• achtergronden
• DE 7EVEN
• video's
• agenda

ernaast

The Basics: Aromabar

Aromabar are back in business, 2 years after their debut, 1!, hit the electronic music scene. The Viennese trio's latest collaborative effort, Milk & Honey, is a polished, light-hearted album chock full of glistening vocals and expressive instrumental arrangements which take them out of their previous trip-hop melancholy and into more confident territory. The group, composed of Karin Steger, Andreas Kinzl and Roland Hackl, kindly took the time to walk Kindamuzik through the basics of being Aromabar.

Tekst: Christine Hsieh

Publicatiedatum: 24 februari 2002

Name:
"KARIN: Karin Julia Steger
ANDREAS: Andreas Kinzl
ROLAND: Roland Hackl"

Where are you from?
"Vienna, Austria"

Where do you live?
"Vienna, Austria"

If you could live anywhere else, where would it be?
"KARIN: On a mountain by the sea.
ANDREAS: Thailand, Ko-Phi-Island.
ROLAND: Maybe at a nice place in Portugal or Spain."

First record:
"KARIN: Peter and the Wolfe (Igor Stravinsky).
ANDREAS: Kiss, I was Made for Loving You.
ROLAND: Mikis Theodorakis, Sirtaki Dance."

What kind of music did you listen to when you were growing up?
"KARIN: Classical music, choirs (parents where busy in choir-singing, my father was also conducting); then, from about the age of 10, started to like the Beatles (an old tape of my mother), then more and more pop-radio, Fame (original soundtrack), Chicago ("Hard to Say I'm Sorry..."), The Teens ("Gimme More", really terrible!!!), ABBA ("The Winner Takes it All") and so on...
ANDREAS: Loads of heavy metal my brother gave to me, later on moving towards Italo-disco, soul, funk, jazz, Afro, Latin and Electronic.
ROLAND: Like Karin, lots of Classical music, since my parents were also engaged in choirs and stuff; later on I liked bands like Felt or Cocteau Twins."

What kind of music do you listen to now, when you're not on the job?
"KARIN: Very different, but of course always with a special interest in female vocalists: DeeDee Bridgewater, Desrée, Karen Ramirez, Oumou Sangare, Angelique Kidjo, Mercedes Sosa, Everything but the Girl, Sheela Chandra, Lauryn Hill, Eryka Badu, Glashaus, Dido…Besides I mostly prefer world music and sounds, that helps me to relax.
ROLAND: actually all kinds of music, pop, indie, U.S. hip hop, R&B, nu-jazz "

What instrument(s) do you play?
"KARIN: All the recorders (from piccolo to bass), double bass, bassoon, piano.
ANDREAS: Percussion and, eh, decks; does that count?
ROLAND: I took piano lessons from the age of 10 or so, and I taught myself to play the guitar a little bit. Another instrument I like a lot is my little Hohner hooter..."

How long have you been playing?
"KARIN: I enjoyed (and yes, I really did!) musical education from the age of 5, starting with a children's-singing-school and recorder; I guess I started piano [when I was] 8, double bass at 16, Bassoon at 17, but always my best-loved instrument was the recorder. I played hours and hours each day. I was addicted to it, and I finished my high school education on that instrument at the age of 19. I've always been playing and singing.
ANDREAS: Since I was 17.
ROLAND: I got my first synthesizer at the age of 15 as a Christmas present. Then there came the time of playing in college bands; a considerable time after that we started Aromabar in 1998."

Favorite album:
"KARIN: I'm in trouble with that question, because I don't like superlatives. I remember times when I was listening to a special record like it was the most important thing of my life...I remember listening to a certain record was part of my lifestyle or part of the main vibrations of a certain time of my life (e.g. I had a time with the Sinead O'Connor album Universal Mother, I had a Portishead Dummy phase, and so on. But this is quite a while ago, and I really do not have a certain favourite record at the moment. I guess the last was a few months ago: Dido's No Angel. And before that, an old Everything but the Girl album. And before that, Morcheeba's Who Can You Trust?
ANDREAS: David Byrne, My Life In The Bush of Ghosts.
ROLAND: Very difficult-there are so many albums I love. I'd pick Crowded House, Temple of Low Men for earlier records, and for more recent albums I'd like to say New Sector Movements, Download This."

Favorite musicians/musical groups/DJs:
"ANDREAS: Joe Zawinul, Kurt Haunstein, Falco.
ROLAND: It's just too many to list them here..."

Worst job you've ever had:
"ROLAND: Working on a building site as a summer job many years ago."

Guilty musical pleasure:
"ROLAND: Van Halen, but I don't feel guilty at all!"

Best/Worst/Most Embarrassing club/DJ story:
"KARIN: The worst club-story: I remember a weird night in Chemnitz, a big, dark city (and even darker because it was the end of November) in the former GDR. We were in the middle of a Germany tour, and on that day were booked on a location that didn't look too bad at the first sight. Big brick buildings made us expect a big stage in a big, big hall with a great, big audience... After all it turned out that we were supposed to play in a tiny room somewhere on the fifth or sixth floor. There was NO stage in that room, there wasn't even a microphone…so we were discussing what to do, tried to let them organize some equipment, etc…in moments like that it really can be a challenge to show a friendly face, you know...
ANDREAS, ROLAND: The best night so far: spinning records at the Istanbul Roxy; the crowd was so up for it and everybody was really nice! Besides, Istanbul is such a beautiful, beautiful city."

If you could bring 5 records with you to the moon, which ones would you choose?
"KARIN: Aromabar, Milk & Honey; Prefab Sprout, Andromeda Heights; Antonio Vivaldi, 4 Seasons, played by "Il Giardino Harmonico"; Lambarena, Bach to Africa; Everything but the Girl, Amplified Heart.
ANDREAS: Of course I'd take our very own albums along with me along with Air, Moon Safari; Richard Wahnfried, Die Tonwelle; Jill Scott, Who is Jill Scott and David Byrne, My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts.
ROLAND: Songs of Leonard Cohen, Kosma, Universal; Eric Satie, 3 Morceaux en Forme de Poire; Black Box, Ride on Time; The Sundays, Reading, Writing, Arithmentic"

Where do you get your musical inspiration from?
"KARIN: Everyday life is inspiration enough.
ANDREAS: Collecting and spinning records.
ROLAND: Reading, watching movies, meeting people... sometimes I think everything and everybody has something inspiring about them."

Favorite place to play/DJ and why:
"KARIN: Festivals, because it's great to become a part of the vibes. It's a pleasure to play on open-air stages. It's fun to play for an audience that didn't only come because of you, so they are about to get to know you, and you make them like your music NOW...and after all you join the party...I definitely like playing in Festivals!
ANDREAS: SoulSugar, a Sunday Club in the heart of Vienna. It's simply one of the best clubs for spinning rare vintage records."

Favorite club/bar and why:
"KARIN: Volksgarten and Meierei in Vienna. It's like home.
ANDREAS, ROLAND: DubClub @ Flex, Vienna, because they have a massive sound system and the crew is really very nice."

The moment you knew your music was much more than just a hobby:
"KARIN: Probably when I was about 16 years old and had an almost broken heart, and my elder sister, who new about my lovesickness and wanted to console me, gave me a present-a key-ring with a little PVC-puppet and the words "MUSIC IS MY LIFE" on it. She made me happy again with that.
ANDREAS, ROLAND: Getting a phone call from Infracom after sending them the very first Aromabar demo tape."

What do you miss most about home when you're travelling to gigs?
"KARIN: My daughter! She's only two and a half years old...When I'm away for more than 3 days I have to bring her with me. Otherways I would become love-sick again...
ANDREAS: My girlfriend!
ROLAND: My girlfriend!"

Best part of your job:
"Making music is very satisfiying! There are so many ideas spinning around, and putting them in line writing songs and producing records is the most rewarding job we can think of. The best part of it is getting feedback and reactions from all over the world and meeting interesting people..."

Worst part of your job:
"If things don't work out the way we thought they would, getting stuck on musical ideas...but it's ok."

What keeps you going? What makes you continue with music?
"KARIN: As I said, I have always been playing or singing in some way. And I wouldn't feel complete without expressing myself in a musical way.
ANDREAS: As things get more serious, trying to get to the next level.
ROLAND: If people positively respond to what we're doing…Besides, we've so many more ideas for Aromabar records to come!"

What were you doing 5 years ago?
"KARIN: Enjoying my life, traveling (South Pacific, Latin-America). Low living costs, for I was living on my own, worked as a radio journalist and was also working on a documentary film about foreign workers during World War II. Everything was very easy-going, but sometimes I missed a bigger challenge, which I then got when my baby was born. Then I started to realize what bearing a responsibility means...
ROLAND: Studying and producing music."

Where do you see yourself 5 years from now?
"ANDREAS: Sitting at the top of a bay...
ROLAND: Leading a happy life, doing music, remixing.. we'd also like to get involved in scoring music for films.
KARIN: The future is bright! I guess I'll have my house on a mountain by the sea then, I'll be a mother still. My baby, she will be a 7-years-old girl then, and it will still be my pleasure to watch her growing and developing her personality...I am living with the ones I love, and I really hope we'll be able to sell a few records, and if we'd ever be able to, I'd be even more happy than I already am. One of the biggest pleasures is the pleasure to be heard. Then comes the pleasure to be understood. And isn't that what we all want?"

http://www.kindamuzik.net/interview/aromabar/the-basics-aromabar/1347/
Meer Aromabar op KindaMuzik: http://www.kindamuzik.net/artiest/aromabar