro-pop-project that I started at the age of 18, but it never became  much more than a side-project, because during the past ten years I’ve been very busy with a band (Violet), too. Sometimes I’m a little bit sad about not having enough time for VaNi, but unfortunately the day only has 24 hours… :)


What is the current status of VaNi, is it still alive or is it on hold for now?

It is waiting to be reanimated again :), but I’m afraid it’s pretty unlikely that I’ll find the time to record new VaNi-tracks very soon. :/

Violet Tribe

Who is active in Violet Tribe at the moment and how did you get them involved?

First of all my husband Oliver – starring as Dr. P in The Violet Tribe :) – is involved, because we work together in all our musical projects. We’re a “team of producers”,  I prepare the electronic parts and make the arrangements and mixes. He’s very good at recordings and in the end we both do the mastering. And we both play several instruments (none of them perfectly, but it works… :)).

But this time I wanted to make a record that was primarily designed for dancing, especially for tribal-fusion- and gothic-bellydancing (I had become interested in dancing some time ago, that’s why :)). Because the tribal-scene is moving on so fast, it is very inspiring and open to mixing different influences. Just from the beginning I had the idea to get dancers involved as band-members, I didn’t want this project to be “a band” WITH “dancers”, but a band that CONSISTS of dancers. :)

Last summer, when the plans for the cd’s became more and more definite, I asked Lily Qamar (a dancer that had already danced for us at some Violet-concerts), if she wanted to take part in such a “2-in-1-band-and-dance-company”. She said yes, and within a few weeks we found four other dancers that also sang and played a few instruments and the group was complete. :)


Describing the music of Violet Tribe is almost impossible, I would say it’s New vs Old,  East meets West, was this what you had in mind when you started Violet Tribe?

Yes, it is actually a “collection of curiosities”. :) I wanted it to sound like a tribal-fusion-compilation – such cd’s combine tracks from all over the world, ancient and new ones, experimental stuff, gothic and industrial, folk and medieval influences… Writing the songs was like having fun on a big playground. :)


Lets start with the New vs Old, what are your influences for both the modern and traditional elements in your music? How do you manage to combine those?

By intuition. :) It just happened, I triy not to think while playing around with the sounds. :) Before I have been making up electronic music as well as medieval tunes, so maybe the “Ravishing collection” was something like a “logical result” after all these years playing different styles of music. :)


How would you describe the East meets West, what in your mind are the Western influences and what are the Eastern influences?

That’s not so easy to make up, because Western music has originally been influenced a lot by Eastern music (especially in the Middle Ages). But what makes the Eastern sound more “original” is mainly due to our saz player Gurbet Albayrak. He isn’t part of the live show, but I am very grateful that he added his ideas to the songs in the studio, he’s absolutely great.  

Violet Tribe

If the music has so many contradictions, does this mean you as a person also have many contractions?

Hm, probably – that’s difficult to say :), but I sometimes think all the different things that I find fascinating and inspiring don’t always fit together well… :)


On the album you used instruments like the Dulcimer, how did you  learn to play this instruments, did you master it yourself or did you have lessons?

Playing the dulcimer is pretty easy to learn, it’s looks more difficult than it is. :) I’ve been doing this for… oh my, for more than ten years now with Violet, so it has become a very familiar thing to me. But it’s REALLY easy to learn. Can’t be compared to learning to play a more complex instrument. :)


For the recording of the album you had the help of many guest musicians, how did this work. Did you gave them freedom to improvise or send them the music before? How was it to work with so many different musicians?

It was very uncomplicated, because all of them are friends or members of Violet. :) I created some electronic loops or short musical structures and everyone improvised a little. Then I chose what I liked best and went on working with these “samples”. It was really fun – and actually not much work for the musicians, they didn’t have to spend a lot of time in the studio. :)
(That sounds almost too easy, doesn’t it? :) But that’s how it worked – in a very experimental, intuitive way.) 


What was the most challenging in making this album?

Hm, I think it’s more challenging for the listeners – they often wonder how the songs fit together… :)


Obvious you can’t have all those guestmusicians on a stage during a live show, how do you manage to leave the sound for Violet Tribe intact at live shows?

We work with additional playbacks. All of us – we are seven people, Oliver “Dr. P”, Henneth Annun, Lily Qamar, Svahara Aicanár, Arzo Renz and Mariam Ala-Rashi – replace some of the vocals, instruments and drums, and the rest – the electronic sounds, the saz and so on – are added.

Violet Tribe

Your liveshows seem to be really something special with the bellydancers, how did you come up with the idea. What do they add, do they make a Violet Tribe show into something like gothic medieval cabaret?

YEAH, gothic medieval cabaret is the perfect term! :) The dancers already became “part time musicians” when they joined the project, we all sing together on “En tanto que de rosa” and they played some of the instruments. Live we change instruments a lot, but I mainly sing, while Arzo mainly plays the e-bass and Mariam dances a little more than she plays.

Most of the songs work like this: One member dances, the others sing and/or play, but there are also pieces where almost everybody dances (like “The Steam Song”).


How do you come up with the choreography for the shows?

That was hard work. :) Every soloist made up her own choreography, but the difficulty was to put it all together, because we have a lot of costume changes. So it took some time to find a setlist that works for everybody. 


What is your goal for the live shows, do you want to leave the audience breathless after a show?

No, it is US who are breathless afterwards, because of all the dancing and changing clothes in very short time… :) :) :)


You just released your debut album “ Ravishing collection of curios” why this title, is Violet Tribe a ravishing collection of curios or is it a reference to the music?

It refers to the music: It’s a collection of different styles, there is a steampunk-“curio”, a medieval-“curio”, an industrial-“curio” and so on… :)


In what way does Violet Tribe deviate from Violet?

The Violet Tribe is a completely new project – it hadn’t felt so much like that before we started to play and perform live (because of all the Violets in the studio :)), but now that we’ve already been “on the road” together, it does. :)


Who are the listeners for Violet Tribe, it has electro in its sound, worldmusic but also medieval music?

A lot of people have been asking this question before :) – and I just have to reply: No idea! :)

Violet Tribe

When listening to album, what are you most proud of?

Hm, proud – I think I’d rather say “happy about”. :) I’m really happy about having found the poem by the Earl of Rochester (“Against Constancy”) because it’s not only a historical document, but also very funny and “curious”. You simply don’t expect this to be more than 300 years old and that’s what I like about it. :) Henneth and Svahara made up a “burlesque”-feather-fan-choreography for the song which adds an interesting visual dimension to the music and the text. I like it a lot. :)


How are the comments so far on the album?

Many journalists have been a little irritated by the mixture of different sounds… Especially when they’d never heard of tribal- or gothic-bellydance. :)


You just did a show at WGT. How did it go? Since it was your second show, what did you do to calm your nerves?

Nothing helped, we’ve been SO nervous! :) But everything worked out well, and in the end it felt almost unreal because the main part of the audience stood up and applauded, we absolutely hadn’t expected that much positive feedback, it was kind of overwhelming.


I read you also published a book in German, why write a book and in what way does writing a book deviate from writing a lyric?

I think lyrics for songs are more “abstract” because you have to put it all very short. When you write a novel it is easier to express “contents”, that’s what I like most about it and what makes it very important for me.


Can we say all these things are about expressing yourself, why the need to express yourself in all these forms?

No, just writing is “expressing myself”, I’d say. :) The Violet Tribe is more playful and experimental, and with Violet for me the focus is on “just playing music” in a more emotional way (but I don’t know if I “express myself” so very much in this context), but in writing you can be more “precise”.

Violet Tribe

What is more important to express, is it to express the thoughts, feelings, visions of you or is it the art that needs to come out?

In my opinion it is important to be critical, to pose questions and such things. And if you’re not a politician or a journalist, you have to find a different way, an “artistic” one maybe – that’s why I like satire, for example. And that’s why I consider most of the music that I am involved in, “only” as some kind of “luxury”. Projects like The Violet Tribe are “entertainment” (with a little bit “extra”, like ancient poems :)) and Violet is more emotional, but I wouldn’t like to tell everybody what I feel as “an end in itself”. That would be sentimental, right? :) I try not to be sentimental, so I only try to convey thoughts that might be of any use for others. For example: If I talk about a personal issue, I mainly do that because I assume that that I am not the only person with that specific issue and that it needs to be discussed.


What will be next for Violet Tribe?

The third, fourth, fifth… live show! :)


Any last words for the readers?

Have you ever thought about trying out bellydancing? :)

www.myspace.com/violettribe